- “Chicago judge ruled legally insane wants to be restored to bench,” and voters don’t seem to mind that;
- New Kevin Underhill book on odd laws, The Emergency Sasquatch Ordinance, review and interview by Jim Dedman;
- Music rights organization BMI sues Cleveland bar over one night’s performance by a cover band, seeking up to $1.5 million;
- It’s rash to assume you can fire an employee caught working another job while on FMLA leave from your workplace. And the Chicago transit union’s contract provides that a train operator can be dismissed if caught sleeping at the controls twice “within a short period of time.”
- In more than 2,000 seizures, border agents confiscated more than 25,000 prohibited Kinder Egg chocolate-covered toys during one recent year;
- Bernie Marcus of Home Depot recalls how dropping a lawsuit enabled him to focus on what was important in life;
- “This guarantee does not cover shark bite, bear attack or damage by children under five.”
Archive for December, 2014
“Sony Threatens to Sue Twitter Unless It Removes Tweets Containing Hacked Emails”
“Sony’s lawyer [David Boies] has threatened Twitter with legal action if the social networking company doesn’t ban accounts that are sharing the [hacked] leaks, according to emails obtained by Motherboard.” [Jason Koebler, Vice.com “Motherboard”]
New idea: invite cops to search your home for guns
The program, in the town of Beloit, Wisconsin, drew few takers and much ridicule; it was quickly called off [Lowering the Bar]
Monticello’s brush with ruin-by-litigation
Myron Magnet has a new article in City Journal on how George Washington’s country seat at Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson’s at Monticello were saved from war, insult, neglect, and legal hazard. From his discussion of Monticello:
What had happened to the house in the meantime was what happens to any property tied up in litigation: it fell once more into a Dickensian state of ruin. As the suits dragged on, Uriah Levy’s old overseer, Joel Wheeler, “took care” of Monticello and sometimes lived in it. While he grew increasingly blind, paint peeled, glass broke, shutters and gutters disappeared, grime deepened, and the roof and terraces rotted. Wheeler dug up the lawn for a vegetable garden on one side and a pigpen on the other. Cattle wintered in the cellars, and Wheeler winnowed grain on the parlor’s parquet floor. On his watch, judged Wheeler’s successor, Thomas Rhodes, Monticello “was wantonly desecrated.”
Whole thing here.
Free speech roundup
- Long before North Korea “Interview” episode, Hollywood was caving repeatedly to power-wielders [Ron Maxwell, Deadline] Relevant: “A Tyranny of Silence,” new book by Danish-Muhammad-cartoons editor Flemming Rose published by Cato Institute [Kat Murti, earlier on the Danish cartoons, related Liberty and Law]
- Score 1 for First Amendment, zero for Prof. Banzhaf as FCC rejects “Redskins” broadcast license attack [Volokh, earlier including the prof’s comment on that post]
- Court dismisses orthopedist’s defamation suit against legal blogger Eric Turkewitz [his blog]
- “Hate speech” notions reach the Right? Author claims “justice” would mean incitement “charges” vs. liberal talkers [Ira Straus, National Review]
- Wisconsin prosecutors said to have eyed using John Doe law to aim warrants, subpoenas at media figures Sean Hannity, Charlie Sykes [Watchdog] More: George Leef on California vs. Americans for Prosperity;
- “British journalist sentenced for questioning death toll in Bangladeshi independence war” [Guardian] Pakistan sentences Bollywood actress Veena Malik to 26 years for acting in supposedly blasphemous TV wedding scene [The Independent] Erdogan regime in Turkey rounds up opposition media figures [Washington Post editorial]
- “Is it a crime to say things that make someone ‘lack self-confidence in her relations with the opposite sex and about her body-build’?” [Volokh; Iowa Supreme Court, affirmed on other grounds]
When the family is the last to know
The doctor legally couldn’t tell him his son was in drug trouble. Nor could the college. Maybe time to rethink federal privacy laws? [Tony Christ, DelmarvaNow]
“Let’s have a national conversation about race…”
“…so we can figure out whom to fire” [Eugene Volokh, on the employment-law dangers of conversation] Related: “Marquette University tells employees: ‘Opposition to same-sex marriage’ could be ‘unlawful harassment'” [same]
NYC’s expediters
Can New York City really support an army of an estimated 8,300 “expediters” who run paperwork around to city offices, wait in line, haggle with officials, and generally navigate the bureaucracy on behalf of those who need permits, licenses and other municipal decisions? It’s a testimony to the dysfunction of the city’s governance [Kanner, Renn/Urbanophile]
Best of Overlawyered — March 2014
More from the archives:
- Described as funniest Supreme Court amicus brief ever, and it prevailed in the Ohio campaign-law case [Ilya Shapiro, Trevor Burrus and Gabriel Latner for P.J. O’Rourke, via our post]
- Mardi Gras time: “Caution! Non-edible baby inside this cake”
- Most outrageous video lawyer ad ever?
- Lenore Skenazy (Free-Range Kids) spoke at Cato and it was one of the most popular talks I’ve attended there in years;
- “Colorado Man Could Sue Divers Who Saved Him From Submerged Car”
- Ohio school suspends 10-year-old for displaying a “level 2 look alike firearm,” namely his finger;
- “Brady Campaign To Honor Yee For Violence Prevention,” before the California lawmaker’s arms-trafficking indictment;
- Students “told to destroy rare Dodge Viper”
Update: “I’ll pay them a million dollars if they can do it.”
We reported five years ago on a contract-law hypothetical come to life: a criminal defense lawyer went on TV and said he’d give a million dollars if anyone could prove the prosecutor’s timeline was consistent with the known facts, whereupon an enterprising law student proceeded to do just that. The Eleventh Circuit said the proper test under Florida law was whether “a reasonable, objective person would have understood [the lawyer’s words] to be an invitation to contract.” And: “The exaggerated amount of ‘a million dollars’ – the common choice of movie villains and schoolyard wagerers alike — indicates that this was hyperbole.” And yet more: “we find it neither prudent nor permissible to impose contractual liability for offhand remarks or grandstanding.” [Ann Althouse, Lawrence Cunningham]