Even the disgraced White House hopeful deserves better than to be tripped up by slippery and undefined campaign-finance laws, argues Mickey Kaus (at the Daily Caller, new home of Kausfiles).
Author Archive
U.K.: “Roadblocks set up to catch drivers smoking”
Authorities in Essex say they will check ashtrays and impose fines over smoking in company cars and commercial vehicles, which has been banned in England since 2007. [Telegraph via Stuttaford, NRO] We may need to develop a new terminology here: was Nanny herself ever so bossy and intrusive?
If you drink more than 1000 cans of cola a day…
… you may want to know more about the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s “caramel coloring” cancer scare (earlier). Pediatric Insider and Abnormal Use provide some needed perspective.
“Why bad teachers survive”
A chart from the Chicago Tribune editorial opinion section on the stages needed to remove an inadequate Chicago educator.
Meanwhile, some Andrew Sullivan readers point out that contrasts between the public and private sectors can be overdone, since it can be legally troublesome for private managers, too, to fire poorly performing workers. I wrote a whole book tackling related themes some years back.
Office productivity prizes for prosecutors
Like other variations on contingency pay for those charged with enforcing the law, they sound like a really bad idea [Greenfield]
“Should Illinois require safety guardrails be placed around all bathtubs in the state?”
It’s just satire, at The Onion, for now at least.
“Law School and Leftist Orthodoxy”
In its new March issue, Commentary runs a lengthy excerpt from my new book Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America. It’s available for subscribers or for individual purchase here. Related: Mitch Kokai, John Locke Foundation.
“Parents Sue Lawyers Over Unhealthy Adopted Baby”
A couple says the infant they adopted from an Indiana birthmother in 2006 displays severe neurological deficits. They’re suing their lawyers for $5 million, saying more should have been done to warn them. [Gothamist, New York Post]
“Constitutional attacks on patent false-marking law gain traction”
I’m quoted in this report by Sheri Qualters in the National Law Journal:
The false-marking statute “tempts people to become roving bounty hunters filing suits which at least the targets often see as shakedowns for money,” Olson said.
Last month, in a case called Unique Product Solutions v. Hy-Grade Valve Inc., a different federal court (in the Northern District of Ohio) found the statute unconstitutional on the grounds that it violates the Constitution’s “Take Care” clause, the same argument I and the Cato Institute advance in our recent amicus brief.
March 3 roundup
- EU imposes unisex insurance rates [BBC, Wright]
- Law blog on the offense? TechnoLawyer asserts trademark claim against Lawyerist over “Small Law” [Lawyerist]
- “Pro-business Supreme Court” meme strikes out yet again as SCOTUS backs “cat’s-paw” bias suit theory by 8-0-2 margin [Josh Blackman, Schwartz, Fox; Lithwick locus classicus]
- Subprime CDO manager sues financial writer Michael Lewis over statements in his book The Big Short [AW, Salmon, Kennerly]
- Police in Surrey, England, deny advising garden shed owners not to use wire mesh against burglars [Volokh, earlier]
- Patterns of intimidation: protesters swarm Speaker Boehner’s private residence [Hollingsworth, Examiner] Unions fighting Wal-Mart in NYC plan actions at board members’ homes [Stoll] Report: GOP lawmakers in Wisconsin fear for personal safety [Nordlinger, NRO] White House pushing street protests [Welch, Nordlinger] Age of Civility short lived [Badger Blogger, Althouse, Sullivan]
- In clash with trial lawyers, Cuomo proposes pain and suffering limits in med-mal suits [NYDN, more: NYT] “Bloomberg looks to Texas for ideas on changing medical malpractice laws” [City Hall News]
- Hey, should we seize his drum set? Infuriating video on cop raids and forfeiture laws [Institute for Justice, Michigan]