- Oklahoma attorney general goes to court claiming private litigant manipulation of endangered/threatened species petition process [Lowell Rothschild & Kevin Ewing; NPR “State Impact”; Oklahoman, auto-plays ad video; press release, Oklahoma AG E. Scott Pruitt; ESA Watch site from oil riggers; more on the topic]
- New Yorker mag backs tale of frogs/atrazine researcher who claims conspiracy. Someone’s gonna wind up embarrassed [Jon Entine]
- Does gas company lease of subsurface rights entitle it to seek injunction excluding protesters from ground level? [Paul Alan Levy]
- California: “Abusive Coastal Agency Demands Even More Power” [Steven Greenhut]
- Mr. Harris, you embarrass: “recreational burning of wood is unethical and should be illegal” [Sam Harris from 2012]
- Harrisburg Patriot-News series on flood insurance [TortsProf, R Street Institute on recent bill]
- Kansas, Louisiana, and Indiana named top states on property rights freedoms [Mercatus]
Posts Tagged ‘Indiana’
Law schools roundup
- Long before the U.S. News rankings: “Enduring Hierarchies in American Legal Education” [Olufunmilayo Arewa, Andrew Morriss, William Henderson, Indiana Law Journal/SSRN]
- So law schools tilt way left. What if anything can be done about it? [George Dent (Case Western), SSRN]
- Judge tosses defamation suit filed by Thomas Cooley Law School against critics [Lansing State Journal, Caron/TaxProf]
- And playing the race card to do it: “Law Profs Oppose Elimination of Tenure as an Accreditation Requirement” [Caron]
- Law schools as pork barrel: gubernatorial candidate promises to launch a new one in defiance of economic logic [Elie Mystal at Above the Law; Bowie State U., Maryland]
- Heather Mac Donald: Academic Advisory Council installed by Judge Scheindlin in NYPD case inspires little confidence [NY Post]
- Judge Easterbrook: “The one-size-fits-all approach has been the bane of legal education” [Indiana Lawyer re: opening of new Indiana Tech law school]
- Herculean flow-chart condensation of Paul Campos book Don’t Go to Law School (Unless) [Connecticut attorney Samuel Browning, Law School Tuition Bubble]
September 23 roundup
- Drunk driver leaves road, hits power pole, Washington high court allows suit against property owner to proceed [Lowman v. Wilbur, PDF]
- State attorneys general pressure clothing maker to drop t-shirts with drug names [ABA Journal, related earlier]
- More transparency needed in Child Protective Services [Reason TV] One lawyer’s critique of CPS [Laurel Dietz, Straight (Vancouver)]
- While aspiring to nudge us into more farsighted financial practices, government has trouble staying out of dumb bond deals itself [Coyote, and more (Detroit)]
- You can care about safety but still think some speed limits are set too low [Canadian video on Jalopnik]
- Trial lawyers aim to extend to Indiana their Idaho victory over “Baseball Rule” on spectator liability [NWIT, earlier here, here, here, etc.]
- New “fair-housing” assessment and planning process propels federal government into social engineering [IBD editorial via AEI Ideas, HUD]
Undocumented = unmentionable?
“An Indiana lawyer has been suspended for 30 days for a comment about the immigration status of his divorce client’s spouse in a letter sent to opposing counsel and the judge in the case.” [ABA Journal]
Labor and employment roundup
- “Will banning tips prevent lawsuits? Some restaurants give it a try” [ABA Journal]
- “CEOs Beware: You’re Now in the Crosshairs of a Wage and Hour Complaint Under FLSA” [Connecticut Employment Law Blog/Daniel Schwartz, who’s just switched law firms]
- “Court: First Amendment protections don’t allow unions to engage in nuisance lawsuits” [Sean Higgins, D.C. Examiner]
- Judge rules strippers at club are employees, not independent contractors as management claimed [NY Times]
- Judge strikes down new Indiana right-to-work law, appeal to Indiana Supreme Court expected [WXIN] Court (again) upholds Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s Act 10 on public sector union bargaining [Wisconsin State Journal, Milwaukee Business Journal]
- 1973 SCOTUS case of U.S. v. Enmons carves out convenient exception in federal extortion law for labor unions [Mark Mix; David Kendrick, Cato 1998]
- “State Department Says Unionizing Its Foreign National Workers Would Threaten Security” [Government Executive]
Law school roundup
- Now we’re getting somewhere? “ABA Task Force Releases Draft of Recommendations to Reform Legal Education” [Orin Kerr] “ABA Panel Favors Dropping Law School Tenure Requirement” [Karen Sloan, NLJ]
- Now we’re getting somewhere, cont’d? “Obama: two years of law school should be enough” [Prof. Bainbridge, Stephen Gillers]
- Many law reviews continue to “struggle with forthrightness” on circulation, Virginia’s claims 1700 but actual number is 304 [Ross Davies’ annual Green Bag survey, just out; my related Atlantic take last year]
- “Washington U. Dean Syverud Tells ABA Task Force: Law Profs, Deans Are Paid Too Much; 50% Pay Cut Would Solve Problem” [TaxProf] “New Law School Gets Just A Third Of Its Expected Starting Class” [Elie Mystal, Above the Law; Indiana Tech]
- How misleading are stats Rutgers-Newark puts out for its grads’ “median private sector starting salary”? [Paul Campos] “Sixth Circuit: it was unreasonable for Cooley applicants to believe Cooley’s ‘objectively untrue’ statements” [John Steele] “Former Villanova Law Dean Suspended from Practice for Filing Knowingly False Admissions Data” [Legal Ethics Forum]
- Claim: under “principles of social justice lawyering …lawyers have a fiduciary duty to create equal justice under the law.” Would she disbar those who don’t? [Artika Tyner, SSRN, via Legal Ethics Forum]
- Has Georgetown figured out a way to offer free law school tuition, and if so how much of the “free” winds up being on the taxpayers’ dime? [Politico, Milan Markovic, Hans Bader]
- “Law School to Remove Fraudster’s Name From Atrium” [Indiana; Lowering the Bar]
Visiting Indianapolis on Thursday
I’ll be speaking in Indianapolis on Thursday to the lawyer’s chapter of the Federalist Society, at noon at the Conrad Indianapolis, 50 W. Washington. My topic: “Why Do American Law Schools Tilt Left?” Details here.
I’ve also scheduled some extra time for myself in town that day in case anyone would like to introduce themselves before or after, or even take me out for coffee.
This will be a busy fall season for me as I’m set to give speeches or participate on panels in Baltimore, the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, Canisius College, Nebraska, Creighton, and Vermont, among others. Often I’ll be speaking on my book Schools for Misrule, on legal academia, but I also give speeches on quite a few other themes including the nanny state and the American way of litigation. If you’d like me to visit your campus or group, drop me a line.
Product liability roundup
- “The Emperor’s Clothes: Should jury bias against corporations receive legal recognition?” [Michael Krauss on Alabama legal malpractice case]
- Which did more to compromise gas can usability, regulation or liability? [Coyote, Jeffrey Tucker a year ago at LFB, earlier here, etc.]
- Wow: Litigation Lobby stalwart Joan Claybrook signs her name to letter claiming there’s “no evidence” of “significant fraud” in asbestos litigation [WSJ letter] “Peter Angelos’s Asbestos Book” [WSJ] “House panel passes asbestos trusts transparency bill” [Law360, Chamber-backed Legal NewsLine]
- “Indiana’s ‘Government Compliance’ Presumption Against Defect and Negligence” [John Sullivan, D&DL]
- CPSC Commissioner Nancy Nord on the commission’s certificates of compliance;
- A way to head off the product-suit technique for bypassing workers’-comp limits? “Pennsylvania Supreme Court Allows Waivers for Future Negligence by Third Parties” [Krauss, Point of Law]
- California cities’ lead-paint-as-nuisance suit may be headed for trial [Max Taves, Recorder]
Labor and employment law roundup
- Maryland: “Montgomery County Police ‘Effects’ Bargaining Bludgeons Public Safety” [Trey Kovacs, CEI, earlier] Time to revisit “effects” bargaining for other employee groups too [Gazette]
- “A New Whistleblower Retaliation Statute Grows Up: Dodd-Frank is the new Sarbanes-Oxley” [Daniel Schwartz]
- Proposal for disclosure of “persuaders” would threaten many employers [Michael Lotito/The Hill, earlier]
- Judge greenlights union suit challenging new Indiana right to work law [RedState]
- “Discovery of Immigration-Status Denied in FLSA Case” [Workplace Prof]
- “Same Song, Umpteenth Verse – No Discrimination, Retaliation Worth $2 Million” [Fox/Employer’s Lawyer; Ithaca, N.Y.]
- NLRB on collision course with Indian tribal sovereignty [Fred Wszolek, Indian Country Today]
Labor and employment roundup
- Despite misconception that the NLRB goes after employers only over union-related issues, its reach includes “concerted activity” by workers whether unionized or not, and it intends to make that power felt [Jon Hyman]
- EEOC cracks down on Marylou’s, Massachusetts coffee shop chain said to hire “pretty” staff. Tougher scrutiny of “looksism” ahead? [James McDonald/Fisher & Phillips, HR Morning, Boston Herald, related editorial]
- As critics warned at the time, Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblowing provisions make a versatile weapon for employment plaintiffs [Daniel Schwartz]
- “Is Your Job Too Hard? File a Lawsuit!” [Philip Miles]
- Unions go to court seeking to overturn new Indiana right to work law [Asheesh Agerwal, Liberty Law] “Unions: Political By Nature” [Ivan Osorio, CEI “Open Market”] SEIU vigilant against menace of higher employer wage offers [James Sherk, NRO] Metropolitan Opera’s $516,577 electrician outearned Carnegie Hall’s $436,097 stagehand [Ira Stoll]
- Sen. Al Franken [D-Minn.] and Rep. Rosa DeLauro [D-Conn.] introduce bill to overturn SCOTUS’s Wal-Mart v. Dukes [The Hill, Paul Karlsgodt, PoL, Andrew Trask]
- Lefties: you ‘tarians slight the greater freedom of being able to force people to employ you [MR: Tyler Cowen, Alex Tabarrok]
- If you’re caught sleeping on the job, courts may not prove sympathetic to your age bias claim [Eric Meyer, Employer Handbook]