- More commentary on Obama regulatory initiative [Federal News Radio with quotes from Cass Sunstein, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Steven Malanga, David Harsanyi, Carter Wood/ShopFloor, Iain Murray, Lammi/WLF, earlier]
- Corporate governance buffs will want to check out new Proxy Monitor website from Manhattan Institute which includes a database of shareholder resolution activity at the 100 largest public companies [Jim Copland/Point of Law (some early empirical findings), Bainbridge (“This is going to be a great resource for anyone interested in shareholder activism”), ShopFloor]
- Lawyer solicits subway blizzard strandees. OK under NY rules? [Turkewitz]
- California reform ideas: “A Modest Proposal For Fixing Proposition 65” [Cal Biz Lit] “A Better Consumer Legal Remedies Act” [same]
- Proposed criminal prohibition on doctors’ questioning patients about guns “would violate the First Amendment, as well as just being a lousy idea” [Volokh]
- Oldest federal bench ever — and the problems that can cause [Joseph Goldstein, Slate]
- Attention “payday lending” critics: “Lawsuit Loans Add New Risk for the Injured” [NY Times, Kenneth Anderson, California Civil Justice; defenses of champerty/litigation finance from Larry Ribstein and Stephen Gillers]
- Wisconsin student sues unsuccessfully over summer homework requirement for pre-calculus class [six years ago on Overlawyered]
Posts Tagged ‘Barack Obama’
An Obama course correction on regulation?
I’ve got a post up at Cato at Liberty expressing some doubts about the President’s new talk of smarter regulation. Stuart Shapiro points out that the “only truly new thing in” the regulatory reform package, the greater publicity that will be given to enforcement records, “could be somewhat revolutionary in its ability to force regulatory compliance.” From a perspective diametrically opposed to mine, Rena Steinzor confirms that the only example Obama gave of actual excessive regulation reversed on his watch — the former classification of saccharin as hazardous waste — is of at most trivial significance (& welcome Matthew Continetti/Weekly Standard, Frum Forum, Aaron @ Patterico, Point of Law, AllahPundit, ShopFloor readers).
Carbon dioxide as pollutant
And a choice quote (New York Times via Taranto) on how the legal system disposes of it all:
“If the administration gets it wrong, we’re looking at years of litigation, legislation and public and business outcry,” said a senior administration official who asked not to be identified so as not to provide an easy target for the incoming Republicans. “If we get it right, we’re facing the same thing.”
We have “to fight environmental oppression, environmental genocide, environmental slavery”
Advocates of “environmental justice” rally at the White House, and are given the ear of no fewer than five cabinet officers as well as other high Obama Administration officials. [Carter Wood/ShopFloor, more]
New federal power to ban school bake sales?
“A child nutrition bill on its way to President Barack Obama — and championed by the first lady — gives the government power to limit school bake sales and other fundraisers that health advocates say sometimes replace wholesome meals in the lunchroom.” [Associated Press]
Ready, set, cringe
“US admits human rights shortcomings in UN report” [AP] Not to get too far ahead of the game, but the enthusiasm of legal academia for the international human rights movement is one of the major themes of my forthcoming Schools for Misrule, and the fruits of that movement — including the United Nations’ new “periodic review” procedure, by which it scrutinizes ours and other nations’ human rights records — figure prominently in the narrative.
More: Michael Cannon at Cato notes that the Obama administration cited, as evidence of the nation’s human rights progress, its enactment of “legislation that threatens U.S. residents with prison if they fail to purchase health insurance.”
August 19 roundup
- Judge bans $1.35 billion sugar beet crop for lack of environmental impact statement [NY Times]
- Brennan Center, Justice at Stake attracting attention with new report on money in state court judicial races [report in PDF, Kang/ConcurOp]
- Obama signs “libel tourism” bill into law [Levy, CL&P]
- “Zach Scruggs claims new evidence clears him” [Patsy Brumfield, NE Mississippi Daily Journal via YallPolitics]
- Second Circuit panel blasts 1980s abuse-accusation panic in ruling on Friedman case [opinion via NYT and Bernstein/Volokh]
- Famed Cincinnati lawyer Stanley Chesley may face disciplinary action before Kentucky bar over role in fen-phen scandal [Courier-Journal via Dan Fisher and PoL]
- Sexual harassment verdict against California casino “amounts to 2/3 of the company’s net worth” [Fox, Jottings]
- Every White House needs to hire some partisan brawlers. But with “ethics czar” duties? [Matt Welch, Reason]
August 12 roundup
- “Father demands $7.5 million because school officials read daughter’s text message” [KDAF via CALA Houston]
- How many different defendants can injured spectator sue in Shea Stadium broken-bat case? [Melprophet]
- Prominent trial lawyer Russell Budd of Baron & Budd hosts Obama at Texas fundraiser [PoL]
- DNA be damned: when actual nonpaternity doesn’t suffice to get out from under a child support order [Alkon, more]
- “Sean Coffey, a plaintiffs’ lawyer-turned-candidate for New York Attorney General, made more than $150,000 in state-level campaign contributions nationwide over 10 years.” [WSJ Law Blog] “Days before announcing a shareholder lawsuit against Bank of America, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli accepted $14,000 in campaign donations from a law firm hired to help litigate the case.” [WSJ]
- Big new RAND Corp. study on asbestos bankruptcy trusts may spur reform [Lloyd Dixon, Geoffrey McGovern & Amy Coombe, PDF, via Hartley, more, Daniel Fisher/Forbes, background here and here] Update: Stier.
- Public contingency suits? Of course the elected officials are in control (wink, wink) [The Recorder via Cal Civil Justice]
- Copyright enforcement mill appears to have copied its competitor’s website [TechDirt via Eric Goldman]
Legal academia roundup
I suppose I’ll need to make this a regular feature as Schools for Misrule gets closer to publication:
- “The Wit, Wisdom, & Worthlessness of Law Reviews” [Gerald Uelmen, California Lawyer via Law School Innovation] Maybe courts aren’t ignoring them after all? [Yung, ConcurOp]
- History as advocacy: why one scholar would never sign onto a “Historians’ Brief,” even if he agreed with its contents [Gerard Magliocca, ConcurOp]
- Will new ABA accreditation standards require law schools to affirm a particular ideological line on diversity preferences? [Bernstein, Volokh]
- New Brian Tamanaha book on formalism/realism reviewed [Stanley Fish, NYT “Opinionator”]
- University of North Texas plans: “How To Sell a Law School to Texans” [Mystal, AtL]
- Survey of (some) law professors’ salaries: Michigan seems a little high, no? [Collegiate Times via Josh Blackman]
- Fights break out over Louisiana, Maryland law school clinics: profs call tune, state taxpayers pay piper. Something wrong with that picture? [Bill Araiza, Prawfs, NLJ, NYT, Legal Profession Blog, Adler/Volokh, Steele/Legal Ethics Forum]
- Not very up to date, but still worth a look: long (and left-leaning) list of law profs who’ve joined the Obama administration [Hunter via Barnett, Volokh]
DISCLOSE Act: “Nobody Is Saying You Can’t Run the Ads”
Except when they are [Sullum, Reason] Why the DISCLOSE Act failed [Samples, Cato, earlier here, here]