Most popular posts July-September 2013

Our most heavily trafficked post in July 2013 was “Keep prosecuting until they get the result they want?” The most commented-on posts were that one, “Kickback allegations — and fountains of unearned cash — at the BP gulf spill fund” and “Imagine what a genuine malfunction might have cost.”

August’s most clicked-on post was “Shock! “Double Stuf Oreos Don’t Actually Have Double The Creme” (Update: co. denies)” The most commented-on posts were “Solomon wept: Baby Veronica decision followup“, the Oreos post, and “Can restaurants take your keys if you are intoxicated?

The most visited post in September was “Boston Globe tackles attractiveness discrimination.” The most commented-on posts were “Just don’t call them quotas: disabled-hiring benchmarks for federal contractors“, the Boston Globe post above, and “The California disease.”

Great moments in NIMBY-ism

A group in Iceland has sued to block construction of highway arguing (among other things) that it would disturb the ancient elves or “hidden folk” of the Icelandic countryside. “The group also claims the area the new highway would run through is of particular importance because it contains an elf church. A 2007 survey by the University of Iceland found that while only 8 percent of the population believe in elves, 54 percent would not actually deny their existence.” [PBS]

Most popular posts April-June 2013

Our most heavily trafficked post in April 2013 was “Overlawyered: Now a Cato Institute blog.” The most commented-on posts were “Teen throws concrete onto highway, truck driver gravely injured“, “‘Lance Armstrong Lied, Cheated, Doped…’,” and “Great moments in law school outreach.” (Kathy Boudin at NYU)

May’s most clicked-on post was “Daily Caller fires a blank at Lois Lerner.” The most commented-on posts were “Government is simply the name for the things we do together…” (IRS targeting scandal), the Daily Caller post above, and “Liability for the Boston Marathon bombing?

The most visited post in June was “Storming the homes of political enemies, cont’d.” The most commented-on posts were that one, “Goodbye to most unpaid internships?” and “It’s alive.” (John Edwards)

Most popular posts January-March 2013

Those nice people who file ADA suits

Many of them aren’t so nice, especially in California which incentivizes access complaints with $4,000 minimum per-violation damages as well as entitlement to attorney’s fees. “According to [defense attorney James] Link, more than 3,000 ADA lawsuits were filed in L.A. County in the last three years — more than 1,700 of them by attorneys Morse Mehrban of L.A. and Mark Potter of San Diego’s Center for Disability Access.” One of Potter’s prolific clients, Jon Alexander, formerly of Utah, might displace George Louie as the poster guy for controversial ADA litigants. [L.A. Weekly via Doherty]

Schools roundup

  • Following outcry, Ohio lawmaker drops proposal to license homeschool parents [Jason Bedrick/Cato, sequel]
  • In Colorado U. crackdown on professor’s deviance course, university retracts claim that professor needed to clear controversial teaching with institutional review board [Inside Higher Ed, Zachary Schrag and sequel, background on IRBs]
  • The purely fictional, entirely bloodless “assassin” game — which I remember was played in my own high school years ago without anyone worrying — now seems to be controversial in suburban D.C. because School Violence and Think of the Children. [Washington Post; Bedrick, Cato on pretend “arrow” zero-tolerance case]
  • After son’s death, Ontario mom urges schools to let asthmatic kids carry inhalers [CBC, Bedrick]
  • Cathy Young on how the forces of unanimity police discussions of “rape culture” [Minding the Campus]
  • Kansas regents forbid faculty/staff to post social media content contrary to best interest of university [WaPo]
  • Don’t forget to stop home some time: more public schools serving dinner as well as breakfast and lunch [Future of Capitalism]

Knocked on the head with legal fees

“When the NFL concussion settlement was announced nearly four months ago, the more than 4,500 players who had sued the league were assured that no part of the $765 million deal would go to lawyers.

“But a recent dispute involving the players’ lead negotiator confirms that not only was that statement misleading, some lawyers stand to receive multiple paydays, according to documents and emails obtained by ‘Outside the Lines.'” [ESPN.com, auto-plays video] (& welcome Above the Law readers)

A price tag for Arpaio’s journalist raid

Longtime Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio talks quite a game as a populist defender of the ordinary citizen. His actual record, however, has been one of grave abuse of power. One of the worst incidents has now come home to roost: The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has unanimously approved a $3.75 million settlement over an incident in which Arpaio’s deputies arrested two critical journalists at their homes in the middle of the night. [Phoenix New Times]

“President Obama’s Top Ten Constitutional Violations of 2013”

Half of them arise from the White House’s ongoing effort to rewrite the terms of ObamaCare on the fly without actually going back to ask Congress to change the law. [Ilya Shapiro, Forbes]

Incidentally, the Executive Branch’s claim of power to suspend various provisions of the ObamaCare law at its whim stands on quite a different and weaker footing, constitutionally, from the well-established tradition of prosecutorial discretion (or the even more well-established power to pardon individual violators). In requiring the president to take care that the laws are faithfully executed, the Constitution’s Take Care clause necessarily implies that not all aspects of law enforcement can be suspended at executive whim, and discretion is necessarily narrower when it comes to the enforcement of statutes creating general civil schemes of private rights and regulation than it is in the realm of criminal enforcement, which necessarily labors under a scarcity of investigative and correctional resources. English kings like James II long asserted a “dispensing power” to suspend the operation of otherwise applicable laws at the royal will, but civil libertarians fought for centuries (and with much success) to cabin and curtail that power. Zachary Price of Hastings recounts some of this history, as well as contemporary readings of the Take Care clause, in a new article that is getting a lot of attention.

While on the topic: ObamaCare’s corporatism is sacrificing both the rule of law and transparency, argues Mickey Kaus [first, second] The program’s atomistic individualism [David Boaz] And Megan McArdle on the Administration’s “willingness to take large risks with the program’s stability” by altering rules.