Super Bowl (TM) trademark controversy XLVI, or even higher

Ron Coleman has yet another installment in the ongoing annual saga of legal jeopardy for organizations that promote their wares (big-screen TVs, snacks) by referring to a certain football weekend event as the “Super Bowl,” rather that dodge behind the phrase “Big Game” or something equivalent. He corrects Consumer Reports on its assertion that the law provides an exemption for “news organizations,” which is not actually the case, though many uses by news organizations would in practice be exempted as fair use. Earlier here, etc.

More: “It’s Time to Stand Up to the NFL and Call It the Superbowl” [Paul Alan Levy]

Filed under: Super Bowl, trademarks

“Their government’s communitarianism leaves no room for their church’s communitarianism”

Ross Douthat on how the ObamaCare Pill edict points up some “trade-offs… which liberal communitarians don’t always like to acknowledge. When government expands, it’s often at the expense of alternative expressions of community, alternative groups that seek to serve the common good.” More: Steve Chapman.

Filed under: Catholic Church, ObamaCare

Drunk drivers who sue over their accidents, cont’d

Max Kennerly thinks we should understand their point of view. Earlier here, here, etc., etc.

Filed under: criminals who sue, dramshop statutes, personal responsibility

January 31 roundup

Latest of periodic Towers Watson (formerly Towers Perrin/Tillinghast) surveys: tort costs fell in 2010 excluding oil spill liability [Towers Watson]
“Will Newt Neuter the Courts?” [James Huffman, Defining Ideas] Obama’s high court appointees are fortunately friendlier toward civil liberties than he is [Steve Chapman]
Unanimous Cal Supremes: companies not legally responsible for other companies’ asbestos products used as replacement for theirs [Cal Biz Lit, Jackson, Beck, Mass Tort Prof]
Claim: jurors considered policy implications of verdict and you can’t have that [On Point; defense verdict in Baltimore, Maryland school-bullying case]
Airfare display mandate: “‘Protecting’ Consumers from the Truth About the Cost of Government” [Thom Lambert, TotM]
Critical assessment of AP-backed new copyright aggregator “NewsRight” [Mike Masnick] Promises not to be “Righthaven 2.0” [Cit Media Law]
Restatement (Third) of Torts drafters vs. Enlightenment scientific views of causation [David Oliver in June]

Filed under: airlines, asbestos, Baltimore, Barack Obama, bullying, California, deep pocket, juries, Newt Gingrich, RightHaven, taxes, Tillinghast, toxic torts

Some heroes for our time

My new post at Cato at Liberty is on Italian labor law professors Pietro Ichino and Carlo Dell’Aringa, who live under police protection because of their support for liberalization of the job market; two other professors, Massimo D’Antona and Mario Biagi, have been killed by Red Brigades gunmen. More: Coyote.

Filed under: employment at will, Italy, law schools, terrorism

“Human rights court blocks Abu Qatada deportation”

British prime minister David Cameron is fuming over the latest in a long string of rulings by the European Court of Human Rights, which now has stepped in to protect a militant Islamist cleric from deportation to Jordan, where he has been convicted in absentia of plotting terrorist attacks. [Independent, Telegraph]

More: Cameron calls for reform of ECHR, says it is turning into court of “fourth instance” for general appeal of British judicial decisions [Telegraph, Guardian, New Statesman, Conservative Home]

Filed under: international human rights, terrorism, United Kingdom

Tales from NYC’s “rubber room”

The New York Post checks on on some unfireable teachers.

Filed under: NYC, public employment, schools, teacher tenure

Labor and employment law roundup

“Off-clock work: Flintstone laws in a Buck Rogers world” [Robin Shea] “NY Times offers unpaid internships after reporting on their questionable legality” [Poynter]
Walker labor reforms in Wisconsin get results [Christian Schneider: City Journal, NY Post] “Watch the Walker recall election” [John Steele Gordon, Commentary]
No prize for spotting fallacy: complaints that too many Europeans are collecting state disability payments construed as “demonizing disabled people” [Debbie Jolly, ENIL]
“What could be worse than a self-righteous TSA agent? Answer: A TSA agents’ union advocate.” [Ken, Popehat]
“Why Mitt Romney likes firing people” [Suzanne Lucas]
Free speech and union dues: Tim Sandefur on the oral argument in Knox v. SEIU [PLF Liberty Blog] More: Jack Mann, CEI.
My book on employment and labor law, The Excuse Factory, is alas still not available in online formats but you might find a bargain on a hardcover [Free Press/Simon & Schuster]

Filed under: labor unions, Mitt Romney, The Excuse Factory, wage and hour suits, Wisconsin

That treehouse has to go

Kids at a Long Beach preschool had enjoyed it for thirty years without incident, but a state inspector said no. Headline on the resulting article: “Obsession with safety is ruining our playgrounds.” [Gale Holland, L.A. Times]

Filed under: Los Angeles, recreation

Posited “right to be forgotten online”

This idea, gaining some currency in Europe, would require government to get deeply into the control of privately published information content [Adam Thierer, Scott Greenfield, PC World]

Filed under: Europe, online speech, privacy