Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Discrimination law roundup

  • Can a law ban calls to police by the public that are based on stereotyping or bias? Grand Rapids may find out [Scott Greenfield]
  • Courts and EEOC have held that the federal ban on pregnancy discrimination encompasses a ban on discrimination related to abortion [Jon Hyman] Legislative proposal in Ohio, fortunately given little chance of passage, would make anti-vaxxers a protected group under state employment discrimination law [same]
  • “Finally Some Robust Research Into Whether ‘Diversity Training’ Actually Works – Unfortunately It’s Not Very Promising” [Jesse Singal, British Psychological Society Research Digest, earlier]
  • New EEOC employer reporting requirements represent “an order of magnitude increase in the amount of information the government wants” for one recreation management business [Coyote] How are federal agencies doing on civil rights issues in this administration? Federalist Society panel with Gail Heriot, Kenneth Marcus, Theodore Shaw, Timothy Taylor, moderated by Erik Jaffe;
  • When an outcry arose over its partnership decisions, “Paul, Weiss did what every other mainstream institution does today when accused of racial bias: it fell on its sword.” [Heather Mac Donald, City Journal via Eugene Volokh]
  • “Targeted Advertising and Age Discrimination: An Explainer” [Joe Ruckert, On Labor]

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4 Comments

  • Re: Grand Rapids—seems like a cure worse than the disease. I happen to walk late at night in my neighborhood on occasion, and I am sure that since I don’t have a dog, I have probably looked suspicious at times. If someone calls the cops on me, there’s not a lot I can do about it, and I would just trust that the cops would look at my ID (showing my home address) and let me go about my business. Would I want anyone to get in trouble for “calling it in”? Nope. Cops screw up at times, but I generally trust that they will do their jobs, and I don’t live my life worrying about a cop screwing up.

    • By SPO

  • Re: Paul, Weiss
    “Nearly 200 corporate general counsels signed an open letter threatening to pull their business from law firms whose partners are not “diverse in race, color, age, gender, gender orientation, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, and without regard to disabilities.”

    But the rest of the article mentions a dearth of only one race at Paul, Weiss and nothing else. I find this complaint lacks diversity. Dismissed.

  • @Grand Rapids–
    This should not be enforceable without a 911 tape showing what the caller actually said, and should not be enforceable against a truthful call. It should be up to the 911 dispatcher and the police officer to screen out factual calls that do not merit a police response. If the caller embellishes the truth in order to get a response, however, then a penalty might be appropriate.

    • There are multiple states where misuse (and not just false calls, calling 911 for a non-emergency counts) is a crime, usually a misdemeanor under state law. This would include Michigan.

      https://www.miamiherald.com/article208381819.html

      A northern Michigan resident found a spider on April 5, and apparently couldn’t handle the situation without a little help — so the resident called 911 to request that dispatchers send police over to kill the spider, according to the Evart Police Department.

      Dispatchers informed the caller that disposing of eight-legged intruders isn’t exactly a police matter. Authorities also told the caller that reporting the critter through a 911 call is an abuse of the emergency response system (however freaky the insect may have been)

      You seriously don’t think there ought to be any penalties for that sort of thing?

      • By MattS