- In end-of-session scramble, lawmakers pass minimum wage hike [Jenna Johnson, WaPo], vote to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana [Alex DeMetrick/WJZ, Jackie Wellfonder, earlier here, here, here]
- More on trial lawyer priority False Claims Act that passed House of Delegates mostly on party lines, advancing fast in Senate [coalition letter in PDF, bill status, earlier]
- “[Baltimore County] Cop Pushes and Shoves Videographer, Telling Him He Has ‘Lost’ his Freedom of Speech” [Carlos Miller/Photography Is Not a Crime via Radley Balko]
- Bill to legalize raw milk sales gets hearing, no committee action [SB 1092 (Jennings), Maryland Legislative Watch, CNS, some background]
- Much early zoning served purposes of racial subordination, Baltimore history furnishes sad example [A. Barton Hinkle]
- “Baltimore judge denies Angelos firm’s attempt to consolidate asbestos claims” [Heather Isringhausen Gvillo, Legal NewsLine] State’s high court limits asbestos “take-home” liability [Michael Ellis, Fed Soc]
- Civil-libertarian-backed bill to apply controls to law enforcement use of drones gets unfavorable report in Senate judiciary committee [SB 926, MLW, background at Cato]
Archive for 2014
Volokh Conspiracy profiled
Having grown up in families that experienced firsthand the oppressive potential of untrammeled state power, these individuals naturally gravitated toward libertarianism, with its deep-rooted suspicion of government overreach. “Those of us who share that story share the same reason for why we became libertarian,” explained Sasha Volokh, now an associate professor at Emory Law School.
Not so smart?
Northwestern athletes’ “college football participation = paid work to be governed by labor laws” argument may boomerang with a whopping tax bill [TaxProf, Bleacher Report on NLRB giving nod to idea]
“Just because I’m an adult doesn’t mean I don’t get to explore the world, too”
Says the man who sued because he tried to climb a boulder in Manhattan’s Hudson River Park and fell off. Good news, Mr. Stock: you not only get to explore the world, you also get to explore the legal concept known as “assumption of the risk.” [Gothamist]
High-frequency trading: plot or bane?
As you might have heard, Michael Lewis has a new book out [Tyler Cowen, Cato panel with Louise Bennetts, Holly Bell and Hester Peirce, Charles Gasparino/NY Post]
FBI raids Indiana antiquities collector
I’ve got a write-up at Cato at Liberty about the federal government’s massive, SWAT-like occupation of the rural Indiana property of Don Miller, a celebrated 91-year-old local collector who has traveled the globe and whose impressive collection of world and Indian artifacts “was featured in a four part series in the Rushville Republican.” Under various treaties and federal laws, mostly dating to relatively recent times, the federal government now deems ownership of many antiquities and Native American artifacts to be unlawful even if collectors acquired them in good faith before laws changed. [WISH (TV), Indianapolis Star, The Blaze.] More: coverage in two more outlets with a flavor very different from each other, Shelby County News (FBI source stresses Miller’s cooperativeness and suggests federal actions were wtih his consent or even at his behest) and National Public Radio (“seized,” “confiscated”)
Related: Richard Epstein at Hoover on Obama Administration plans to prohibit selling your family’s vintage piano or moving it across a state line. And aside from ivory chess sets, the nascent War on Antiques might take a toll of replica firearms [Washington Times]
April 4 roundup
- “Helmet maker not to blame in football player’s injury, jury finds” [L.A. Times]
- “New Corporate Survey Illustrates Burdens Of Document Preservation And Benefits Of Proposed [Rule 26 Discovery] Reform” [Mark Chenoweth/WLF, Timothy Pratt/Abnormal Use, NJLRA, earlier]
- Have divorce statistics been misreported? [Kay Hymowitz, Robert VerBruggen]
- “Intoxicated Man Loses Big at Casino, Wants His Money Back” [Abnormal Use]
- “SCOTUS Deferred to Executive Agencies. What Happened Next Will Infuriate You!” [Ilya Shapiro, Cato on Peri & Sons Farms v. Rivera]
- Overtime scheme: Obama doesn’t “worry about being held accountable for the unwelcome consequences” [Steve Chapman] Advice for small business on complying with salaried employee classification [Suzanne Lucas (“Evil HR Lady”) at Inc., earlier here and here]
- Religious liberty, discrimination law and how spurious rights drive out the real [Jacob Sullum] Timely: “Harvard Hosts Conference on Religious Accommodation in the Age of Civil Rights” [TaxProf]
“Gamers have no credibility in this argument”
Quoth California Sen. Leland Yee, D-S.F., would-be censor of violent video games, whose involvement in a wildly colorful arms-smuggling scandal, though neglected in some national media circles, lends irony to talk of the psychologically obscure Root Causes of Violence. Thanks, Sen. Credibility! [Lowering the Bar]
More: Leland Yee, international man of mystery: how’d he manage to duck terrorism charges? [Contra Costa Times]
“Hold The Hysteria, McCutcheon Didn’t Gut Campaign-Finance Rules…”
“…Yet”. Daniel Fisher explains yesterday’s 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court in McCutcheon v. FEC, which may be more significant as a clue to the direction of future Court thinking on campaign finance and the First Amendment as for its actual direct effect. Cato submitted an amicus brief on the side that prevailed, and my colleagues Trevor Burrus and Ilya Shapiro have flash reactions (earlier). More: Ilya Shapiro now has a longer treatment out at SCOTUSBlog.
Chicago judge ruled legally insane wants to be restored to bench
Not an April Fool’s: we’ve covered the saga of Judge Cynthia Brim in two earlier posts. Chicago voters re-elected her to the bench despite troubles which eventuated in a successful defense to misdemeanor battery charges on the ground of insanity. [Chicago Tribune, auto-plays annoyingly]