- Pauli Murray, civil rights activist after whom Yale recently named a residential college, stood up for her worst foes’ right to speak [Peter Salovey, New York Times] Viewing everything through lens of identity and power disables the intellect [Jonathan Haidt]
- Penn Jillette and free speech scholars ask Brandeis president to reconsider decision to ditch play about comedian Lenny Bruce [FIRE]
- Isolated outrages, or straws in the wind? Lindsay Shepherd and Wilfred Laurier University [Tristin Hopper, National Post] Student’s remark about religion at University of Texas, San Antonio [Robby Soave, Reason] Roll your eyes at a faculty meeting and you could be in so much Title IX trouble [Nicholas Wolfinger, Quillette]
- “Bias Response Teams Thwarted in Their Goal of a Sensitive Campus by the First Amendment” [Liz Wolfe, Reason, earlier]
- 49% of college students say supporting someone else’s right to say racist things “as bad as holding racist views yourself” [Emily Ekins on Cato free speech survey] Related: John Samples; Eugene Volokh;
- Testimony by Prof. Nadine Strossen at Senate hearing on free speech, hate speech, and college campuses [Collins/Concurring Opinions]
Quebec lawmakers to shopkeepers: don’t greet customers with “Bonjour hi”
A bilingual greeting might make English speakers feel too welcome, so the legislators of Quebec passed a unanimous though unenforceable resolution disapproving of its use by merchants [Dan Bilefsky, New York Times]
ADA mass filing roundup
- Virginia credit unions hit with wave of website accessibility claims [Tina Orem, Credit Union Times] McDonald’s, Kmart, others settle suits over website access for the blind [Samantha Bomkamp, Chicago Tribune] “Attorney exploits the blind to sue businesses: suit” [Julia Marsh, New York Post]
- Wheelchair-using donut shop owner/manager from California tells Congressional hearing she’s been sued over accessibility, too [John McMickle, The Hill] “California small businesses are vulnerable to mass-produced litigation” [Betty Jo Toccoli, Orange County Register]
- “Federal Courts, State Governments Push Back Against Corrosive Disabilities Act Suits” [Greg Herbers, WLF/Forbes]
- Arizona: “Serial litigant barred from filing frivolous ADA lawsuits” [Linda Bentley, Sonoran News on Advocates for Individuals with Disabilities group; earlier here, here, here, etc.]
- “Florida Lawmakers Take Action To Curb Access Suits, But Will It Work?” [Samuel Sverdlov and Minh N. Vu, Seyfarth Shaw]
- New Mexico: “99 ADA lawsuits dismissed as fraudulent and malicious” [Martin Orlick, JMBM Hotel Law, earlier]
How the underground economy saved Spanish cheesemaking
For years the government of Spain did its best to suppress small-scale cheesemaking, one of the traditional products that now does much to burnish the image of Spanish food around the world. But scofflaw dairies kept the craft alive, I explain in a new Cato post based on an Atlas Obscura account (“Franco had imagined large, industrial operations. Instead Spaniards enthusiastically supported small, black market cheesemakers.”)
High Court debates wedding cakes and forced expression
“On the Left, some pine for a hard-line opinion that claims of religious liberty or free speech can never, ever provide an excuse for discrimination. But it’s not just the Alitos and Clarence Thomases who would oppose that outcome. All four liberal justices yesterday gave indications that even if they would not draw the line on compelled speech *here*, they would draw it *somewhere*.” My take on yesterday’s oral argument in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission is up at the New York Daily News.
The principles of free contract and association and the wrongness of compelled expression and participation will endure whether or not SCOTUS sees its way clear to recognizing them in this case. Earlier; Roger Pilon (“If there is intolerance here, it is from those who would force a man to choose between his religious beliefs and his livelihood”); Ilya Shapiro; Cato’s brief; Erica Goldberg. And I’m quoted in Brandon Ambrosino’s Washington Post coverage of the case (“the lasting influence is not primarily which side wins, but where to draw the line between what is and is not expression”) and by Chris Johnson in the Washington Blade (““Neither side [on the Court] wants to inflict a culture war on the country; they’re trying to work out something without culture war.”)
December 6 roundup
- Torts class hypotheticals come to life: tipsy axe-throwing, discussed in this space last June, is coming to D.C. [Jessica Sidman, Washingtonian] One guess why Japanese “slippery stairs” game show might not translate easily to Land O’ Lawyers [Dan McLaughlin on Twitter]
- “California lawyer pleads guilty in $50M visa scam” [Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal]
- Claim: longstanding practice in Louisiana and Oregon of not requiring jury unanimity for felony convictions reflects states’ racial past [Angela A. Allen-Bell, Washington Post]
- “Judge Halts Copyright Troll’s Lawsuit Against A Now-Deceased Elderly Man With Dementia And An IP Address” [Timothy Geigner]
- David Henderson reviews Richard Rothstein book on history of federal encouragement of housing segregation, The Color of Law [Cato Regulation magazine]
- Class action: sellers of cold-pressed juice should have disclosed that it was high-pressure-processed [Elaine Watson, Food Navigator USA]
Service animal news: when pigs fly
Passenger asked to leave US Airways flight after emotional support pig becomes disruptive [Rheana Murray, ABC News] “Florida man fights eviction over ’emotional support squirrel'” [Fox News] “Student sues university (and wins) for ADA violations over service dog in sorority house” [Amanda Watts and AnneClaire Stapleton, CNN]
Watch today: Emily Yoffe and Ruth Marcus on Title IX
At 4 pm Eastern today, watch online at Cato live as acclaimed writer Emily Yoffe discusses her recent blockbuster Atlantic series on the problems with campus sex-misconduct tribunals (parts one, two, three, earlier coverage here and here). Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus will offer commentary. Although I had been scheduled to moderate, an emergency has come up and I am unable to be there; instead Cato’s John Samples will be taking my place.
Judge excoriates DoJ in False Claims Act case
Problems with applying the whistleblower law that has been described as a “cash cow” for the U.S. Department of Justice [C. Ryan Barber, NLJ]:
A federal magistrate judge has struck a key witness and ordered the U.S. Justice Department to pay legal fees to HCR ManorCare Inc., one of the country’s largest providers of skilled nursing facilities, for alleged missteps in a case the government touted in the crackdown on fraud in the health care industry. “I don’t think this case should have ever been brought,” a federal magistrate judge in Virginia said at a recent hearing. “I have looked at this stuff, and I’m appalled, I’m embarrassed, I’m ashamed that the Department of Justice would rely on this kind of nonsense.”
Earlier on qui tam and the False Claims Act here. [& followup, Toledo Blade: feds drop case]
FATCA may soon vex the British royal family
FATCA, the expatriate financial reporting law, has been a compliance nightmare for many ordinary Americans abroad, and soon it may vex the British royal family. Depending on how and whether Prince Harry mingles his finances with those of American-born fiancee Meghan Markle, various aspects of Crown finances might have to be reported to American authorities. “The United States and Eritrea are the only countries in the world that tax based on citizenship, rather than residency.” [Suzanne Lucas, Evil HR Lady/Inc.; Amy Alkon] More: Andreas Kluth, Bloomberg.