Some users swear by skin care products that employ walnut shell powder as an exfoliant, such as St. Ives Apricot Scrub, while others find the ingredient too abrasive and believe it injures the skin. How to resolve the disagreement? Run to court, of course [L.V. Anderson, Slate]
Police and community roundup
- Fraternal Order of Police asks Amazon to stop allowing sales of Black Lives Matter shirts after Walmart.com yields to similar request [Ben Rosen, Christian Science Monitor] FOP boss Chuck Canterbury, defending civil asset forfeiture: hey we could use the money [Scott Shackford] FOP chief vows to override Pennsylvania governor’s veto of bill that would shield names of involved police officers for 30 days after killings of civilians [CBS Philadelphia]
- Technology panel from Cato policing conference included law professors Tracey Meares of Yale and Elizabeth Joh of UC Davis, City of San Jose independent police auditor Walter Katz, and Maj. Max Geron of the Dallas PD, moderated by Cato’s Jonathan Blanks [video or podcast] “Police Spy Tools Evolve Faster Than Lawmakers Can Keep Up: Baltimore’s aerial surveillance continues unchecked” [Monte Reel, Bloomberg BusinessWeek]
- One effect of ban on smoking in New York City public housing: new excuse for cops to bust in [Scott Greenfield]
- “WSJ investigation: Of 3,458 US police officers charged with crimes, 332 (10%) kept their badges” [@johngramlich]
- “San Francisco has become a predatory government,” says its elected treasurer [José Cisneros, San Francisco Chronicle]
- Don’t let quest to increase police accountability worsen problem of intrusive surveillance [Matthew Feeney on Jake Laperruque presentation at Cato’s recent surveillance conference]
To head SEC, Trump picks a FCPA critic
Jay Clayton of Sullivan & Cromwell, president-elect Donald Trump’s choice to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, has not taken a high-profile role in policy debates but according to MarketWatch was involved in preparing a 2011 report for the New York City Bar critical of enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). That’s a point in his favor, I argue at Cato, since the case against zealous FCPA enforcement is well established. Related earlier, and Texas Public Policy Foundation 2014. More: Andrew Ramonas, BNA Bloomberg.
Schools and childhood roundup
- “California’s Absurd and Insidious ‘Bill of Rights for Children’ Invites Pernicious Meddling” [Jacob Sullum]
- “1 in 4 U.S. teachers are chronically absent, missing more than 10 days of school,” and rate in some districts reaches 80+%; AFT chief Randi Weingarten cites “root causes” [Alejandra Matos, Washington Post]
- Steve Horwitz reviews Abby Schachter’s book No Child Left Alone: Getting the Government Out of Parenting [Law and Liberty, earlier] “Napping Child Left in Car While Parents Run Quick Errand, Everyone Loses Their Minds” [Lenore Skenazy; Valley Stream, Long Island]
- Ex-teacher who passed out after showing up drunk to elementary school field trip gets $18,000 settlement to resign, then further $75,000 on argument town should not have released her blood alcohol results [Fox News; Janesville, Wisc.]
- Employment complaint filed on behalf of assistant principal against Chappaqua, N.Y. school district makes unfortunate first impression by misspelling name of Horace Greeley High School [Taylor complaint via @TheSuburbanist; Examiner News, Chappaqua Voice]
- “Youth hockey game leads to adult spectator fight — is the league liable?” [Eugene Volokh]
January 4 roundup
- Report: FBI investigation of Prenda lawyer Paul Hansmeier now extends to his mass ADA filings [KSTP, KMSP, Stephen Montemayor/Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Tim Cushing/TechDirt earlier]
- Meanwhile: “Sanctioned Austin ADA attorney now targeting websites” [KXAN on Omar Rosales, earlier]
- “It is a crime to ‘allow’ a pet to make a noise ‘that frightens wildlife’ on National Park Service land. Yeah.” [@KatMurti on David Rosenthal, Daily Signal]
- Looking to the states as a counterweight to dangers from Washington? Hope your federalism insurance is paid up [Rick Hills]
- A defense of the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s punitive, fine-happy turn in recent years. Beleaguered manufacturers are unlikely to agree [Brian Joseph, Fair Warning; the CPSIA fiasco and magnets episode]
- Michael Greve versus Adrian Vermeule on administrative law, originalism and the Constitution [Law and Liberty]
Food and Drug Administration roundup
- “The agency’s fear of Type II errors inhibits drug development and harms patients.” [John Cohrssen and Henry Miller, Regulation]
- Where’s the agency headed under Trump? [Alex Tabarrok; more on slow FDA hiring] Further on drug prices [Ira Stoll]
- Which is more dangerous: the battery pack in a vaping set-up, or getting between Sen. Schumer and a camera? [Nick Gillespie; Steven Greenhut and David Bahr on the case against the FDA’s “deeming” rules]
- Speaking of things the new administration should try to undo, don’t forget the bad stuff the agency is up to on pipes and cigars [Rick Newcombe, Reason]
- Cal. Gov. Brown signs “right to try” legislation [L.A. Times] Advocates propose federal version [Liz Szabo, MedCityNews] Related earlier;
- FDA peculiarly confident that radical reductions in salt intake in food supply will result in health benefits [Ronald Bailey, Reason]
Fighting the last war, on courts and executive power
Some on the left are still blasting judges as activist for standing up to Obama administration assertions of executive power in the regulatory sphere. That might prove shortsighted considering what’s on the agenda for the next four years, or so I argue in a piece in Sunday’s Providence Journal.
I take particular exception to a Bloomberg View column in which Noah Feldman, professor at Harvard Law, assails federal district judge Amos Mazzant III for enjoining the Department of Labor’s overtime rule for mid-level employees (earlier). In a gratuitous personal jab, Feldman raises the question of “whether Mazzant sees an opportunity for judicial advancement with this anti-regulatory judgment” in light of the election results, though he offers not a particle of evidence that the judge, an Obama appointee, is angling for higher appointment under the new administration.
The problems with the overtime rule were both substantive and procedural. As I mention in the piece, “more than 145 charitable nonprofits signed a letter begging the department to allow more than a 60-day public comment period. It refused.” That letter is here (via, see Aug. 5, 2015 entry). I also mention that a court recently struck down the Department of Labor’s very bad “persuader rule” that would have regulated management-side lawyers and consultants; more on that from Daniel Fisher, the ABA Journal, and earlier.
After pointing out that many of the rulings restraining the Obama administration have been written or joined by Democratic-appointed judges, I go on to say:
Judges rule all the time against the partisan side that appointed them.
And we’ll be glad of that when the Trump executive orders and regulations begin to hit, and Republican-appointed federal judges are asked to restrain a Republican White House, as they have often done in the past.
We should be celebrating an energetic judiciary that shows a watchful spirit against the encroachments of presidential power.
L.A. bans criminal record inquiries in hiring, even for non-L.A. employers
“Not to be outdone by San Francisco or New York City, the City of Los Angeles has enacted the strictest ‘ban the box’ ordinance in the country, and its many requirements are detailed and onerous….Notably, the employer need not be located within the city” to be covered, provided it has “10 or more employees who perform an average of at least two hours of work each week in the City of Los Angeles.” Employers cannot ask about criminal convictions before offering jobs, and can do so afterward only by using a multi-step process — providing a rationale in writing, holding a job open for at least five days while the applicant responds, then writing another document of justification — designed to facilitate successful litigation over the withdrawal of an offer. [Karen Dinino, Christine Samsel, and Sherli Shamtoub/Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck]
On Baltimore policing, a dance of the lame ducks
Will the departing Obama administration Department of Justice persuade the departing administration of Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to lock the city into an expensive, rigid police consent decree? [George Liebmann, Baltimore Sun]
An army of cosmetologist-informants, cont’d
New Illinois legislation signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner will force hairdressers, as a prerequisite of licensing, to take training in detecting evidence of domestic violence [Ann Althouse, New York Times] Earlier here (Ohio requires training in recognizing signs of human trafficking) and here (programs in at least eight states as of 2006, generally not however conscripting the beauty professionals’ participation).
More from Mark Steyn:
…in the Fifties one in 20 members of the workforce needed government permission to do his job. Now it’s one in three. The original justification for requiring a government permit to cut another person’s hair is that a salon contains potentially dangerous chemicals such as coloring products. Making the license conditional upon acing sexual-assault training courses is not just the usual Big Government expansion but the transformation of the relationship between a private business and the state.