alcohol – Overlawyered

COVID-19 pandemic roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 10:11:16 +0000

“However peaceable we might be in our intentions, our assembling is a physical threat. Our judgments about liberty, I think, need to reflect that.” [Eugene Volokh on freedom of assembly during an epidemic] Suits against quarantine seldom prevail [Chris Dolmetsch and Malathi Nayak, Bloomberg/Claims Journal] Quarantine and public health measures set important precedents in overcoming judges’ suspicion of delegations of power [Keith Whittington]
If the federal government decided it wanted to block movement between different states to combat virus transmission, where would it get the legal authority, and what means could it lawfully use? [Gene Healy, Cato] The constitutional background on freedom to travel, as well as search and seizure, during an epidemic [Volokh]
“The common law also appears not to be a good alternative. One can imagine the litigation nightmare if everyone who got the virus attempted to identify and sue some defendant for damages.” [Tim Brennan, Truth on the Market]
Cracking down on putatively deceptive accounting practices, SEC penalized “‘bill-and-hold’ transaction orders in which a product is not immediately delivered to its customer.” And that was terrible news for anyone in the business of trying to build public health stockpiles — of vaccines, equipment, PPE — that might be needed in a contagious-disease emergency [John Berlau, CEI] Better than compulsory purchase orders: “Using Purchase Guarantees and Targeted Deregulation to Boost Production of Essential Medical Equipment” [Caleb Watney and Alec Stapp, Mercatus Center]
Flashpoints include drive-in services, curfews, ID and quarantine of churchgoers: “Religious Freedom Clashes With Public Health Enforcers” [Elizabeth Nolan Brown]
“FDA Denaturing Rules Are Toxic for Small Distillers” [Jacob Grier]

Tags: accounting, alcohol, constitutional law, COVID-19 virus, FDA, Securities and Exchange Commission, vaccines

COVID-19 pandemic roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Get Out of My Bedroom, Andrew Cuomo!”

Walter Olson — Sun, 23 Feb 2020 17:05:29 +0000

In the name of fighting patriarchy, the law is taking some seriously wrong turns on the subject of sex while under the influence of alcohol, writes Nancy Rommelmann. “From now on, you will not be the ultimate arbiter of your own bad or good choices, at least not without fear of prosecution….We are talking ipso facto being considered incapable of giving consent due to having consumed alcohol.” [Tablet]

Tags: alcohol, New York, sexual assault

“Get Out of My Bedroom, Andrew Cuomo!” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

The seamy side of the recovery industry — and how the law enables it

Walter Olson — Thu, 19 Dec 2019 10:58:17 +0000

Lengthy exposé of abuses and money-chasing in the drug- and alcohol-recovery industry has many angles, some relating to the legal environment in which the abuses arise: “We kept hearing about people with substance-use disorder being exploited by bad actors who take advantage of well-intended federal laws, like the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Affordable Care Act, and that they keep them in an endless pattern of relapse to siphon off their insurance benefits.” [Colton Wooten, The New Yorker]

Tags: alcohol, disabled rights, illegal drugs, opioids

The seamy side of the recovery industry — and how the law enables it is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Public health roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 27 Nov 2019 11:02:06 +0000

After a crackdown on saloon drinking backed by Theodore Roosevelt and others, creative New Yorkers opened 1500 new “hotels” and complied with rules linking alcohol to food by serving desiccated sandwiches meant not to be eaten [Darrell Hartman, Atlas Obscura on Raines Law]
“‘The evidence is very, very strong that there’s a powerful potential health benefit if you can’t get people to quit entirely, to get them to switch from cigarette smoking to vaping,’ Olson said.” [Scott McClallen, Center Square] Here comes Massachusetts to make things worse [Jeffrey Singer]
If you suppose that transcontinental air travel is worsening the risk of global pandemics, then you may suppose erroneously [Johan Norberg “Dead Wrong” video]
Zoning will not bring slimness: “Fast-Food Bans Are a Dumb Idea That Won’t Die” [Baylen Linnekin] Having a supermarket enter a food desert has at best a minor effect on healthy eating [Hunt Allcott et al., Quarterly Journal of Economics, earlier]
The imperialism of public health: wealth inequality, affordable housing declared topics for action by the public health profession [Petrie-Flom]
“From the 1910s through the 1950s, and in some places into the 1960s and 1970s, tens of thousands — perhaps hundreds of thousands — of American women were detained and forcibly examined for STIs…. If the women tested positive, U.S. officials locked them away in penal institutions with no due process….. During World War II, the American Civil Liberties Union not only failed to oppose the Plan; its founder, Roger Baldwin, sent a memorandum encouraging its local branches to cooperate with officials enforcing it.” [Scott W. Stern, History.com]
Public health campaign against arsenic-tainted wells in Bangladesh appears to have inadvertently increased child mortality in places where alternative was surface water, which is more likely to carry microbial contamination [Nina Buchmann, Erica M. Field, Rachel Glennerster, & Reshmaan N. Hussam, Cato Research Briefs in Economic Policy No. 180]

Tags: airlines, alcohol, land use and zoning, public health, tobacco

Public health roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

September 25 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 10:01:55 +0000

“Small claims court for copyright” idea, now moving rapidly through Congress, could create a new business model for troll claimants [Mike Masnick, TechDirt; EFF on CASE Act] A contrasting view: Robert VerBruggen, NR;
“If Boston is weirdly NOT full of good restaurant/bar/cafes for its size, and if people don’t want to stay after they hit 26 or so, these throttled [liquor] licenses are one of the real structural reasons why.” [Amanda Katz Twitter thread]
Push in California underway to join a trend I warned of five years ago, namely states’ enacting laws to encourage tax informants with a share of the loot [McDermott Will and Emery, National Law Review]
Baltimore food truck rule challenge, single-member districts, sexting prosecution, and more in my new Free State Notes roundup;
“For years the Westchester County DA, Jeanine Pirro, now a Fox News host who opines on justice, rejected Deskovic’s requests to compare the DNA evidence against a criminal database. Deskovic was not exonerated until 2006, after he had served 16 years” [Jacob Sullum, Reason]
Come again? “Louisville judge rules Kentucky speed limit laws unconstitutional” [Marcus Green, WDRB]

Tags: alcohol, Baltimore, Boston, copyright, Kentucky, Maryland, restaurants, taxes, traffic laws

September 25 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

October 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 03 Oct 2018 09:58:20 +0000

“Rejected Applicant Sues Law Schools for Violating Magna Carta” [Kevin Underhill, Lowering the Bar]
“Attorney sued for malpractice is suspended after releasing client’s psychiatric records” [Stephanie Francis Ward, ABA Journal]
Moving state and local alcohol regulation past the bootlegger/Baptist era [Cato Daily Podcast with Jeremy Horpedahl]
In Charlottesville today? I’ll be on a University of Virginia School of Law panel discussing redistricting / gerrymandering reform, campaign and election law, Maryland politics and more [Ele(Q)t Project]
Rejecting ADA claim, Georgia Supreme Court says man cannot blame sleep apnea for “alleged inability to be truthful, accurate, and forthcoming” in bar application [Legal Profession Blog]
Update: after national outcry, county D.A. in North Carolina drops charges of unlicensed veterinary practice against Good Samaritan who took in pets during Hurricane Florence [Wilson Times]

Tags: alcohol, animal shelters, beer and brewers, disabled rights, disasters, live in person, North Carolina, redistricting reform

October 3 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

About that “no level of alcohol drinking is safe” study

Walter Olson — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 10:20:51 +0000

How much risk did that recent “no level of alcohol drinking is safe” study find? For the one-drink-per-day group, “a total of 400,000 bottles of gin [was] associated with one extra health problem.” [David Spiegelhalter via Flowing Data] If one of those bottles should happen to fall, 399,999 bottles of gin on the wall…

Tags: alcohol, public health

About that “no level of alcohol drinking is safe” study is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Liability roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 10:05:53 +0000

Florida law firm that served drinks isn’t responsible for death of employee who walked home intoxicated and was hit by train [Florida appeals court, Salerno v. Del Mar Financial Service]
Family speaks out after local motels hit with Scott Johnson ADA suits [Allison Levitsky, Palo Alto (Calif.) Daily Post first and second posts]
“When third-party funders weigh in on settlements, they may pressure plaintiffs and their attorneys to settle early” to make Wall Street numbers [Matthew Goldstein and Jessica Silver-Greenberg, New York Times] More/related: Miles Weiss, Bloomberg on George Soros involvement; Chris Bryant and Federalist Society teleforum with Travis Lenkner and John Beisner on proposed amendments to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to require disclosure of litigation financing arrangements;
Phone-answering for dollars: “Man who has filed at least 83 TCPA lawsuits loses one in Tennessee court” [John O’Brien, Legal Newsline, earlier] “RICO case settled with TCPA firm accused of teaching former students to avoid paying loans by suing” [same]
“The science on a link between talcum powder and cancer is uncertain” which didn’t keep Mark Lanier from scoring a $4.69 billion win in a St. Louis case [Jonathan D. Rockoff and Sara Randazzo, Wall Street Journal/Morningstar, Tim Bross, Margaret Cronin Fisk, and Jef Feeley, Bloomberg and related Fisk 2016 (“Welcome to St. Louis, the New Hot Spot for Litigation Tourists”), Reuters and more]
“Trio of Soda Cases Test the Limits of Attorney-Driven Class Action Lawsuits” [Jeffrey B. Margulies, WLF]

Tags: ADA filing mills, alcohol, Bay Area, cellphones, litigation finance, product liability, soft drinks

Liability roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Can sex be mutually nonconsensual?”

Walter Olson — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 04:05:41 +0000

“Male and female student have a drunken hookup. He wakes up, terrified she’s going to file a sexual misconduct complaint, so he goes to the Title IX office and beats her to the punch. She is found guilty and suspended.” [Caitlin Flanagan, The Atlantic quoting Robby Soave, Reason on University of Cincinnati case]

Tags: alcohol, Title IX

“Can sex be mutually nonconsensual?” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Backdoor regulation of consumers, and its political attractions

Walter Olson — Mon, 21 May 2018 04:05:23 +0000

Government often makes a show of regulating business when its real aim is to regulate what consumers or citizens do. When direct coercion seems “brutal, unfair, and wrong… Switching to indirect coercion is a shrewd way for government to sedate our moral intuition.” Some examples that come to mind: campaigns that at base aim to regulate consumers’ eating and drinking choices instead often take the form of campaigns against manufacturers and sellers of food and drink, who as targets are inevitably less humanized and sympathetic. [Bryan Caplan]

Tags: alcohol, nanny state, obesity

Backdoor regulation of consumers, and its political attractions is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system