More reader correspondence appears on our letters page. Among topics this time: guess the magic word in accounts of the Kelo v. New London case; what should you do when you’re a “client” in a class action that doesn’t reflect your views?; motes and beams on law firm diversity; and a Norwegian lawyer writes in to talk about how law is different in his country, one factor being loser-pays.
Author Archive
A thought on fast-food regulation
ABC’s John Stossel, writing in his weekly column (“Who’s really open?”, syndicated/TownHall, Jul. 13):
I did have had a wonderful time on Air America’s “Morning Sedition,” with a host who was furious that government doesn’t stop Americans from eating too many Big Macs. I treasure the moment of silence that followed my saying that government that’s big enough to tell you what to eat … is government big enough to tell you with whom you can have sex.
Suing the web’s archivist
The Internet Archive, home of the celebrated Wayback Machine which allows researchers to examine the state of the World Wide Web as it stood in the past, is being sued by a Pennsylvania company for archiving its pages without consent. After all, capturing someone’s web presence for posterity is kind of like taking a photograph of them and thereby stealing their soul, or something like that. (Tom Zeller Jr., “Keeper of Expired Web Pages Is Sued Because Archive Was Used in Another Suit”, New York Times, Jul. 13)(via Bashman).
Native Hawaiian tribal recognition
Michelle Malkin has the latest (Jul. 12).
NAACP to pursue reparations claims
“Absolutely, we will be pursuing reparations from companies that have historical ties to slavery and engaging all parties to come to the table,” says the group’s interim president, Dennis C. Hayes. The definition of historical ties is conveniently elastic, too:
James Lide, director of the international division at History Associates Inc., a Rockville firm that researches old records, said determining how many U.S. businesses are linked to slavery depends upon definition.
Almost every business has at least an indirect link to slavery, he said. For example, some railroad and Southern utility companies can trace their roots to businesses that used slave labor. Textile companies, for example, use cotton that was grown on Southern plantations.
“There’s never going to be a solid number because the idea of how you connect a company to slavery is more a political one than a historical one,” Mr. Lide said.
(Brian DeBose, “NAACP to target private business”, Washington Times, Jul. 12). Ironically or otherwise, large American businesses — including some of the same ones targeted in the reparations demands — are already the NAACP’s biggest source of financial support. “We will take your money today,” said Hayes, “and sue you tomorrow.” (Greg Barrett and Kelly Brewington, “Corporate Funding Raises Ethical Questions For NAACP”, Baltimore Sun, Dec. 13, 2004). More on reparations: Jun. 10 (again), Jul. 7, Jul. 9 and many more.
“Hockey mom wants daughter allowed in boys’ change room”
In Lumby, British Columbia, soccer mom Jane Emlyn is pursuing a complaint with the province’s Human Rights Tribunal saying “female minor hockey players’ rights are violated when they’re forced to use separate changing rooms.”
According to Al Berg, a member of the B.C. association’s coaching committee, the policy was introduced in January 2001 by Hockey Canada, after a Human Rights Commission mediation session in Ontario. It states players over the age of 11 of different gender are not allowed to change in the same room at the same time. The policy came as a result of increased female participation on integrated teams.
Ms. Emlyn, whose 14-year-old daughter Jewel plays on the Lumby Stars with two other girls, says a more gender-equitable policy would be to separate the sexes only for actual showering; at other times the boys would stay in boxer shorts and the girls in equivalent top-and-bottom skivvies. “A similar policy was introduced in New Brunswick last October, after the Human Rights Commission ruled a 14-year-old female player had her rights violated when she was forced to change separately.” According to Ms. Emlyn, “most of the youngsters on the team say they’re fine with mixed changing rooms”. (Lori-Anne Charlton, Vancouver Province/Canada.com, Jul. 11).
Landlords liable for permitting smoking?
Anti-smoking activists are crowing over a ruling upholding a Boston landlord’s eviction of tenants for smoking within a rented condominium unit. The court’s ruling itself was not necessarily unreasonable, since other residents had complained about the tenants’ habit and the landlord said he was facing condominium association fines of $75/day if he let it persist. Note, however, the following passage:
In the face of an increasing number of nonsmoking tenants who are willing to assert their rights in multiple-unit dwellings, a growing number of property owners will choose to make their apartments and condos smoke-free, said [landlord Neil] Harwood’s attorney, Peter Brooks, a partner in the Boston office of Chicago’s Seyfarth Shaw.
A new issue is the liability of landlords for allowing smoking in their building and the additional risks they face, Brooks said.
“Those who want to avoid it will turn nonsmoking, not just in an eviction case, but a case against a landlord brought by a nonsmoking tenant.”
And of course GWU lawprof and perennial antipode of this site John Banzhaf gets his say:
“Ten years ago, most people would assume that smoking in one’s own abode — their apartment or condo — would be protected and nothing could be done about it, like the ‘old man in his castle’ idea,” Banzhaf said.
But that concept has been eroded by several cases, Banzhaf noted, including orders prohibiting parents from smoking around their children or foster children, and court rulings that secondhand smoke entering one’s home is actionable if it adversely affects others.
(Stefanie Shaffer, “Mass. Court Upholds Eviction of Condo Tenants for Smoking”, National Law Journal, Jul. 8).
Paul Krugman on obesity, cont’d
The Times columnist’s paternalist rants, of which we took unfavorable notice on Friday, have run into a buzzsaw of scathing commentary around the blogosphere, notably from QandO (“Government Into Our Kitchens!”), Will Baude, and KipEsquire.
The myth of the Pinto case
No discussion of the modern litigation system seems to be complete without a reference to the Ford Pinto and the supposed “smoking-gun” memo found in the automaker’s files. As Newmark’s Door observes (Jul. 11), the myth was long ago refuted, but it lives on endlessly in public discussion anyway, perhaps because many fans of expansive product liability find it too good to check. We’ve commented on it a number of times in the past — here, for instance (see final paragraphs).
Judge: radio hosts’ talk must be reported as campaign contribution
In a decision some critics said could threaten press rights, a Washington state judge ruled last week that two radio hosts’ on-air comments promoting an anti-gas-tax initiative should be considered in-kind campaign contributions.
Thurston County Superior Judge Christopher Wickham on July 1 ordered sponsors of Initiative 912 to report the value of comments by KVI Radio talk-show hosts John Carlson and Kirby Wilbur.
Lawyers for NoNewGasTax.com, which is sponsoring the initiative, said the ruling would have a chilling effect on political commentary and editorials in the news media. They said an appeal was possible.
(“Radio hosts’ on-air backing must be reported as campaign donation”, AP/First Amendment Center, Jul. 7; Brad Shannon, “Ruling throws media for a curve”, Jul. 10). The Seattle Times expressed alarm at the decision (“In support of free speech, and KVI” (editorial), Jul. 8) while the Post-Intelligencer, incredibly, applauded it (“Gas-tax Talk: Jabber over journalism” (editorial), Jul. 6). For more on campaign finance law vs. free speech, see Jun. 14 and links from there. More: Michelle Malkin, Jul. 9 and Jul. 12; Ryan Sager, “The ‘Shut-’em-up’ Reform”, New York Post, Jul. 12.