- New report: “Schools Cut Back as Litigation Costs Eat into Budgets” [California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, PDF] “Swings too dangerous for Washington schools” [AP; Richland, Wash.]
- “Appeals Court Ruling Paves Way for Gender Quotas in High School Sports” [Saving Sports, Ninth Circuit on Title IX] More: Alison Somin [Ollier v. Sweetwater Union School District]
- “College and university administrators demolishing freedom of religion and association” [Bainbridge]
- “Grenade Launchers: The Newest Must-Have School Supply” [Jason Bedrick/Cato, earlier]
- “It was against the school policy for elementary kids to have Chapstick” [Amy Alkon; Augusta County, Va.] “Mom Tells Therapist About Briefly Leaving Kids Alone, Shrink Calls Cops” [Lenore Skenazy]
- Disability and school discipline: “Wondering why a preschooler would ever need to be suspended? Here’s an explanation.” [Amy Rothschild, Greater Greater Washington]
- Civic education needed: some Greendale, Wisc. parents and educators wonder why non-parents are allowed to vote on school matters [Lenore Skenazy]
Archive for 2014
New Supreme Court term
Ilya Shapiro, Roger Parloff, Daniel Fisher, and Damon Root preview what’s on the docket.
Words you can’t say on TV: the team-name edition
“The Federal Communications Commission will consider punishing broadcasters for using the Washington Redskins’ [name] on air, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said during a conference call with reporters, according to Reuters.” [Sports Illustrated] It won’t if it wants its actions to stand up in court, though [Eugene Volokh, and more on the role of frequent Overlawyered mentionee John Banzhaf]
More: Prof. Banzhaf responds in comments.
“Inspired by man who filed more than 120 lawsuits, Indiana Supreme Court sets pro se limits”
The Indiana high court didn’t sanction an Indianapolis man who has sued several judges as well as many commercial defendants “but warned him that he could face fines and criminal charges if he files new lawsuits” and provided guidance aimed at strengthening the hand of judges “confronted with abusive and vexatious litigation practices” [ABA Journal, Indianapolis Star and more]
Police and prosecution roundup
- “Mississippi accused do time for years with no indictment for a crime” [Jerry Mitchell, Clarion-Ledger; Scott Greenfield]
- Petty fines/fees, cont’d: the many ways to rack up municipal court fees in Ferguson and St. Louis County [Julie Lurie and Katie Rose Quandt, Mother Jones; earlier here and here] St. Louis suburbs with now-familiar names agree to traffic-cam settlement [KMOV]
- Judge rules police entitled to SWAT raid of private home over satirical Twitter account “impersonating” Peoria mayor [Guardian, earlier]
- Plea bargaining and excessive prosecutorial power [The Economist via Alexander Cohen, Atlas Society]
- Radley Balko remembers policing expert and former San Jose police chief Joseph McNamara;
- “SEC ‘Gag Orders’: Does Settling in Silence Advance the Public Interest?” [Gary Matsko, WLF, cf. Toyota prosecution deal; related, Greenfield]
- Press 3 to confiscate his gun: New California law lets exes, in-laws, vengeful former roommates, or cops disarm individual without notice or hearing [Jacob Sullum, Sacramento Bee] More: Andrew Sullivan.
Update: John Wayne heirs lose case against Duke University
More tips for disability claimants
If collecting workers’ comp payments premised on disability from knee and other injuries, it is best not to post photos on Facebook of your exploits continuing to race your BMX bike [Kent, Wash.; MyNorthwest.com]
P.S. You might face less scrutiny, per this L.A. Times account, if you’re a Los Angeles firefighter or police officer claiming injury on the job under a remarkably generous compensation scheme “that has cost taxpayers $328 million over the last five years.”
California sex-consent law: an “engineer’s solution”
From rxc in comments:
The engineer’s solution:
Everyone who participates in the regulated activity needs to purchase a simple push-button device which controls a separate panel with a red light and a green light. During the regulated activity, each participant must hold down the button on the controller that illuminates the green light, which shall remain visible to the other party(ies) at all times. If, at any time, a participant releases this button, the green light goes off, and a red light comes on. Optionally, a siren could start to sound, to summon outside assistance.
These days, with Wifi and Bluetooth, I bet you could make the controller wireless and small enough to easily hold in one hand, leaving the other hand free for other activites…
I bet the Chinese could get something set up in a few weeks, and have it in stores by Xmas!
Failure to use such a device is cause to dismiss later allegations that consent was not given.
Batteries not included.
“Iowa Troopers Steal $100,000 in Poker Winnings From Two Players Driving Through”
Jacob Sullum traces how a gambling jackpot magically became a forfeiture jackpot (also from him, a history of how forfeiture law got so bad). The Washington Post followed up last month on its multi-part, front-page exposure of forfeiture law (Tim Lynch and Scott Shackford summarize some of its findings) with an op-ed from two former DoJ officials calling for abolition of the program they once helped run; Scott Greenfield has commentary on that as well as more generally on the costs of defense in forfeiture cases and on Nassau County, N.Y.’s resumption of the seizure of cars being driven by persons arrested for drunk driving, whether or not owned by those persons.
From today’s Washington Post: “Activists and Hill staffers meet to discuss curbs to asset-forfeiture laws”. And George Leef writes in Forbes: “Time For Civil Asset Forfeiture Laws To Meet The Same Fate As Jim Crow.”
Scary UK proposal: “Extremist Disruption Orders”
“Extremists will have to get posts on Facebook and Twitter approved in advance by the police under sweeping rules planned by the Conservatives.” [Telegraph] The Spectator joins other critics in noting that the idea, floated by Home Secretary Theresa May, could conceivably be used not only against proponents of violent Islamism but also (for example) radicals of right and left, Irish nationalists, and animal-rights protesters:
Labour’s ‘hate crime’ laws have already been used to pursue Christian street preachers criticising homosexuality and Englishmen being rude about Scots. This magazine was once contacted by the CID, which was ‘investigating’ an article about Islamic fundamentalism — the police were trying to establish if we had violated the parameters of argument defined by New Labour. Rather than repeal such laws, Mrs May seems to want to extend them.