Fined for clearing tornado debris without license

A volunteer clearing debris after the recent tornado in north Minneapolis has been hit with a $275 fine for tree trimming without a license [Star-Tribune via Coyote]

More: In other legal news of tree-trimming, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has settled a battle with San Francisco neighbors over charges that the growth of their trees was spoiling his view [WSJ, more] And the city of Charlotte, N.C., has fined a local church $4,000, or $100 a branch, for excessively trimming crape myrtle trees on its own property under a city tree ordinance [Brittany Penland, Charlotte Observer via Amy Alkon]

Filed under: environment, Minnesota, North Carolina, volunteers, workplace

June 1 roundup

More views on California prisoner release: Steve Chapman (California can incarcerate less and be safer), John Eastman/City Journal (state’s pols share blame for conditions), Sarah Hart, FedSoc SCOTUScast (sharing dissenters’ foreboding). Earlier here and here;
Stephen Carter, “Economic Stagnation Explained, at 30,000 Feet” [Bloomberg/RCP]
Long-running legal campaign aimed at blocking new coal-fired power plants [Conn Carroll, Examiner]
Unconsciously? “We hope it sends a message that if you … unconsciously ignore the law, you could go to jail.” [WSJ Law Blog on prosecution of executive following pool drain entrapment death]
Following outcry: “Disney withdraws application to trademark ‘SEAL Team 6′” [AP, earlier]
More fact-checking of Scott Horton Guantanamo Harper’s article mysteriously awarded prize by ASME [Alex Koppelman/AdWeek, Joe Carter/First Things, Jack Shafer/Slate (citing “slipperiness and many flights of illogic”), FishBowlNY, Politico, Noah Davis/Business Insider, Cutline, earlier] Horton is a lecturer at Columbia Law and his piece drew on work done at Seton Hall Law. More: defense of Horton at leftist TruthOut site;
Germans hesitate to join nanny-state parade [four years ago on Overlawyered]

Filed under: business climates, California, environment, law schools, prisoners, prosecution, trademarks

“2006 Louisiana environmental law leads to jackpot justice”

Ted at Point of Law has details on an environmental-remediation law that has helped perpetuate a culture of big-ticket litigation: “One verdict awarded $54 million for environmental damage to a piece of land that was never worth more than $108,000.” We covered the long-running Exxon v. Grefer case, in which a jury ordered the oil company to pay $1 billion (later knocked down to $112 million) over an instance of contamination on land owned by a Louisiana judge’s family.

Filed under: environment, Louisiana, oil industry

California Environmental Quality Act at 40

With “one-way” fee entitlements — plaintiffs collect if successful, but do not pay if they lose — it is no wonder that the California Environmental Quality Act [CEQA] attracts tactical and opportunistic litigants, including some whose interest seems to lie more in legal fees than in environmental reform. “Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to see CEQA used by competitors to block new businesses from coming into their market or by unions trying to force businesses to accept labor agreements. Neither represents what CEQA was intended to do, and there should be protections so the law cannot be [hijacked] for such purposes.” [Cynthia Kurtz, Whittier Daily News via Todd Roberson, CJAC]

Filed under: attorneys' fees, California, environment

A case of overcriminalization

Race car great Bobby Unser discusses his legal ordeal — after his snowmobile got lost in a blizzard, he was charged with having entered protected federal wilderness land — in this Heritage Foundation video [more]

Filed under: crime and punishment, environment, prosecution

April 19 roundup

Environmental milestone? “Bolivia is set to pass the world’s first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans.” [JoNova via Coyote]
Add another to the list of judges who file suits over critical discussion of their rulings, in this case by the losing party, a newspaper [ABA Journal]
“Obama on presidential signing statements then … and now” [Bainbridge, Outside the Beltway]
“The never-ending stream of futile petitions suggests that habeas corpus is a wasteful nuisance.” [Joseph Hoffmann and Nancy King, NYT, via Lat, Frank] A different view: Scott Greenfield, The Briefcase.
Global warming suits “a misuse of the judiciary branch” [Laurence Tribe, Boston Globe via WLF]
Competing for the HuffPo reader? On link between chemical exposures and cancer, Salon.com perpetrates “utter nonsense” [Orac, Respectful Insolence]
Iqbal/Twombly: “Reports of pleading’s demise may have been exaggerated” [Wasserman, Prawfs]

Filed under: Barack Obama, environment, judges, libel slander and defamation, pleading

Visible taxes and invisible regulations

I’ve got a new post up at Cato at Liberty noting (after Iain Murray) that the lack of an annual “Regulation Day,” along the lines of tax-filing day, makes the cost of regulation even less apparent to the citizenry. I cite examples from the realms of medical devices, credit cards, and power plants (& Ivan Osorio, American Spectator).

Filed under: environment, regulation and its reform, WO writings

Toilets that “frankly…don’t work”

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is voicing citizen discontent about federal low-flow plumbing mandates, a mandate intended to force conservation of a resource that in many parts of the country is not even particularly scarce [Atlantic Wire, Nick Gillespie]

Related: Where is the market failure with incandescent light bulbs? [Thomas Firey, Cato at Liberty]

Filed under: environment

March 14 roundup

A San Francisco cosmetic surgeon sues her online critics — in Virginia? [Paul Alan Levy, CL&P]
SCOTUS ruling in “cat’s-paw” case could gut summary judgment in many bias suits [Hyman]
Cuomo spokesman’s smart retort to Litigation Lobby attack on Medicaid reform panel [LoHud.com]
“Tennessee Cops Posed as a Defense Attorney To Get Suspect To Incriminate Himself” [Reason]
“Illinois golfer not liable for head shot” [Lowering the Bar]
Trade friction mounts due to anti-India provisions in Zadroga (9/11 recovery workers) compensation bill [PoL]
Is a tax-funded federal nonprofit entity funneling money to environmental suits against the government? [Ron Arnold, Examiner]
FCRA class action deemed “lawsuit abuse problem in a nutshell” [Examiner editorial]
“Fatherhood by Conscription: Nonconsensual Insemination & the Duty of Child Support” [Michael Higdon, SSRN via Instapundit]

Filed under: Andrew Cuomo, Center for Justice & Democracy, debtor-creditor law, discrimination law, environment, family law, golf, India, libel slander and defamation, police, September 11

Update: Lodi emerges from water-suit “legal hell”

“The city of Lodi ended a long legal battle over groundwater contamination earlier this month,” accepting $6.3 million from insurers for local businesses. [Lodi News-Sentinel] We covered the convoluted litigation, in which the California city sued numerous local businesses, in reports here and here.

Filed under: California, environment, taxpayers