- “Sioux split on suit seeking money for Black Hills” [Associated Press]
- More on nomination of Mothers Against Drunk Driving CEO to head highway safety agency [Balko, see also comments on earlier post]
- Push by advocates in Congress to extend shakedown-enabling Community Reinvestment Act to all financial institutions [Victoria McGrane, Politico] And some numbers from Bank of America raise doubts about those oft-heard “CRA default rates lower than regular default rates” assertions [Weisenthal, Business Insider]
- Illinois attorney general Madigan to Craigslist: purge vice ads or I’ll see you in court [L.A. Times]
- Here and there, acknowledgments in the press of the damaging effects of laws entrenching auto dealers against termination [L.A. Times via Craig Newmark]
- How many people get arrested for “contempt of cop”? [Coyote Blog] Blogosphere has helped spread awareness of police-abuse issues [Greenfield]
- Virginia Postrel: I told you so on that light bulb ban story [earlier]
- U.K. law reform panel: “charlatan” and “biased” expert witnesses put defendants at risk of wrongful conviction [Times Online]
Posts Tagged ‘Indian tribes’
Federalist Society Western Conference this weekend
This Saturday at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, near L.A., the Federalist Society will be holding its all-day third annual Western Conference. This time the theme is the law of American Indians and Indian tribes, a topic of immense intellectual interest and also of much practical importance to non-Indians through much of the rural West, in localities nationwide where casino development rouses controversy, and even, as I have pointed out in a couple of articles, to complete bystanders in the East who have found their land title suddenly thrown into doubt by the revival of antiquated tribal land claims. I’m going to be a participant on one of the panels, which will feature a distinguished assemblage of law professors and others; another reason for my interest in the topic is that a chapter on Indian law figures in my book in progress on the influence of law schools on American law. More details here.
Lowering the Bar “Best of 2008”
The legal humor site has nominated its favorite stories of 2008. Among them:
- Judge denies Indian tribal immunity to supposed “Wampanoag Nation” that turns out to have been “founded in an Arby’s restaurant in Provo in 2003“;
- Colorado inmate hurt in attempted breakout claims state failed to make jail “reasonably escape-proof” (earlier);
- Australian parliament so rowdy that lawmakers asked to submit to periodic breath tests;
- EU issues noise protection rules setting decibel limit on playing of bagpipes (earlier);
- German lawmakers debate giving babies the ballot by reducing voting age to zero.
August 20 roundup
- Lawyers’ contingency fee is temptation to ethical corner-cutting in consumer debt collection, too [Miami Daily Business Review, Popehat; Orlando’s Palmer Reifler & Associates, mass mailing of demand letters to accused shoplifters]
- Discussion continues on loser-pays with me and many others at NewTalk, and note comment from Ontario lawyer [through today]
- Age bias suit by Hollywood writers gains traction. Next, actors? [Ink Slingers via Class Action Blawg weekly review]
- Class action against Quebec lottery on behalf of problem gamblers finally set for trial [CP/Yahoo, Lee Distad via Class Action Blawg, earlier]
- Should we and other commentators avoid mentioning litigants’ real names so as not to intrude on their Google legacy? [comments at Ron Miller/Md. Injury]
- California lawmakers OK feel-good “Donda West Law” but it won’t do much to keep impulsive clients from rushing into plastic surgery [GruntDoc, Cameron Turner/EURWeb, Truth in Cosmetic Surgery Blog]
- Probably not a swift career move for lawyer to tell bar disciplinary panel “Go to hell.” [ABA Journal]
- Class action forces HUD to allocate more to some Indian recipients, so it cuts other programs, bad news for North Carolina’s Lumbee tribe [Fayetteville, N.C. Observer courtesy US Chamber]
- Environmental authorities won’t press charges against man who shot protected rattlesnake that had just attacked and bitten him [eight years ago on Overlawyered]
August 19 roundup
- Two topics of recent interest on the site — cremation and service monkeys — together in one post [The Urn Garden]
- Please don’t tell us an aggressive stance by music copyright holders is going to kill Pandora radio, one of the bright stars of the Internet [WaPo, more]
- “Citizens in Chains: The High Cost of Prisoner Lawsuits to California Taxpayers” [CALA, PDF]
- Navajo plaintiffs: spraying artificial snow on our sacred mountain is spiritually injurious [Volokh]
- Remember those anti-poverty non-profit groups that were going to represent the culmination of John Edwards’ life work, aside from running for you-know-what? Him neither [Silverstein, Harper’s via Folo]
- Toxic tort class action in Saudi Arabia proves unsuccessful [Arab News]
- Fending off patent trolls has been expensive for high-tech Massachusetts firm Cognex [NLJ]
- Arizona law professor’s creative denials in paternity suit have furnished faculty-lounge chuckles for years [Caron/TaxProf, Jack J. Rappeport]
- New at Point of Law: big ruckus over proposal to compel accounting projections of lawsuit exposure; guestblogger Peggy Little on Connecticut vs. Countrywide, the ABA in judicial selection and more; cy pres litigation slush funds assailed as constitutionally dubious; Trial Lawyers Inc. series tackles the state of Ohio; MBIA mulls suing hedge fund that’s sniped at its stock; more on med-mal “loss of a chance”; and much more.
Indian land claim roundup
* New Jersey: “A federal judge in Camden last week dismissed a lawsuit filed by a band of American Indians seeking to reclaim land they said the state sold out from under them more than 200 years ago. The Unalachtigo band of the Nanticoke-Lenni Lenape Nation demanded the return of 3,044 acres of the former Brotherton Reservation, which sits mostly in Shamong Township in Burlington County.” [Philadelphia Inquirer; Camden Courier-Post/Red Lake Net News, 2006 (expensive law firm of Reed Smith was representing tribal band, which was angling for casino rights)].
* A new C$550 billion land claim launched by the Whitefish Lake tribe (or “First Nation”, to adopt progressive Canadian terminology) includes the entire city of Sudbury, Ontario [Timmins Press, Sudbury Star]
* Second Circuit panel due this week to hear appeal on upstate New York Oneida claim, in which ejectment of current landowners is apparently (for the moment) off table as option [Rome [N.Y.] Sentinel; earlier on Indian land claim litigation].
“Whatever is Greek, wherever in the world, we want back.”
Why does the idea of cultural property have so many advocates? “It seems to establish a bulwark against the plunder of antiquities.” And yet how quickly it’s turned into a way of looting premodern artifacts from Western owners whose claim of title is stronger than that of foreign governments or indigenous/Indian tribes. “But if cultural property really did exist, the Enlightenment museum would be an example of it: an institution that evolved, almost uniquely, out of Western civilization. And the cultural property movement could be seen as a persistent attempt to undermine it. And take illicit possession.” (Edward Rothstein, “Antiquities, the World Is Your Homeland”, New York Times, May 27).
December 5 roundup
- Fear of “retribution” and “legal action” among reasons docs don’t report hazardous colleagues and conditions [WaPo on new Annals of Internal Medicine study]
- Judge rips Milberg for high Chiron fee proposal, questions Skadden’s conflict [The Recorder]
- Felony murder rule is an American exception with results that can be hard to defend [Liptak, NYT]
- UK: “Man broke girlfriend’s leg in damages fraud” [Times Online]
- Often driven by defensive medicine, CAT scans may pose their own risks to patients who undergo them [Newsday on NEJM study]
- Commentator is glad post offices are lawyering up their Operation Santa gift programs [McDonough, CalLaw LegalPad; earlier; possibly related]
- Quebec judge nixes suit by Concordia University mass murderer against former colleagues [Canadian Press]
- Update on Kennewick man and Indian-remains legislation [WashTimes; earlier]
- Magic of compound interest? Uncollected 1977 award for victim of Evel Knievel attack said to have mounted by now to $100 million [AP/Yahoo]
- School discipline now a heavily lawyer-driven affair [Charleston Post & Courier courtesy Common Good]
- Complaint: Cleveland housing authority should have done more renovations to accommodate extremely obese tenant [four years ago on Overlawyered]
A $50 Star-On Machine for Sneetches who wish to be Star-Bellied
Two groups claiming to be American Indian tribes are offering membership for $50. The AP report (via Hit & Run) suggests that the memberships are being sold for purposes of evading immigration laws, but no one explores the affirmative action possibilities, though Dr. Seuss anticipated such a scheme in 1961. Alas, the two groups are not federally recognized Indian tribes, so the deal is just a scam.
February 12 roundup
- Divorcing Brooklyn couple has put up sheetrock wall dividing house into his and hers [L.A. Times, AP/Newsday]
- Boston Herald appeals $2 million libel award to Judge Ernest Murphy, whom the paper had portrayed as soft on criminals (earlier: Dec. 8 and Dec. 23, 2005) [Globe via Romenesko]
- Updating Jul. 8 story: Georgia man admits he put poison in his kids’ soup in hopes of getting money from Campbell Soup Co. [AP/AccessNorthGeorgia]
- Witness talks back to lawyer at deposition [YouTube via Bainbridge, %&*#)!* language]
- Prominent UK business figure says overprotective schools producing generation of “cotton wool kids” [Telegraph]
- State agents swoop down on Montana antique store and seize roulette wheel from 1880s among other “unlicensed gambling equipment” [AP/The Missoulian]
- “You, gentlemen, are no barristers. You are just two litigators. On Long Island.” [Lat and commenter]
- Some Dutch municipalities exclude dads from town-sponsored kids’ playgroups, so as not to offend devout Muslim moms [Crooked Timber]
- As mayor, Rudy Giuliani didn’t hesitate to stand up to the greens when he thought they were wrong [Berlau @ CEI]
- Australia: funeral homes, fearing back injury claims, now discouraging the tradition of family members and friends being pallbearers [Sydney Morning Herald]
- Asserting 200-year-old defect in title, Philly’s Cozen & O’Connor represents Indian tribe in failed lawsuit laying claim to land under Binney & Smith Crayola factory [three years ago on Overlawyered]