Magical thinking at the FDIC [David Skeel via Bainbridge]
Archive for April, 2011
Mark Steyn on Kinder Egg ban
We’ve previously discussed the FDA’s ban on importation of European “Kinder Surprise” kids’ treats (a toy wrapped in a chocolate egg) and last night conservative writer Mark Steyn ran into the law, as his kids saw two of the confections confiscated at the Canada-U.S. border. The Border Patrol agents would not allow the kids to separate the chocolate from the surprise, eat the chocolate on the spot, and then take home the toys. “The real choking hazard,” he observes, “is the vise-like grip of government.”
Plus: “Woman campaigns to legalize chocolate Kinder eggs” [Northwest Florida Daily News]
Texas considers strong measures against lawsuits intimidating speech
The First Amendment notwithstanding, wealthy and powerful litigants in this country often exercise the tactical power “to bully those who publicly criticize them into silence by filing frivolous lawsuits that the critics can’t afford to litigate,” with defamation lawsuits being a particularly favored means of such bullying. The majority of states have moved to enact “anti-SLAPP” laws aimed at curtailing this tactical exercise through the application of sanctions or otherwise, but such laws are often quite weak, sometimes applying only, for example, to speech aimed at petitioning the government on public matters. Now Texas lawmakers are considering what would be one of the nation’s strongest laws, protecting “communication made in connection with a matter of public concern” and including statements made in non-public forums, such as emails. The website SLAPPED in Texas has compiled a list of speech-chilling lawsuits in the Lone Star State, including the oft-criticized suit by a real estate developer against author and eminent domain critic Carla Main. [Arthur Bright/Citizen Media Law, Paul Alan Levy/CL&P]
Court: Canadian charter mandates bargaining with teacher’s union over class size
Canadian courts in recent years have ruled that the nation’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms creates an enforceable right to collective bargaining, that is, compels employers to bargain with unions rather than with individual workers over terms of employment. Now the Supreme Court of British Columbia has ruled that the Charter prohibits the provincial government from reserving class size and teacher-student ratios, among other topics, as matters of government policy ruled out of bounds as subjects of bargaining with the teacher’s union. [British Columbia Teachers’ Federation v. British Columbia, 2011 BCSC 469 via Bales, Workplace Prof; related 2009 (Alberta court constitutionalizes mandatory dues checkoff)]
Claim: NY Yankee top hat logo copies her uncle’s 1936 design
A spokeswoman for the baseball team said there was “no proof” of the woman’s claim. “This is a wonderful country,” said [Alice] McGillion, “where anybody can sue for anything, even when the allegations are over 70 years old.” [NY Post] More: Unbeige (on possible evidence for claim).
Also on sports logo law: “Can I legally get myself tattooed with a pro sports team’s logo?” [Cecil Adams, The Straight Dope]
Not tonight, dear, I have a toothache
An Ontario no-sex-with-patients rule apparently bars dentists from fixing their own spouses’ teeth. [HealthZone.ca]
“Suit: Another woman’s breast has ruined my life”
A Brooklyn woman intends to pursue further levels of judicial review after an appeals court denied her damages in a breast-feeding mix-up “because the error was discovered and fixed inside the hospital and her infant didn’t get sick or injured.” [Brooklyn Paper; another breastfeeding mixup case]
April 22 roundup
- Furor as NLRB issues complaint against Boeing for planning to open S.C. plant [Wichita Business Journal, Costa/NR “Corner”, Wood/ShopFloor, more, Tom Bevan/RCP, Ira Stoll, Hirsch/Workplace Prof, Megan McArdle, Jonathan Adler]
- Perp meanwhile declared not criminally responsible and awaits release: “Jury orders Nordstrom to pay $1.6 M to Bethesda stabbing victims” [WaPo]
- Not so reliable: how eyewitness and confession testimony can result in convicting the innocent [Brandon Garrett, Slate]
- Trying to pin down who merits label of “patent troll” [Michael Risch, Prawfs, and followup] “Digital Innovators vs. the Patent Trolls” [Peter Huber, WSJ]
- Publishers as targets in pharma suits? Philadelphia product liability case names as defendant the company that put out drug fact sheet [Beck]
- Regulate-Google schemes: “If search neutrality is the answer, what’s the question?” [Manne/Wright, TotM]
- Hey, John Boehner’s tweeting about my blog post [@johnboehner]
Law schools roundup
- ABA proposes retreat from use of accreditation as leverage for faculty tenure, AALS practically passes out on floor [Caron/TaxProf, Dave Hoffman/ConcurOp and more]
- “Law professor calls for ban on Koran burning” [Volokh; Liaquat Ali Khan]
- “Are Law Profs ‘Selfless’ Teachers and Scholars Engaged in ‘Public Service’?” [Tamanaha, Balkinization]
- Behavioral law-and-econ has vanquished neoclassical economics? Not so fast, buster [Josh Wright, TotM]
- Left-tilting legal academy? Perish the thought: conference simply aims to combat “spread of laissez-faire ideology” [ClassCrits]
- Concurring Opinions symposium examines forthcoming Yale Law Journal study questioning whether clinic representation makes a difference in client outcomes [LEF, earlier] Hey, watch out, you’re giving ammunition to critics of legal services [Udell]
- Schools for Misrule has spent a lot of time in recent weeks as #1 in the Amazon category of “One-L – Legal Profession.” Thanks for your support!
“And you thought you billed a lot of hours…”
Ted Frank, who’s challenging the Cobell (Indian trust) class action fees as part of his work with the Center for Class Action Fairness, catches out a lawyer who claims to have worked for more than nine hours a day on the case for 14 years, including a 7-year stretch in which he purportedly worked “an average of eleven hours a day, every day seven days a week without a single day off.” [Above the Law, earlier]