Claim: Clinton offered Baron seat on Supreme Court

Andrew Baron at DemBot, writing on his father, Fred Baron, the late Texas tort lawyer and John Edwards benefactor who was a frequent mentionee on this site (e.g.):

With the strong support of my dad, after Bill Clinton out-raised and then defeated incumbent George Bush Sr., Clinton offered to nominate my dad to become a Supreme Court Judge. My dad actually considered it and even spent a couple of days shadowing one to see what the day-to-day activity was like. He just wasn’t interested. Plus, he would be required to sell his law firm. He told me that it was actually a pretty boring job.

The younger Baron’s piece is worth reading in its entirety for insights into the role and results of political fund-raising.

Filed under: Bill Clinton, Fred Baron, Supreme Court

SOPA on the ropes?

Welcome news, if true: key members of Congress are said to be backing away from the rogue-sites legislation as currently written and in particular are willing to drop the hotly contested provisions on domain name blocking. [Timothy Lee, Sandoval/McCullagh, CNET, Mike Masnick/TechDirt] And suddenly the Obama administration is sounding skeptical notes too [Lee] As recently as last week the copyright enforcement bills were reported to be on a toboggan to quick passage [Industry Standard, earlier] More: Masnick.

Filed under: copyright, RIAA and file sharing

Ben Stein vs. Kyocera

Maybe his old Milberg pals will rep him? A public personality’s curious lawsuit after missing out on a spokesperson job [Felix Salmon, earlier]

Filed under: Ben Stein

“Battered bank syndrome”

Bank of America keeps funding its racial-demagogy tormentors. [Investors Business Daily]

Filed under: banks, discrimination law

“80 Great Twitter Feeds for Law Students”

OnlineCollege.org has compiled this list which prominently includes @overlawyered. Why not join more than 3,500 other Twitter users and follow us today? For even more engagement, follow my personal account @walterolson where you’ll find both law and non-law content, including an advance peek at many stories and links destined to make their way to this site.

Filed under: accolades, social media, Twitter

Constitutionality of class actions

Northwestern U. lawprof Martin Redish, a well respected academic, has marshaled a careful argument that important elements of the modern American class action lawsuit are unconstitutional. So why, Mark Herrmann wants to know, have defense lawyers not yet taken the opportunity to bring Redish’s theories to judges’ attention in an actual case?

Filed under: class actions, constitutional law

Labor and employment law roundup

NLRB rules employment contracts that specify arbitration for group grievances violate federal labor law even in nonunion workplaces [D. R. Horton, Inc. and Michael Cuda; Ross Runkel, Corporate Counsel]
Richard Epstein on “living wage” legislation [Defining Ideas]
In Greece, law providing early retirement for “hazardous” jobs was extended to some that are not so hazardous, like hairdressing, pastry making and radio announcing [Mark Steyn via Instapundit, IBTimes, Reuters]
“Prosecutor’s double-dippers draw millions from New Jersey pension funds” [Mark Lagerkvist, DC Examiner] Even if convicted on felony charges of misappropriation of public funds, Beverly Hills school superintendent unlikely to forfeit pension [LA Times]
“Against Forced Unionization of Independent Workers” [Ilya Shapiro on Cato amicus brief in Harris v. Quinn]
Whoops: UAW officials appeal extortion sentence, 6th Circuit sends it back as too lenient [AutoBlog via Kaus]
New York appeals court makes it harder to get weak NYC job-bias cases dismissed on summary judgment [Judy Greenwald, Business Insurance] Connecticut’s job-bias commission doesn’t seem to consider any cases frivolous any more [Daniel Schwartz]

Filed under: arbitration, Connecticut, discrimination law, labor unions, New York, NYC, prosecution

At “Minding the Campus” on Iowa case

I’ve got a new piece up at Minding the Campus, the higher education reform site, with more to say about Teresa Wagner’s lawsuit against the University of Iowa College of Law charging ideological discrimination because of her conservative beliefs. Earlier here.

Filed under: discrimination law, Iowa, law schools

New Liberty Fund law site — and an interview

The great people at Liberty Fund have just launched a new website called Library of Law and Liberty that promises to be of much interest. Among its debut features: a substantial audio interview in which Richard Reinsch, editor of the site, asks me about my book Schools for Misrule and law schools’ role in reform movements since the Progressive Era. Outstanding legal scholars Michael Greve (AEI) and Mike Rappoport (University of San Diego) will be blogging for the site. Other front-page attractions include Michael Greve discussing his new book The Upside Down Constitution, my Cato colleague John Samples reviewing Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule’s new book on executive power, Ilya Somin on federalism and individual freedom, and Philip Hamburger and commenters on judicial review.

You can listen to my audio interview on Schools for Misrule at this link.

Filed under: constitutional law, legal blogs, Schools for Misrule

Law schools roundup

New York Times sets off furor with article on role of ABA accreditation in driving up law school costs, a theme explored by several recent authors including me in Schools for Misrule [David Segal/NYT, Somin, Bader/Examiner, Above the Law, Gideon Kanner, Matt Leichter/AmLaw, Macchiarola/Minding the Campus, Brian Tamanaha (on ABA dispute with fledgling Duncan Law School)] ABA president claims high tuitions unrelated to accreditation rules [Reuters]
Related: “Data Show Feds Will Lend $54.3 Billion to U.S. Law Schools by 2020” [Matt Leichter, AmLaw]
The politics of the AALS, which just held its annual meeting in Washington [Bainbridge repost]
Former North Dakota attorney general files spate of age bias suits after many schools turn him down for law professor position [TaxProf, earlier]
“Some Words of Advice for Law Students, from 1811” [Kyle Graham (Santa Clara), guestblogging at Concurring Opinions last month; among topics of Graham’s other posts were the famous tort case of Summers v. Tice and suspect kinds of law review articles]
Prof. Lawrence Connell’s fight with Widener U. and its offended dean in “wild hypotheticals” case [Hans Bader/Minding The Campus, earlier here, here, etc.]

Filed under: age discrimination, bar associations, colleges and universities, law schools