D.C. Circuit strikes down IRS attempt to license tax preparers

It’s a win for small tax return preparers and a loss both for unilateral assertions of agency power (Congress had never given the Internal Revenue Service the power it claimed here) and for big national tax-prep chains, which had supported the regulation with a view to suppressing “kitchen table” competitors. Andrew Grossman analyzes for Cato, and the Institute for Justice, representing independent tax preparers, can take due credit for a big legal win.

More: H & R Block’s CEO — of course! — is unhappy. And John Steele Gordon explains the role of the Horse Act of 1884.

Filed under: occupational licensure, taxes

Speech to ABA on nanny state and Bloomberg soda ban

You can watch here (earlier). Related videos, including those of the other panelists, at the American Bar Association site.

Meanwhile, even former enthusiasts are beginning to give up on the “food desert” theory — opening a supermarket nearby does little to change unhealthy diet habits. So guess what’s next? Yep, calls for more and stronger intervention [Ann Althouse].

Filed under: Michael Bloomberg, nanny state, obesity, on TV and radio, soft drinks

Feds to extract $1 billion from Toyota over non-runaway cars

Imagine how much they might have gotten if the cars had actually been suddenly accelerating! “Do We Really Want To Regulate This Way?” asks Daniel Fisher [Forbes]

Filed under: NHTSA, Toyota

February 11 roundup

If you’ve answered a consumer survey about which pharmaceuticals you take, you may be hearing from this guy’s staff [Paul Barrett, Business Week on mass tort “lead generator”]
Jury awards $9 million to Vancouver, Wash. man imprisoned for 20 years after wrongful child abuse conviction [Insurance Journal; The Columbian/Seattle Times 2009]
Product liability: jury awards $18 million in fatal fire attributed to altered space heater [Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, outcome subject to confidential agreement]
$500 million California verdict in competition case between two drug companies [Kyle White, Abnormal Use, Daniel Fisher (Actelion case)]
Short film tackles city of Detroit’s decline, GM bailout, with commentary from bank economist David Littmann, Todd Zywicki [“Bankrupt”]
Hardee’s CEO: Easier to open a new restaurant in Shanghai than in Los Angeles [Legal NewsLine]
Fooled ya! “I intend to reverse” trend of President bypassing Congress to bring power into executive branch, said Obama in 2008 [Tom Rogan/The Week, Jim Powell/Forbes] Constitutional issues of federal contractor minimum wage executive order [Eugene Kontorovich and followup, On Labor, Gene Healy, Peter Kirsanow]

Filed under: Barack Obama, chasing clients, Detroit, executive orders, government contract compliance, Los Angeles, pharmaceuticals, product liability, restaurants

Judge flays California fire agency for lawsuit conduct

“In a blistering ruling against Cal Fire, a judge in Plumas County has found the agency guilty of ‘egregious and reprehensible conduct’ in its response to the 2007 Moonlight fire and ordered it to pay more than $30 million in penalties, legal fees and costs to Sierra Pacific Industries and others accused in a Cal Fire lawsuit of causing the fire. … Sierra Pacific, the largest private landowner in California, was blamed by state and federal officials for the blaze, with a key report finding it was started by a spark from the blade of a bulldozer belonging to a company working under contract for Sierra Pacific.” The company has contended that the cause determination was reached in haste and pursued with an eye to extracting legal proceeds for an agency-run settlement fund later found to be illegal. [Sacramento Bee; Robert Hilson, Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists]

Filed under: California, discovery, sanctions, wildfires

“New car smell” blamed for fatal accident

Police in Santa Cruz, Calif. say the driver of a new Tesla had fallen asleep at the wheel last November when his car struck and killed a bicyclist. 63-year-old retired tech executive Navindra Kumar Jain told police that “new car smell” had caused him to nod off and that there were no other mechanical problems with the vehicle. A lawsuit filed by the victim’s family names both Tesla and Jain as defendants. [Santa Cruz Sentinel, San Jose Mercury-News, San Francisco Chronicle]

Filed under: autos

Medical roundup

Trial lawyer push to weaken MICRA, the medical damages cap, could spark most expensive ballot measure struggle in California history [Legal NewsLine]
Why the FDA should lay off 23andMe [Robert Green and Nita Farahany, Nature via Volokh, earlier]
SEIU to West Coast hospitals: play ball with our organizers or we’ll arrange to cap your execs’ pay [Bloomberg]
Video of panel discussion on new book A Conspiracy Against ObamaCare [Randy Barnett et al., more]
Louisiana high court throws out $330 million award to state, federal governments over marketing of Risperdal [NOLA.com/Times-Picayune, Eric Alexander/Drug and Device Law]
“If Obamacare Doesn’t Kill Small Medical Practices, Bureaucratic ICD-10 Coding Requirements Might” [Tuccille]
FDA goes after antibacterial soap. Wisely? [White Coat]

Filed under: California, FDA, hospitals, Louisiana, medical, medical malpractice, ObamaCare, pharmaceuticals

U.K.: “Policeman who smashed up pensioner’s car receives £400,000 compensation”

“A police officer branded a ‘laughing stock’ for using a truncheon to smash a pensioner’s car window was awarded more than £400,000 compensation from his former force on Wednesday.” Mike Baillon, 42, says colleagues at Gwent Police teased and hazed him after a YouTube video went viral showing him battering a 74-year-old driver’s Range Rover, amounting to “constructive dismissal.” [Telegraph]

Filed under: police, United Kingdom

FTC flexes its data-privacy powers

And goodbye to an Atlanta-based lab services business [Ed Hudgins, Atlas Business Rights Center] Law-enforcement-for-profit sidelight: according to owner Michael Daugherty, allegations of data insecurity at LabMD emanated from a private firm that held a Homeland Security contract to roam the web sniffing out data privacy gaps at businesses, even as it simultaneously offered those same businesses high-priced services to plug the complained-of gaps.

Filed under: Federal Trade Commission, law enforcement for profit, privacy

Maryland roundup

Hearing set for February 26 on bill to ban knives and other weapons from private school parking lots and other property [Maryland Legislative Watch]
Bill would join Ohio in banning hidden compartments in cars, but one legislative sponsor withdraws it following public outcry [MLW]
Minimum wage a poor way to support working families [Todd Eberly]
Italian-based gunmaker Beretta: “Maryland disrespects us and gun owners, so we expand in Tennessee” [Ugo Gussalli Beretta, Washington Times]
Would a per-bird environmental tax, as proposed by two Montgomery County lawmakers, drive chicken farming out of the state? [DelmarvaNow, followup (governor pledges veto)]
“The Parallel Failures of the Oregon and Maryland Health Exchanges” [Peter Suderman, Reason]
State has resisted general tide toward dramshop (alcohol server) liability for misdeeds of drunken patrons; bill in Annapolis would change that [MLW, earlier]

Filed under: dramshop statutes, guns, Maryland, minimum wage