The Transport Workers Union has filed suit to block the legalization of private van services that could run along city bus routes Mayor Michael Bloomberg has targeted for cuts. [Richard Epstein, Forbes]
Posts Tagged ‘labor unions’
“Teachers Unions vs. Online Education”
Organized labor blocks a potentially valuable pathway of innovation. [Katherine Mangu-Ward, Reason]
Panel: “Union influence on public policy”
At Cato today at noon, with John Fund, Armand Thieblot, John Samples, and moderator Chris Edwards, and watchable online. Wish I could attend, but I’m not in Washington at the moment.
July 28 roundup
- “N.J. High Court to Review Drunken Drivers’ Right to Sue Bars That Served Them” [NJLJ]
- Recipe for Oakland-style public unionism: “Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act” pending on Capitol Hill would impose public-service collective bargaining and labor arbitration on local governments nationwide [Cavanaugh/Reason, more, effects on police misconduct accountability]
- iPhone class action of doubtful benefit to consumers [Hahn & Passell, Regulation 2.0]
- U.K.: “Fired Top In-House Lawyer Testifies She Was Bullied by Underling” [ABA Journal]
- Due this fall: Norma Zager book “Erin Brockovich and the Beverly Hills Greenscam” [Pelican Publishing] Weitz firm invokes Brockovich association to drum up Gulf spill business [Michael Daly, NYDN]
- Paperwork nightmare: “Health Care Reform’s Terrible, Tiny Tax” [Megan McArdle]
- Three views of Sherrod fiasco [Rick Esenberg, Radley Balko, John Derbyshire]
- This time the feds look serious about foisting low-flow showerheads on unwilling consumers [Heritage Foundry]
Oil cleanup and the Jones Act
Critics say the U.S. government has turned down offers of state-of-the-art Gulf cleanup help from the Netherlands and other countries because it would require a waiver of the Jones Act, a union-backed law from 1920 that restricts coastwise marine trade to U.S. ships and crews. [Houston Chronicle, Mark Perry, Mike Riggs/Daily Caller] More: Keith Hennessey, via PoL, on the Bush Administration experience with Jones Act waivers after Katrina and Rita. Yet more: according to the Obama administration, waivers wouldn’t make a difference. More: Bainbridge.
May 26 roundup
- Oh dear: Elena Kagan praised as “my judicial hero” Aharon Barak, ultra-activist Israeli jurist flayed by Posner as lawless [Stuart Taylor, Jr./Newsweek] Kagan and executive power [Root, Reason]
- More on efforts to get feds to redesign hot dogs and other choking-risk foods [NYT, earlier]
- Amid brouhaha over Rand Paul views, Chicago firefighter-test case provides reminder of how discrimination law actually plays out in courts today [Tabarrok, MargRev]
- So please, Ken, tell us what you really think of this Mr. Francis (“Girls Gone Wild”) and his nastygrams [Popehat]
- More on SEIU’s tactic of sending mob to banker’s home in suburban Maryland [Volokh and more, earlier]
- “Intensive Parenting Enforced: Parents Criminal Liability for Children Skipping School” [Gaia Bernstein, ConcurOp on a California bill]
- Julian Ku unimpressed with United Nations officials’ claims that Arizona immigration statute violates international civil rights law [Opinio Juris] Plus, a complaint to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights [Kopel, Volokh] Ilya Shapiro analyzes statute’s constitutionality [Cato]
- Bill moving through Congress would force states, localities to accept unionization, arbitration for public safety workforces [Fox, Jottings] And here comes the giant federal bailout of union pension funds [Megan McArdle]
May 22 roundup
- No answer at 911? “Florida Verdict May Threaten EMS Availability” [White Coat]
- New Orleans politico Steve Theriot drops suit seeking identities of online critics [Times-Picayune and more, NYT “Media Decoder”, Slabbed, earlier]
- On a vial of anesthetic: “One patient use only.” Nevada jury finds that warning inadequate to prevent multiple patient use and awards $500 million in punitives [Carter at Point of Law, Abnormal Use] More: Ted at PoL.
- Floodgates to litigation? “Parent Can Sue Ex for Turning Children Against Him” [NJLJ]
- Lawyer who isn’t honest is a threat to the social order: noted Allentown, Pa. attorney gets 6 1/2 years for fraud [Legal Intelligencer, earlier]
- “Another European Prosecution for Insulting Religion” [Volokh; pop star Dorota Rabczewska, Poland]
- A lawyer’s advice: try to get those Rand Paul types off your jury [Turkewitz]
- If SEIU craves respectability, maybe it shouldn’t send mobs to besiege bank execs at their homes [Nina Easton, Fortune, cross-posted from Cato at Liberty; related from PoL last year; more from Big Journalism including role of D.C. police, but note denials on last point]
April 12 roundup
- Town counsel of Southborough, Mass. considering legal action against online critic [Evan Lips/MetroWest Daily News, Jacob Sullum/Reason, Aspen Daily News]
- “Drowning in laughter”: pic of ill-advised safety sign [Turley]
- Canadian lawyer accused of fabricating evidence of jury tampering [Times Colonist h/t @ErikMagraken]
- One union (SEIU) wins $1.5 million verdict against another (NUHW) [Fox, Jottings]
- “Anti-Law School Blogs Seek to Keep Others from Making ‘Same Mistake We Did'” [Legal Blog Watch, WSJ Law Blog] Instruction at University of Texas law school has room for improvement [Blackbook Legal] Chief Justice Roberts: law review articles aren’t particularly helpful for practitioners or judges [WSJ Law Blog]
- “Illinois Hospital Loses Tax-Exempt Status for Not Being Charitable Enough” [NLJ]
- “Cyber-bullying” proposal in Suffolk County, N.Y. could criminalize repeated insults [Volokh]
“Where’s the State Action in Tort Awards Based on Speech?” [same] - George Will: administration “can imagine the world without the internal combustion engine but not without Chrysler” [WaPo/syndicated]
California prison guards union
Has its power peaked? If so, there might be less lobbying pressure “for ‘three strikes, your out’ and other senseless sentencing policies that provide jobs for [its] members.” [Rick Hills, Prawfsblawg, The Economist, earlier]
February 12 roundup
- Patent trolls are thriving, one study finds [271 Patent Blog, The Prior Art, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, PDF]
- One plaintiff’s lawyer’s view: Did Rep. John Murtha Die From Medical Malpractice? [Turkewitz]
- “Rubber stamps for two [class action] settlements” [Ted Frank, Center for Class Action Fairness, AOL and Yahoo cases]
- Little League and baseball bats: “America’s favorite pastime collides with favorite pastime of personal injury lawyers” [Bob Dorigo Jones]
- States push home day-care providers into unions [Stossel]
- U.K.: “Cardiologist will fight libel case ‘to defend free speech’” [Times Online] More on British libel tourism: Frances Gibb, Times Online (“It’s official – London is the libel capital of the world” ), Citizen Media Law, Gordon Crovitz/WSJ, N.Y. Times.
- From a half-year back, but missed then: FBI says Miami lawyer bought stolen hospital records for purposes of soliciting patients [HIPAA Blog, Ambrogi/Legal Blog Watch]
- Would-be Green Police can be found in Cambridge, Mass., not just Super Bowl ads [Peter Wilson, American Thinker via Graham]