Archive for January, 2017

Resignations in protest, and the fire-me-now alternative

Re: President Trump’s firing last night of Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, from the previous administration, who declined to argue in court on behalf of his executive order on visa admissions, my own reaction was as follows:

* The most appropriate move for Yates would have been to resign. Noisy resignations are fine in circumstances like these.

* Given her announcement, her removal from the job was entirely routine and to be expected. The difference between what happened and a noisy resignation is not wide enough that anyone should care.

* The Saturday Night Massacre under Nixon misses the mark as an analogy for at least two reasons: Archibald Cox was an independent special prosecutor, a job designed purposefully not to be answerable to the executive branch leadership, and his charge was to investigate Watergate, that is, offenses by the White House.

More views from Ken White, Josh Blackman, Jonathan Adler, Jack Goldsmith, and Ben Wittes.

Filed under: Department of Justice

Labor and employment roundup

“The Gathering Storm in State Pensions” [Cato Podcast with Peter Constant] “Los Angeles’ Pension Problem Is Sinking The City” [Scott Beyer]
“DC’s Paid Family Leave Bucks the Trend — and Economics” [Ike Brannon, Cato]
Federalist Society lawyers convention panel on gig economy moderated by Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Thomas Hardiman and with panelists Randel K. Johnson (U.S. Chamber), Bill Samuel (AFL-CIO), Mark Floyd (Uber), and Mark Brnovich (Attorney General, Arizona);
“How to Avoid Discrimination in Hiring, While Complying with [Export Security Control] Laws” [Ashley Mendoza and Alfredo Fernandez via Daniel Schwartz]
“The case for non-compete agreements” [David Henderson]
“This economic reasoning is right/For Zero, not for Fifteen, should we fight.” A minimum wage sonnet [Sasha Volokh]

Filed under: Los Angeles, minimum wage, taxis and ridesharing, Washington D.C., workplace

Medical roundup

U.S. Surgeon General’s office, WHO campaign against vaping, e-cigarettes. Lessons of harm reduction forgotten [Jacob Sullum, Jonathan Adler, Todd Krainin]
Plenty of other hospitals are willing to do this surgery. Catholic facilities should have conscience right to refuse [AP/NJ.com on St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center case, Stephen Miller/IGF]
Study: states with stronger physician protection from malpractice suits had lower usage of imaging tests [Radiology Business on Suhui Li et al., Journal of the American College of Radiology]
Hospitals that require employees to take flu shots to protect patients and others may pay dearly if they’re stingy with the religious exemptions [Jon Hyman]
“Maybe For-Profit Hospitals Aren’t So Bad” [Shailin Thomas, Harvard “Bill of Health”]
“New Study Finds 90% of California Pharmaceutical Plaintiffs are from Other States” [U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform on Mark Behrens study for CJAC]

Filed under: Catholic Church, defensive medicine, forum shopping, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, tobacco

NYC responds to jury verdict on speeder-friendly street design

After a biker was badly injured by a speeding motorist on Gerritsen Avenue in Brooklyn, a jury in 2011 held New York City legally responsible for not having more speeder-unfriendly street design. The city is now instituting such changes, which according to one advocate should no longer be deemed “subject to debate.” The city was held 40 percent liable, but paid 95 percent or $19 million of a $20 million settlement. “‘This ruling from New York’s highest court puts an end to the notion that traffic safety improvements should be subject to debate and contingent on unanimous local opinion,’ said Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives. ‘The scientific verdict has been in for several years: traffic calming works to save lives and prevent injuries.'” [Alissa Walker, Curbed]

Filed under: joint and several liability, NYC, roads and streets, traffic laws

Safety recall? Put down that phone

Honda called car owners to warn about dangerous Takata airbags. Its reward was to get sued by a class action lawyer over unsolicited calls under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) [U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform]

Filed under: telecommunications

SCOTUS will look at patent forum-shopping

The Supreme Court has granted certiorari in the case of T.C. Heartland v. Kraft Foods, which turns on a minor detail of statutory interpretation but raises high stakes indeed: if the Court agrees that a 2011 enactment narrowed venue in patent suits, it could end the current arrangement in which plaintiffs are free to steer most such suits into just a few friendly jurisdictions. My write-up at Cato concludes:

My own suspicion is that not in a thousand years would a thoughtful deliberative process have entrusted the future care of intellectual property in America’s tech sector to the bench and bar of Marshall, Texas, population 24,501. But that’s in no way a reflection on the quality of the able if wily legal talent to be found in East Texas. It’s a reflection on the quality of the lawmakers in the U.S. Congress.

Filed under: Eastern District of Texas, forum shopping, patent litigation, Supreme Court, WO writings

Banking and finance roundup

SEC in-house administrative law judges are unconstitutional, rules 10th Circuit, creating circuit split [ABA Journal, Jonathan Adler]
“Dear Sen. Warren: If we care to share our policy views, we’ll let you know. Otherwise MYOB. Signed – 33 firms” [Elizabeth Warren letter demanding to know what financial firms think of delay in Labor Department fiduciary rule, coverage WSJ/MarketWatch]
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s grab for more regulatory power over financial institutions would erode due process protections [New York Post quoting Mark Calabria]
“Supreme Court Probes Whether Miami Can Sue Banks Over Foreclosure Crisis” [Daniel Fisher, earlier on Bank of America v. Miami here, etc.] Arnold Kling’s prescriptions for getting the government out of the mortgage market;
Mini-symposium on the personal benefit standard for insider trading in the recent Supreme Court case of Salman v. U.S. [Bainbridge]
India’s devastating crackdown on cash [Cato Daily Podcast with Jim Dorn and Caleb Brown]

Filed under: Andrew Cuomo, Elizabeth Warren, India, mortgages, Securities and Exchange Commission, Wall Street

“‘Hamilton’ Sued Over Show’s Lack of Services for Blind Patrons”

A Denver resident has sued the theater, producer, and general manager of the hit show “Hamilton,” saying it violates the Americans with Disabilities Act for them not to offer audio description services annotating the action of the play for blind audience members. Under new federal rules movie theater chains will need to offer such services by next year; a few Broadway shows do so, including “The Lion King” and “The Book of Mormon,” but their practice is still an exception. [Sara Randazzo, WSJ]

Filed under: disabled rights

Higher education roundup

Student claims public college required him to mouth correct views regarding social justice as part of class. Not since Barnette v. West Virginia you don’t [Ilya Shapiro and Devin Watkins on Cato amicus brief in Felkner v. Rhode Island College (“The First Amendment prohibits government actors from compelling private citizens to express views with which they disagree.”)]
In the mail: KC Johnson and Stuart Taylor, Jr.’s “The Campus Rape Panic: The Attack on Due Process at American Universities” [Encounter Books; review, Robert VerBruggen; plus excerpt; interview with Taylor] “The Title IX Mess: Will It Be Reformed?” [KC Johnson, Minding the Campus]
Departing Obama administration revises Common Rule on IRB/institutional review board human subjects protection [NEJM, Verrill Dana redline via Michelle Meyer, Zachary Schrag first, second, third posts on implications for social science research]
Notwithstanding early reports, PEN America report on campus expression mounts “unflinching defense of free speech” [Anthony Fisher, Vox; related, José Cabranes/Washington Post and Orin Kerr]
U.K.: graduate sues Oxford for negligent teaching, wants £1 million [Lowering the Bar, more links at Paul Caron/TaxProf]
When should you report classmates to the Syracuse University administration? Suspect behavior includes “avoiding or excluding others,” “telling jokes based on a stereotype,” “posting or commenting on social media related to someone’s identity in a bias matter,” “imitating someone’s cultural norm or practice” [guidelines (from mission statement: “never privatize any wrongful act, no matter how small”) via Robby Soave]

Filed under: colleges and universities, First Amendment, sexual assault

Japan: families sue over failure to warn of volcano eruption

“Twelve people from five families of those killed in the 2014 eruption of Mount Ontake are set to sue the state and the Nagano Prefectural Government, demanding a total of 150 million yen in compensation, it has been learned.” The suit will argue that the Japan Meteorological Agency failed to raise the alert level for the volcano despite an increase in temblors, “partly on the grounds that the temblors were not accompanied by crustal movements.” [Mainichi]

Filed under: disasters, failure to warn, Japan