Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Speeches in October

I’ll be speaking at these five law schools in October, sponsored by the Federalist Society and at lunchtime unless otherwise specified:

Oct. 2, Lewis and Clark, Portland, Ore., debating Prof. Henry Drummonds, on federal quotas on disabled hiring (more).

Oct. 3, University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore., on tort law and the “invisible fist” theory (U of O calendar).

Oct. 9, University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C., on Schools for Misrule, debating Prof. Jacqueline Fox (Facebook event page, FedSoc).

Oct. 29, Boston University, Boston, Mass., topic to be announced.

Oct. 30, New England School of Law, on tobacco litigation, debating Ilana Knopf.

To inquire about having me speak to your group, email editor – at – overlawyered – dot – com.

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Environment roundup

  • Behind a YouTube anti-fracking video labeled “Hydraulic Fracturing turns gardenhose to flamethrower,” there’s quite a story [Star-Telegram]
  • BPA-endocrine alarms: “Why Nick Kristof’s Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Us All” [Trevor Butterworth, Forbes]
  • Incy wincy spider shuts down $15 million construction project [Fox]
  • Regulatory Balkanization of gasoline market worsens price volatility [Morriss/Boudreaux via David Henderson; more, WSJ] Will CAFE sink GM? [Holman Jenkins via same]
  • “After a fire at a massive oil plant in California, residents want compensation. But it’s not that easy” [Above the Law]
  • “Dispatches from the Duke Conference on ‘Conservative Visions of Our Environmental Future'” [Jonathan Adler]
  • Broadway, dark? “The high cost of closing Indian Point” [Lesser & Bryce, NYP]

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The school lunch program flop

One of the Obama administration’s signature federal initiatives has been the First Lady’s campaign for a redesigned federal school lunch program, with more centralized prescription from Washington aimed at healthier and more natural fare. Now the results are beginning to come in, and they aren’t pretty, as Baylen Linnekin documents: skimpy calorie counts that leave energy-burning athletes desperately hungry, food wastage as unpalatable fruit gets tossed into garbage bins, contraband chocolate syrup aimed at making skim milk palatable, and in Wisconsin mass student boycotts of food that’s “worse tasting, smaller sized and higher priced.” More: Patrick Richardson/PJ Media, Althouse. Earlier here (new rules discourage scratch-cooking), here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, etc. More: “This year, we’ll be hungry by 2:00…. We would eat our pencils.” [Caroline May, Daily Caller]

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Elizabeth Warren law license flap

John Steele at Legal Ethics Forum and Mark Thompson at League of Ordinary Gentlemen don’t see much substantiation to back up the allegation lodged by some critics that the Harvard professor and Senate candidate, who doesn’t have a Massachusetts law license, overstepped the rules on unauthorized practice of law in her consulting work.

Update: Thompson is now taking the allegations more seriously based on new information unearthed by William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection about Warren’s representation of a Massachusetts client on issues arising from Massachusetts law. But John Steele at Legal Ethics Forum does not find the representation as described (in a federal bankruptcy court) to raise UPL flags. For one state’s view on whether admission to practice before a federal bankruptcy court is a valid defense to charges of UPL concerning state-law issues ancillary to that practice, see also In the Matter of the Reinstatement of Mooreland-Rucker, Oklahoma Supreme Court, 2010 (thanks to a reader for the tip). More: Bader.

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September 26 roundup

  • I suppose it will be said to “politicize” the Florida Supreme Court races to point out that Justices Quince and Pariente joined awful, politicized rulings on everything from liability suits to Bush v. Gore [Florida Current]
  • Courtesy of the taxpayers: “TV sitcoms to incorporate Obamacare pitches?” [Jazz Shaw, HotAir]
  • “Bringing out-of-state cases to Philadelphia simply for … filing fees is a wrong-headed policy.” [WSJ Law Blog]
  • GM and Chrysler bailout: Steve Chapman corrects Jumpin’ Jenny Granholm and other myth-spinners [Chicago Tribune/ABJ, earlier]
  • “Transit agencies may get reprieve from patent troll” [Greater Greater Washington, earlier here, etc.]
  • Another view of the beef producers vs. ABC (“pink slime”) case [Steven Brill, Reuters, earlier]
  • “A Fine for Doing Good: The Justice Department sues a bank for prudent lending” [WSJ editorial]

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Labor and employment roundup

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Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) challenge at the Supreme Court


Following numerous lower court decisions striking down the federal marriage definition provisions of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, the U.S. Supreme Court is very likely to take up the question this year. In Monday’s Cato podcast, I discuss the long road that brought DOMA to the Court and explain a few of the complications, including a potential second case arising from the Ninth Circuit’s invalidation of California’s Proposition 8. The separate DOMA provision establishing that states aren’t obliged to recognize same-sex marriages from other states isn’t under challenge.

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Medical liability and health care quality

New research by Michael Frakes of Cornell: “I estimate a small and statistically insignificant relationship between malpractice forces and two metrics of healthcare quality emphasized by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: avoidable hospitalization rates (reflective of outpatient quality) and inpatient mortality rates for selected medical conditions.” [SSRN]

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