At trial, New Hampshire preacher Terry Karr used a cane, saying he could no longer stand for long periods after his slip-fall at a California motor inn. But the jury found against him after the defense produced a videotape “of Karr at the pulpit, shaking both fists in the air and moving about excitedly throughout a sermon.” (Julie O’Shea, “Candid camera”, The Recorder, Jul. 5).
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
More boilerplate in lawyers’ emails
Willy Wonka as defendant
Batman and The Incredibles aren’t the only ones who might want to worry about being taken to court over their astounding feats. (Christine Hurt, The Conglomerate, Jul. 24; scroll down for a comment from Ted).
TrackBack mostly suspended
Until early this year, TrackBack spam was not a problem for this site. Now it’s risen in volume to hundreds per day, outrunning the willingness of our hosting service, Verio, to support the resulting burdens on its servers. As part of the steps needed to resolve yesterday’s technical crisis, we’ve unfortunately had to disable TrackBack for older posts site-wide. We hope to make an exception for some new posts, but even on those it will probably stay open for no more than a few days.
It may be hoped that eventual improvements to Movable Type will admit the legitimate TrackBacks while screening out the rest, bringing us closer to that day when the drug sites cease from spamming and the hold’ems ping no more. In the mean time, Technorati (when operational) remains a reasonably current way of seeing who’s been discussing our posts, and site owners that link to our posts should consider dropping us a contemporaneous email to let us know (editor at [this-domain-name] or tedfrank at [this-domain-name]), which affords us the clearest shot at installing a manual linkback should we decide to go that route.
Technical difficulties
For the past 24 hours+ the site has labored under technical difficulties which prevented new posting and also disabled internal site functions such as search. These functions are back up again, but the situation is not yet stable and it looks like I’ll be scrambling for a bit to get the site’s technical aspects on a sounder basis.
Incidentally, if the internal site search stops functioning again at a time when the site itself is accessible, try this Google-search link.
Wisconsin ADA suits, cont’d
The Appleton Post-Crescent has now completed publishing its investigation of the Ms. Wheelchair America pageant, including the pageant’s apparent role in client recruitment strategies for the Florida-based law firm of Schwartz Zweben & Associates (see “Behind a pageant, busy lawyers”, Jul. 21). The overall series roundup can be found here; among the more topical stories in the series are “Law firm’s ties to pageant”, Jul. 16 (firm filed 54 lawsuits on behalf of Jaclyn Kratzer, Ms. Wheelchair Pennsylvania 2003, and 37 lawsuits on behalf of Jeri Wasco, coordinator of the Ms. Wheelchair Washington D.C. pageant); J.E. Espino, “Businesses settle suits out of court”, Jul. 17, and Ed Lowe, “Local lawsuits trigger debate over ADA compliance”, Jul. 24 (quotes me on the question of whether serial complainants were just really unlucky or went out in search of reasons to sue).
Federal tobacco suit update
In the federal tobacco suit (Jun. 21, Jun. 13), the government has asked the Supreme Court to overrule the D.C. Circuit and give the government the legal authority to pursue $280 billion in a disgorgement remedy. There’s very little chance the Court will take the interlocutory appeal. (Eric Lichtblau, “U.S. Seeks Higher Damages in Tobacco Industry Suit”, NY Times, Jul. 19); SCOTUSblog, Jul. 18; certiorari petition). Meanwhile, Judge Gladys Kessler has taken the unusual (and questionable) step of permitting “public-interest” groups to intervene in the case and take over the government’s argument for damages, which is perhaps a clue where she stands on the litigation, leaving open the question of whether the D.C. Circuit will countenance the result. (Mark Kaufman, “A Late Twist in the Tobacco Case”, Washington Post, Jul. 23; motion to intervene).
Kids’ do-not-email registries
New laws that went into effect in Michigan and Utah at the beginning of the month could open up substantial and surprising areas of civil and criminal liability for entities that put out email newsletters, critics say. The laws authorize parents, guardians and others to enroll minors’ email addresses in new do-not-mail registries; after 30 days’ listing, it becomes illegal for anyone to send material unsuitable to minors to such addresses even at the account holder’s request. Among material that has in various contexts been tagged as unsuitable to minors are sites such as Salon.com and discussions of various controversial public issues. (Declan McCullagh, “Why ribaldry could earn you prison time”, News.com, Jun. 27). According to one commentator, an email may be unlawful if it merely contains a link to a third party site (such as a newspaper’s or magazine’s website) which in turn displays advertising for beer, wine, betting or other products and services that are off limits to minors. (Paul Collins, “New Michigan and Utah Child Protection Registry Laws”, spamfo.co.uk, Jun. 29). Already, libertarian feminist author and FoxNews.com commentator Wendy McElroy has suspended publication of her email newsletter, citing fear of liability under the new laws (“Suspension of Emailed Ifeminist Newsletter”, History News Network/Liberty & Power, Jul. 13)(via Tom Palmer). It is contemplated that maintainers of email newsletters that wish to retain the right to discuss or link to liquor/gambling/off-color content will purchase match/purge services on a monthly basis from the registrars of the do-not-mail lists, but such cross-checking will require the payment of fees as well as raising troubling privacy questions. For details of how entrepreneurial Utah law firms have seized on earlier anti-spam legislation to generate mass litigation against legitimate businesses in that state, see my Reason Online article, “You May Already Be a Loser”, Dec. 8, 2003.
Update: suing the goal post maker
Updating our Sept. 30, 2003 item: an attorney for Andrew Bourne of Liberty, Ind., says his client will appeal a recent court ruling that found that a manufacturer of goal posts, Connecticut-based Gilman Gear, is not responsible for injuries Bourne sustained when his fellow Ball State students toppled a goal post after a 2001 football victory. (Brian Zimmerman, “Paralyzed man will appeal ruling”, Richmond (Ind.) Palladium-Item, Jul. 23).
“Erototoxins” as next tobacco
Judith Reisman, a peripheral yet oddly influential figure in social-conservative circles who is perhaps best known for her attacks on the late sex researcher Dr. Alfred Kinsey, has taken up a new cause: proving that exposure to pornography causes the release of injurious “erototoxins” in the human brain. Reports Britain’s Guardian:
Under the auspices of Utah’s Lighted Candle Society (LCS), Reisman and Victor Cline, a clinical psychologist at the University of Utah, began raising money from American conservative and religious organisations. They hope to raise at least $3m to conduct MRI scans on victims under the influence of porn and so prove their theories correct. They foresee two possible outcomes: if they can demonstrate that porn physically “damages” the brain, that might open the floodgates for “big tobacco”-style lawsuits against porn publishers and distributors; second, and more insidiously, if porn can be shown to “subvert cognition” and affect the parts of the brain involved in reasoning and speech, then “these toxic media should be legally outlawed, as is all other toxic waste, and eliminated from our societal structure”.
(Mark Pilkington, “Sex on the brain”, Jul. 14). Rogier Van Bakel (Nobody’s Business) has much more on Reisman (Jul. 21). (& welcome Andrew Sullivan, Instapundit readers).