Michigan: “Lawyer Offers Free Valentine’s Day Divorce” [Newser, Walter Bentley site, Legal News]
Archive for 2013
February 14 roundup
- “From Chevron to Arlington: The Court and the Administrative State at Sea” [Michael Greve]
- “Tawana Brawley ordered to pay settlement to man she accused of rape” [ABA Journal] False memories of being assaulted by Tigger, and how that can happen [Lowering the Bar; William Saletan, Slate, debunks a Gawker story, 2010]
- “Portlandia — The Bed and Breakfast Inspector” [Armisen/Brownstein, IFC]
- Writer at National Review Online sees Obama’s “pro-marriage” talk as logically entailing big new entitlement program, and applauds that [W. Bradford Wilcox]
- “What’s Next For The Class Action Plaintiffs’ Bar? Getting Deputized By State Attorneys General” [Kevin Ranlett, Mayer Brown]
- “Christian School’s Lawsuit May Test Supreme Court’s Religious Freedom Ruling in Hosanna-Tabor Case” [Fed Soc Blog]
- “The Slippery Slope (Insurance Fears = No More Sledding)” [Free-Range Kids]
“A macabre federal agency in Colorado…”
“…collects and distributes dead eagles and their parts.” [Jay Wexler, PrawfsBlawg] Earlier here, here, here, etc.
Bicycle helmet law, cont’d
At Greater Greater Washington, Shane Farthing of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association has explained in more detail why his group does not favor a Maryland proposal to make helmets mandatory. Earlier here.
#SOTU
My tweets and retweets last night during the State of the Union address and the GOP response by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), in regular rather than reverse chronological order:
I’ll be live-tweeting the #SOTU as part of the @catoinstitute commentary team. Check us out at twitter.com/CatoInstitute/… or cato.org/blog/live-blog…
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) February 13, 2013
Odds are 99-1 against Obama backing copyright reform in #SOTU, but Virginia Postrel lets herself hope bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-1…
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) February 13, 2013
From the Guardian: how the language sophistication of #SOTU addresses has drifted down over 2 centuries guardian.co.uk/world/interact…
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) February 13, 2013
Per AP, “Missing this year: Scalia, Thomas and Alito.” Obama’s lucky he got six after #SOTU browbeating Court (falsely) on Citizens United.
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) February 13, 2013
If sequester’s so horrible, why’d Obama sign the bill that had it? #SOTU
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) February 13, 2013
Pres: “deteriorating roads and bridges.” It simply isn’t true. bit.ly/10gEvbn #SOTU
— Chris Edwards (@CatoEdwards) February 13, 2013
Instead of curbing subsidies that fuel tuition hikes, Obama will add red tape and put gov in the US News-style rating biz. Sigh. #SOTU
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) February 13, 2013
Paycheck Fairness Act is a trial lawyer bonanza but does nothing for real fairness: cato.org/blog/lame-duck… #SOTU
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) February 13, 2013
Admin will partner with 20 of the hardest-hit towns? Model Cities program was Great Society’s biggest flop: christopherdemuth.com/deregulating-t… #SOTU
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) February 13, 2013
Justice and law — “I want our country to be like that.” Don’t we all. #SOTU
— David Boaz (@David_Boaz) February 13, 2013
President’s emotionally manipulative “they deserve a vote” on gun control = everything I dislike about politics #SOTU
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) February 13, 2013
“this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations.” Don’t bankrupt them. #SOTU
— David Boaz (@David_Boaz) February 13, 2013
“We’ll work to strengthen families by removing the financial deterrents to marriage for low-income couples” That’s vague. Such as? #SOTU
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) February 13, 2013
Rubio: “We need to incentivize local school districts to offer more AP courses and more voc/career training.” We need GOP for this? #SOTU
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) February 13, 2013
Also, by way of pleasant contrast:
Gene Healy on Amity Shlaes’s new Calvin Coolidge biography buff.ly/14Rc9so
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) February 13, 2013
And here’s Cato’s response video with scholars Michael Tanner, Julian Sanchez, Alex Nowrasteh, Simon Lester, John Samples, Pat Michaels, Jagadeesh Gokhale, Michael F. Cannon, Jim Harper, Malou Innocent, Juan Carlos Hidalgo, Ilya Shapiro, Trevor Burrus and Neal McCluskey.
Torts roundup
- Officials: “36% of car-insure claims bogus” in NYC [NY Post]
- Unseen but looks promising: “Cultures of Tort Law in Europe” [Journal of European Tort Law via TortsProf]
- “The Limits of Texting Accident Lawsuits” [Ronald Miller]
- Lawmakers wonder whether there’s some way around Missouri Supreme Court’s “no med-mal reform on our watch” attitude [Kansas City Star]
- Trial lawyers unhappy as Michigan high court toughens standards on slip-fall suits [AP/Detroit News]
- Fast track: Illinois legislature moves to increase fees lawyers can recover in med-mal cases [Madison-St. Clair Record]
- New Jersey municipalities have stake in litigation reform [NJLRA]
“Lehigh U. student sues over grade, seeks $1.3 M”
In a case that went to trial Monday in Northampton County, Pa., Megan Thode is suing Lehigh University over the C+ she was given in a graduate education course. Thode, the daughter of a Lehigh faculty member, “was attending the Bethlehem school tuition-free in 2009 when she received the poor mark in her fieldwork class. … She needed a B to take the next course of her field work requirement.” [Allentown Morning Call] Update: Judge rules against her.
Easterbrook on judges and economics
Judges move slower than markets but faster than the economics profession, a deadly combination.
— Judge Frank Easterbrook, “Comparative Advantage and Antitrust Law” (California Law Review, 1987).
Podcast on NFL concussion suits
Labor and employment roundup
- “Lying to Doctors for Fitness for Duty Exam Can Still Get You Fired …But Only If You’re a Police Officer” [Connecticut cop smashed into two cars during epileptic seizure; Daniel Schwartz]
- “Emotional labor”: is having to be cheerful to customers a form of capitalist slavery? [Tim Noah v. Andrew Sullivan]
- CalPERS: “The pension fund that ate California” [Steve Malanga, City Journal]
- Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC), other “worker centers” on the rise: “Will ‘alt-labor’ replace unions?” [Salon; critical anti-ROC site via Matt Patterson/CEI]
- Without benefit of an act of Congress, EEOC is interpreting the law to prohibit transgender bias [Workplace Prof]
- “The Nation: Government-Mandated Lunch Breaks are Somehow Libertarians’ Fault” [Shackford, Reason]
- Historian challenges received account of Haymarket Affair [Ron Radosh]