Former North Dakota Attorney General Nicholas Spaeth may face an uphill fight in a newly filed action alleging age discrimination in law faculty hiring, predicts Jeff Lipshaw [PrawfsBlawg, with comments]. Spaeth believes “more than 100 law schools discriminated against him by refusing to consider him for teaching jobs because of his age” despite an impressive earlier career in the law [ABA Journal]. Represented by attorney Lynne Bernabei, Spaeth has sued Michigan State and expects to add other schools as defendants. As Prawfsblawg commenters note, Spaeth’s underlying gripe may be with the overwhelmingly dominant model of law faculty hiring (reinforced by accreditation and rating pressures) in which expected future scholarly output, as opposed to, say, teaching excellence or even adequacy, tends to dominate hiring for tenured positions.
Archive for August, 2011
August 3 roundup
- Central Falls, R.I. lands in bankruptcy court [NYT; my Cato take]
- Less efficient patdowns? Man with one arm files complaint after being turned down as TSA inspector [MSNBC via Hyman]
- Don’t join the Mommy Mob [Ken at Popehat]
- Montana high court upholds failure-to-warn verdict against maker of aluminum baseball bat [PoL link roundup, Russell Jackson; earlier here and here]
- Finally some good news from Connecticut: state enacts law protecting municipalities from lawsuits over recreational land use [BikeRag; earlier here, etc.]
- Claim: climate-change tort suits will require radical changes in tort law and that’s a good thing [Douglas Kysar (Yale), SSRN]
- Attorney keen to go on TV, will take any case, either side [Balko]
Don’t rescue that bird
I’ve got a few thoughts up at Cato on the case of the 11-year-old Virginia girl who tried to rescue a baby woodpecker in the back yard only to learn that possessing and transporting a migratory bird is a federal offense that carries a $500 fine and possible jail term. (& Henry Joel Simmons, Right on Crime)
Good Samaritans sue woman they saved
Ohio: Two men who stopped to save a woman’s life by pulling her from a flaming car are now suing her for compensation for the injuries sustained in doing so. Isn’t litigation inspiring? Doesn’t it just make you feel better about human nature? [Columbus Dispatch via Mystal/AtL]
Class action: I thought USA Today at my hotel was free
“A guest at a Hilton hotel in Santa Rosa who was upset that he was billed 75 cents for a newspaper he assumed was free has filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the hotel chain, saying he was deceived by a scheme that also hurts the environment.” [San Francisco Chronicle] More: Jeff Bercovici, Forbes.
August 2 roundup
- Yikes! “House Committee Approves Bill Mandating That Internet Companies Spy on Their Users” [EFF; Julian Sanchez, New York Post/Cato and podcast]
- Australia courts skeptical about claim that sex injury is covered under workers’ comp [Herald Sun]
- Well-off community doesn’t need annual HUD grant, seeks to sell it [Dan Mitchell]
- Report: playful City Museum in St. Louis has taken down signs criticizing lawyers [Bill Childs/TortsProf, earlier]
- Chicago neurosurgeons pay $4500 a week in med-mal premiums, blame lawless Illinois Supreme Court [Medill Reports] Supreme Court declines to review Feres doctrine, which shields military doctors (among others) from suits [Stars and Stripes] Why is the most widely cited number of medical-misadventure deaths such an outlier? [White Coat; more here, here, etc.]
- After “Facebook broken heart” suit, will pre-nups for Mafia Wars relationships be next? [Tri-Cities Herald]
- Another horrific report of poppy seed positive drug test followed by child-grabbing [Radley Balko]
In contempt of cop
“He disrespected me” is a frequent but never acceptable motive for misbehavior, particularly unlovely when found among public servants and protectors [Coyote]
The way of the telegraph messenger
The once-envied Connecticut economy may be headed in that direction should its lawmakers continue to pile new burdens onto the state’s employers, or so I argue in my new Cato post.
Welcome radio listeners, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin readers
I’ll be appearing this morning on KARN in Little Rock, Ark., WRVA in Richmond, Va., and WTIC in New Haven/Hartford, Ct., to discuss my New York Daily News op-ed on McDonald’s and Campbell’s changes in their food line-ups following pressure from nutritional crusaders in public office. And I was quoted by reporter Jerry Crimmins July 22 in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin on accreditation of law schools and lawyer oversupply (“ABA responds to senator’s criticisms,” subscriber paywall).
“Twisted ethics of an expert witness”
Horrifying Seattle Times investigation:
For a quarter century [Stuart] Greenberg testified as an expert in forensic psychology, an inscrutable field with immense power. Purporting to offer insight into the human condition, he evaluated more than 2,000 children, teenagers and adults. His word could determine which parent received custody of a child, or whether a jury believed a claim of sexual assault, or what damages might be awarded for emotional distress. …
His peers elected him their national president. But his formidable career was built upon a foundation of hypocrisy and lies.