- Alarm over administration seizure of personal emails of Fox News chief Washington correspondent James Rosen, described as “co-conspirator” for reporting classified material [WaPo, Yahoo, ABC News, Josh Gerstein/Politico, Julian Sanchez, Glenn Greenwald] Contra: Eugene Volokh, Charles Fried.
- “VP Joe Biden Believes There’s ‘No Legal Reason’ The Government Can’t Slap A Sin Tax On ‘Violent Media'” [Tim Cushing, TechDirt]
- “Vagueness in a defamation threat is the hallmark of meritless thuggery” [Popehat] India-based science publisher threatens Scholarly Open Access blogger that criticized its practices with $1 billion suit, three years in jail [Chronicle of Higher Education] Mockery is not libel: court tosses inmate’s suit against Tennessee governor [Volokh]
- Background of famous First Amendment case New York Times v. Sullivan: officials in South had exploited plaintiff-friendly jurisdictional rules [Wasserman]
- “6 Years + 300 Lashes in Saudi Arabia for Helping Woman Convert to Christianity” [Eugene Volokh]
- “A blueprint for speech codes?” [Alison Somin on feds’ Montana letter, Fed Soc EBR; Christian Science Monitor; earlier here, here, etc.]
- Rethinking SLAPP laws? [Recorder, Alex Kozinski opinion; ABA Journal]
- Tennessee governor vetoes “ag-gag” law on farm photography as First Amendment infringement [Linnekin; related, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Pa.)]
Archive for May, 2013
33 boxes of cigars on board, cont’d
We reported last month on the federal seizure of the 46-foot sailboat Janice Ann. Now an update: in a letter to petitioner Jeffrey Southworth, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection division of the Department of Homeland Security has offered to return the boat in exchange for a hold-harmless agreement sparing Customs from any demand for attorneys’ fees, damages or other relief. If the deal is not accepted within 30 days, “administrative forfeiture proceedings will be initiated by publishing a notice of seizure and intent to forfeit for 30 consecutive days at www.forfeiture.gov. After that time, the government acquires full title to the seized property.”
The CBP letter is here (& Sailing Scuttlebutt).
EEOC: no post-offer inquiries about family medical history
Asking existing employees about their family medical history might offer safety benefits in the workplace, both by indicating vulnerabilities that might be countered by protective measures, and by helping to distinguish ailments with a strong congenital influence from those that might signal occupational disease. However, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says that such questioning is “genetic discrimination” and unlawful under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), which became law in 2009. Fabricut, a decorative fabrics firm, will pay $50,000 to settle charges that it improperly asked about family medical history and also that it improperly engaged in disability discrimination by refusing to employ as a clerk a woman it regarded as having carpal tunnel syndrome. [EEOC press release]
3-D printing: the legal dimension
The remarkable recent advances in make-it-yourself technology are opening up all sorts of new possibilities for users, but also have the potential to freak out the CPSC, FDA, trade agencies and intellectual property lawyers, as well as gun-control advocates. When products extruded from local printers are inevitably involved in injuries, which distant parties can be sued? [Bloomberg]
“Dead robber’s widow sues shop clerk”
Albuquerque: “The wife of an armed robbery suspect shot dead by a shop clerk said the clerk was wrong, and now she has filed a civil lawsuit claiming wrongful death….’He [deceased robber Ramon Sedillo] does bear some fault, but it’s like a pie. You divide out the fault accordingly, and [store clerk Matthew] Beasley could have done something different,’ [Sedillo family lawyer Amavalise] Jaramillo said.” [KRQE]
May 20 roundup
- “The IRS Abuse Scandal Keeps Growing” [M.D. Kittle, Reason] Where were the lawyers? [John Steele/Legal Ethics Forum, more, yet more] “IRS Abuses Past and Present” [Chris Edwards, Cato] Allegation: IRS questions to Hawaii Tea Party suggest coordination among probes of conservative nonprofits [Patrick Howley, Daily Caller] Who does more to “delegitimize government”: libertarian critics, or government itself? [Ben Boychuk, Sacramento Bee]
- If you’re looking to gain quick approval of your IRS application, try these #safec4names from Twitter: Club For Civility and Bringing Criticism of Our President Under Reasonable Control [@david_m_wagner], Reject Those Voices [Michael Cannon], Not the Tea Party You Are Looking For [@FricosisGuy], Hollywood Helps! [Dale King]. My own contributions: Grateful Taxpayers for Public Investment and Working Americans Against Wingnut Scandal-Mongering.
- “Expert” Reports in George Zimmerman Case Disclosed [Jeralyn Merritt, TalkLeft; Radley Balko]
- Texas judge: kick partner out of your home or lose your kids [Dallas Voice]
- Socialist Venezuela government blames “excessive demand,” not price controls, for toilet paper shortage [Guardian]
- Even MADD, NHTSA haven’t backed NTSB’s idea of dropping BAC limit to .05 [Bloomberg via @radleybalko]
- “The dumb war on political intelligence” [Jack Shafer]
“EU to ban olive oil jugs from restaurants”
Traditional refillable open-spouted vessels and dipping bowls will need to give way to “pre-packaged, factory bottles with a tamper-proof dispensing nozzle and labeling in line with EU industrial standards.” [Bruno Waterfield, Daily Telegraph] In perhaps not unrelated news, a new poll finds Euroskepticism strong in the U.K. [Telegraph]:
When voters are asked the exact question Conservatives want to put to the public in the 2017 referendum, “Do you think that the UK should remain a member of the EU?”, 46 per cent opt to come out, a higher figure than in other recent polls, while just 30 per cent want to stay in.
Update: May 23 (proposal dropped).
Maryland roundup
- After Gov. Martin O’Malley signs one of nation’s most restrictive gun laws, Beretta says it intends to move out of state [Guns.com]
- Unfortunately, high cigarette taxes promote this sort of thing: “Ocean City cigarette smuggling ring had ties to terror groups, police say” [Baltimore Sun, Tax Foundation]
- Responding to critics (such as), legislature caps the vessel excise tax in hopes of reviving ailing boating industry [Annapolis Gazette]
- New law backed by O’Malley will require educators to pay dues to teachers’ union whether members or not [Trey Kovacs, Open Market and Workplace Choice; Harford County Dagger]
- State has among nation’s highest per capita medical malpractice outlays, behind only five Northeastern states (NY, PA, NJ, MA, CT) and D.C. [Diederich analysis of annual payouts via TortsProf]
- Chronicle of Rogues: Maryland gets a D minus, ranking a dismal 40th among the 50 states, on corruption-rating State Integrity Report Card [Center for Public Integrity via Tom Coale]
- It’ll be held in D.C. this year rather than Annapolis, but that’s no reason you shouldn’t join us for the acclaimed Cato University [Jul. 28-Aug. 2]
- Politicos scramble to defend “correctional officers’ bill of rights” after FBI affidavit blasts measure for helping entrench corruption at Baltimore jail [AP, earlier]
“Massive lawsuit against bloggers is reined in”
A lawyer who’d been widely and scathingly criticized over his handling of a case — unfairly he thought — proceeded to sue bloggers and journalists for defamation, so many that the total of defendants reached 74. It’s over now, but a New York state judge declined to award sanctions, which may possibly say something about the difficulty of obtaining sanctions under today’s prevailing legal standards, especially in New York. [Tom Crane, San Antonio Employment Law Blog; Popehat (“Our legal system is so broken that it can take years to resolve even the most patently vexatious, harassing, and incompetently prosecuted lawsuits like this one.”)]
P.S. “Loser pays would have been valuable here. Costs to each defendant would teach a memorable lesson.” [@erikmagraken]
Update: charges dropped against Kiera Wilmot
Authorities have dropped charges against the Florida teen “who was expelled and charged with two felonies after conducting an unauthorized but harmless science experiment on the grounds of her school.” [Jesse Walker, earlier] And in the feel-good story of the day, former NASA astronaut Homer Hickam “awarded Kiera a scholarship to attend the United States Advanced Space Academy (ASA), a branch of the famous Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama.” [Black Youth Project]