- Man who shot dogs sues blogger whose critical account of episode allegedly put him in false light [Christopher Comins v. Matthew Frederick VanVoorhis, Florida, Citizen Media Law; Greenfield (free speech attorney Marc Randazza assisting VanVoorhis)]
- Appeals court revives Pennsylvania couple’s trespass suit against Google over Google Street View pics of their home and pool [Legal Intelligencer, ABA Journal]
- “Rich Guy Sues to Keep $380/Month Rent on Park Ave.” [Gothamist]
- “Think Davis-Bacon on steroids” — Obamaites mull SEIU-driven “High Road” policy to push federal contractors into union practices [Daily Caller, Michael Fox via PoL]
- Federal judge’s 49-page sanctions order blasts Adorno & Yoss, two lawyers and client over bad faith conduct of trade dress suit [Fulton County Daily Report]
- “Terrorist who killed US medic wants C$10 million from Canadian taxpayers” [CanWest/Canada.com via David Frum]
- “Massachusetts Woman Sues Real Estate Broker over Second-Hand Smoke in Condo” [Somin, Volokh; case settles]
- “Our litigation process encourages radical polarization” — part II of Q&A with author Philip Howard [WSJ Law Blog, link to part I]
Posts Tagged ‘labor unions’
New at Point of Law
Things you’re missing if you’re not reading my other site:
- Federal judge tosses city of Baltimore’s case blaming its neighborhood blight on subprime lenders, but Memphis files a similar suit;
- “The catchall fraud law that catches too much”: Roger Parloff of Fortune on “honest services”;
- Moonlighting: New York state senate majority leader John Sampson joins large plaintiff’s firm in “of counsel” position, an arrangement long held by his counterpart at the New York capitol, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver;
- “Trial lawyers association outlines its 2010 legislative agenda,” Montana Gov. Schweitzer to address AAJ Maui convention, “Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, the legal angle” [all from Carter Wood]
- Biggest obstacle to juvenile corrections reform? Prison guards’ unions;
- “Investor Who Backed Unsuccessful Lawsuit is Liable for Defendants’ Legal Fees“;
- A Twombly/Iqbal debate — and the harms of liberal pleading;
- U.S. Chamber’s “Top Five Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2009″ (and many other tops-of-2009 lists).
John Endean, “Canadianized Labor Law?” (Forbes)
New at Forbes.com: John Endean has an important article demonstrating that while American unionists seek to use Canada’s pro-union labor laws as a model for their proposed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), they seldom mention that Canadians themselves have found it advisable to rethink and retreat from some of those laws. It’s a condensed adaptation of a paper that will soon be published here as the first in a planned Manhattan Institute series on labor policy. Check it out here (cross-posted from Point of Law).
“Domain bullying”
Via David Post at Volokh, a nastygram sent by the American Federation of Teachers to the critical site AFTExposed.com. More: Ron Coleman, Likelihood of Confusion.
New at Point of Law
Things you’re missing if you’re not keeping up with my other site:
- Judge dismisses much-watched Kivalina suit demanding damages for Inuit village from global warming;
- Supreme Court will tackle controversial doctrine of “honest services fraud”;
- Class action lawyer Sean Coffey [Bernstein Litovitz] may run for New York attorney general;
- Not even a hearing before Senate confirms OSHA nominee David Michaels?
- Law firm pay-to-play in representing New York public pension funds. And Spitzer: let’s use public pension funds to annihilate the U.S. Chamber;
- When Teamster librarians signal you to be quiet, you’d better be quiet, understand? And Connecticut orders utilities not to lay off workers.
Hey, those stimulus bucks were supposed to be for our jobs!
Rochester teachers threaten to sue over the city’s budget cuts [Democrat & Chronicle] And having taken the king’s stimulus shilling, California finds it is no longer free to cut the pay of the king’s powerful retainers, in the form of SEIU members [Los Angeles Times via J.G. Thayer, Commentary]
More: A followup from the L.A. Times.
Teacher tenure: “Failure gets a pass”
Having been critical of the Los Angeles Times yesterday, let me accord all due credit to the paper for its investigative series on the near-impossibility of firing teachers in L.A. The district has spent more than $2 million, for example, trying to get rid of Matthew Kim, a special ed teacher accused of harassing teenagers and colleagues who has been collecting full salary for seven years without actually teaching. One underlying problem: “Kids don’t have a union.” Bloggers react: Ken @ Popehat, Mickey Kaus, Amy Alkon, Brian Doherty. Meanwhile, reports Seyward Darby in the New Republic (via Nick Gillespie), “About 1,400 teachers in New York City are receiving full salaries and benefits even though they don’t have permanent jobs. Two hundred and five of them have been without full-time work for three years. And they can continue receiving payments indefinitely even if they never secure new positions.” It’s called the Absent Teacher Reserve.
The Chrysler haircut
Larry Ribstein has some pertinent comments about the rolling reinvention of debtor-creditor law going on as the Administration redistributes bankruptcy priorities away from traditional creditors and toward the UAW. And Mickey Kaus credits me with perhaps more prescience than I actually possess about the union role (not that I always venture the cynical prediction…)(cross-posted from Point of Law). More: Michael Barone, Ken Silber.
P.S. Joe Weisenthal is reminded of an episode of lawlessness that I wrote about a few months back: “Before The Chrysler Mess, There Was Republic Windows”. Incidentally, those who wonder what sort of signals the incoming Administration was sending last December about the illegal Chicago plant occupation may be interested to learn that late last month Vice President Joe Biden and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin paid a visit to the reopened Republic Windows plant, a visit which from a news account sounds as if it might fairly be described as “triumphal” in tone.
New at Point of Law
If you’re not reading my other legal site, Point of Law, here’s some of what you’re missing:
- Taft-Hartley and the secret ballot in union-representation elections, part of a new category on labor law;
- Also, a new category on international law and international human rights law with coverage of such topics as the Harold Koh nomination, other lawprofs joining the Obama administration, the Alien Tort statute, the proposed Spanish prosecution of Bush administration lawyers, and piracy and international law;
- One form of executive pay they don’t care to limit: Senate rejects proposed $50 million ceiling on bounties paid to informants (“relators”) in federal whistleblowing suits;
- Pay-for-play in state drug-recoupment litigation: Pennsylvania, New Mexico furors just the start of much more to come;
- We’ve heard the line, “Want less litigation after the fact? Then support more regulation before the fact.” Here’s one of many reasons to take that with a grain of salt;
- “File case in Texas. Take plaintiff deposition. Dismiss case, and refile in California.” Asbestos litigation has some of the best forum-shopping gamesmanship;
- Plaintiff’s lawyers in California spent more than $4.1 million in that state’s 2007-2008 election cycle;
- Miranda warnings for company counsel?
Annals of transparency
Good sleuthing by Carter at Point of Law and ShopFloor: President Obama the other day issued a much-noted new executive order expanding the legal powers of labor unions. When you check the metadata on the PDF, who do you think turns up as the document’s original author?