- Reminder: SB 353, which would ban bringing of knives and other weapons onto private school property whatever the school’s wishes, up for hearing at 1 p.m. Wed. Feb. 26 [text, Senate, related Virginia] With Ninth Circuit’s Peruta decision, Maryland now one of only six holdout states to resist any recognition of gun carry rights [David Kopel]
- Slew of labor proposals moving through Annapolis would require employers to offer paid sick leave, push unionization on community college employees, and require employers to pay interns’ transportation costs. Study finds boosting state’s minimum wage would cost jobs [WaPo]
- Supremely irresponsible: state already hobbled by nation’s slowest foreclosure process, but NAACP, Casa de Maryland and Legislative Black Caucus demand six-month foreclosure moratorium on top of that [Washington Post; earlier on Maryland foreclosure law here, here (couple spends five years in million-dollar home without making mortgage payment), here, etc.]
- Review of recent developments in asbestos litigation in the state [Lisa Rickard, Chamber Institute for Legal Reform]
- Goodbye to another Free State tradition? Senate votes ban on sale of grain alcohol, with urging from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg nanny crew [Washington Post]
- Just say no to the Maryland Small Business Development Financing Authority [Mark Newgent, Baltimore Sun]
- Sen. Zirkin “litigates dog-bite cases on behalf of plaintiffs” and is player on dog bite bill [Insurance Journal]
Archive for February, 2014
Great moments in rent control
Some “affordable housing”/squatting enthusiasts in San Francisco are encouraging the stratagem of renting someone’s apartment for a night or two on AirBnB, declining to leave, and settling in for what might prove a prolonged process of eviction under the city’s highly pro-tenant landlord-tenant laws. [@marketurbanism]
“Creeping sharia” in American law?
As I explain in a new Cato post, Eugene Volokh has been blogging this week on the proper role of the courts in recognizing or ignoring religious law, whether Christian, Jewish, or Islamic. Oklahoma passed a measure banning by name the use of Islamic sharia law, but the Tenth Circuit struck that law down as discriminating against a particular religion. Meanwhile, lawmakers in other states have introduced legislation on the subject. Earlier.
Dumping chess pieces into the grinder
“Why America’s ivory ban won’t help elephants” — and will invite criminal elements further into the antique business [Spectator (U.K.) editorial; Doug Bandow, Cato Institute]
Police and prosecution roundup
- After criticism of heavy-handed Ankeny, Iowa police raid on persons suspected of credit card fraud, not actually reassuring to be told militarized methods needed because one house occupant had firearms carry permit [Radley Balko, more, more]
- Advocates strain mightily to fit unpopular Dunn verdict into Stand Your Ground theme [David Kopel, Jacob Sullum] More: sorry, pundits, but Rasmussen poll shows public’s plurality SYG support unshaken [Althouse]
- “‘Drop the Cabbage, Bullwinkle!’: Alaskan Man Faces Prison for the Crime of Moose-Feeding” [Evan Bernick, Heritage] “Criminalizing America: How Big Government Makes A Criminal of Every American” [ALEC “State Factor”]
- “We’ve also bred into dogs … an eagerness to please us.” Bad news for K-9 forensics [Balko]
- “Has overcharging killed the criminal trial?” [Legal Ethics Forum] Is the “trial penalty” a myth? [David Abrams via Dan Markel, Scott Greenfield]
- What if cops, as opposed to, say, gun owners, were obliged by law to purchase liability insurance? [Popehat]
- That’s productivity: North Carolina grand jury managed to crank out roughly one indictment every 52 seconds [Tim Cushing, TechDirt]
FATCA is working!
“Major League Baseball Drops Its Sham Lawsuit Against Biogenesis’s Tony Bosch”
Performance-enhancing drugs: “After getting what it wanted — the Biogenesis founder’s testimony and evidence against Alex Rodriguez — MLB has dropped its lawsuit against Tony Bosch. …Bosch did not agree to assist MLB until it filed suit against him in February.” [Deadspin]
Worst of the Harvard Crimson
Yes, that article decrying academic freedom is just as bad as you’ve heard.
February 20 roundup
- “Woman Arrested Nine Years After Failing to Return Rented Video” [S.C.: Lowering the Bar, more]
- “Why India’s Ban Against Child Labor Increased Child Labor” [James Schneider, EconLib]
- “I’ve never seen an attorney general sanctioned.” Court hits Nevada AG Catherine Cortez Masto with sanctions after collapse of robosigning suit against mortgage servicer that state hired D.C.’s Cohen Milstein to bring [Daniel Fisher, update (case settles)]
- Another review of the new collection The American Illness: Essays on the Rule of Law (Frank Buckley, ed.) [Bainbridge, earlier]
- They would be major: “The Gains from Getting Rid of ‘Run Amok’ Occupational Licensing” [David Henderson]
- E-cigarettes could save lives [Sally Satel, Washington Post]
- How incentives to avoid tax can lead to social tragedy, in this case via ABBA stage outfits [Guardian]
CBO predicts 500,000 job losses from $10.10 minimum wage
Study here and coverage here, here, and here. The actual number in CBO’s view could be as low as near-zero or as high as a million jobs lost. “Spin it as you wish, we should not have a major party promoting, as a centerpiece initiative and for perceived electoral gain, a law that might put half a million vulnerable people out of work, and that during a slow labor market.” [Tyler Cowen] And imagine indexing the $10.10 number to ensure that its damage goes on indefinitely. More: Ramesh Ponnuru, Philip Klein, Emily Ekins, Trey Kovacs (role of unions’ self-interest). Earlier on minimum wage.