Kerri Smith came up with a new design for a maternity support pillow and decided to sell it online. Then came the unpleasant surprise: 15 states require “law tags” on pillows and each charges its own fee, ranging from $5 to $720 a year. First year cost of complying with those state laws in order to start taking orders from anywhere in the country: $4,660. And that’s before more states join the 15 that currently exact fees. [Becket Adams, The Blaze/WTAM] As for a pillow intended for the actual baby, don’t even ask.
Gibson Guitar agrees to $300,000 fine
The fine is well below the cost of mounting a legal defense in a case that had become a symbol of trigger-happy regulatory prosecution. [Nick Gillespie/Reason, Ann Althouse, AP] Besides, Ted Frank argues, “Gibson was planning on setting up camp at the RNC to promote the problem of overcriminalization,” so the Obama administration gets something of value too in an election season.
More: “The Lacey Act: Protectionism Through Criminalization” [K. William Watson, Cato at Liberty]
Disabled rights roundup
- Lawprof’s classic argument: you thought I was capable of going on a workplace rampage with a gun, and though that isn’t true, it means you perceived me as mentally disabled so when you fired me you broke the ADA [Above the Law, ABA Journal, NLJ]
- “Fragrance-induced disabilities”: “The most frequent MCS [Multiple Chemical Sensitivity] accommodation involves implementing a fragrance-free workplace [or workzone] policy” [Katie Carder McCoy, Washington Workplace Law, earlier here, etc.]
- Netflix seeks permission to appeal order in captioning accommodation case [NLJ, Social Media Law via Disabilities Law, earlier here, here and here]
- EEOC presses harder on ADA coverage for obesity [PoL, earlier here, here, here, etc.]
- Disability groups seek class action: “ADA Suit Claims Wal-Mart Checkout Terminals Are Too High for Wheelchair Users” [ABA Journal, Recorder]
- Crunch postponed until after election: “Despite delays, chair lifts coming to public pools” [NPR Morning Edition, earlier here, here, here, etc.] Punished for advocacy: disabled groups organize boycotts of “hotels whose leaders, they say, have participated in efforts to delay regulations.” [USA Today]
- Disabled student sues St. Louis U. med school over failure to provide more time on tests [St. L. P-D]
Maryland’s maritime tax mistake
My new post at Cato: “It’s as if the lawmakers in Annapolis didn’t realize that boats are mobile. I wish someone could have explained that to them.” [“Chesapeake Prosperity Sunk By Boat Tax“]
P.S. Not unrelated, Bloomberg video profiling Cherubini firm discusses ill-fated 1990 federal luxury boat tax, repealed after two years, which badly hurt U.S. boat builders by driving buyers abroad (via Chris Fountain).
Inspector general: “IRS Did Not Follow Law in 22% of Seizures of Taxpayers’ Property”
If a private creditor failed to follow the law in 22 percent of its collections, I wonder whether its compliance lawyers would start to feel nervous. [Caron/TaxProf]
Consumer Action responds
Consumer Action, the San Francisco-based nonprofit advocacy and education group, takes issue with our August 1 post on its receipt of cy pres awards from class action settlements. You can read the letter from Linda Sherry, its DC office director, here, along with the original post, which we have edited in response to the objections.
Labor roundup
- I dreamed someone sabotaged the memory care unit by switching Rosa DeLauro’s name tag with Rosa Luxemburg’s [Fox; Raising Hale, Labor Union Report with more on alleged nursing home sabotage and the Connecticut pols that enable it]
- New York’s Scaffold Law will inflate cost of Tappan Zee Bridge rebuild by hundreds of millions, according to Bill Hammond [NYDN]
- “In Michigan, a ballot measure to enshrine union rights” [Reuters, WDIV]
- Massachusetts voters rejected unionizing child care providers, but legislature decided to do it anyway [Boston Herald]
- SEIU flexes muscle: “Surprise strike closes SF courtrooms” [SFGate, NBC Bay Area]
- If it goes to arbitration, forget about disciplining a Portland police officer [Oregonian via PoliceMisconduct.net] Boston police overtime scandal [Reason] Related, San Bernardino [San Diego Union-Tribune]
- Louisiana teacher union furor: “Now There’s A Legal Defense Fund For Schools The LAE Is Threatening To Sue” [Hayride, earlier]
- As unions terrorize a Philadelphia construction project, much of the city looks the other way [Inga Saffron, Philadelphia Inquirer, PhillyBully.com; via Barro]
Guestblogging season
August is traditionally the month around here for guestbloggers. If you think you might be the right person to fill in at Overlawyered for a week — a minimum commitment might be at least one post each weekday M-F, not necessarily a long one — email me at editor – at- overlawyered – dot – com.
“Rule out every possibility…a dangerous way to practice medicine”
“None of the death certificates in these cases list ‘Fear of Being Sued’ as the cause of death.” [“Birdstrike” at White Coat, EP Monthly] “Defensive medicine is rooted in the goal of avoiding mistakes. But each additional procedure or test, no matter how cautiously performed, injects a fresh possibility of error” as well as non-erroneous harm. [Sanjay Gupta, NYT] The Gupta column drew adverse comment from plaintiff’s bloggers (and occasional Overlawyered commenters) Eric Turkewitz and Max Kennerly.
August 6 roundup
- Tributes to Milton Friedman at 100 [Bryan Caplan, Andrew Coulson/Cato]
- Funny “Chicken Offsets” idea is now live courtesy Ted Frank, more economically sound than most boycotts [earlier on Chick-Fil-A furor here, here, etc.]
- Cass Sunstein, now departing from OIRA, a laissez-faire extremist? Maybe to the oft-quoted Prof. Steinzor [Steve Hayward; earlier here, etc.] “Did he quit, or was he nudged?” [David M. Wagner, cf. also Jonah Goldberg]
- “Truck owner wants DEA to pay up after botched sting” [Houston Chronicle via Radley Balko]
- Vaccine critic’s Texas action: “Andrew Wakefield’s libel suit against Brian Deer: Dismissed!” [Orac/Respectful Insolence, earlier]
- “Nanny state at the playground” [Andrew Sullivan, Cabinet magazine]
- Because criminalizing questions of origin has worked so well for exotic woods: Reps. Ed Markey, Barney Frank seek federal criminal penalties for misstatements on seafood origin [Boston Globe]