- Waco biker prosecutions — a dragnet affair in which many bystanders were hit with charges, kept in jail on unaffordable bail, and lost their jobs — end after four years with all charges dropped; many deaths resulted from police fire [Brian Doherty, Reason; earlier and more]
- “Lawsuit: You did business with someone who did business with someone who committed a crime against me, so you’re also liable.” [Ted Frank describing suit against SalesForce alleging that its business management software assisted sexually oriented online business BackPage; Mike Masnick, TechDirt]
- “Our waterways policy is crony capitalism disguised as patriotism” [George Will, syndicated/Atlanta Journal Constitution] “The Jones Act Fleet: High Costs and Limited Capabilities” [Colin Grabow, Cato at Liberty] More on the maritime protectionism law, all from Grabow at Cato: Sen. Mike Lee introduces repeal bill; extending the law further? counting the costs for Puerto Rico; production of new ship no cause for celebration. And on East Coast freight traffic congestion [Dan Ikenson and Colin Grabow, New York Post]
- If you were born yesterday, you may be the target reader for a Gannett/USA Today and Arizona Republic piece attacking model state laws, the Goldwater Institute, and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) [critical threads by Julian Sanchez and Tim Sandefur]
- On attorneys’ fees, “The English Rule and the American Rule” [Federalist Society Policy Brief video with R. Hugh Lumpkin]
- Big Lawyers On Campus: “How Class-Action Lawyers Help Their Alma Maters” [James Copland, Bloomberg Opinion on cy pres practice; earlier here, here, etc.]
Filed under: Arizona, cy pres, deep pocket, free trade, legislature, loser pays, prosecutorial abuse
4 Comments
The Waco boondoggle was nothing short of a gang shootout, with the police being one of the gangs. It was completely lawless police action–they didn’t like bikers having a gathering and so they attacked them, with bystanders getting killed and jailed. Disgraceful and an example of why qualified immunity is a terrible doctrine.
What is it with Waco? Seems like the only thing I ever hear about that town is one horrible miscarriage of justice or another. Is that their primary export?
If you don’t see much breaking news from Waco, Texas, perhaps it’s because most of the news originating there is too pleasant to make it onto the front page. It has Baylor University, the Dr Pepper museum and Free Enterprise Institute, and the exquisite Armstrong Browning Library, which houses the largest collections of English poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, to name just a few of my fond memories from when I visited.
Okay, I admit I was being unfairly glib, and it’s probably a perfectly normal town. Guess it only takes a little bit to establish a reputation for a place in the public consciousness, like how the main things I associate with the City of New London are eminent domain abuse and being the one instance I have ever seen cited of a police officer being denied employment for being too smart.