- Too much of a stretch: US nixes copyright in yoga exercises [Bloomberg, earlier]
- “Know your rights dealing with cops” material construed as probative of criminality [Popehat] Is Justice Scalia really an “unlikely” champion of defendants’ Constitutional rights? [LATimes, Adler] “Overcriminalization: The Legislative Side of the Problem” [Larkin/Heritage, related Meese] When feds spring false-statements trap, it won’t matter whether you committed underlying offense being investigated [Popehat] “‘Clean Up Government Act’ sparks overcriminalization concerns” [PoL]
- Former Attorney General Mukasey on ObamaCare recusal flap [Adler]
- American Antitrust Institute proposals might be discounted given group’s longstanding pro-plaintiff bias [Thom Lambert]
- NYC: “The tour guide said that the way to get rich is to be a zoning lawyer.” [Arnold Kling]
- “Obama’s Top Ten Constitutional Violations” [Ilya Shapiro, Daily Caller] In at least two major areas, “Obama has broken with precedent to curtail religious freedom” [Steve Chapman]
- Ted Frank-Shirley Svorny med mal debate wraps up [PoL, Bader]
Archive for December, 2011
Miracle on 34th St.
The holiday Hollywood chestnut gets a medico-legal analysis from Steven Buckingham at Abnormal Use.
Developer drops suit against eminent domain critic
It took three years of litigation, but Texas developer H. Walker Royall has finally ended his defamation suit against author Carla Main and publisher Encounter Books (which is also my publisher on Schools for Misrule). Main’s book Bulldozed had been critical of the use of eminent domain in land takeovers, and in particular of its use in a deal in Freeport, Texas. The case helped prompt the Texas legislature to enact stronger protections for defendants against so-called SLAPP suits, a development long overdue in some other states as well. [Roger Kimball, Houston Chronicle; Jacob Sullum; earlier]
Don’t
Don’t (if you’re a lawyer seeking favorable rulings in your case) attract national attention by assailing the judge and other court officials as, among other epithets, “Popess,” “mindless numbnut,” “dastardly Jesuit,” and “bigoted Catholic beasts.” [Lowering the Bar, Minnesota]
Hitchens on nannyism and NYC
David Boaz recalls the great essayist’s remarks at a Cato Institute event. Other tributes: David Frum, D.G. Myers, Chris Buckley.
More: Hitchens’ wonderful 2004 Vanity Fair piece in which he sets out to break a series of pettifogging New York City laws and regulations.
Claim: voter ID requirements violate international law
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is asking the UN high commissioner on human rights to rule various American states in violation of international law because of the states’ insistence on various restrictions on the franchise, including ID requirements for voters, denial of the vote to convicted felons, and measures that “have reduced the ease of early voting, a convenience that is disproportionately heavily used by African-Americans.” [Guardian; Caroline May, Daily Caller]
Art scholars fear authentication lawsuits, cont’d
The Art Newspaper takes up a trend we’ve noted before in this space:
In New York, the art lawyer Ronald Spencer, of Carter, Ledyard and Milburn, agrees with Sanig. “This is a very serious problem. Specialists are often academics earning $100,000 [or less] a year and they can’t afford litigation they are fearful of being a defendant in a lawsuit, even if they should win.” He admits that there are more of these cases in the US: “It’s a cliché, but we are more litigious here.” He says that the US system, whereby the plaintiff does not have to pay the legal fees of the successful defendant, encourages this.
Environmental law roundup
- Peter Schweizer: “To RFK, Jr: I’m No Sock Puppet, But You Sir Are a Bootlegger” [Huffington Post; some background on America’s Most Irresponsible Public Figure®]
- Will legal campaign succeed in shutting down natural gas fracking? [WLF, David Oliver, CL&P, Abby Wisse Schachter/NYP]
- Nice work if you can get it: key figure in dubious Chevron-Ecuador expert report slated for National Academy of Sciences reappointment [WizBang, earlier]
- EPA’s move-cement-production-to-China plan runs into uncooperative judge [Josiah Neeley, Daily Caller]
- Spare that tree? Environmentalists battle Montana underbrush clearance aimed at preventing catastrophic fires [William Perry Pendley, MSLF] More on trees and power outages in Connecticut [WSJ, related earlier]
- New book on Endangered Species Act reform [James Burling, Federalist Society]
- Rural property owners foot the bill for California green policies [Steven Greenhut]
- “What are you in for?” “Backed-up toilets” [Shannen Coffin, NRO]
“Madison County judge reassigned after receiving campaign contributions”
“Madison County Circuit Judge Barbara Crowder was dropped Tuesday from hearing all asbestos cases less than a week after her campaign committee received $30,000 in contributions from three metro-east asbestos law firms.” [Belleville News-Democrat, followup (says she’ll return money); Chamber-backed Madison/St. Clair Record, followup]
Controversial Houston cancer clinic menaces critics
Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing covers the story the story of how Houston’s Burzynski Clinic has been “sending threatening letters to bloggers who questioned the science behind Burzynski’s therapy.” In particular, Ken at Popehat has been crossing swords with one particular correspondent who has been making menacing noises about the clinic’s reputational interests.