Jenna Greene at American Lawyer reports on the “ambitious agenda” the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has taken up lately under Chairwoman Jacqueline Berrien, and quotes me as saying the new group in charge of the commission “make the Carter [administration] EEOC look like a Chamber of Commerce operation.” Related: “EEOC reports record charge filings for 2010” [Hyman]
Booze-laced whipped cream
Alcohol and obesity risk, together: Jacob Sullum may have identified the next target of ire for the disapprovers of fun. [Reason “Hit and Run”] Related: “The Case Against Health” [Richard Klein, Chronicle of Higher Education]
Cato podcast on food safety bill
I’m interviewed by Caleb Brown in this audio feature. It’s about seven minutes long and was taped on Monday, before the Senate’s vote in favor of S. 510.
“I never thought we’d be trademarking a high school logo”
IP worries filter down to the junior football scrimmage. [New York Times]
Tort liability for property losses
The Washington Supreme Court opens a product liability can of worms by abandoning a traditional doctrine that prescribes that when there was a contract between the parties, remedies for purely economic loss blamed on product defectiveness must be based on principles of contract law, not tort law. [Russell Jackson]
CPSIA: the new consumer-complaint database
A 3-2 vote at the Consumer Product Safety Commission last week ensures that the federal government will put its imprimatur behind allegations about supposed hazards in consumer products — whether true or not. I explain in a new post at Cato at Liberty.
P.S. Kelly Young comments: “I wonder if they’d be willing to maintain a public database of complaints against federal employees?” More: Coyote (comparing relative sophistication of Amazon, TripAdvisor consumer ratings systems with primitive nature of CPSC’s); letter from Rep. Joe Barton, PDF; Washington Post; ACSH.
Brian Aitken case, cont’d
A seven-year New Jersey gun-possession sentence gets coverage in the Philadelphia Daily News [via TigerHawk; earlier here and here]
Plus: David Rittgers, Cato at Liberty (urging pardon by Gov. Chris Christie).
Employers and the newly expanded ADA
In the ADA Amendments Act, signed by then-President George W. Bush in 2008 and taking effect the next year, Congress drastically expanded the scope of disabled-rights law, to cover, for example, persons “regarded as” disabled, as well as other formerly uncovered categories. According to one attorney advisor, employers from here out should basically assume everyone in their workforce is going to qualify as “disabled” if push comes to shove: “Challenging the employee’s ‘disability’ status is a waste of time with the new expanded definition of ‘disability’.” [Robin Shea, Employment and Labor Insider]
“Securities Class Actions Mostly Punish Shareholders, Study Finds”
“A new study in the Financial Analysts Journal casts serious doubt on the premise [of litigation social efficiency], at least when it comes to shareholder class actions. In most cases, the authors found, the litigation mainly serves to punish shareholders who have already suffered from a downturn in their stock. Only suits targeting illegal insider trading, and to a lesser extent, accounting fraud were associated with subsequent higher long-term returns.” [Dan Fisher, Forbes; Rob Bauer and Robin Braun, “Misdeeds Matter: Long-Term Stock Performance after the Filing of Class-Action Lawsuits”] More: Coyote.
November 30 roundup
- Sooooo glad to be an American: that’s how Patrick at Popehat feels following latest Canadian-libel-law outrage directed at conservative blogger Ezra Levant (& see comments for alternate view);
- Obama has pardoned more turkeys than people. Why? [Dan Froomkin, HuffPo]
- “Reforming medical malpractice liability through contract” [Michael F. Cannon, Cato Institute working paper, PDF]
- Memoir of jury foreman in criminal case [Tux Life]
- Not too sharp: Massachusetts school district disavows policy of not letting students bring pencils to school [Slashdot]
- State governors have big plans for liability reform. Maybe even loser-pays? [Carter at PoL, more; Florida, Indiana, Tennessee, Texas]
- Parent who sent buzzworthy demand letter to Kansas City school board is a jazz musician [Wayward Blog, earlier]
- From comic books to violent videogames: “Our puritanical progressives” [George Will]