- Thank you, San Francisco rent control, for our almost-free Nob Hill pied-a-terre [Nevius, SF Chronicle]
- Switzerland: be sure the preschoolers have a nice saw to play with [Suzanne Lucas]
- DOT regulation forbids workaround that could end drivers’ “blind spot” [Technology Review via Stoll]
- CFAA madness: “How a federal law can be used to prosecute almost anyone who visits a website” [Jacob Sullum]
- “Judge halts Facebook fishing expedition before it can grow into a suit” [Daniel Fisher]
- Finding too many of us subsidy-resistant, Feds pursue ad campaigns hawking food stamps [Veronique de Rugy, NRO]
- Yoo-hoo, Institute for Justice: State regulation restricts competition for moving van service in Connecticut [New London Day via Raising Hale]
Archive for 2012
Our blog-iversary
Overlawyered turns 13 today, launched July 1, 1999. You can read our first fifteen days’ worth of posts at this page.
P.S.: “It’s a blog-mitzvah!” (Ira Stoll).
And a sampling of other reactions via Twitter: “First in time and, to this day, in merit.” [Andrew Grossman] “In internet years, 13 makes you ancient. Cheers!” [@libbyspencer] “Heaven help me, I remember that, approximately.” [G.S. Taylor] “A voice of reason in an often twisted civil justice system.” [Marc Williams] “You are the Methuselah of the internet.” [@scottgreenfield] “I remember reading the site when I was a law student in 2000.” [Jim Dedman] “Do you realize your blog’s now a teenager? Time to start locking up the liquor…” [@petewarden] “Happy blogiversary! Your book, The Litigation Explosion, was one of the most import that I, then a young lawyer, ever read.” [@bookwormroom] “#haiku? @overlawyered blog/ Started thirteen years ago/ More profound than me.” [@SupremeHaiku] “Congrats @walterolson on your blogiversary! even a progressive like me reads it regularly! ?#imafan” [Monique Hall] “Started reading not long after; never stopped. Here’s to the next 13 years!” [@Hal_RTFLC] “Happy (belated) 13th birthday to @walterolson’s indispensable legal blog” [@damonroot], Jim Dedman (“we here at Abnormal Use were early readers”).
Plus: some generous comments from Dan Pero at American Courthouse, Kevin Underhill/@loweringthebar, Bob Dorigo Jones (“It’s long held the first spot on my list of Must Read blogs.”).
ObamaCare decision roundup II
- The article everyone’s talking about on John Roberts’s switch [Jan Crawford, CBS] But who were her sources?
- “ObamaCare Lost on the Medicaid Mandate & Commerce Power. It May Yet Lose on the Tax Power” [Michael Cannon, Cato]
- The ultimate, and I do mean ultimate, link roundup [Joshua Matz, SCOTUSBlog]
- Opinion reactions: Steve Chapman, Michael Barone.
- A view from Left: conservatives lost Thursday, and purported silver lining’s not even tin [Lemieux] NFIB v. Sebelius “the most important court victory for liberalism in my lifetime.” [Joey Fishkin]
- Not Marbury, no way, no how [David Wagner, Ninomania]
- “Polarization and legitimacy: why we’re wigging out” [Will Wilkinson, The Economist]
- Call off the celebrations, it’s just a satire: “Supreme Court Strikes Down All Laws Signed By Barack Obama” [Balkin]
- Don’t forget that Cato’s star-packed event looking at the meaning of the NFIB v. Sebelius decision will take place live on the web tomorrow, Monday, Jul. 2, 1:30-4:45 Eastern.
- And I’ll be the guest on the “Pundit Review” show this evening at 7:30 Eastern on Boston’s RKO with Kevin Whalen to discuss Thursday’s ruling.
ADA and law schools: Down with timed exams?
When the topic of testing accommodations comes up in the Disability Law classes he teaches, Sam Bagenstos is struck at the vigor with which his students push back, finding it unfair that so many of their colleagues request and obtain extra time on exams as an accommodation to learning disabilities or other intellectual disabilities, and expressing concern about the danger that some families will be better than others at playing the system. “I believe that the solution is to give all students more time. For this reason, I give take-home exams wherever possible.” Scott Greenfield isn’t satisfied by this answer at all:
…when it comes to being a lawyer, the desirability of providing accommodations is trumped by the ability to fully, competently and ethically serve clients….
Yes, there are things that lawyers do which don’t require speedy processing, but as long as a lawyer is just as entitled to try a case as write a contract, he must be capable of doing both.
More: Paul Horwitz.
“Parade of horribles”
A well-worn figure of speech among legal advocates is a literal tradition in some New England coastal communities, especially on Boston’s North Shore. [Ben Zimmer, Boston Globe]
International law roundup
- Top Europe court: workers who happen to get sick on vacation legally entitled to another vacation [Tabarrok]
- U.N. rapporteur presses “right to food but not so much you grow obese” on Canada [UN, earlier]
- “The Federal Government Can’t Give Itself More Power Just By Signing a Treaty” [Ilya Shapiro, Cato on U.S. v. Bond]
- Andrew Spalding on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) as “unwitting sanctions” against poorer countries [Fla. L. Rev.] One big loss, one little win for DoJ prosecutors on FCPA [AmLaw, NLJ]
- Turkey of the sea? Opinio Juris debate and discussion on whether Law of the Sea Treaty is a good idea for U.S.; Doug Bandow, Cato; views of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Donald Rumsfeld, Heritage Foundation, Julian Ku; Jeremy Rabkin 2006 critique of the treaty; John Norton Moore defense.
- “Left Wing Sovereigntism! Public Citizen Assaults Investor-State Tribunals” [Julian Ku/OJ; my 1996 piece on the Loewen case, which led to an international tribunal complaint by the victimized defendant]
- “Taming International Law With Presidential Supremacy” [Ted Galen Carpenter, LLL, Yoo response, earlier, AEI event]
- Alien Tort Statute: “U.S. Government Stabs Kiobel ATS Plaintiffs in the Back” [Ku, FedSoc]
- More on the really amazingly bad idea of turning Internet governance over to the United Nations system [Gordon Crovitz,”The U.N.’s Internet Power Grab,” WSJ; C-SPAN video of May 30 Free State Foundation event; Reason; Daily Caller and more, Instapundit and more on House reaction; earlier]
Dear genie
When I wished for there to be less power in Washington, I think you misunderstood.
More: This is looking like my most popular Tweet ever, thanks @chucktodd and many others.
“Lawyer: Suspend murder trial so I can compete in Hemingway look-alike contest”
Attorney Frank Louderback, representing murder defendant Jerry Bottorff, asked the judge to suspend his client’s scheduled trial on July 20.
Why?
He’s entered the annual Ernest Hemingway Look-a-Like Contest at Sloppy Joe’s in Key West and doesn’t want to miss it. The winner will be crowned on July 21.
A judge turned down the request, pointing out that the trial date had been announced long previously, and wished Louderback the best of luck in next year’s look-alike contest. [Miami Herald, MSNBC]
ADA regulations for miniature golf courses
But of course. [Ryan Young, CEI]
Obamacare decision roundup
- “We won everything but the case.” Ilya Shapiro at SCOTUSBlog on what it’s like to have your arguments succeed while your client goes down. Recommended;
- David Kopel applauds, especially the Medicaid ruling limiting strings on federal support of states;
- Michael Greve turns thumbs down: “the Chief’s supposed act of statesmanship has bought nothing that is worth having.”
- Clark Neily: “as litigators know very well, it is always more important what a court did than what it said. … Notwithstanding the majority’s assurances … the Court ratified what many perceive as the most significant expansion of federal power in 75 years.”
- John Podhoretz: Roberts’ artful dodgery on tax issue does the Court no credit. Similarly: Jim Huffman;
- From a David Frum reader: did Roberts bail because the four justices to his right got too frisky on severability?
- And Cato’s star-packed event looking at the meaning of the NFIB v. Sebelius decision will take place live on the web this coming Monday, Jul. 2, 1:30-4:45 Eastern.