- Adios to Rum and Coke? “FDA, FTC crack down on caffeinated alcoholic drinks” [WaPo]
- Flap over Justice Alito’s attendance at conservative magazine’s dinner may be much ado about nothing [Steele, Legal Ethics Forum]
- “Cops Threaten Mom for Letting [8 Year Old] Son Play Outside” [Free-Range Kids]
- Contrary to some assertions, American courts from early on did recognize that tort liability could run into First Amendment constitutional limits [Eugene Volokh, Iowa Law Review, PDF]
- Woman pleads guilty to insurance fraud after obtaining $300,000 over low-speed auto collision [Seattle P-I]
- Well-known examples to the contrary, regulation doesn’t always favor big business against small [Bryan Caplan]
- Should “professional plaintiffs” have standing? [Brandon Murrill, William & Mary Law Review, PDF]
- Blonds not protected class under federal employment discrimination law, judge declares [six years ago on Overlawyered]
Author Archive
“Girls named Zoe lose suit against Renault for naming electric car Zoe”
A lawyer sued on behalf of two girls named Zoe Renault, but a French judge ruled the claim out of bounds absent proof that “the car name would cause the girls “certain, direct and current harm.” [USA Today]
Paycheck Fairness Act: a “nonsensical” lawsuit-trap
I’ve got a new post at Cato at Liberty on one of the worst measures under consideration in the lame-duck Congress.
P.S. So extreme is the bill, notes Carter Wood, that even the Boston Globe is editorially critical.
Claim: Huffington Post built on swiped business model
Politico reports on a lawsuit that doesn’t much impress Ann Althouse.
DOTSec: Let’s disable cellphones in cars
Sacrificing not only passenger convenience, but also important elements of emergency response and crime prevention, to the Government That Knows Best: “Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said using a cell phone while driving is so dangerous that devices may soon be installed in cars to forcibly stop drivers — and potentially anyone else in the vehicle — from using them.” [Daily Caller, earlier] Post-furor update: DOT “currently has no plans” to do this.
High school sports booster clubs
A new Department of Education Title IX settlement casts a shadow on their fundraising efforts, reports the College Sports Council: “When they talk about ‘adverse’ effects, what they really mean is that boys sports have an easier time raising money from boosters than girls sports.”
Safer that way
A British town replaces an outdoor fireworks show with indoor images of fireworks on a projector screen, prompting critics to warn of a “cotton-wool culture” of child overprotection [Free-Range Kids]
“Lawsuits have cost Atlantic City $39 million in just 10 years”
That includes $14 million in payouts to defense lawyers, many of whom have close ties to local politicians, and $25 million to claimants, a figure that “dwarfs what area municipalities and larger cities including Camden and Trenton have paid, and nearly equals payouts in Newark, where the population is eight times larger than Atlantic City.” The casino town’s population is 35,000. [Press of Atlantic City]
Driver sues parents of teen he killed
Waterbury, Ct.: “A driver who’s serving a manslaughter sentence for striking and killing a 14-year-old boy is suing the victim’s parents, blaming them for their son’s death because they allowed him to ride his bike in the street without a helmet.” The hand-penned countersuit comes in response to the parents’ suit; it’s unlikely to help the inmate’s case that prosecutors say he was driving 83 in a 45 mph zone, a claim he denies, or that he had a history of drunk driving convictions. [Hartford Courant]
Schools for Misrule galleys are here
I’m delighted to announce that bound galleys of my forthcoming book on legal academia, Schools for Misrule, arrived last week from Encounter Books. Both Encounter and the Cato Institute have a limited number of these available for potential reviewers or others who may write about the book and its themes. (Or inquire about an advance PDF copy if you’re in this position.) And I’m further delighted to report that some blush-makingly favorable blurbs have already come in from well-known public figures and opinion makers who’ve had an advance look at the contents. I’ll share some of them in the weeks ahead.
Even before getting a copy of the book, law-blogger extraordinaire and leading corporate law scholar Prof. Stephen Bainbridge of UCLA did a wonderful post (thanks!) in which he called Overlawyered “one of the great voices in tort reform” and added, “I’ve preordered a copy from Amazon and am really looking forward to reading what I am sure will be an important critique of my chosen profession.” You can pre-order too.