- “Addicts Use Imodium to Help With Detox. That’s a Terrible Reason for the FDA to Make It Harder to Get” [Mike Riggs, Reason] Expect runs: “Does anyone see the humor/irony here? A diarrhea medicine package that’s hard to open?” [Josh Bloom, ACSH]
- “The Return of Drug Reimportation?” [Roger Pilon, Cato; more thoughts from David R. Henderson]
- California Supreme Court rules research drugmakers legally responsible “for harm caused by defective warnings in labels on generic versions of their products” [T.H. v. Novartis; Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle, Steven Boranian (“awful”), Jim Beck]
- “Abuse-Deterrent Opioids and the Law of Unintended Consequences” [Jeffrey Singer, Cato Policy Analysis]
- Should the FDA approve Metformin for possible anti-aging effects? [Alex Tabarrok]
- “FDA Proposes to Delay Off-Label “Intended Use” Rule” [Stephen McConnell]
“Colorado: Where Anyone Can Squelch Political Speech”
“Colorado’s byzantine system of campaign and political finance regulations not only [turns] a blind eye to First Amendment concerns, but actively incentivizes politically motivated, retaliatory litigation. Colorado is unique in being the only state to effectively outsource enforcement of its campaign finance regulations by allowing ‘any person who believes’ that campaign finance laws are being violated” to initiate litigation by filing a complaint. Now a court is considering an outside group’s motion to seal the records of one such case. Opening up such proceedings to public scrutiny could work to counteract abuse by documenting the law’s chilling effect and its use to squelch the speech of opponents, as in the case at issue, in which a local citizen found herself denounced to authorities after buying a newspaper ad commenting on a slate of candidates in a school board election. [Trevor Burrus and Meggan DeWitt on Cato objection, jointly with Reason Foundation, in Holland v. Williams]
ABA sticks up for lawyers’ and clients’ privacy
In the name of curtailing money laundering and the risk of terrorist finance, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) have introduced a bill that would require extensive reporting on the ownership of small corporations and limited liability companies. Provisions of the law “would regulate many lawyers and law firms as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act,” notes the ABA Journal, and require them “to gather extensive beneficial ownership information on businesses when they incorporate. The information would be held and disclosed on request to many governmental agencies and financial institutions.” The businesses themselves would also face direct reporting and regulatory burdens.
The ABA is opposing provisions in this bill on the ground that they would infringe on traditional attorney-client privilege. “Concerns about erosion of attorney-general privilege have played a role in resisting numerous bad regulatory and prosecutorial initiatives in recent years,” I write in a new Cato piece. “Now if only the rest of us who are not lawyers could get someone to stand up so effectively against the government on behalf of our privacy interests.”
“Trump proposes biggest civil service change in 40 years”
This could be major: President Trump may be set to propose the biggest civil service changes in 40 years, with goals of flushing underperformers in the federal workforce and boosting pay-for-performance. “Trump is using the VA Accountability Act, which gave the Secretary of Veterans Affairs greater authority to fire and discipline workers, as a model. The White House says that law has resulted in the dismissal of 1,470 employees, the suspension of 443, demotions for 83 others last year.” The head of the American Federation of Government Employees charged that Trump was “interested in political revenge by firing people” and that his proposal “wipes out due process rights for employees.” Currently 99.7% of federal employees get the satisfactory rating (“fully successful”) needed to qualify for stepwise pay increases as well as cost-of-living. [Gregory Korte, USA Today] My City Journal take on the perennial challenge of civil service reform, back when, is here.
“Detroit just banned Airbnb without anyone knowing it”
Infuriating: Detroit says it will take a pause for legal review before enforcing a new zoning ordinance that would ban homeowners through much of the city from accepting AirBnB rentals. The ordinance would interpret rentals as home-based businesses, which are disallowed in residential zones, and on its face appears to prohibit taking in even friends or relatives to share quarters if the person pays rent. Following a public outcry, the city council put out word that it does not intend to ban AirBnB and will amend the ordinance if necessary to avoid that. [Tom Perkins/Metro Times, Robin Runyan, Curbed Detroit, Deadline Detroit]
Liability roundup
- Will states return us to the days of wide-open forum-shopping through the legal fiction of “consent by registration to do business”? A 50-state survey [James Beck, Drug and Device Law] “Big Fights Ahead Over Where Class Actions Can Be Filed” [Martina Barash, Bloomberg Big Law Business]
- Herr’s potato chips sued by prolific New York City lawyer over how full its bags of chips are. [John O’Brien, Legal NewsLine/Forbes] “Ridiculous class-action lawsuits are costing you tons of money” [Kathianne Boniello, New York Post]
- Ireland: “Burglar who injured genitals during shop break in sues shopkeeper” [Alexandra Richards, Evening Standard (U.K.)]
- To propel TCPA suits, professional plaintiffs find tactical ways to revoke text permission [Michael Daly, Meredith Slawe, and John Yi (Drinker Biddle), National Law Review] “Phoney Lawsuits: Polish Immigrant Concludes Six-Figure Run By Settling 31st Lawsuit” [Karin Kidd, Forbes/LNL, earlier]
- Missouri getting to be hotspot for high-stakes litigation [Jim Copland, Manhattan Institute “Trial Lawyers Inc.”]
- Courts and plaintiffs engaged in deep pockets jurisprudence seldom acknowledge that’s what they’re doing [Victor Schwartz, Washington Legal Foundation]
A case for sex offender registry reform
Sex offender registries have become an engine of injustice. Lenore Skenazy (“Free-Range Kids”) and Dara Lind of Vox discuss in this video of Thursday’s Cato event, with me moderating.
Banking and finance roundup
- D.C. Circuit’s en banc decision upholding constitutionality of CFPB disappointing but not surprising. On to SCOTUS [Ilya Shapiro, Aaron Nielson, Jonathan Adler]
- Big thinking under way at the SEC could replace securities class action sector with free contract: “The SEC should authorize mandatory arbitration of shareholder class action lawsuits” [Bainbridge, Benjamin Bain/Bloomberg News (noting that broker dealers have long been free to use arbitration clauses)]
- Milberg Weiss founder Melvyn Weiss dies at 82 [ABA Journal, our coverage over the years of Weiss and his firm, @PaulHorwitz (“Give generously, and to the right people, so that your NYT obit can be a glowing apologia despite a few inconvenient facts.”)]
- Here come the shareholder derivative suits over sleazy-boss #MeToo scandals [Kevin LaCroix] “NERA: 2017 Securities Suits Filed at ‘Record Pace'” [same]
- Rogoff rebuttals: “More Evidence of the High Collateral Damage of a War on Cash” [Lawrence White, Cato, earlier] “Money as coined liberty” [David R. Henderson]
- Quotas/targets for percentages of women, disabled and indigenous persons on Canadian corporate boards? [Terence Corcoran/Financial Post, more]
Concert booker not liable for patron’s injury
“The Alabama Supreme Court says a man can’t go forward with his lawsuit against a company involved in booking a death metal concert where he was injured.” The plaintiff said he was thrown to the ground during the Mobile event and suffered serious spinal injuries. “The decision says ICM Partners received a $250 commission for booking the band but had no other involvement.” [Insurance Journal; compare successful claims against advertisers, broadcasters, and others following the 2003 Rhode Island Station Nightclub fire]
February 7 roundup
- “The rate of litigation is simply so much greater in the U.S., it is understandable why [foreign firms] feel as though they have a target on their backs.” [Richard Levick, Forbes]
- Don’t forget: at noon Eastern tomorrow (Thursday) I’m hosting Lenore Skenazy (Free-Range Kids) and Dara Lind (Vox) at Cato to talk about problems with the sex offender registry. You can watch online here. Background here and here;
- Regulators don’t always enforce all the regulations on their books. Yes, and? [Aaron Nielson] And the Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, now free online, has an article on Regulation by Michael Munger;
- “Is your child texting about partisan gerrymandering?…” My bit of Twitter humor [Free State Notes]
- Lawyer seeks injunction against specific part of rapper’s masculine anatomy [Deborah Horne, KIRO]
- The next generation of libertarian thinkers, leaders, and advocates are part of the Cato Institute internship program [promotional video]