Giuliani speaks on litigation reform at Chamber summit

C-SPAN has the speech here. From Blog of Legal Times coverage:

Giuliani said at the Chamber’s Legal Reform Summit that almost every year he was mayor, the city’s tort bill for hospitals was $300 million because of all the malpractice lawsuits. “I would have to say without even worrying about being contradicted that half of that and more was just absolutely phony claims because we have a tort system in new York that is completely unfair, completely biased,” he said. …

As an example, Giuliani cited the case of a man who was fleeing from the police when he tripped on a pothole and became paralyzed. The man recovered a $70 million dollar settlement, he said. The number was reduced to $4 million–but it still made him the richest man his prison, he said.

Filed under: NYC, Rudolph Giuliani

Free speech roundup

Australia: after talk displeasing to authorities, popular radio host ordered to undergo “factual accuracy training” [Sydney Morning Herald]
Jenzabar loses an appeal against documentary filmmaker [Paul Alan Levy, CL&P; earlier here, etc.]
“A Few Words On Reddit, Gawker, and Anonymity” [Popehat]
Canada: “Federal Court Upholds Hate Speech Provisions in the Canadian Human Rights Act” [Yosie Saint-Cyr, Slaw] “Canadian Government Official Calls Anti-Abortion Speech Illegal ‘Bullying'” [Hans Bader, CEI, Amy Alkon]
U.N.-regulated web? No thanks [Robert McDowell, Federalist Society, earlier here, etc.]
Further thoughts from Kevin Underhill on being sued by Orly Taitz [Lowering the Bar, earlier]
U.S. State Department official: we’re not just going to roll over on this free speech business [Volokh]

Filed under: Australia, free speech, free speech in Canada, libel slander and defamation, United Nations

Note on Hurricane Sandy

With Hurricane Sandy bearing down, I expect that power and connectivity may be a challenge for me over the next few days, so I’ve set up a number of items to post automatically at Overlawyered. Be aware that comments moderation may be much slower than usual, depending on my access to communications.

Filed under: about the site

“ADA issue keeps new Metro card machines under wraps for all”

Snags for the D.C. subway system [Washington Post via @andrewmgrossman]

The first shipment of the new [SmarTrip card] machines did not have the audio and Braille features required under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But Metro thought it could roll out the machines and add the audio and Braille a couple of months later. When disability advocates raised concerns, Metro realized that going forward would violate the ADA, and the transit agency halted the rollout.

So nearly three weeks after every station was to have its own SmarTrip card dispenser, riders at nearly half of the stations in the Metrorail system are out of luck if they need to buy a card.

Riders who stay with paper Farecards are charged an extra dollar a trip.

Filed under: disabled rights, transit, Washington D.C.

“Get ready to fight the inevitable attempts to restrict food sent from home.”

I opine on the federal school lunch (and breakfast, and after-snack, and weekend and summer and vacation-feeding) program as part of a mini-symposium on food policy arranged by Baylen Linnekin at Reason. The account of New York’s surplus of school-feeding over science-education specialists is here. Related from Linnekin: “10 Federal Food-Policy Issues Obama and Romney Should Discuss.”

Also on school lunches: Calorie cap not so welcome for poorer kids ill-fed at home [Bettina Elias Siegel] And from Falun, Sweden: “Lunch lady slammed for food that is ‘too good’.” [The Local]

Filed under: school lunch

Environment roundup

Climate prof Michael Mann sues critics including National Review, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Mark Steyn, and Rand Simberg [Ken at Popehat, Scientific American, Ted Frank (noting Ars Technica’s fair-weather disapproval of SLAPP suits), Adler and more]
California polls show once-massive support for Prop 37 ebbing away; is there any major newspaper in the state that likes the measure? [L.A. Times, San Jose Mercury News, San Diego U-T; earlier here, here, etc.] Views of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on the general question of genetic modification labeling [statement, PDF] Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution refutes predictably lame views of Mark Bittman and Michael Pollan (stance tactfully assessed as “mood affiliation”) and discusses the impact on pesticide use with Greg Conko; more from WLF. At least Prop 37 has Michelle Lerach, hmmm [No on 37]
“So the two technologies most reliably and stridently opposed by the environmental movement—genetic modification and fracking—have been the two technologies that most reliably cut carbon emissions.” [Matt Ridley, WSJ]
“Texas v. EPA Litigation Scorecard” [Josiah Neeley, Texas Public Policy Foundation, PDF]
High-visibility public chemophobe Nicholas Kristof turns his garish and buzzing searchlight on formaldehyde [Angela Logomasini, CEI]
Per its terms, new ordinance in Yellow Springs, Ohio, “recognizes the legally enforceable Rights of Nature to exist and flourish. Residents of the village shall possess legal standing to enforce those rights on behalf of natural communities and ecosystems.” [Wesley Smith, NRO]
How EPA regulates without rulemaking: sue-and-settle, guidance documents, emergency powers [Ryan Young and Wayne Crews, CEI]

Filed under: animal rights, climate change, environment, Environmental Protection Agency, libel slander and defamation, Mark Bittman, oil industry, Texas

Maine Question 1, Maryland Question 6, Washington Referendum 74, Minnesota Amendment One

Voters in four states will decide same-sex marriage ballot questions on Nov. 6. As many readers know, I’ve been writing actively on the Maryland question, and those interested in catching up on that can follow the links here to find, among other things, my recent interview on the subject with the Arab news service Al-Jazeera, my thoughts on Judge Dennis Jacobs’s decision striking down Section 3 of DOMA (the federal Defense of Marriage Act), and my reaction to the other side’s “bad for children” contentions.

The Cato Institute has been doing cutting-edge work on the topic for years from a libertarian perspective; some highlights here.

Yet more: Hans Bader on religious liberty and anti-discrimination law [Examiner, CEI] And my letter to the editor in the suburban Maryland Gazette: “Civil society long ago decoupled marriage law from church doctrines.”

Filed under: Catholic Church, churches, discrimination law, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, same-sex marriage, Washington state

“Ceglia Arrested over Claims in Facebook Lawsuit”

“Paul Ceglia, who sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2010, claiming he was promised a 50% share in the social media company, was arrested on Friday. His alleged crime: doctoring, fabricating and destroying evidence to support his claims. The feds described his lawsuit as a multi-billion dollar scheme to defraud Facebook and Mr. Zuckerberg.” [Joe Palazzolo, WSJ Law Blog, Donna Tam, CNet]

Filed under: Facebook, fraud

Politics roundup

Michigan Supreme Court race: three seats at stake, including Stephen Markman’s [Charles Crumm/Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun, Collin Levy, WSJ]
Notable state attorney general races include West Virginia, Missouri, Montana [Ballotpedia, Governing; Carrie Severino, NRO] Battle of the sleazy ads in Washington race [Seattle Times]
“Fixed-income retiree” in Kaine ad turns out to be well-connected Virginia trial lawyer [Paul Bedard, Washington Examiner ] “33% of settlements is a fixed income, in a way” [Chris DeRose]
Federal free-cellphone scheme enriches some political influentials [Washington Free Beacon]
History of judicial elections in the US: rethinking the received account [Stuart Banner, Jotwell, on Jed Shugerman]
After election, expect renewed push for limits on campaign spending [Ira Stoll]
John Roberts’ doing? “Supreme Court not top campaign issue,” didn’t come up at debates [USA Today] Do libertarians fare better with Republican presidents’ Supreme Court picks, or just libertarian lawprofs? [Bernstein, Radia, etc.]

Filed under: attorneys general, cellphones, John Roberts, judicial elections, Michigan, Virginia, Washington state

If a massive storm KO’s turnout in the Northeast…

…it’ll probably be the first time a lot of folks grasp one of the solid advantages of the Electoral College over a national popular vote system. (Background on the approaching Hurricane Sandy: “And with some trees still leafy and the potential for snow, power outages could last to Election Day, some meteorologists fear.”)

More: Derek Muller reviews Tara Ross, “Enlightened Democracy: The Case for the Electoral College” [Law and Liberty]

Filed under: politics