Archive for November, 2011

Booster clubs and bake sales

The anti-obesity campaign isn’t the only policy initiative that’s leading to regulatory scrutiny of high school bake sales. There’s Title IX and its state equivalents, too:

Controversy in New Mexico continues over booster club funding and Title IX implementation as discussion heats up over the state’s Schools Athletics Equity Act. The issue remains whether private donations raised by parents through bake sales and working concession stands, or whether philanthropic contributions by private businesses, should be pooled together and distributed among all boys and girls teams under the guise of Title IX equality — and regardless of which parents/teams raised what.

Not surprisingly, many expect volunteerism to droop if the chance to raising funds for your team’s road trip or new equipment is replaced by a new rule prescribing that you can only raise money for school sports generally and hope that some fraction gets passed through to your team. [Deborah Elson, Saving Sports; earlier on booster clubs]

November 2 roundup

  • A request for anti-SLAPP lawyers in Maine and Maryland [Popehat]
  • “Gallup: Government Regulation the Top Concern Among Small Business Owners” [NRO Corner] Almost as if in rebuttal to claims from Treasury economist [Business Roundtable]
  • Foreclosure law firm in upstate NY under fire after pics posted of its Halloween party [Nocera, Mystal]
  • “GAO Report Details Secrecy Of Asbestos Trusts” [Dan Fisher, Forbes] Crown Cork & Seal seeks successor-liability bill in Massachusetts [Eagle-Tribune]
  • Case against FMCSA’s rule change on truckers’ hours-of-service [Marc Scribner, CEI]
  • Richard Epstein on John Paul Stevens as justice and, now, author [Hoover]
  • Feds say lawyer who advised giant theft ring was partly paid in chic shoes and other designer gear [ABA Journal]

The high cost of a feel-good measure

“Tulane Study Says SEC Estimate of Cost of Conflict Mineral Rules is 100x Too Low” — headline at Business Law Prof (via Prof. Bainbridge), describing a new calculation that the implementation of the complication Dodd-Frank provision will in fact cost American business upwards of $7 billion, not the $70 million the Securities and Exchange Commission optimistically foresaw. (Typo fixed now.) Earlier here, here (“devastating” effect on Congolese).

Update: ousted Congressman sues opponents for “loss of livelihood”

Updating our story of last December: A federal judge has given the go-ahead to former Rep. Steve Dreihaus’s suit against the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List for allegedly falsely characterizing his stands on issues during last year’s race, thus causing him to lose. Earlier, Driehaus had filed a complaint against the Anthony List under Ohio’s remarkable False Statements Law, “which criminalizes lying about public officials” and has been assailed by the ACLU among other groups as inconsistent with the First Amendment. [Seth McKelvey, Reason; Peter Roff, U.S. News]

Labor and employment law roundup

  • Ohio vote looms on Wisconsin-style public labor reform [NRO Corner, Columbus Dispatch, Atlantic Wire, Buckeye Institute “S.B. 5”, Brian Bolduc/NRO]
  • Florida lawmaker proposes leave for some employees with domestically abused pets [Eric Meyer]
  • UK proposal: let employers have frank talks with underperforming workers without fear of liability [Telegraph]
  • “Wisconsin legislation could restrict punitive damages for job bias” [AP]
  • No, your mover can’t enter the building: a Chicago lawyer encounters union power [Howard Foster, Frum Forum] An insider’s game: “Two teachers union lobbyists teach for a day to qualify for hefty pensions” [Chicago Tribune]
  • Alternatively, we might just want to go back to freedom of contract: “An employer’s bill of rights” [Hyman]
  • Michael Fox on “Healthy Workplace Act” proposal creating rights to sue over on-job bullying [Jottings]
  • Feds put employer use of “independent contractors” under microscope [Omega HR] FLSA risks to employer of using unpaid interns [SmartHR]
  • A bit of health care deregulation from Obama [Tyler Cowen] Related on nurse practitioners: [Goodman]