- “Judge in Asbestos Litigation Says Navy Ships Aren’t Products” [Legal Intelligencer]
- NYT goes in search of the trial lawyers’ case on the Blitz gas can bankruptcy [earlier here, here]
- Gun control lobby hails as “groundbreaking” NY appellate court allowing suit against gun manufacturer [WSJ Law Blog, NYLJ]
- “Mechanical Bull Tosses Rider, Prevails in Court” [Abnormal Use]
- Well-known expert witness pops up in consumer popcorn injury case [Drug and Device Law] 2004 Missouri workplace exposure case: “‘Popcorn Lung’ Couple Gets $20M Award, Files for Bankruptcy” [ABC News]
- “Bumbo Baby Seat Recalled Because It Is Only 99.999475% Safe” [Skenazy, Agitator]
- “Summary Judgment For Crocs in Massachusetts Escalator Injury Case” [Abnormal Use]
Posts Tagged ‘CPSC’
“Buckyballs vs. the CPSC”
The maker of the popular rare earth magnetic adult toy is defiant, and Reason.tv has a video [earlier here, here, and here]. “We’re the first company in 11 years that has said no to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.”
Senator decries detergent pods as hazard
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) says the little wrapped pods of laundry detergent that have become popular recently are too easily mistaken for candies or other treats, and that when he saw one on a staffer’s desk he wanted to eat it himself. “The only way to make them more attractive to Chuck Schumer would be to shape them like little TV cameras.” [Jim Treacher, Daily Caller]
August 20 roundup
- Former county prosecutor convicted of theft is still prosecutor in another county [Nebraska Watchdog]
- Epstein vs. Posner on patents [via Josh Wright, TotM] “Congress Takes Aim at ‘Patent Trolls’ With SHIELD Act” [Lisa Shuchman, Corporate Counsel]
- “Guest Post: The Bucky Balls Ban” [Free-Range Kids, earlier]
- Preacher Bill Keller threatens defamation suit against SPLC unless it removes his ministry from “hate group” list [Ed Kilgore, Washington Monthly, earlier on SPLC vs. critics]
- Both sides of the law: “Shon Hopwood robbed five banks. Now he’s a budding attorney with a pair of U.S. Supreme Court cases under his belt.” [Lincoln, Neb. Journal Star]
- “New Mexico Supreme Court Will Hear the Elane Photography Case” [Volokh, earlier here, here]
- James Huffman on tort law: “How modern law promotes victimhood over liberty.” [Hoover “Defining Ideas”]
CPSC’s Buckyballs ban
Buckyballs are highly popular supermagnetic desktop toys for adults and labeled against use by kids. Nonetheless, some kids obtain the tiny balls and swallow them, with harmful or even lethal results. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has responded with an unusually aggressive show of legal muscle to force the product off the market: while suing the manufacturer, it strong-armed retailers into suspending Buckyball sales, thus cutting off the manufacturer’s revenue while a court decides whether the commission had an adequate basis in law and fact for its action. [Nick Farr, Abnormal Use; manufacturer statement; Time; ABA Journal; Michelle Malkin; Point of Law]
More: “CPSC wants to put a child-proof cap on your life.” [@radleybalko]
Environmental roundup
- Nebraska Sen. Johanns proposes bill to curb EPA surveillance overflights (which, contrary to some erroneous reports going around, are manned flights) [Daily Caller, earlier]
- “Time to Discard the Precautionary Principle at the CPSC” [Nancy Nord]
- Victimology beats science with 9/11 dust fund [Point of Law, ACSH] Two NYC plaintiff’s firms fight over $50 million in 9/11-responder fees [Reuters]
- “Court dismisses climate change ‘public trust’ suit” [Katie Owens, WLF]
- Erin Brockovich promotes Fridley, Minnesota cancer cluster, local man “eager to hear” her spiel [StarTrib, earlier]
- Jonathan Adler guestblogs on environmental policy at The Atlantic [Volokh]
- Businesses’ donations on environmental advocacy? Never trust content from “Union of Concerned Scientists” [Ron Bailey]
- Talking back to “Gasland,” the anti-fracking advocacy flick [Ron Bailey and more, Mark Perry, Business Week on local economic impact]
May 18 roundup
- Very silly Common Cause suit against Senate filibuster [Adler, Doug Mataconis, Jack Shafer (Filibuster unconstitutional? “Yes, but only when the GOP has the majority.”)]
- More on football concussion lawsuits [Will Oremus, Slate; Gerard Magliocca, Concurring Opinions; earlier] More: Dan Fisher/Forbes.
- Phrase I’ve heard before: Niall Ferguson says U.S. beset by the “rule of lawyers” [Business Insider]
- “I have filed over a hundred lawsuits and another one will be no sweat for me. On the other hand, it will cost you a lot of time and money[.]” One blogger’s prolonged legal ordeal [“Aaron Worthing,” Allergic2Bull and summary version] Plus: Ken/Popehat;
- Louisiana land-taint suits: “maybe I’m just going to contend the oil companies did it, not the salt domes” [Lachlan Markay, Heritage, earlier]
- Kansas differs from SCOTUS on legality of resale price maintenance. Will it make policy for the other 49 states? [Ted Frank] New Federalist Society project on state courts and how they’re picked;
- A lot of lobbying went into that government-prescribed “flame-resistant” furniture [Chicago Tribune]
Jacket toggles that could get caught on doorways
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) stands guard against them. [Lenore Skenazy, Free-Range Kids]
February 14 roundup
- “Brazil Sues Twitter in Bid to Ban Speed Trap and Roadblock Warnings” [ABA Journal]
- Obama nominates Michigan trial lawyer Marietta Robinson to vacancy on Consumer Product Safety Commission, ensuring aggressively pro-regulatory majority [Bluey, Heritage]
- “AMA reports show high cost of malpractice suits” [HCFN] “Average expense to defend against a medical liability claim in 2010 was $47,158” [American Medical News, more] Survey of 1,200 orthopedic surgeons finds defensive medicine rife, at cost of billions, accounting for 7 percent of all hospital admissions [MedPageToday]
- “Sue us only in Delaware” bylaws would kill off forum-shopping and what fun is that? [Bainbridge, Reuters]
- Trial by media: Lefty “SourceWatch” posts, then deletes, docs from Madison County pesticide suit [Madison County Record]
- Think you’ve beaten FCPA rap? Meet the obscure “Travel Act” [Mike Emmick, Reuters] Federal court expands “honest services fraud” in lobbying case [Paul Enzinna, Point of Law]
- “On the horrors of getting approval for an ice-cream parlour in San Francisco” [NYT via Doctorow/BoingBoing]
November 21 roundup
- Spanish government fines filmmaker for movie poster showing “reckless driving” [Lowering the Bar] Siri, distracted driving, and police discretion [Balko]
- Parents taking care of their kids under Michigan program must pay $30/mo. to SEIU for representation [Joel Gehrke, Examiner]
- Stretching the Fifth: Joe Francis bad deposition behavior [Legal Ethics Forum]
- WaPo covers deep split on Consumer Product Safety Commission, left wants fifth seat filled ASAP;
- “Threat to Student Due Process Rights Dropped from Draft of Violence Against Women Act” [FIRE, background; Cathy Young/Reason]
- After $300K donation from Philadelphia trial lawyers, you may call him “Judge Wecht” [AP/WPVI]
- Court reverses $43M Madison County verdict against Ford [AP/Alton Telegraph, some background]