Duke lacrosse – Overlawyered

Campus climate roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 04:05:40 +0000

Madness at Harvard Law School: “This is an occupation,” so activist group Reclaim HLS gets to take down posters it disagrees with [The Crimson; Harvard Law Record (“Barlow said that one protestor told him that if he wanted to post a sign, he could attend Reclaim’s plenary meetings and vote with them about whether or not certain speech should be approved. But he could not, he was told, post a sign without prior approval from Reclaim.”); Avrahm Berkowitz/The Observer]
“Refraining from hand gestures which denote disagreement” is part of Edinburgh University safe space policy, and now a student leader is in trouble for allegedly raising her arms to indicate disagreement as well as shaking her head in a seeming “no”; while disputing its application to her own action she continues to defend the rule itself [Huffington Post UK]
“Or in which candidates were dismissed because of their association with conservative or libertarian institutions.” [John Hasnas, Wall Street Journal on faculty ideological diversity] Plus: conversation between Tyler Cowen and Jonathan Haidt;
Which campus environment provides a fairer process for accused students: Duke in 2006, or Yale today? [KC Johnson; more, Ashe Schow/Washington Examiner (Michigan, Berkeley)] Federal judge blasts Brandeis over Title IX process in “kissing sleeping boyfriend” case [Steve Miller/Independent Gay Forum, KC Johnson/Storify]
Student militants storm Berkeley stage intent on silencing Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich [Robby Soave: Reason, The Daily Beast]
The Ford Foundation, which has done so much to transform academia, is profiled along with president Darren Walker [Larissa MacFarquhar, New Yorker; my critical view of Ford] Funding postmodern feminist glaciology: “Has it become the National Science and Other Ways of Knowing Foundation?” [Jerry Coyne]

Tags: colleges and universities, Duke lacrosse, Ford Foundation, Harvard, political correctness, Title IX

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

Goodbye, Durham-in-Wonderland

Walter Olson — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 13:11:50 +0000

KC Johnson is closing his definitive blog on the Duke lacrosse case and its aftermath, and reflects on it all in this final essay.

Tags: colleges and universities, Duke lacrosse, legal blogs

Goodbye, Durham-in-Wonderland is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Schools roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 29 May 2014 04:05:30 +0000

California voters thought they’d reined in don’t-hurry-on-English “bilingual” instruction methods, but legislators have other ideas [Steven Greenhut, San Diego Union-Tribune]
“Report: Too Much Regulation Is Hurting Scientists” [Inside Higher Ed via Instapundit; two earlier federal surveys “found principal investigators spend 42 percent of their time on administrative tasks”]
This should end well: Mayor de Blasio hands keys to NYC school system over to teacher’s federation [NY Daily News]
“How the Media Again Failed on the Duke Lacrosse Story” [KC Johnson and Stuart Taylor, Jr.]
Chicago: “Teacher Shows Kids Carpentry Tools, Gets Suspended on ‘Weapons’ Charge” [Lenore Skenazy, Free-Range Kids]
On school discipline and zero tolerance, Eric Holder draws the wrong lessons [Hans Bader, CEI “Open Market”] “Prior problem behavior accounts for the racial gap in school suspensions” [Wright et al., Journal of Criminal Justice, PDF]
“The little secret of public higher ed: it’s a massive transfer of wealth from lower to upper classes” [Roger Pilon, 2Paragraphs]

Tags: California, colleges and universities, Duke lacrosse, NYC, school discipline, science and scientists, zero tolerance

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

Duke subpoenas KC Johnson

Walter Olson — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:26:54 +0000

The academic writer and blogger, co-author with Stuart Taylor Jr. of Until Proven Innocent, has long been a thorn in the Duke administration’s side over its conduct in the lacrosse case. The university has been fighting in court to force Johnson to hand over emails and correspondence that it says it needs to defend other litigation, and some of its informational demands have been very broad indeed. Too broad? [Johnson, Durham-in-Wonderland]

Update March 6, that was fast: Duke backs down.

Tags: bloggers and the law, Duke lacrosse, subpoenas

Duke subpoenas KC Johnson is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

A Stuart Taylor, Jr. archive

Walter Olson — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:45:22 +0000

The author, reporter, and legal commentator has just posted a nicely designed online archive of his work, often linked in this space.

Tags: Duke lacrosse, Supreme Court, workplace

A Stuart Taylor, Jr. archive is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:16:13 +0000

Popehat’s Ken to the rescue after Maine lawyer/lawmaker assists naturopath in bullying critical blogger [Popehat]
Newt’s “patriotism made me stray” among highlights of the year in blame-shifting [Jacob Sullum]
Nifong sidekick, now in a spot of legal bother himself, hits back with lawsuit [K C Johnson, Durham in Wonderland]
Shareholder action: “Delaware approves $285 Million in Plaintiffs’ Lawyers’ Fees” [Bainbridge, WSJ Deal Journal, WSJ Law Blog]
“Even one death is too many — WE MUST BAN NETI POTS!” [NYDN via Christopher Tozzo]
Debatable premise of Joe Nocera analysis on Stephen Glass case: bar admission turn-down = “rest of his life … destroyed” [NYT, Howard Wasserman/Prawfs, earlier]
Who says Connecticut never reforms liability? Towns won protection last year from some recreation-land tort exposure [CFPA, earlier here, here]

Tags: bar associations, bloggers and the law, Connecticut, Delaware, Duke lacrosse, recreation, safety

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

“38 lacrosse players sue Duke University”

Walter Olson — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:34:11 +0000

Inevitably so? Maybe not. As longterm readers will recall, we were early and vocal among those calling attention to the legal travesty that was the Nifong prosecution, but it’s quite a jump from there to the proposition that the taxpayers of Durham, the university and its president Richard Brodhead personally should fork over money for emotional distress damages to, say, students never prosecuted at all and family members, who comprise the plaintiffs in this new case. (Kristen M. Daum, Newsday, Feb. 21; Bob Van Voris, “Duke Lacrosse Players to Sue School Over Rape Probe”, Bloomberg, Feb. 21; Malkin). The plaintiffs have a website here. (Corrected to fix misstatement on identity of plaintiffs. And broken link now fixed).

More: James Taranto at the WSJ quotes the Raleigh News & Observer under the heading “Yoo Hoo! Over Here! Ignore Us Please!”:

*** QUOTE ***The latest Duke lacrosse suit got off to a big start Thursday with publicists, lawyers of national renown, a media blitz at the National Press Club and a lawsuit with its own Web site.

The 38 members of the 2006 Duke lacrosse team who filed the suit in federal court say their reputations were damaged by their association to an escort service dancer’s phony gang-rape allegations.

The players chose not to appear at the news conference, said Bob Bork Jr., the group’s hired publicist, because they don’t want to attract attention.

*** END QUOTE ***

If they didn’t want to attract attention, it might have made more sense not to call a press conference. Or, if they had already called it and felt they had no choice but to go through with it, maybe they could have created a diversion by having a stripper show up or something.

The News & Observer also notes at the end of its article:

Only three members of the 2006 team have not filed suit — Matt Zash, a former captain; Matt Danowski, the current coach’s son, and Kevin Mayer.

And more: Bob Bork, Jr. writes to say he was misquoted in the News & Observer report, and says the following is a transcript of what he did say about the players’ absence:

One final comment before we start. None of the 38 players who are filing this lawsuit are here today. They considered participating, but many have jobs and some are still students and lacrosse team members at Duke. One is in Army Ranger school preparing to deploy to Iraq.

Know this — the players are united behind this lawsuit. At the same time that they are understandably concerned about retribution and slanderous media coverage. Who can blame them after what they endured for 13 months in 2006 and 2007. They are walking a fine line between trying to live normal lives in the wake of an unspeakable trauma and at the same time trying to get answers to questions that remain unanswered by their university.

Tags: Duke lacrosse, emotional distress, libel slander and defamation, schools, sports

“38 lacrosse players sue Duke University” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Hiring strippers at Duke

Walter Olson — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:54:32 +0000

The lacrosse players’ problem was that they just didn’t do it the right way (Stuart Taylor, Jr., “The University Has No Clothes”, National Journal, Feb. 11)(will rotate off free site).

Tags: Duke lacrosse, sports

Hiring strippers at Duke is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Nifong/Lacrosse update

David Nieporent — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:47:29 +0000

Former Durham prosecutor Mike Nifong, railroader of the Duke Lacrosse 3, was found guilty of contempt of court and sentenced to one day in jail; this punishment is for lying to the trial court about the existence of DNA evidence. He reported to jail today to serve his sentence. He has already been disbarred, of course.

Next to come is the players’ civil suit, though that money is unfortunately going to come from the taxpayers of Durham rather than from Nifong. The players are attempting to negotiate a settlement before filing their suit; they’re reportedly seeking $30 million, plus changes to the legal process to allegedly prevent the district attorney from hijacking a police investigation the way Nifong did. They intend to file suit within a month if the city doesn’t settle. (AP, Herald-Sun)

And then there’s this little tidbit:

Durham’s Police Department, which helped Nifong secure the indictments, has also come under criticism. A special committee probing police handling of the case stopped working last month, however, because the city’s liability insurance provider warned that the committee’s conclusions could provide material for lawsuits.

At this point, if we were Bizarro-Overlawyered I’d be rambling about “Profits over People” or something, but since we’re not, I’ll just point out that it simply demonstrates the perverse incentives of the legal system and its unbounded discovery rules. As long as everything you put on paper can be used against you — even in hindsight — then the incentive is not to put it on paper. (Of course, I’m not suggesting that the specific wrongdoing in Durham was only obvious in hindsight; people like K.C. Johnson figured it out right away. But the incentives are the same in every case.)

Tags: crime and punishment, Duke lacrosse, ethics

Nifong/Lacrosse update is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Until Proven Innocent”

Walter Olson — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 09:22:45 +0000

The much awaited new book on the Duke lacrosse rape case is now out; authors Stuart Taylor, Jr. and K.C. Johnson need no introduction to readers of this site. More: Instapundit, Jeralyn Merritt, Abigail Thernstrom in WSJ.

Tags: crime and punishment, Duke lacrosse

“Until Proven Innocent” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system