Plaintiffs sued a New Mexico pharmacist for selling them opioids, resulting in their addiction. One big problem, however: “the plaintiffs had conspired with a nurse practitioner to write up fraudulent prescriptions.” And New Mexico adheres to a rule followed by various states in various forms known as the in pari delicto rule. It “is based on a public policy to preclude anyone who injures him or herself in the course of criminal activity from recovering in tort for those injuries. Put another way, perhaps more appetizing for those of you who delight in legal jargon, criminal conduct is an intervening act that cuts off liability.” [Stephen McConnell, Drug & Device Law]
Posts Tagged ‘illegal drugs’
Banking and finance roundup
- New Treasury report lambastes CFPB, calls for reforming its powers [Thaya Brook Knight, Alex Spanko/Reverse Mortgage Daily, text of report]
- Very likely headed for Supreme Court: “En banc D.C. Circuit splits over constitutionality of SEC administrative law judges” [Jonathan Adler, Thaya Brook Knight] “One Loss before ALJ Doesn’t Unmake SEC’s Home-Court Advantage” [Stephen Bainbridge, WLF] Earlier here;
- “The case for pruning the shareholder proposal regime” [Stephen Bainbridge]
- Amid feds’ push to cut banking access for cannabis business, PNC Bank closes long-term accounts of advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project [Washington Post]
- “House member launches fintech lending investigation” [Ballard Spahr]
- Overregulation of small banks and credit unions: “Financial Reform Both Parties Can Agree On” [Mark Rambler, Bloomberg]
June 21 roundup
- “Law Professors: Three Centuries of Shaping American Law”: The Economist favorably reviews new Stephen Presser book;
- Profile of Texas Supreme Court notes that its members regularly face opposition at election time from alliance of plaintiffs’ bar with some social conservatives [Mark Pulliam]
- 10 lawyers, 6 others charged in alleged workers’ comp fraud scheme targeting Latinos in California [Associated Press]
- Employee’s ADA case against Novartis backfires, court orders her to pay nearly $2 million; her attorney quit case after discrepancies in her background were discovered [Kathleen O’Brien, NJ.com]
- To protect the children, feds ban a product one of whose functions is to keep drugs out of hands of children [Christian Britschgi, Reason]
- Budget choices and trade-offs faced by advocacy groups don’t give them constitutionally required standing to sue [Daniel E. Jones and Archis Parasharami, WLF]
Contingency-fee state and city suits against opioid makers
They capitalize on widespread public anger and frustration at the addiction epidemic, but face formidable legal hurdles — among them the fact that the marketing practices and language the suits assail as unlawful were often specifically approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration. Much impetus for the suits comes from private law firms that pitch the actions to governments as free, while setting themselves up for gigantic contingency fees after the eventual settlement. [Nate Raymond, Reuters]
Tenth Circuit: neighbors’ RICO suit against pot growers can proceed
I wrote two years ago about how
a pro-Drug-War group [Safe Streets Alliance] is using civil RICO to go after banks, bonding companies, landlords, and other commercial vendors that do business with marijuana facilities legalized under Colorado’s Amendment 64. Whatever you think of the underlying Colorado law, RICO (I argue) puts too much power in the hands of bounty-hunting private lawyers.
Now the Tenth Circuit has ruled that Safe Streets Alliance, representing a couple named Reilly, can proceed with a racketeering suit against the Reilly’s marijuana-growing neighbors. The direct damages claimed, including noxious odors, are of the sort that might form the basis of a conventional nuisance action, but the RICO framing could make possible steeper penalties, such as triple damages and attorneys’ fees, while the continued unlawfulness of the growing under federal law (even if left unenforced) knocks out possible defenses for the growers [Eugene Volokh; my 2015 piece]
Crime and punishment roundup
- Citation nation: abuse of fees and fines erodes legitimacy and accountability in local government [C. Jarrett Dieterle, City Journal]
- If concept of obstruction of justice is not to do injustice itself, it must be confined to a limited number of well-defined offenses [Tim Lynch, Cato]
- “Drug recognition experts” deployed at traffic stops have a reliability problem, and that can put innocent people behind bars [11Alive Atlanta, Ed Krayewski] Zero-tolerance THC: Unimpaired driver gets six months for fatal crash she did not cause [Jacob Sullum]
- New York Senate approves bill to make police protected group for purposes of hate crime law; similar proposals have become law in Louisiana, Kentucky, and Mississippi [Tim Cushing/TechDirt, earlier here and here]
- Now renamed “trafficking”: “Why Governments Always Exaggerate the Prostitution Threat” [Camilo Gómez, FEE, related Libertarianism.org podcast with Elizabeth Nolan Brown]
- Some problems with requiring “racial impact statements” for new bills on criminal justice [Roger Clegg and Hans von Spakovsky, NRO, James Scanlan, Federalist Society blog]
Constitutional law roundup
- Congress’s enumerated powers don’t extend to making this local bar fight a federal hate crime [Ilya Shapiro on Cato brief in United States v. Metcalf, Eighth Circuit]
- On this point, at least, history’s verdict went with President Andrew Johnson: Congress can’t entrench Cabinet officers if the President no longer wants them to serve [Mental Floss]
- “Video: Ilya Shapiro on judicial abdication and the growth of government” [Acton Institute]
- “Our decision is about the First Amendment, not the Second.” Eleventh Circuit en banc strikes down Florida law restricting doctors’ speech with patients about guns [Eugene Volokh; quote is from Pryor concurrence in Wollschlaeger v. Governor]
- In the mail: paperback reissue of Michael Stokes Paulsen and Luke Paulsen, The Constitution: An Introduction [Basic]
- “Federal Appeals Court Nixes Blanket Drug Screening of State College Students” [Jacob Sullum]
Crime and punishment roundup
- December Cato conference on criminal justice (Ken White, Harvey Silverglate, Hon. Shira Scheindlin, Kevin Ring, too many others to list) now online (earlier);
- Justice Scalia and criminal law: Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention panel with Rachel Barkow, Stephanos Bibas, Orin Kerr, Paul Larkin, Jr., and Hon. Stephen Markman (Michigan SC), moderated by Hon. David Stras (Minnesota SC).
- Nominee Neil Gorsuch and the criminal law [Andrew Fleischman/Fault Lines, William Patrick/Florida Watchdog, Kevin Ring, Eugene Volokh]
- Are you sure you want to prosecute drug overdoses as murders? [Scott Greenfield]
- “Three anonymous allegations of criminal activity within the past year” can result in eviction threat under NYC’s no-fault nuisance eviction law [Allie Howell, Economics 21]
- Think lawmaking was more rational in the old days? How panic in Congress brought us the 1986 drug law [Radley Balko]
- If your mission is truth-finding or criminal justice, “Start By Believing” is wrong approach [Eugene Volokh on campaign by Arizona Governor’s Commission to Prevent Violence Against Women] Two ethicists propose demoting standard of proof in U.K. rape prosecutions from beyond a reasonable doubt to preponderance of the evidence [Aeon via Community of the Wrongly Accused, which takes a different view]
“DEA mines Americans’ travel records to seize millions”
“Federal drug agents regularly mine Americans’ travel information to profile people who might be ferrying money for narcotics traffickers — though they almost never use what they learn to make arrests or build criminal cases. Instead, that targeting has helped the Drug Enforcement Administration seize a small fortune in cash.” [Brad Heath, USA Today/KUSA]
Crime and punishment roundup
- Quebec waiter arrested after seafood puts allergic customer in coma [CBC]
- Two Black Lives Matter groupings have issued agendas, one zany leftism, the other directed at nuts-and-bolts criminal justice system reform. Media: “Door 1, please.” [Ed Krayewski]
- Conservative lawprof Mike Rappaport on DEA’s “absurd,” “ridiculous” refusal to take marijuana off Schedule I [Law and Liberty] Recommended: Scott Greenfield and David Meyer-Lindenberg interview Julie Stewart of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, Cato Institute alum [Fault Lines]
- “Criminal defense bar sides with business lobby in False Claims Act case” [Alison Frankel, Reuters on State Farm case before Supreme Court]
- 6th Circuit: amendments to Michigan sex offender registry law impose retroactive, hence unconstitutional, punishment [Jonathan Adler, Scott Greenfield]
- “Criminalizing Entrepreneurs: The regulatory state is also a prison state” [F.H. Buckley, American Conservative]