The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing has agreed to stop investigating citizens on the theory that their political speech in and of itself constitutes a potential violation of housing discrimination laws. I’ve got more on the case at Cato at Liberty. Related earlier here and here.
Running car in enclosed garage not obvious risk
So thinks a Michigan appeals court, reinstating (over a dissent) a suit against a maker of a muffler repair kit which allegedly should have warned of the danger of carbon monoxide emitted by the car under repair. [Pero, White v. Victor majority and dissent (PDF)] (& welcome Daniel Fisher, Forbes readers)
Wakefield, of autism/vaccine scare, struck off UK medical rolls
There’s even a comic book about the controversy [Darryl Cunningham via BoingBoing; earlier]
“Fight with student may wreck tow firm”
The lawsuit against Justin Kurtz over his Facebook page “Kalamazoo Residents Against T&J Towing” hasn’t been working out so well for T&J. [Detroit Free Press, earlier]
“Are we going to be overcopped and overlawyered?”
Oh, it’s just a discussion of next season’s TV schedule [Stuart Elliott, New York Times, quoting Horizon Media president Bill Koenigsberg]
Welcome Scott Hennen listeners
I was a guest on the North Dakota radio host’s program this morning, discussing federal policy toward childhood obesity. The other guest was Sonia Sekhar of the Center for American Progress (podcast; some background.
That smouldering pile of rubble over there?
Must be the remains of two lawyers who crossed a Mississippi judge. Background: a casino owner’s resistance to discovery in a bus-crash suit [Freeland, court order]
May 24 roundup
- Pennsylvania attorney general subpoenas Twitter in search of critics’ identities, then backs down [Volokh and more, Levy/CL&P, Romenesko, Wired “Threat Level”]
- Letting kids have unsupervised time in NYC park not actually against the law [Free-Range Kids on “Take Your Kids to the Park, and Leave Them There Day”] Related from Lenore Skenazy: Spiked Online and Salon, “The War on Children’s Playgrounds”
- Uh-oh: New York chief judge Jonathan Lippman endorses massive new Civil Gideon legal-aid entitlement [ABA Journal, and the NYT cheers]
- “Novartis Hit With $250 Million in Punitives in Gender Bias Case” [NYLJ, WSJ Law Blog (blaming bad defense trial strategy) and more, ABA Journal, Hyman]
- Med-mal law has done very well for two attorney brothers in Georgia [Atlanta Journal-Constitution via Pero]
- Kagan’s Oxford thesis revealed: judges shouldn’t make it up as they go along in quest of social justice. Sensation ensues! [WSJ Law Blog, related on political-branch deference] And were the SG’s judicial-restraint principles activated by Graham v. Florida? [Stuart Taylor, Jr., National Journal]
- Federal Elections Commission as net regulator: “How the DISCLOSE Act will restrict free speech” [Brad Smith/Jeff Patch, Reason]
- “Law Professor Confesses ‘I’m a Criminal’” [Tim Lynch, Cato]
- Argentina: “Parts of Anti-Plagiarism Bill Lifted from Wikipedia” [Lowering the Bar, TechDirt]
Rand Paul, the ADA, and the gotcha narrative
I’ve got some thoughts up at Cato at Liberty about the latest controversy to embroil the GOP Kentucky Senate candidate, including comments on an AP story in which I’m quoted.
You found your lawyer _how_?
There are answers even more humiliating than, “from a billboard”. [Turkewitz]