- The proper extent of quarantine and isolation as measures against epidemics was the subject of regular debate through the Nineteenth Century. This article gives a good account of how those debates played out in New York and Massachusetts [Susan Wade Peabody, Journal of Infectious Diseases, February 1909]
- “Without legal immunity, colleges … that reopen will no doubt face suits from those who get sick.” [Jennifer Braceras] More: Why Mitch Daniels, president of Purdue, is determined to get the university reopened this fall for in-person instruction [Washington Post]
- Litigation ahead over question of how big a refund colleges may owe students of unused dormitory space [Jessica Goodman, AZFamily.com, Michael Abramowicz and Caprice Roberts] Law firm files 18 class actions against colleges and universities demanding refund on grounds that online academic program not as good as the in-person instruction it replaced [Susan Adams, Forbes]
- “New Jersey Attorney General: Employers May Have to Restrict Employees’ Saying ‘Chinese Virus'” [Eugene Volokh] First Amendment protects the right to voice irresponsible and wrong opinions, and judge should toss pressure group’s attempt to silence Fox News commentary on virus [Malathi Nayak, Bloomberg]
- “Local governments in Nevada suspend public-sector union contracts in response to COVID-19” [Jerrick Adams, Center Square]
- When does the coronavirus pandemic excuse performance of a commercial contract? [Eugene Volokh first and second posts]
Posts Tagged ‘New Jersey’
States ordered nursing homes to take COVID-19 patients, cont’d
“States ordered nursing homes to take COVID-19 residents. Thousands died. How it happened.” We previously linked to earlier reporting on this remarkable set of decisions, with a focus on New York and New Jersey, but this report adds much detail as well as updating the ghastly toll. “Strikingly, Italian officials issued similar orders for nursing homes to admit coronavirus patients on March 8, a move under investigation by authorities for contributing to potentially preventable deaths, according to the Associated Press.” [David Robinson, Stacey Barchenger and Kelly Powers, USA Today Network, and Jo Ciavaglia, Bucks County Courier Times (Pennsylvania)]
More: Jim Geraghty rounds up many states’ problematic policies.
FDA authorizes an at-home COVID-19 test — but some states still ban it
A new home test for COVID-19 launches in 46 states but not in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, or Rhode Island, because lawmakers in those states have banned this sort of direct home diagnostic test. As a Maryland resident, may I scream? My new Cato post.
Pharmaceutical and medical device roundup
- “Feds Say It’ll Take Up To 90 Days to Approve New Mask-Making Facilities” [Christian Britschgi, Reason] “America Could Import Countless More Face Masks if Federal Regulators Would Get Out of the Way” [Eric Boehm] Reversing course, FDA agrees to permit wider use of a system developed by Battelle for sterilizing specialized masks worn by front-line health workers [Rachel Roubein, Politico] In the face of mounting criticism, federal Centers for Disease Control may reconsider guidance discouraging general public from wearing face masks [Joel Achenbach, Washington Post]
- What would we do without the FDA? “FDA Tells At-Home Diagnostics Companies To Stop Coronavirus Test Roll-Outs; The companies are complying. Customers won’t get their results and are being told to destroy their test kits.” [Ronald Bailey, Reason] Small favors: FDA “is easing up on some regulations so that ventilators can be manufactured and implemented more quickly” to respond to crisis [Scott Shackford]
- And the same continued: “The idea to expand testing of drugs and other medical therapies was strongly opposed by the FDA’s senior scientists this week, the official said, and represented the most notable conflict between the FDA and the White House in recent memory.” [Tyler Cowen] “FDA Shouldn’t Keep Safe Drugs off the Market” [David Henderson]
- Off-label or no, “the FDA granted an emergency authorization request to make chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine available from the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), the federally operated supply of medical equipment and pharmaceuticals for use in public health emergencies.” [Naomi Lopez and Christina Sandefur, In Defense of Liberty (Goldwater Institute); Ronald Bailey; Jim Beck; earlier on off-label prescribing here, etc.] Switch of beverage alcohol firms to making hand sanitizer was advanced by waivers from FDA and Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau [Jeffrey Miron and Erin Partin]
- Needless face-to-face consults avoided: “Health Canada Sets A Good Example By Relaxing Opioid Prescribing Rules During COVID-19 Pandemic” [Jeffrey Singer, Cato] Some moves in the right direction in the U.S. too [Singer]
- Even the New Jersey courts aren’t buying the ambitious theory of “fourth-party payor liability,” in which a plaintiff who never “claimed to have used the product, paid for the product, acquired the product, or had any interaction with the product (or its alleged manufacturers) in any way” nonetheless sues them for supposedly driving up health insurance costs [James Beck, Drug & Device Law]
- Heartburn drug: “Trial lawyers start search for next big mass tort, increase Zantac ads by more than 1,000%” [John O’Brien, Chamber-backed Legal Newsline]
Gig/freelancer economy roundup
In an emergency that has made trucking, logistics, and home delivery uniquely important, fractured the schedules of countless parents and caregivers, and sent the services sector reeling, it would be nice if California and other states were not making war on the work arrangements needed for the situation. That’s why California’s AB5 fiasco (earlier here, here) along with similar moves in New Jersey and elsewhere, come at the worst time.
- “Lisa Yakomin, president of the Association of Bi-State Motor Carriers… said the California bill is expected to cost tens of thousands of truckers their jobs.” [Dana Rubinstein, Katherine Landergan and Anna Gronewold, Politico; Deborah Lockridge, TruckingInfo; California independent trucker coalition] Operating in New Jersey trucking under an independent contractor model “is becoming incredibly risky,” as the state assumes power to shut down alleged violators by issuing stop work orders [David Kim and Salvador Simao, Ford Harrison]
- Jugglers unite: “My full-time job is being a mother, my second is cleaning houses. New Jersey please keep it that way.” [Antonette McKay, Star-Ledger]
- Musicians on the ropes as venues shut down. Wouldn’t it be nice if they could look forward to returning to an existent gig industry? [Fight for Freelancers NJ, Brian Ralston et al., Kim Kavin, Daily Kos (“The state could argue that by hiring you to play your French horn two nights a week, the theater violated prong A of the ABC test”), Michael Tanner (Lake Tahoe Music Festival), Ravi Rajan, Orange County Register]
- What hope for legal challenges to AB5? [Stephen Melnick, WLF]
- Audio/video: Reason video with John Osterhoudt on the California mistake; “State regulators and the gig economy” [Federalist Society teleforum with Alexander MacDonald]
- Getting services distributed to dispersed at-home locations is going to create a host of new communication challenges, but good luck with that: “The California legislature designed AB5 in a manner that completely disregards how professional translators and interpreters work.” [Philip Shawe, Crain’s New York]
P.S. Related Cato post now up. Truckers especially have many more problems than this right this moment responding to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, read about some of them here (and help if you can!) They have begun getting direly needed removals of regulations. But don’t let this one slip off the list.
“He told a kid to slide. Then he got sued.”
Junior varsity baseball player in New Jersey “suffered a brutal ankle injury on a slide, and his family sued the coach who told him to do it.” The seven-year legal battle that resulted “threatened to change youth sports forever.” [Steve Politi, NJ.com via Peter Bonilla]
Gig/freelancer economy roundup
More on the chaotic, destructive effects of California’s AB5 (earlier here, here, etc.):
- “Non-equity theaters, music venues and jazz clubs, dance companies, small cultural festivals of all types face very real threats” [Brendan Rawson, Cal Matters] Translators and interpreters hard hit by law [Dan Plante, KUSI]
- Women-owned businesses “reeling” [Elaine Pofeldt, Forbes] Disabled workers “hugely impacted” [Markos Moulitsas, Daily Kos]
- California Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (R-Granite Bay) has asked members of the public for their stories about how AB5 has affected them. You can see the results here;
- “Ready, Fire, Aim: How State Regulators Are Threatening the Gig Economy and Millions of Workers and Consumers” [U.S. Chamber Employment Policy Division]
- “The New York Times is hiring a contractor to write about California real estate, but because of AB5 they will not be hiring anyone in California.” [Emma Gallegos on Twitter]
- Not an isolated outrage: union allies nearly got such a bill passed in New Jersey in recent weeks [Alida Kass, Star-Ledger; Jen Singer, Philadelphia Inquirer] New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo has now signaled support for something similar [Evie Fordham, Fox Business] And backers want to take the idea national through a bill called the PRO Act, or HR2474/S1306, in the U.S. Congress [Kim Kavin, Daily Kos; Markos Moulitsas, Daily Kos]
January 15 roundup
- Should an assault that does not injure its target count as non-violent? New York’s version of bail reform encounters strong pushback amid rash of street attacks [Israel Salas-Rodriguez, Khristina Narizhnaya and Laura Italiano, New York Post; Lauren Krisai, Jason Pye, and Norman Reimer, Slate; Rafael Mangual (New Jersey’s reform compare favorably); Scott Greenfield]
- “I think if they pay a small [amount of] money to us on the island, it would be better”: Vanuatu indigenous group says bungee jumping has roots in traditional land-diving ceremony [Prianka Srinivasan, ABC (Australian)]
- Thread on AirBnB liability for crime [Kate Klonick on Twitter]
- Federalist Society podcast with Andrew Grossman commenting on outcome in New York v. ExxonMobil [earlier and generally]
- “The New York Times and the sheriff do not understand the ‘stand your ground’ defense. Or they are purposefully misinterpreting it.” [Jacob Sullum, Reason; earlier on SYG]
- Claim: businesses have incentive to stop marketing and selling to perennially discontented persons, and law should restrain them from doing that [Yonathan Arbel and Roy Shapira, Vanderbilt Law Review forthcoming]
August 29 roundup
- “We’re not asking for the Wild West. We’re asking for cookies.” New Jersey is the last state without a law legalizing at least some cottage food sales [Amelia Nierenberg, New York Times]
- Reversing district court, Fifth Circuit panel upholds Indian Child Welfare Act against constitutional objections; dissent by Judge Owen finds a commandeering problem [Brackeen v. Bernhardt, earlier]
- “The Larsens’ videos are a form of speech that is entitled to First Amendment protection.” Eighth Circuit panel rules [correctly, in my view] for videographers who wish to craft wedding videos only when the ceremonies accord with their religious beliefs [Telescope Media Group v. Lucero; Eugene Volokh]
- “Innocent man spent months in jail for bringing honey back to United States” [Lynn Bui, Washington Post/MSN]
- Preakness, Peter Pan Inn, relocating USDA jobs, Baltimore and Abell Foundation in my new Free State Notes roundup;
- Pushing back against the argument, much circulated lately, that eviction is a major factor in causing poverty [John Eric Humphries, Nicholas Mader, Daniel Tannenbaum, Winnie van Dijk, Cowles Foundation]
Schools roundup
- Progressive law school opinion has never made its peace with Milliken v. Bradley, which is another reason not to be surprised that the coming campaign cycle might relitigate the whole school busing issue [Em Steck and Andrew Kaczynski, CNN on 1975 Elizabeth Warren article]
- Irony? School “anti-bullying specialist” seems to have bullied students over officially disapproved expression [Robby Soave, Reason; Lacey Township, N.J. students suspended over off-campus Snapchat]
- How Abbott and other New Jersey school finance rulings wound up plunging the state deep in debt [Steven Malanga, City Journal; earlier here and at Cato on New Jersey and more generally on school finance litigation including here, here (Kansas, etc.) and at Cato (Colorado)]
- “Pennsylvania School District Warns Parents They Could Lose Kids Over Unpaid School Lunches” [AP/CBS Philadelphia]
- “Educational Freedom, Teacher Sickouts, and Bloated Higher Ed” [Cato Daily Podcast with Corey DeAngelis, Neal McCluskey, and Caleb Brown]
- No shock, Sherlock: New York law suspending statute of limitations for suing schools results in higher insurance premiums for public districts [New York Post]