The Denver Post and National Law Journal have more on that lawsuit by Lakewood, Colorado lawyer Charles Humphrey and New Jersey’s Gardy & Notis (Aug. 2) claiming that CBS, ESPN and other media outlets are abetting unlawful gambling by sponsoring fantasy sports games, and seeking diversion of millions in resulting revenues into the plaintiff’s own fisc. Mississippi College School of Law sports law prof Michael McCann says Humphrey’s suit lacks “moral weight”. (Joel Grostephan, “Lawyer cites 1710 law in suit”, Denver Post, Aug. 15 (via Suz at Large); Tresa Baldas, “Fantasy Sports League or Real-Life Gambling?”, National Law Journal, Aug. 21)
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
“Lawsuit: Shopping Center Aided Attacking Squirrel”
Skokie, Illinois: “A woman who says she was attacked by a squirrel after walking out of the Tiffany and Co. jewelry store at the Old Orchard Shopping Center in 2004 filed suit against the shopping center Monday, saying its employees ‘encouraged’ the squirrel’s presence by feeding it.” In her suit, Marcy Meckler says the Westfield Corp., which manages the shopping center, “was negligent in, among other things, failing ‘to warn the plaintiff of the squirrel’s presence'”. (Sun-Times/CBS2Chicago.com, Aug. 14).
“So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Good Night…”
Okay, it’s time for me to stomp my feet, grab my ball and storm off this playground in a huff…
Thanks to Walter for the invitation. Thanks to Ted for keeping it interesting. And thanks to all those who left feedback to my posts.
Once again, my blog is A Stitch in Haste. The RSS feed is here. You can email me here.
Thanks again.
Knack For Concealment?
“It turns out the trans fat secrets Colonel Sanders is keeping from his customers—information so arcane even a medical specialist cannot reasonably be expected to know it—is contained in a ‘Nutrition Guide’ on KFC’s Web site and on big, conspicuous posters in KFC outlets.” (Jacob Sullum, “The Fried Logic of Food Police”, Reason.com, Aug. 18). See Jun. 14, Jun. 20.
What You’ve Been Missing
Here is a summary of the posts from my own blog, A Stitch in Haste, that I did not cross-post here at Overlawyered…
Peace Corps Quotes of the Day
–Serving in the Peace Corps is an entirely selfish endeavor.
George Allen’s “My-Ca-Ca” Apology
–Allen is under the false impression that he is running for President in 2008.
“Afghan” — It’s Not Just Rugs and Dogs Anymore
–Hey U.S. Government, how that’s War on Drugs going?
NYC-TV = W-T-F-?
–Why does the City of New York own a commercial television station?
Shall We See a “Defense of Solar System Act”?
–Damn activist astronomers legislating from the telescope!
The Road to Bigotry is Paved With…
–Thomas Sowell gets pulled over for speeding down the Highway to Hell.
Terrorists, Wal-Mart, Whatever…
–Biden is under the false impression that he is running for President in 2008.
Town “Drug” Into Football “Deer Decoy” Scandal
–No wonder these kids think theft and reckless endangerment are no big deal.
Feel free to stop on by!
Mother’s Day Stadium Promotion: What’s “Frivolous” About It?
Regarding Walter’s post below, I’d just like to point out that the judge probably had no choice in declining to dismiss the lawsuit. Indeed, the plaintiffs may very well win.
What is often overlooked (but not by Walter) is that California has a monstrous law called the “Unruh Act” that specifically authorizes such a cause of action for what most people consider harmless, de minimis gender-based discrimination.
I’ve heard that there are California law firms that specialize in Unruh claims. I can remember back in high school watching Judge Wapner of “The People’s Court” arbitrate an Unruh claim over a “Ladies’ Night” at a California bar — the male plaintiff won.
So, we are dealing here not with a frivolous lawsuit, but with a frivolous law. Passed by frivolous politicians.
To whom, for some reason, judges are supposed to show great deference. Go figure.
Paternalism and Your Money — Part Two
In Part One, I proposed the following heuristic regarding paternalism:
To summarize, although it is not a proper function of government to proscribe “bad” decision making, perhaps a few isolated, objectively defensible carve-outs can be allowed in which the government makes it just a little bit harder to make a bad decision. Perhaps. Stated differently, a paternalist exception that actually proves the libertarian rule should probably be embraced and not shunned.
But does this qualify as such an exception?
In a payday loan transaction, the lender makes a small advance (typically $100-$500) to its customer, agreeing to hold a personal check for the loan amount plus a fee until the customer’s next payday. … The borrower receives cash immediately. Fees charged can range from $15 to $30 on each $100 advanced, although the typical fee is at the lower end of that range.
The fee may seem modest when presented as a dollar amount, but when calculated as an annual percentage rate (APR), the cost is relatively high. A charge of $15 to borrow $100 for 14 days amounts to an APR of 391%. A survey by consumer advocates found APRs on 14-day payday loans ranging from 390% to 871%.
No fewer than five separate bills were introduced in this session of Congress to limit or even ban payday loans. No fewer than four federal financial regulatory agencies, including the Federal Reserve, have launched investigations of the practice. Not to mention the states.
More on the NSA opinion
Orin Kerr and others in the Volokh Conspiracy, Jack Balkin, and Bryan Cunningham have a variety of perspectives on Judge Taylor’s NSA opinion. Orin Kerr’s December 19 post on the subject is essential.
Paternalism and Your Money — Part One
President Bush has signed H.R. 4, the Pension Protection Act of 2006, into law.
The bill is mostly sound and fury, signifying nothing. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation will be “saved,” even though we were repeatedly assured until now that there was in fact nothing to “save” it from. Private employers will be required, over time, to go from 90% funding to 100% funding of their pension plans — which is nothing more than hollow accounting gimmickry. And the real volcanoes under the city — public employee pensions — are not addressed at all. Neither of course is the Social Security crisis.
But one afterthought of the bill is worth looking at:
Employers can encourage their workers to save by automatically enrolling them 401(k) retirement accounts.
This proposal has been bouncing around for years. A good primer on the subject is available from the Congressional Research Service.
Big news day
Looking for commentary on recent developments in tobacco, Vioxx, or Katrina cases? Check our sister site, Point of Law, for extensive detailed discussion on all three, as well as Will Wilson on the perils of fifty state attorneys general negotiating Medicare fraud claims, information missing from the Wall Street Journal’s punitive damages debate, Michigan’s ban on asbestos bundled settlements, ABC’s John Stossel on the plaintiffs’ bar, and much, much more.