- “The Climate Debate Should Focus on How to Address the Threat of Climate Change, Not Whether Such a Threat Exists” [Jonathan Adler, whose analysis of environmental law is often quoted in this space]
- “Grizzly Bears and Endangered Species Recovery” [Cato Daily Podcast with Brian Yablonski and Caleb Brown] “Property Rights as a Foundation for Conservation” [same, with Holly Fretwell and Brown]
- “If an environmentalist values the land more than ranchers do, then the environmentalist should get the lease.” [Shawn Regan, Reason; related on “diligence” regulations in federal resource leasing Robert M. Nelson, Regulation, Jan./Feb. 1983]
- “Litigation vs. Restoration: Addressing Louisiana’s Coastal Land Loss” [U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, earlier]
- Who will build the roads? Go ask Friedrich Engels [David Henderson, Econlib] Related: Market Urbanism Report podcast on road privatization and other topics with Robert Poole, Chris Edwards and others;
- “Florida Democratic Party adopts ‘rights of nature’ into platform” [Scott Powers, Florida Politics; see here, here, here, etc.]
The “public interest” campaign against dollar stores
The truly progressive position is to say people have a right to camp out and sleep in front of a store but not buy a bag of pretzels there. [Steven Malanga, City Journal; Convenience]
L.A. official’s tweets help NRA win First Amendment case
Last month a court struck down Los Angeles’s ordinance intended to discourage city contractors from dealing with the National Rifle Association (NRA), ruling it a First Amendment violation intended to chill speech and association. An amusing feature: the bill’s sponsor just couldn’t help grandstanding on Twitter and elsewhere about taking down the NRA, which provided the court with valuable evidence of the city’s intent. Moreover, the gun rights group has been making headway against similar efforts in San Francisco and New York state (led there by Gov. Andrew Cuomo) to target its pocketbook. I explain in a new piece at National Review.
January 8 roundup
- Lenawee County, Mich. authorities have posted condemnation notices on Old Order Amish farmhouses over their use of outhouses rather than modern septic systems as required by code. Dispute now heading for court [Tom Henry, Toledo Blade]
- Baltimore Mayor Young promotes white-van-abduction urban legends, police misconduct transparency, Montgomery County is watching drivers and more in my latest Maryland policy roundup [Free State Notes]
- Following outcry from activists, Facebook disables as misleading ads some trial lawyer ads soliciting plaintiffs to sue over purported side effects of HIV prevention drugs [Tony Romm, Washington Post/Toronto Star, Peter Lawrence Kane, The Guardian, WTHR]
- From Lowering the Bar, legal things that actually did happen in 2019;
- 20 years ago I warned that by trying to dictate employers’ choices, a Wisconsin law might work to impede convict re-entry into the job market rather than encourage it [Reason, from its archives]
- If county and city law enforcement officials have discretion not to charge low-level drug offenders, do they also have discretion not to charge low-level gun offenders? [Cam Edwards, National Review on Virginia battle over “Second Amendment sanctuary” resolutions]
“Inside the Mass-Tort Machine That Powers Thousands of Roundup Lawsuits”
Eye-opening investigation by Wall Street Journal reporters of the machine that markets injury lawsuits over Bayer/Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide: “Individual plaintiffs can become commodities that are bought and sold by marketers, with prices based on demand.” [Sara Randazzo and Jacob Bunge, WSJ/Morningstar] “Misinformation about one of the safest herbicides ever produced has created a lucrative business for ambulance-chasing lawyers and NGOs—at the expense of native species.” [Ted Williams, Slate; Geoffrey Kabat/Issues in Science and Technology; earlier] The U.S. Department of Justice along with several states and California medical, dental, and hospital associations are all supporting Bayer’s appeal of a $25 million verdict before the Ninth Circuit [Rich Peters, Legal NewsLine]
Charge-dropping, sanctuary, and the people’s voice in prosecution
If county and city law enforcers have discretion not to charge low-level drug offenses, do they also have discretion not to charge low-level gun offenses? Cam Edwards on the Virginia battle over “Second Amendment sanctuary” resolutions [National Review].
Supreme Court roundup
- Hosanna-Tabor sequel: Court agrees to review Ninth Circuit decisions taking narrow view of “ministerial exception,” which restricts court review of some decisions by religious employers [SCOTUSBlog, Eric Rassbach; Joseph Cosby on Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru and St. James School v. Biel]
- Once again the Court is being asked to green-light open-ended claims of disparate impact liability in mortgage lending. Proximate cause principles offer a way to hold the line [Ilya Shapiro, Trevor Burrus, and Sam Spiegelman on Cato amicus in Bank of America v. Miami]
- Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution provides that the Chief Justice shall preside over an impeachment trial of the President in the Senate. Should it wish, however, the Senate will have wide latitude to overrule Roberts’s rulings [John Kruzel, The Hill]
- Regulatory agencies whose officials are unremovable amount to an unaccountable fourth (or fifth?) branch of government [Ilya Shapiro and James Knight on Cato amicus brief in Seila Law v. CFPB]
- Comcast Corp. v. National Association of African American-Owned Media, argued before the Court Nov. 13, originally appeared to hinge on the Ninth Circuit’s adopting a looser standard for allegations of race discrimination in contracting than did other circuits; as it has evolved, however, it may be decided on questions of pleading [Washington Legal Foundation and more from WLF’s Richard Samp, ABA Journal; Dominic Patten and Mike Fleming Jr., Deadline on underlying dispute; Howard Wasserman and followup]
- Nearly two years after joining the Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch now has a track record [Jacob Sullum, Michael Greve] Gorsuch may be joining Thomas in the position that a federal agency’s considered decision *not* to regulate should not be interpreted to pre-empt state regulatory power [James Beck on concurrence in Lipschultz v. Charter Advanced Services (MN), LLC]
“Woman Upset She Didn’t Lose Weight Loses ‘Diet’ Dr Pepper Lawsuit Appeal”
The Ninth Circuit has “refused to reinstate a class-action lawsuit by a woman who argued that the makers of Diet Dr Pepper committed fraud.” “No reasonable consumer would assume that Diet Dr Pepper’s use of the term ‘diet’ promises weight loss or management,” wrote Judge Jay Bybee. The unanimous three-judge panel also declined to accept of lawyers for named plaintiff Shana Becerra that the depiction of “attractive, fit models in the ads implies that Diet Dr Pepper will help its consumers achieve those bodies.” [AP/NBC Los Angeles; opinion in Becerra v. Dr Pepper/SevenUp at Court Listener]
Also: “Woman sues Blue Buffalo dog food company for making her pooch fat” [Emily Saul, New York Post]
Ted Frank reviews “A Conservative Case for Class Actions”
Brian Fitzpatrick’s new book A Conservative Case for Class Actions isn’t particularly conservative in its recommendations, and is based on a faulty premise as to the business model of the class action as currently pursued in American courts, writes Ted Frank [National Review]
Banking and finance roundup
- Senator Elizabeth Warren and her Accountable Capitalism Act represent an attempt to revive a theory of the corporation that fell out of favor long ago, that corporate status is a grant of favor in exchange for which the state may demand services or cooperation [Abdurrahman Kayiklik, Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog; earlier with links to Warren on corporate governance and other topics]
- Bill in Congress would enlist banks in watching gun sales [Robert VerBruggen/NRO; Noah Shepardson, Reason] NRA, in litigation, contends it has evidence New York state officials negotiated with U.K.’s Lloyds to curtail insurance availability in a way specifically targeted at the association [Stephen Gutowski thread]
- “The Misguided Quest to Limit Choice in Consumer Credit” [Diego Zuluaga]
- “The CFPB and Payday Lending Regulations” [Peter Van Doren last February; earlier on payday lending; Federalist Society Regulatory Transparency Project video on regulation-through-investigation of payday lenders with Jamie Fulmer, Chris Peterson, and Brian Knight]
- Federalist Society podcast on Community Reinvestment Act with Aaron Klein and Diego Zuluaga;
- Learned a new word, lutulent, which means “muddy, turbid, thick” and is more or less the opposite of luculent (“lucid, clear, transparent”) [Keith Paul Bishop on unclarities in new California law requiring gender quotas on boards (“a lutulent mess”); earlier here, etc.]