Get ready for the cognitive dissonance among many on both left and right: Second Circuit chief judge Dennis Jacobs, long a favorite of the Federalist Society (and of mine), has written the opinion striking down section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in Windsor v. U.S. I have more at my Maryland for All Families blog.
Archive for October, 2012
Fact-checkers AWOL on Obama’s pay-gap, Ledbetter remarks
Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Hans Bader, Ted Frank and Ramesh Ponnuru are on the case, but the much-promoted fact-checking operations in the wider press continue to show no interest.
Podcast on constitutional law
Adam Freedman, author of books including The Naked Constitution, has a podcast series at Ricochet examining issues in constitutional law. In the latest installment, Clark Neily of the Institute for Justice and I discuss how to distinguish between the contrasting dangers of judicial activism on the one hand and, on the other, what Neily calls “judicial abdication.” You can listen here.
P.S. More on The Naked Constitution here.
October 18 roundup
- In Motor City of “Detropia,” sole remaining industrial-scale activity is the grinding of axes [Asron Renn, Urbanophile]
- Challenge to independent-contractor status: “Strippers Win $13 Million Class Settlement” [Courthouse News Service]
- “Homeowners Who Spent $220K in Legal Fees to Fight $2K HOA Lawn Bill Win Court Case After 11 Years” [ABA Journal]
- Logical skills no prerequisite for brief-drafting job with Florida attorney general’s office [Volokh]
- Death of officer in high-speed chase leads to notice of tort claim against NJ town [South Jersey Times]
- “Man Who Made Fake Dead Cat Insurance Claim to Be Sentenced; May Have Tried Same Stunt with Fake Dead Parrot” [Seattle Weekly]
- Dallas lawyer who sued TV station over not passing along referral calls is now in another spot of bother [SE Texas Record]
The Buckyball resistance
A small company goes right on defying the Consumer Product Safety Commission: I’ve got more at Cato at Liberty (& see Nick Farr, Abnormal Use).
Town Hall presidential debate
While I’d rate the debate stylistically as a draw (this time Obama actually studied for the test) I’ve a feeling Romney may have made further voter inroads by continuing to emphasize his Massachusetts-moderate side. “Obama just talks the game on ‘assault weapons,’ but I actually got a bill passed” must be the unlikeliest Republican applause line of the evening. And was Romney really bidding to get to the left of Obama on education spending and government-guaranteed contraceptives, to name but two?
Highlights of my Tweets as part of the Cato debate-Tweet team, as usual in reverse chronological order:
Obama repeats the “tax deductions for sending jobs overseas” canard, @foreignpolicy called it “misleading” blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/10/…
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) October 17, 2012
Why Romney won’t respond to Obama’s Lilly Ledbetter demagogy overlawyered.com/2012/04/lilly-…
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) October 17, 2012
Obama defends produce-or-lose-lease “diligence” regs. Regulation mag had their number years ago cato.org/pubs/regulatio…
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) October 17, 2012
Romney won’t challenge Obama on the absurd CAFE rules.
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) October 17, 2012
Product liability roundup
- “Judge in Asbestos Litigation Says Navy Ships Aren’t Products” [Legal Intelligencer]
- NYT goes in search of the trial lawyers’ case on the Blitz gas can bankruptcy [earlier here, here]
- Gun control lobby hails as “groundbreaking” NY appellate court allowing suit against gun manufacturer [WSJ Law Blog, NYLJ]
- “Mechanical Bull Tosses Rider, Prevails in Court” [Abnormal Use]
- Well-known expert witness pops up in consumer popcorn injury case [Drug and Device Law] 2004 Missouri workplace exposure case: “‘Popcorn Lung’ Couple Gets $20M Award, Files for Bankruptcy” [ABC News]
- “Bumbo Baby Seat Recalled Because It Is Only 99.999475% Safe” [Skenazy, Agitator]
- “Summary Judgment For Crocs in Massachusetts Escalator Injury Case” [Abnormal Use]
War on coal? Maybe not so much
Will the Obama administration’s much-publicized restrictions on new coal burning electric plants really crimp the economy of the Midwest? Or, given that the market for new plants appears to have tipped decisively toward natural gas for the foreseeable future, do they amount to a “regulatory nothing-burger?” [Jerry Rogers and Peter Van Doren (Cato), Forbes, via David Henderson]
Biden on ObamaCare religious exemptions
What the Vice President said at the debate isn’t really right. [Jonathan Adler]
NLRB welcomes “micro-unions”
With prospects for the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) having fallen to zero in Congress, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has been busy instead issuing rulings expanding the legal prerogatives of labor unions. One that has the business community up in arms concerns “micro-unions,” in which a union designates a bargaining unit smaller than would be considered natural under Board precedent, but within which it thinks it can muster a voting majority. We covered the issue last year, and a ruling this May confirms that the NLRB is headed down this controversial path. I summarize at Cato at Liberty.