The copyright-troll business model has been faring poorly in court of late. [Mike Masnick, TechDirt; earlier] On the other hand: volume of John Doe defendant copyright actions still strong, reports one observer [Masnick]
Archive for March, 2017
Seattle law strips landlords of choice of tenants
Appalling: a new law in Seattle aims to strip property owners of all choice among tenant applicants, requiring them to take the first comer who meets their preannounced guidelines. Does it violate the Constitution? The Pacific Legal Foundation intends to find out on behalf of Chong and MariLyn Yim. [Daniel Beekman, Seattle Times] When the law was under consideration, a council member objected — on the grounds that the city should instead consider requiring the owners to institute a lottery, rather than a first-come-first-served rule. Part of the rationale of the law is to combat “unconscious bias” [Ethan Blevins, PLF] More: Jeb Kinnison in August.
Annals of Prop 65: black licorice
Licorice causes cancer. (Now w/photo)
Cc @BobDorigoJones @tedfrank @overlawyered pic.twitter.com/BYG1Oq7NJH— Daniel Frank (@cptjtspaulding) March 11, 2017
The California environmental-labeling law now invites residents of the Golden State to have a nice licorice panic.
“11 Classic Films In the Public Domain”
A list of classic films that entered the public domain includes some cautionary lessons for copyright lawyers, exhibitors, and others. [Matthew Jackson, Mental Floss]
Crime and punishment roundup
- Dairy Queen manager charged with involuntary manslaughter following suicide of teen employee reportedly bullied on the job [AP, Missouri]
- Court orders new trial: carpenter, in school to argue against son’s school suspension over knife, had displayed knife he carries as part of work [Lancaster Online, Commonwealth v. Goslin]
- Desires for retribution aside, hanging homicide rap on dealers after overdoses unlikely to solve opiate problem [Mark Sine and Kaitlyn Boecker, Baltimore Sun]
- “Man wrongly convicted with bite mark evidence confronts bite mark analysts” [Radley Balko]
- Judge Neil Gorsuch and over-criminalization [C. Jarrett Dieterle, National Review]
- Debate over DoJ oversight of city police forces continues [David Meyer Lindenberg, Fault Lines (report on Chicago) and more]
The ADA takes Berkeley courses offline
Andrew Ferguson on the ADA-inflicted loss of one university’s public treasury of online course materials: “UC Berkeley, needless to say, is deeply involved in the disability rights movement and has gone to great lengths to keep it satisfied.” None of which did it any good facing off against activist groups and the U.S. Justice Department, so now thousands of free lectures and other materials are set to come down. And some historical perspective: “After the ADA the country was much less free but its rulers were much more pleased with themselves.” [Andrew Ferguson, Weekly Standard] More: Hans Bader/CEI, earlier.
Andrew Trask on class action reform
Each earlier venture into reforming class action practice has been met with cries that the device was being effectively abolished, and the similar round of alarms this time is unfounded, argues Andrew Trask: the Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act (FICALA) now pending in Congress “lives up to its name.” It’s “not seeking to abolish the class action, but to curb some of the more worrisome litigation practices that have evolved since CAFA.” [first, second (mass action and multi-district litigation) posts] Earlier here. More: Daniel Fisher.
Why do people use check-cashing stores?
Policy elites tend to sniff at check-cashing stores as seedy and exploitative. So Penn professor Lisa Servon went to work at one in the South Bronx for four months. Here’s what she learned. [Business Insider via David Henderson; Servon’s website and new book]
Environment roundup
- Here come big, beautiful eminent domain cases over condemnation of land for the US-Mexico wall [Gideon Kanner, Ilya Somin]
- Judge greenlights “public trust” climate change suit, an exercise in court- and lawyer-empowerment [Samuel Boxerman, WLF]
- Next Friday, Mar. 17, Cato will host panel on pending SCOTUS case of Murr v. Wisconsin (property rights, regulatory takings) with Roger Pilon (Cato), J. Peter Byrne (Georgetown Law), and Ilya Somin (George Mason Law), with opening remarks by Todd Gaziano (Pacific Legal) and moderated by Ilya Shapiro (Cato) [register or watch online]
- Swallowing dubious health claims, Maryland advisory panel urges schools to turn off wi-fi. Plenty wrong with that [ACSH]
- By 31-69 margin, Los Angeles voters crush anti-development Measure S, “NIMBYism on steroids” [City Observatory, earlier]
- Tackling WOTUS is just the start: “The Clean Water Act Needs A Reset” [Reed Hopper, Investors, Jonathan Wood, related]
Clichés come to life: lawyer’s pants catch fire during final argument
From the “clichés come to life” department: lawyer’s pants literally catch fire as he is making closing arguments to a jury [Miami Herald]:
A Miami defense lawyer’s pants burst into flames Wednesday afternoon as he began his closing arguments in front of a jury — in an arson case.
Stephen Gutierrez, who was arguing that his client’s car spontaneously combusted and was not intentionally set on fire, had been fiddling in his pocket as he was about to address jurors when smoke began billowing out his right pocket, witnesses told the Miami Herald. He rushed out of the Miami courtroom, leaving spectators stunned. After jurors were ushered out, Gutierrez returned unharmed, with a singed pocket, and insisted it wasn’t a staged defense demonstration gone wrong, observers said….
Officers seized several frayed e-cigarette batteries as evidence.