- Submit to individual mandate, or pay a tax to get out: hey, there’s a precedent for that [Akhil Amar via Magliocca]
- Stare decisis be damned? Missouri high court overturns own precedent to strike down damage caps [Post-Dispatch, PoL, MissouriNet, American Medical News (AMA)]
- Authorities say Florida hospital employee may have wrongfully accessed more than 700,000 patient records; crash victims got lawyer-chiropractor solicitations from someone familiar with nonpublic details of their cases [Jeff Weiner, Orlando Sentinel]
- Time to rethink Certificate of Need supply restrictions [Barton Hinkle, Richmond Times-Dispatch]
- By its legislative author: “What New Hampshire’s ‘early offer’ law really does” [J. Brandon Giuda, Union Leader, earlier]
- Dueling studies on impact of Texas medical liability reform [David Hyman, Charles Silver et al, “Does Tort Reform Affect Physician Supply?“, Stephen Magee, “Contrary Evidence” (PDF) and “Rapid Physician Supply Response“; ACEP; Austin American-Statesman on Hyman/Silver, D Magazine and Longview News-Journal on Magee, Gov. Rick Perry] “Liability insurers are noticing an uptick in large verdicts” [Alicia Gallegos, American Medical News (AMA)]
- “Medicare Costs Too Much, So Let’s Make Private Payers Make Up the Difference” [Peter Suderman, Reason; John Walters, Maryland Public Policy Institute]
Posts Tagged ‘Missouri’
Free speech roundup
- Already firebombed once: “Satirical French Magazine Publishes Caricatures Of Mohammed, White House Rebukes.” [Mediaite] More calls for punishing makers of anti-Muslim YouTube video for supposed incitement [Ann Althouse on Sarah Chayes, earlier here and here; also, the late Christopher Hitchens on “fire in a crowded theater” arguments] “The people who instigate these protests seek a very particular goal: an extension of Egyptian and Pakistani style blasphemy laws into the West.” [David Frum]
- “$60,000 Verdict for Blogging the Truth About A Person Intending to Get Him Fired – Reversed” [Volokh]
- Judge closes probe of opinion-maker influence in Google-Oracle battle [The Recorder, earlier]
- Weight-loss device promoter files, then drops suit against Public Citizen, consumerist website Fair Warning [Paul Alan Levy, Fair Warning]
- “How Ag Gag Laws Suppress Free Speech and the Marketplace of Ideas” [Baylen Linnekin, earlier here, etc.]
- Big government Republicans in charge: “GOP Platform Changed To Now Target All Forms Of Pornography” [Andrew Kirell, Mediaite; Volokh]
- Missouri activist starts website criticizing local cops and soon the department’s halls display what looks very much like a “Wanted” poster of him [Eapen Thampy, Agitator]
Gun owners as new protected class in employment discrimination law
Way to make the country less free, guys [Missouri Freedom Watch] More: Stephen Bainbridge, Charles Sullivan on Mitchell v. University of Kentucky.
Labor and employment roundup
- “Increasing Employment Discrimination Awards to Take Account of Adverse Tax Consequences” [TaxProf]
- NRA’s wrong on this: “Bill to bar employer bias against gun owners gets OK from Missouri House” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
- ALJ: “we are an at-will employer” handbook statement violates NLRA [Duane Morris Institute]
- “What the EEOC’s Strategic Plan Means for Employers” [Laura Harshbarger, NYLELR]
- Connecticut bill would require public schools to teach organized labor history [Raised S.B. No. 304; background from a supporter, PDF; h/t Fountain]
- SEIU hand seen in “Occupy”-allied sit-ins targeting GOP politicians [Richard Pollack, Daily Caller]
- Wage and Hour Litigation is Big—and Getting Bigger” [Shannon Green, Corporate Counsel]
November 23 roundup
- Big win for Ted Frank against cy pres slush funds [CCAF, Fisher, Zywicki, CL&P, @tedfrank (“Ninth Circuit rules in my favor … but I still think I’m right”.)]
- “Can the Vatican Be Subject to ICC Prosecution?” [Ku/OJ]
- “Tennessee: ATS Sues City Over Right Turn Ticket Money” [The Newspaper]
- “Law firms dominating campaign contributions to Obama” [WaPo]
- Does that mean it’s an entitlement? Punitive damage limits face constitutional challenges in Arkansas, Missouri [Cal Punitives]
- Businessman sues to silence critical blogger, case is dismissed, now files suit #2 [Scott Greenfield]
- Going Hollywood? “The Supreme Court should move to Los Angeles” [Conor Friedersdorf]
Feds seek $90,000 fine for illegal bunny-selling
They say John Dollarhite of Nixa, Missouri “sold rabbits and guinea pigs without a license from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.” Dollarhite says he can’t afford the fine and says the business was started by his son, then a child; it “made about $200 in profit from April 2008 to December 2009 from selling rabbits for $10 or $12 apiece.” [Springfield News-Leader]
Claim: Starbucks tip jars too tempting to thieves
Crestwood, Mo.: “The Starbucks coffee shop here should have known it was inviting trouble by placing a tip jar on an open counter, according to a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the estate of a customer who died defending it.” Customer Roger Kreutz saw a teenager grab the jar and gave chase on foot; he was killed when the miscreant backed his car over him. Kreutz’s estate has now filed a suit alleging “that Starbucks ‘did not employ security to prevent the perpetration of such crimes’ and that it ‘invited the act of perpetration of said crime’ by having a tip jar.” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
St. Louis: A much-sued museum talks back
The City Museum in St. Louis is not your usual assemblage of annotated exhibits: it’s a thrill-seeker’s delight, with a giant jungle gym and slides, described as a cross between “a playground and a theme park,” and a huge success that draws 700,000 visitors a year. It also has been sued numerous times by patrons who managed to get hurt on its determinedly non-soft surfaces, and unlike the great majority of defendants, it has chosen not to clam up when sued. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch relates, the quirky museum used its Facebook page to call out by name some plaintiffs who have sued after taking (in its view) inadequate care for their own safety and, somewhat more acerbically, the lawyers who prosecute the suits. Its news release has more:
Just to give you a quick glimpse into what we go through at the City Museum, a couple of years ago our rock fell 4 feet. The next day we had over 12 people call and tell us they were injured when the rock fell. To investigate these claims, we reviewed the video of the rock falling and we posted the video clearly showing that there was no one next to the rock when it fell on our website. When this was brought to several of the caller’s attention they either hung up or changed their stories.
From a Wall Street Journal account (attorneys “take the fun out of life”):
A sign near the admission gate gives the names and phone numbers of law firms that have represented people who sued the museum, blaming them for a 9% surcharge recently added to the cost of a ticket.
More: Shield of Achilles (“naming and shaming”), Free-Range Kids (with reader comments).
“Kansas man sues Royals claiming hot dog injury”
He says a flying wiener thrown into the stands by the team’s mascot, Sluggerrr, nearly put his eye out. [AP/Joplin Globe] On the demise of flying peanuts in Boston and flying tortillas in San Antonio, see this post and this, respectively. More: Lowering the Bar.
Employee holiday party lesson
Don’t phony up invoices in order to pay for an unauthorized off-site Christmas party for your staff. And if you do, and get fired, don’t file a lawsuit claiming it was all the fault of age discrimination. [Gorman v. Missouri Gas Energy, W.D. Mo., via Siouxsie Law]