Next Monday sister site Point of Law will be hosting Blawg Review #56, the weekly traveling carnival which rounds up some of the best recent law-related blog writing. If you’d like to nominate a post from your own or someone else’s blog, you’ll need to do so by Saturday evening. The submissions guidelines are here, and you can submit posts here.
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Chicago foie gras II
Stephen Bainbridge and the Los Angeles Times (h/t W.F.) go into more detail on the Chicago ban we covered last week.
“Hollywood’s Most Litigious Assistants”
Gawker Media LA-blog Defamer has an entertaining cease-and-desist letter sent to a site that ranked photos of assistants on a hotness scale.
Banzhaf’s Sue-O-Matic
Such a collegial guy to have around a faculty, that Prof. Banzhaf:
Students at the George Washington University may now be able to sue administrators individually for perceived wrong-doings rather than attempt legal action against the University as a whole, with the help of a new legal tactic suggested by maverick GW Law professor John Banzhaf.
Using the District of Columbia’s Human Rights Act as support, Banzhaf created a website, banzhaf.net/fightback, to educate students on how they can sue individual GW administrators and professors without the institutional legal protection the University typically provides. …
“If you could download a simple complaint (form) from the Internet and go after not the University but the individual administrator who made the decision, I think you’ve got leverage,” said Banzhaf.
(Christine Grimaldi and Emily Metz, “Prof: students can sue individual administrators”, Daily Colonial, Apr. 17). Last week, administrators at GWU announced that they were reversing an earlier stand and capitulating to a demand by Banzhaf and various students to post signs discouraging persons from smoking near entrances to the university’s campus in an urbanized section of Washington, D.C. (Katie Rooney, “GW to post signs asking smokers to back off from buildings”, GW Hatchet, Apr. 24). Banzhaf naturally takes credit:
“It was only after I initially threatened to sue him [college director of risk management and insurance Fitzroy Smith] personally and sent a draft complaint to University lawyers, did they agree to revise signs over all the campus buildings,” said Banzhaf…
If appropriate signs are not up by the beginning of the Fall 2006 semester, Banzhaf and his law students “will file the complaint, which would make Mr. Smith liable for tens of thousands of dollars plus my attorney fees,” said Banzhaf in a letter released on Friday.
Banzhaf plans to seek $100 for every student exposed to second-hand smoke while entering University buildings from January until the signs are up….
“At this point I hope they do it right,” said Banzhaf. “I’m not kidding around.”
(Brittany Levine, “GW concedes to smoking ban petition”, Daily Colonial, Apr. 24).
For more on Prof. Banzhaf, whose activities regularly furnish material for this site, see Feb. 28 and links from there. An absurdly laudatory editorial about him in the university newspaper states: “As a professor of public interest law here at GW, Banzhaf has become most notable for his class on ‘Legal Activism,’ also informally known as ‘suing for credit.’ His class teaches students to become public interest lawyers while giving them real experience.” (“GW’s own legal powerhouse”, Apr. 20).
UK animal cruelty prosecution
Another animal rights story from Britain: “A policeman who put an injured cat out of its misery after it had been run over was dragged through the courts by the RSPCA in a case that has cost £50,000.” The High Court finally threw out the case against Jonathan Bell, who had been the target of a two-year campaign of prosecution by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. (Ben Leapman and Matthew Chapman, “Two years and £50,000 later, ordeal of policeman who put dying cat out of its misery is finally over”, Daily Telegraph, Apr. 9).
Antibias law vs. free conscience, again
In suburban Washington, D.C., Bono Film and Video has an announced policy of refusing to duplicate material that owner Tim Bono regards as contrary to his Christian values. Now the Arlington County (Va.) Human Rights Commission has held a public hearing and investigated Bono on charges that he discriminated against Lilli Vincenz by refusing to duplicate her Gay Pride videos. (Hans Bader, Open Market (Competitive Enterprise Institute), Apr. 28; Nancy Yamada, “Discriminated Against Because She’s Gay?”, WUSA, Mar. 9; LiberRants, Mar. 13; Robin Sizemore, Apr. 27). Various social-conservative pressure groups have taken up Bono’s cause, and this would appear to be one of those instances where they have a point. Update Jun. 18: charges dropped.
“Tortilla tossing missed”
“For some Fiesta revelers who love the madcap irreverence of Cornyation, it just isn’t the same event without the flying tortillas.” A San Antonio tradition for the past 15 years, the flinging of the circular staples of Tex-Mex cuisine among the audience was halted this year because of a you-know-what. (Lisa Marie Gómez, San Antonio Express-News, Apr. 27). Strange in San Antonio has more (Apr. 27). On the throwing of sacks of peanuts to the audience at Boston’s Fenway Park, see May 8, 2000.
Lied about her age to get into wet T-shirt contest
Not only that, but she assumed the whirring video cameras were just for onlookers’ personal use. Certainly she wasn’t expecting the spring break footage to turn up in commercially available compilations. So Monica Pippin is now extracting legal settlements from entities including Playboy and Anheuser-Busch; however, the Daytona Beach hotel at which the contest took place objects to being sued on the grounds that it “had no role in producing or distributing the videos and did not profit from them”. (Kevin Graham, “Lawsuit says video exploits teen’s naivete”, St. Petersburg Times, Apr. 28). Similar: Sept. 28-30, 2001; Mar. 6-7, 2002.
Site outages
Like many other blogs, Overlawyered was down for much of Friday because of a DOS (denial-of-service) attack aimed at our hosting service, Hosting Matters. Michelle Malkin has some details, here and here. More: Webloggin has some observations about the nature of the DOS attack, while Dad29 proffers an Overlawyered-centric explanation for the whole affair.
Dept. of Intimidating the Little Guy: Maine Board of Tourism
Lance Dutson of the Maine Web Report had the temerity to note that an expensive advertising agency published a phone-sex number instead of the correct line for the Maine Office of Tourism. For this, and other criticisms, Warren Kremer Paino Advertising is suing Dutson for millions. The plaintiff’s lawyer is Portland attorney Alfred Frawley III, who alleges that an opinion that a state agency is “pissing away” money is legally actionable. Dutson has numerous links for this ludicrous lawsuit. Greenberg Traurig is once again stepping up to protect free speech in defense, in conjunction with the Media Bloggers Association. (via Lattman)