Bill Clinton – Overlawyered

Federal law enforcement roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 05:11:28 +0000

Manufacturing while foreign: Holman Jenkins compares Department of Justice’s handling of General Motors case with those of Toyota and Takata [WSJ, paywall]
“Electronic surveillance by the Drug Enforcement Administration has tripled over the past 20 years, and much of that increase has involved bypassing the federal courts.” [Brad Heath, USA Today via Balko]
Sen. Hatch: criminal justice reform needs to include reform on issue of mens rea/criminal intent [John Malcolm, Daily Signal]
Clinton administration tended to embed its anti-gun gestures in its then-popular carceral-state enactments [Jesse Walker on the 12-year lull in anti-gun legislation and whether it’s ending]
New DoJ policy on corporate criminal prosecutions risks scapegoating [Thaya Knight, Cato] Despite transient surge early in Obama years, federal white-collar crime prosecutions have now fallen to 20-year low [TRAC Reports]
A legal remedy should federal law enforcers falsely malign you in a press release? Dream on [Scott Greenfield]
If you oppose high U.S. incarceration rate, but wish more corporate executives went to prison, check your premises [Matt Kaiser, Above the Law]

Tags: Bill Clinton, crime and punishment, Department of Justice, guns, mens rea, surveillance, Toyota

Federal law enforcement roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

The threat from Michigan’s Proposal 2

Walter Olson — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 04:20:00 +0000

Richard Epstein on an overreaching ballot measure that would insert labor union prerogatives into the Michigan constitution (earlier here, here). The measure is flagging in polls, despite a robo-call in favor by Bill Clinton, and has drawn opposition even from the stoutly liberal Detroit Free Press [Shikha Dalmia]

P.S. The WSJ is reminding us again about the not-wholly-unrelated battle for the Michigan Supreme Court (earlier).

Tags: Bill Clinton, labor unions, Michigan

The threat from Michigan’s Proposal 2 is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Never let law profs near the Oval Office”

Walter Olson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:33:33 +0000

My Cato colleague Gene Healy points out that President Obama is the fourth chief executive who also taught constitutional law, joining William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson and Bill Clinton. “Taft did comparatively little damage, but the rest hardly inspire confidence that familiarity with constitutional scholarship encourages fidelity to the national charter.” [Washington Examiner] He lets me have a parting shot:

My Cato Institute colleague Walter Olson, author of “Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America”, explains that “legal academia rewards cleverness in coming up with strained arguments for ideologically favored (or just expedient) positions; marginalizes as eccentric thinkers who favor original understanding as a guide” to the Constitution and often reduces law to “politics by other means.”

Unfortunately, that training has served Obama well.

Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, constitutional law, law schools

“Never let law profs near the Oval Office” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Claim: Clinton offered Baron seat on Supreme Court

Walter Olson — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:41:30 +0000

Andrew Baron at DemBot, writing on his father, Fred Baron, the late Texas tort lawyer and John Edwards benefactor who was a frequent mentionee on this site (e.g.):

With the strong support of my dad, after Bill Clinton out-raised and then defeated incumbent George Bush Sr., Clinton offered to nominate my dad to become a Supreme Court Judge. My dad actually considered it and even spent a couple of days shadowing one to see what the day-to-day activity was like. He just wasn’t interested. Plus, he would be required to sell his law firm. He told me that it was actually a pretty boring job.

The younger Baron’s piece is worth reading in its entirety for insights into the role and results of political fund-raising.

Tags: Bill Clinton, Fred Baron, Supreme Court

Claim: Clinton offered Baron seat on Supreme Court is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 19 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:16:07 +0000

Plaintiff in case alleging defective clown shoes “does not want any additional publicity” [N.Y. Post via Lowering the Bar]
Santa Fe’s anti-wireless activists [The New Mexican, earlier]
Law vs. vaccines, cont’d: “Judge Declines to Upset $22.5 Million Jury Award in Polio Case” [NYLJ]
Arizona high court launches probe of Maricopa County prosecutor Andrew Thomas [Coyote, earlier]
“Innumerable histronics” but no conspiracy: litigation over 1996 Filegate scandal fizzles out [Althouse]
More boosts in regulators’ budgets [Roger Clegg, NRO, OFCCP employment regulation at federal contractors; Koehler, FCPA Professor] Obama’s putting in regulatory hardliners at many agencies; a clue to his politics? [Bainbridge, Judis/TNR]
If only they’d confine themselves to suing the actual bad actors in FACTA (credit-card-slip) and junk-fax litigation [Bart T. Murphy, Chicago Business Ledger; my ’06 take]
So may bullies ever fare: sanctions set against company that sued BoingBoing for libel [“MagicJack” case and more]

Tags: Arizona, Bill Clinton, FACTA, libel slander and defamation, New Mexico, sanctions, vaccines

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

“It’s for – what’s it called?” “Pain and suffering”

Walter Olson — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:57:38 +0000

A new book on the Paula Jones/Bill Clinton legal mess [Janet Maslin, New York Times; my views back when]

Tags: Bill Clinton, harassment law

“It’s for – what’s it called?” “Pain and suffering” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system