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Archive for September, 2012
Law school caveat emptor
A judge has dismissed another of the wave of lawsuits charging that law schools concealed evidence that placement rates, employment prospects and other relevant statistics were bleak for many graduates. The most recently dismissed case was against Chicago’s DePaul; earlier, judges threw out cases against Thomas Cooley, in Michigan, and New York Law School. [Caron, TaxProf; ABA Journal on Cooley] On the other hand, a California court will allow fraud suits to proceed against the University of San Francisco and Golden Gate law schools [Caron]
Meanwhile, critics have been sniping over some funny numbers at Rutgers-Camden [Paul Campos, Law School Scam; and more on an unrelated controversy in which an assistant law dean is hinting at legal action following unfavorable press coverage of her combined role as compliance officer and spouse for a New Jersey member of Congress]
Accuser recants in case that sent four women to prison
Four Texas women have been serving long prison terms since a 7-year-old and 9-year-old girl, nieces of one of them, accused them in a lurid tale of assault. Now, the younger accuser has grown up and recanted [Michelle Mondo, My San Antonio]:
“I want my aunt and her friends out of prison,” Stephanie, 25, said by phone last week. “Whatever it takes to get them out I’m going to do. I can’t live my life knowing that four women are sleeping in a cage because of me.”…
On and off the witness stand, the sisters changed their accounts of the timing, the use of weapons, the perpetrators and other basic details of the assault every time they told it to authorities, records show.
P.S. And another Texas recantation, of charges lodged during a bitter custody fight, the defendant has served more than 12 years of a 20-year sentence.
“How Many Law Firms Does It Take To Sue An Egg Company? 34, Apparently”
“A federal judge in Philadelphia has done what every judge in a class action should do: She required each law firm involved in a $25 million antitrust settlement to document exactly how much time they spent on the case, and how much they expect to be paid for their work.” [Daniel Fisher, Forbes]
September 17 roundup
- Montana considers “corporations aren’t people” ballot measure with all the expectable flaws plus some others; vainly presumes to instruct state’s delegation to Congress [Bainbridge, more]
- Dutch phone book publisher claims that “Cancel my Dutch phone book” website infringes its trademark [24 Oranges]
- The problem with Section 5 (preclearance) provision of the Voting Rights Act, cont’d [Ilya Shapiro; SCOTUSBlog symposium with Shapiro, Abigail Thernstrom and others]
- D.C. bans a bar’s jape at Marion Barry: “The Government Commission on Acceptable Satire” [Julian Sanchez, Cato]
- Inquiry cost seen at £100m over alleged UK troop brutality in Iraq; defense lawyers say charges trumped up [Telegraph]
- Banning outdoor tobacco use: “Obama administration to push for eliminating smoking on college campuses” [Caroline May, Daily Caller]
- “And so it has come to this: Cameras that monitor speed cameras.” [Mike Rosenwald, WaPo; Prince George’s County, Md.]
Annals of California wage and hour law
Why “we recently were forced to institute an HR policy in California that working through lunch is a firing offense.” [Coyote]
Bradley Birkenfeld’s $104 million bounty
By ratting on his employer and clients, the UBS informant greatly advanced Washington’s project of preventing Americans from squirreling assets out of reach of the U.S. tax and legal systems. So it’s no surprise that few in the federal establishment — even among longtime critics of what they deem excessive executive compensation — begrudge him the whopping payout. Among his defenders, of course, is Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, patron of the whistleblower program: “Need we add that Mr. Grassley’s longtime aide, who actually drafted the whistleblower law, now represents Mr. Birkenfeld and stands to collect an interesting percentage of the award Mr. Grassley so obligingly applauds? If one were rich, if one had a sense of history, one might well wish to move a part of one’s nest egg out of the way of Mr. Grassley and his ilk.” [Holman Jenkins, WSJ]
“Buckyballs vs. the CPSC”
The maker of the popular rare earth magnetic adult toy is defiant, and Reason.tv has a video [earlier here, here, and here]. “We’re the first company in 11 years that has said no to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.”
The White House calls YouTube: how about yanking that video?
“Earlier in the week, YouTube said it found that the video was “clearly within” its guidelines.” [L.A. Times, Washington Post, Jesse Walker, Matt Welch, Paul Alan Levy; previously on calls to suppress putative “hate speech” in response to riots in the Middle East and elsewhere] Per news accounts, YouTube chose to block access to the video in certain Arab countries where outbreaks of violence have occurred. More: “Google rejects White House request to pull Mohammad film clip” [Reuters]
Meanwhile, L.A. County sheriffs swoop down to round up the alleged filmmaker for questioning, supposedly for probation violations. Ann Althouse has a thing or two to say about that. But see defense lawyer and former prosecutor Ken at Popehat (viewing arrest as not unusual if a defendant in serious fraud case involving aliases is observed to violate probation terms by doing business under alias)(more).
Club owners: lap dancing deserves tax status as “art”
Quite a lot of tax money is at stake: New York is seeking more than $400,000 in back taxes and penalties from one establishment alone. But the broad construction of artistic expression that judges understandably apply in censorship cases under the First Amendment need not carry over to a less constitutionally fraught area such as the application of tax categories. “Can we get past the idea that somehow this is the Bolshoi?” asked one judge. [Naomi Schaefer Riley, New York Post, quotes me]