May 2 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 02 May 2008 04:03:02 +0000

Contriving to give Sheldon Silver the moral high ground: NY judges steamed at lack of raises are retaliating against Albany lawmakers’ law firms [NY Post and editorial. More: Turkewitz.]
When strong laws prove weak: Britain’s many layers of land use control seem futile against determined builders of gypsy encampments [Telegraph]
“U.S. patent chief: applications up, quality down” [EETimes]
Plenty of willing takers for those 4,703 new cars that survived the listing-ship near-disaster, but Mazda destroyed them instead [WSJ]
“Prof. Dohrn [for] Attorney General and Rev. Wright [for] Secretary of State”? So hard to tell when left-leaning lawprof Brian Leiter is kidding and when he’s not [Leiter Reports]
Yet another hard-disk-capacity class action settlement, $900K to Strange & Carpenter [Creative HDD MP3 Player; earlier. More: Sullum, Reason “Hit and Run”.]
Filipino ship whistleblowers’ case: judge slashes Texas attorney’s fee, “calling the lawyer’s attempt to bill his clients nearly $300,000 ‘unethically excessive.'” [Boston Globe, earlier]
RFK Jr. Watch: America’s Most Irresponsible Public Figure® endorses Oklahoma poultry litigation [Legal NewsLine]
Just what the budget-strapped state needs: NY lawmakers earmark funds for three (3) new law schools [NY Post editorial; PoL first, second posts, Greenfield]
In Indiana, IUPUI administrators back off: it wasn’t racial harassment after all for student-employee to read a historical book on fight against Klan [FIRE; earlier]
Fiesta Cornyation in San Antonio just isn’t the same without the flying tortillas [two years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: attorneys general, attorneys' fees, Barack Obama, gypsies, harmless lawsuits, Indiana, law schools, Massachusetts, Mazda, New York, Oklahoma, patent quality, political correctness, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., roundups, Sheldon Silver

May 2 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Speechcrime at Scottish newspapers

Walter Olson — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 04:23:22 +0000

A newspaper in Barrhead, Renfrewshire, Scotland, “is the subject of a racial complaint being investigated by police. It follows a page one article headed Gypsy Fear,” in which the paper, the Barrhead News, claimed the town “could be swamped by gypsies from across Europe” following the establishment of a local encampment by French travellers. (Iain Wilson, “Racist complaint against newspaper”, The Herald (Glasgow), Aug. 11). And a second law enforcement action against published speechcrime has progressed farther than the mere investigation stage:

Alan Buchan, editor of North East Weekly, a free paper based in Peterhead, was recently charged under the Public Order Act, which gives the police powers to arrest anyone whom they suspect of publishing or distributing written material that is threatening, abusive, or insulting and intended to stir up racial hatred.

His paper published an editorial headlined “Perverts and Refugees” which said that a massive refugee camp could be built in the region and highlighted perceived local concerns about what this might mean for the community.

He is scheduled to appear at Peterhead Sheriff Court on September 1.

Buchan says his arrest “harks back to the activities of the old USSR”. (Guy Dixon and Terry Murden, “MediaFile” (second item), The Scotsman, Aug. 14)(via Norvell)

Tags: gypsies, hate speech, newspapers, Scotland

Speechcrime at Scottish newspapers is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

gypsies – Overlawyered

May 2 roundup

Speechcrime at Scottish newspapers