- “The IRS Abuse Scandal Keeps Growing” [M.D. Kittle, Reason] Where were the lawyers? [John Steele/Legal Ethics Forum, more, yet more] “IRS Abuses Past and Present” [Chris Edwards, Cato] Allegation: IRS questions to Hawaii Tea Party suggest coordination among probes of conservative nonprofits [Patrick Howley, Daily Caller] Who does more to “delegitimize government”: libertarian critics, or government itself? [Ben Boychuk, Sacramento Bee]
- If you’re looking to gain quick approval of your IRS application, try these #safec4names from Twitter: Club For Civility and Bringing Criticism of Our President Under Reasonable Control [@david_m_wagner], Reject Those Voices [Michael Cannon], Not the Tea Party You Are Looking For [@FricosisGuy], Hollywood Helps! [Dale King]. My own contributions: Grateful Taxpayers for Public Investment and Working Americans Against Wingnut Scandal-Mongering.
- “Expert” Reports in George Zimmerman Case Disclosed [Jeralyn Merritt, TalkLeft; Radley Balko]
- Texas judge: kick partner out of your home or lose your kids [Dallas Voice]
- Socialist Venezuela government blames “excessive demand,” not price controls, for toilet paper shortage [Guardian]
- Even MADD, NHTSA haven’t backed NTSB’s idea of dropping BAC limit to .05 [Bloomberg via @radleybalko]
- “The dumb war on political intelligence” [Jack Shafer]
“EU to ban olive oil jugs from restaurants”
Traditional refillable open-spouted vessels and dipping bowls will need to give way to “pre-packaged, factory bottles with a tamper-proof dispensing nozzle and labeling in line with EU industrial standards.” [Bruno Waterfield, Daily Telegraph] In perhaps not unrelated news, a new poll finds Euroskepticism strong in the U.K. [Telegraph]:
When voters are asked the exact question Conservatives want to put to the public in the 2017 referendum, “Do you think that the UK should remain a member of the EU?”, 46 per cent opt to come out, a higher figure than in other recent polls, while just 30 per cent want to stay in.
Update: May 23 (proposal dropped).
Maryland roundup
- After Gov. Martin O’Malley signs one of nation’s most restrictive gun laws, Beretta says it intends to move out of state [Guns.com]
- Unfortunately, high cigarette taxes promote this sort of thing: “Ocean City cigarette smuggling ring had ties to terror groups, police say” [Baltimore Sun, Tax Foundation]
- Responding to critics (such as), legislature caps the vessel excise tax in hopes of reviving ailing boating industry [Annapolis Gazette]
- New law backed by O’Malley will require educators to pay dues to teachers’ union whether members or not [Trey Kovacs, Open Market and Workplace Choice; Harford County Dagger]
- State has among nation’s highest per capita medical malpractice outlays, behind only five Northeastern states (NY, PA, NJ, MA, CT) and D.C. [Diederich analysis of annual payouts via TortsProf]
- Chronicle of Rogues: Maryland gets a D minus, ranking a dismal 40th among the 50 states, on corruption-rating State Integrity Report Card [Center for Public Integrity via Tom Coale]
- It’ll be held in D.C. this year rather than Annapolis, but that’s no reason you shouldn’t join us for the acclaimed Cato University [Jul. 28-Aug. 2]
- Politicos scramble to defend “correctional officers’ bill of rights” after FBI affidavit blasts measure for helping entrench corruption at Baltimore jail [AP, earlier]
“Massive lawsuit against bloggers is reined in”
A lawyer who’d been widely and scathingly criticized over his handling of a case — unfairly he thought — proceeded to sue bloggers and journalists for defamation, so many that the total of defendants reached 74. It’s over now, but a New York state judge declined to award sanctions, which may possibly say something about the difficulty of obtaining sanctions under today’s prevailing legal standards, especially in New York. [Tom Crane, San Antonio Employment Law Blog; Popehat (“Our legal system is so broken that it can take years to resolve even the most patently vexatious, harassing, and incompetently prosecuted lawsuits like this one.”)]
P.S. “Loser pays would have been valuable here. Costs to each defendant would teach a memorable lesson.” [@erikmagraken]
Update: charges dropped against Kiera Wilmot
Authorities have dropped charges against the Florida teen “who was expelled and charged with two felonies after conducting an unauthorized but harmless science experiment on the grounds of her school.” [Jesse Walker, earlier] And in the feel-good story of the day, former NASA astronaut Homer Hickam “awarded Kiera a scholarship to attend the United States Advanced Space Academy (ASA), a branch of the famous Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama.” [Black Youth Project]
Rather die than be a girl?
Cathy Young checks out a much-told anecdote of misogyny, and finds that there isn’t much there. [Minding the Campus]
IRS scandal, cont’d: “It was pretty much a proctology exam through your earlobe”
- As Ezra Klein says IRS furor has nowhere to go, more and more keeps tumbling out [Althouse, Examiner, flashback, Chronicle of Philanthropy, MSNBC video, WaPo, WSJ (“Higher-Ups Knew of IRS Case”), Kim Strassel/WSJ]
- Background: partisans on both sides have taken shifting positions of convenience on whether nonprofit political advocacy is abuse of the tax laws or free speech worthy of protection [Dave Weigel] Now if only the IRS would stop behaving like one of the partisans [Scott Walter, NY Post] Ideas for reform [Conor Friedersdorf]
- “A note on 501 (c)4 corporations” [Coyote] Paul Caron/TaxProf latest daily link roundup;
- Apologia for Service’s misconduct does no credit to New Republic or Noam Scheiber [Nick Gillespie]
- Echoing my post of yesterday, Jonathan Adler at Volokh Conspiracy seeks to distinguish between political affiliations of IRS personnel that have some arguable relevance to the scandal, and those that really seem like stretching;
- If you missed it: Cato video, “The I.R.S. Abusing Americans is Nothing New.”
“Portland sued for workplace fragrance use”
Two years ago the city of Portland, Ore. became the first to adopt a voluntary policy against fragrance use in city offices. (A similar Detroit measure had been taken in response to a lawsuit.) Now Julee Reynolds, a city worker who says she suffers from multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), has sued Portland for allegedly not doing enough to enforce the policy. [KOIN; earlier here, here, etc.]
15,989 views yesterday on Overlawyered
One of our best traffic days ever, fueled by an Andrew Sullivan link to our post correcting an overzealous effort to connect the dots in the IRS scandal.
Regulating across national lines
New SEC chairman Mary Jo White shows better sense about it than some newspaper editorialists that could be named [Louise Bennetts, Cato]