free trade – Overlawyered

An emergency bonfire of the regulations

Walter Olson — Thu, 19 Mar 2020 10:01:49 +0000

So as to deploy medical services more effectively during the COVID-19 emergency, the Department of Health and Human Services has announced that it will forgo enforcement of rules restricting telemedicine, both by waiving HIPAA prohibitions on the use of everyday communications technologies like Skype and FaceTime, and by removing a requirement that reimburseable services be provided by the holder of an in-state license. At the same time, as I noted last week, many states have been relaxing rules prohibiting practice by out-of-state medical professionals (partial list here).

That’s part of a pattern in which governments are slashing many old regulations that they realize get in the way of crisis response and complicate the lives of ordinary citizens trying to work and shop under difficult conditions. My Cato colleague Chris Edwards links some of them in this post, including compilations by the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Americans for Tax Reform. (More: R Street Institute; Katherine Timpf, National Review. Hospitals and medical professionals aside, suspended rules include hours of service rules for truckers driving emergency medical supplies, requirements that Florida insurance agents keep public offices, rules forbidding the combined transport of food and liquor in Texas trucks, and federal standards restricting universities’ use of online classes. How many of these rules were unnecessary or unwise in the first place?

While movement of persons between communities may pose a danger during epidemics, movement of goods remains vital to prosperity and mutual exchange. Simon Lester points out in a Cato podcast that easing trade restrictions is a direct way to address difficult bottlenecks in emergency medical supplies. Relatedly, recent tariffs on medical supplies haven’t been helpful, encouraging large factories overseas to prioritize customers outside the U.S. (earlier).

In a reaction to the financial strains caused by the outbreak, the feds have been flooding the banking system with liquidity, both by relaxing regulations and through central bank operations. Cato’s Diego Zuluaga in a podcast distinguishes between liquidity objectives and (what is rightly more controversial) bailout objectives.

Tags: banks, COVID-19 virus, disasters, free trade, HIPAA, hospitals, medical, occupational licensure, regulation and its reform

An emergency bonfire of the regulations is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

COVID-19 pandemic roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 13 Mar 2020 09:56:01 +0000

Certificate-of-need laws in 38 states restrict hospital bed capacity by giving competitors a lever to object. More beds would have helped with emergency preparedness [Jeffrey Singer; more from Eric Boehm; bed crisis feared within weeks]
White House, Congress negotiate on liability-limit measure aimed at freeing up 31 million expired but usable masks; “3M and Honeywell don’t feel comfortable providing them without assurances they won’t be sued.” [Michael Wilner, McClatchy; latest on HHS proclamation] Between death, business interruption, and enormous disruption to business practice, a landscape of litigation opens up [Bob Van Voris et al., Fortune]
Proposed executive order would bar import of critical medical supplies from China, closing supposed “loophole” that could save your loved one’s life as shortages of ventilators loom [Ana Swanson, New York Times; Greta Privitera, Politico Europe on triage decisions at Italian hospitals reeling under equipment shortages]
Courts canceling jury trials as virus spreads [Eric Turkewitz] Supreme Court building closes to public until further notice;
Newark, N.J. threatens to prosecute persons who make false statements about the pandemic [Mike Masnick, TechDirt (“a masterclass in how not to deal with the problem of misinformation about the coronavirus”); Eugene Volokh (while some kinds of lies can be criminalized consistent with the First Amendment, many of those relevant here cannot]
Memo to HR: EEOC has advised “that taking the temperature of all employees may violate the ADA under some circumstances, but has indicated that the rules may change during a pandemic” [Daniel Schwartz; employee temperature checks in Singapore]

Tags: COVID-19 virus, disasters, EEOC, First Amendment, free trade, hospitals, medical, public health

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

“They’ve cut off our newsprint,” says opposition paper’s publisher

Walter Olson — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 09:59:57 +0000

It’s a longstanding hazard of state-controlled economies, especially when newsprint or other essential supplies have to be brought in from abroad and are thus subject to foreign exchange or import regulations. This time the target is Nicaragua’s historic and now embattled newspaper La Prensa, published by the Chamorro family. “The government customs office has held up La Prensa’s imports of newsprint and ink since October, according to its editors. Nicaragua’s leading daily is now a skeletal eight pages – down from 36.” [Mary Beth Sheridan, Washington Post/Laredo Morning Times]

Tags: free speech, free trade, newspapers

“They’ve cut off our newsprint,” says opposition paper’s publisher is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 10 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 10:02:55 +0000

Waco biker prosecutions — a dragnet affair in which many bystanders were hit with charges, kept in jail on unaffordable bail, and lost their jobs — end after four years with all charges dropped; many deaths resulted from police fire [Brian Doherty, Reason; earlier and more]
“Lawsuit: You did business with someone who did business with someone who committed a crime against me, so you’re also liable.” [Ted Frank describing suit against SalesForce alleging that its business management software assisted sexually oriented online business BackPage; Mike Masnick, TechDirt]
“Our waterways policy is crony capitalism disguised as patriotism” [George Will, syndicated/Atlanta Journal Constitution] “The Jones Act Fleet: High Costs and Limited Capabilities” [Colin Grabow, Cato at Liberty] More on the maritime protectionism law, all from Grabow at Cato: Sen. Mike Lee introduces repeal bill; extending the law further? counting the costs for Puerto Rico; production of new ship no cause for celebration. And on East Coast freight traffic congestion [Dan Ikenson and Colin Grabow, New York Post]
If you were born yesterday, you may be the target reader for a Gannett/USA Today and Arizona Republic piece attacking model state laws, the Goldwater Institute, and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) [critical threads by Julian Sanchez and Tim Sandefur]
On attorneys’ fees, “The English Rule and the American Rule” [Federalist Society Policy Brief video with R. Hugh Lumpkin]
Big Lawyers On Campus: “How Class-Action Lawyers Help Their Alma Maters” [James Copland, Bloomberg Opinion on cy pres practice; earlier here, here, etc.]

Tags: Arizona, cy pres, deep pocket, free trade, legislature, loser pays, prosecutorial abuse

April 10 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 16 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 10:58:05 +0000

The two new heads of the judiciary committees in the Pennsylvania legislature are nonlawyers, and the legal community appears to be fine with that [Max Mitchell, Legal Intelligencer]
Long after his downfall in one of the worst U.S. legal scandals in years, Stan Chesley was still listed as holding an honored position at a major charity until a reporter started calling [Josh Nathan-Kazis, Forward, I’m quoted; update (Chesley’s name removed)]
National security restrictions form an important part of regulatory practice these days for international business, discussed at a Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention panel with William J. Haynes II, Timothy Keeler, Randal Milch, Donald Rosenberg, and moderator Eric J. Kadel, Jr.;
How seeking government intervention backfired on Silicon Valley [Drew Clark, Cato Policy Report]
Are Baltimore schools underfunded? tales of the gun buyback, local adoption of Daubert, and more in my latest Maryland policy roundup [Free State Notes; plus redistricting updates]
“Despite Losing Its Copyright Case, The State Of Georgia Still Trying To Stop Carl Malamud From Posting Its Laws” [Mike Masnick, TechDirt, earlier]

Tags: Baltimore, copyright, Daubert, free trade, Georgia, lawyers, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Stan Chesley, technology

January 16 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

September 19 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 19 Sep 2018 10:02:32 +0000

Paradox of Jones Act: by jacking up shipping costs from mainland, it can give goods made overseas artificial price advantage [Cato Daily Podcast with Colin Grabow] Trade wars are immensely destructive, hurting producers and consumers alike, and the latest is no exception [Reuters on China retaliation]
Joel Kotkin-Michael Greve exchange on localism at Liberty and Law [Kotkin, Greve]
Government demands for encrypted data pose threat to digital privacy [Erin Dunne, D.C. Examiner]
“New York’s transportation establishment will not reduce prices to world standards as long as it can demand quintuple the world standard and get away with it” [Connor Harris, City Journal]
“The Fair Housing Act prohibits ‘making, printing, or publishing’ any ‘notice, statement, or advertisement’ with respect to ‘the sale or rental of a dwelling’ that indicates any racial preference or discrimination. Does this mean that Ohio county recorders violate the law when they maintain property records that contain unenforceable, decades-old racially restrictive covenants? Sixth Circuit: No need to answer that question, because the plaintiff doesn’t have standing.” [John Kenneth Ross, IJ “Short Circuit”, on Mason v. Adams County Recorder]
Trademark-go-round: “Monster Energy Loses Trademark Opposition With Monsta Pizza In The UK” [Timothy Geigner, TechDirt] “Disney Gets Early Loss In Trademark, Copyright Suit Against Unlicensed Birthday Party Characters” [same] “Two Georgia Sausage Companies Battle Over Trademarked Logos That Aren’t Particularly Similar” [same]

Tags: fair housing, free trade, NYC, surveillance, trademarks

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

September 5 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 09:59:32 +0000

Event barns booming as wedding venues, but some owners of traditional banquet halls want them to be subject to heavier regulation, as by requiring use of licensed bartenders [Stephanie Morse, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel]
Protectionism and smuggling in ancien regime France: “Before Drug Prohibition, There Was the War on Calico” [Virginia Postrel]
Thread unpacks “Big Ag bad, family farms good” platitudes [Sarah Taber]
“An Oklahoma judge has agreed to resign after he was accused of using his contempt powers to jail people for infractions such as leaving sunflower seeds in his courtroom and talking in court” [ABA Journal]
Update: North Carolina gerrymandering plaintiffs back off, concede impracticality of using new maps in time for upcoming election [Robert Barnes, Washington Post, earlier]
“Aretha Franklin Died Without a Will, Bequeathing Estate Issues To Her Heirs” [Caron/TaxProf]

Tags: agriculture and farming, France, free trade, judges, music and musicians, Oklahoma, redistricting reform, wills and trusts

September 5 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

August 22 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 09:58:20 +0000

Don’t: “Former lawyer is charged with stealing client identities to apply for litigation advances” [Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal; Marietta, Georgia]
“Website Access and Other ADA Title III Lawsuits Hit Record Numbers” [Minh Vu et al., Seyfarth Shaw; related, Julia Limitone, Fox; earlier] More compliance deadlines for movie theatres on captioning and audio description [Kevin Fritz, Seyfarth Shaw]
Because this damaging exercise in maritime protectionism isn’t going away, Cato has launched a Project on Jones Act Reform [earlier]
Worth keeping an eye on: proposals for “International Convention on Business and Human Rights” [Carlos Lopez, Opinio Juris, first, second posts]
Alan Reynolds on the return of antitrust [Regulation mag via David Henderson, Econlib] A guide to Regulation mag articles on antitrust over the years [Peter Van Doren] Federalist Society conference on The Antitrust Paradox [opening remarks with Hon. Makan Delrahim and Dean Reuter first, second; panel on book’s generational impact first, second; panel on current state of play first, second]
“Pro tip from the Tenth Circuit: Attorneys should tell the court if their clients die.” [Havens v. Colorado Department of Corrections via John Kenneth Ross/Short Circuit]

Tags: antitrust, don't, free trade, international human rights, movies film and videos, web accessibility

August 22 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Caught in their own wringer

Walter Olson — Fri, 27 Jul 2018 10:01:15 +0000

“American firms cheering for protectionism in the form of tariffs on their foreign competitors should be careful what they wish for. As they say, ‘What goes around comes around.’ Case in point: The American washer and dryer manufacturer Whirlpool Corp.,” which applauded tariffs on imports of washing machines and then found its own costs of production soaring when steel and aluminum imports also came under tariffs. [Veronique de Rugy, syndicated; @SoberLook on Twitter]

Tags: competition through regulation, free trade

Caught in their own wringer is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

June 20 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 20 Jun 2018 09:59:14 +0000

“Egregious” conduct: Fourth Circuit upholds $150,000 sanctions against attorneys who “challenged the authenticity of a loan agreement for two years before revealing that they possessed an identical copy, obtained from their client, before filing the complaint.” [Six v. Generations Federal Credit Union]
Food bill: Congress seems intent on not letting the public find out how well grocers do from the SNAP program [Jonathan Ellis, USA Today]
“Why Trump’s Higher Tariffs Now are Unlikely to Result in Lower Tariffs Later” [Coyote]
After 10 years, Nathan Myhrvold’s patent assertion fund idea hasn’t done so well [Nathan Vardi, Forbes]
Potential of “cottage food” laws remains unrealized [Baylen Linnekin]
Why noted regulation critic David Schoenbrod is also critical of the regulatory reform proposal known as REINS [Philip Wallach, Real Clear Policy]

Tags: eat drink and be merry, ethics, free trade, patent trolls, regulation and its reform

June 20 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system