legislature – Overlawyered

The groaning Christmas tree that is the virus economic response bill

Walter Olson — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 04:05:57 +0000

Omnibus legislation laying out a federal response to the economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has been stalled because of demands to add a variety of provisions including pro-union revisions to labor law, relief for owners of cruise lines, clean energy subsidies, and much more. Ted Frank has screenshots on “pay equity” and corporate board quotas provisions and also discusses the anti-stock-buyback campaign, while Rachel Bovard has screenshots on provisions on same-day voter registration, airline greenhouse gases, wider use of minority-owned banks and credit unions, a Post Office bailout, and requirements that beneficiary companies incorporate diversity offices into their management. David Boaz of Cato writes: “This is emergency legislation to deal with an extraordinary and unprecedented situation. …Congress should insist on a bill narrowly tailored to address the current crisis, not another sprawling lobbyists’ spectacular.”

Also related to the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts, here is a very fine new piece by Arnold Kling, an economist who understands both cost-benefit analysis and exponential contagious spread. And Alex Tabarrok argues that despite demands that the President invoke the Defense Production Act, the best course is to work with markets to meet medical supply needs rather than attempt a switch to command and control.

Tags: COVID-19 virus, legislature, Senate, U.S. House of Representatives

The groaning Christmas tree that is the virus economic response bill is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

State lawmakers introduce anti-free-speech bills as a “courtesy.” Courtesy to whom?

Walter Olson — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 04:05:37 +0000

“The executive director of the [Rhode Island] ACLU called the bill a ‘direct attack’ on press freedom, while the head of the newspaper association called it ‘laughable and frightening.'” So how’d it get introduced? My Tuesday piece at Cato inquires.

Tags: free speech, legislature, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, WO writings

State lawmakers introduce anti-free-speech bills as a “courtesy.” Courtesy to whom? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“The Golden Rule of Laws”

Walter Olson — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 04:05:32 +0000

Court-packing schemes have something in common with passing a municipal resolution to label one’s political adversaries “domestic terrorists”: their proponents, as David Boaz has observed, tend not to ask “What if my opponents had this power?” Eric Turkewitz expands on the idea in a post:

This is as good a time as any to discuss the Golden Rule of Laws. This rule states that when you want to use some legal maneuver to attack “the other side” ask yourself how “the other side” could likewise use it.

Tags: judicial nominations, legislature

“The Golden Rule of Laws” 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

Critics call Kansas legislative process opaque

Walter Olson — Sun, 26 Nov 2017 17:03:10 +0000

“Kansas’ legislative process is among the least transparent in the country, often cutting the public out of debates and making it difficult for constituents to track bills, let alone determine who sponsored them.” A popular tactic is the “gut-and-go,” in which a bill is sent to the floor with its original content deleted and unrelated matter substituted, which can result in the bringing to a quick floor vote of legislation that has bypassed the committee hearing process and public attention. The maneuver turns up in some other states as well, under nicknames like “gut and stuff” and “gut and amend.”

Also: “In Kansas, unlike most other states, nearly all the laws passed stem from bills whose authors are anonymous. All but six of the 104 bills that became law this year — a whopping 94 percent — were introduced by committees, with no sponsors identified. That means Kansans don’t know who pushed the measures and why.” [Judy L. Thomas and Bryan Lowry, Kansas City Star]

Tags: Kansas, legislature

Critics call Kansas legislative process opaque is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“The £400,000 comma”

Walter Olson — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 04:05:46 +0000

Is it a true story? It is at the least a widely circulated old story that many persons would have been in a position to correct if untrue. Here is a 1928 version [via Jot 101]

Solicitors in their private practice have evolved a language of their own, which weird though it may be, is seldom open to the reproach of obscurity. Very wisely they discard punctuations almost completely. They know that the omission or use of a comma in a legal document can be dangerous. A comma once cost the United States Government £400,000. It was nearly fifty years ago that the United States Congress in drafting a Tariff Bill enumerated in one section the articles to be left free of duty. Amongst these were “all foreign fruit-plants”. The copying clerk in his wisdom removed the hyphen and substituted for it a comma, making the clause read “all foreign fruit, plants, etc.” It took a year to rectify the error, and during that period all oranges, bananas, grapes, and other foreign fruits were admitted free of duty with the big loss to the State already mentioned…

Here’s another reference to the story, and many more can be found at this search.

Tags: free trade, humor, legislature

“The £400,000 comma” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Reading legislation in a chipmunk voice

Walter Olson — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 10:15:29 +0000

To slow down a bill’s passage, opponents can demand that it be read on the floor in full. But who said anything about how fast? [Jacob Gershman, WSJ Law Blog on Mississippi case; Salem Statesman-Journal on Oregon]

Tags: legislature, Mississippi, Oregon

Reading legislation in a chipmunk voice is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Alabama: state judge enjoins legislature from sending education bill to governor

Walter Olson — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 16:57:42 +0000

Can courts even do that? Both houses of the Alabama legislature passed a measure called House Bill 84 revamping education policy; the state teachers’ union, the Alabama Education Association, went to court with a challenge; and Montgomery Circuit Judge Charles Price issued an injunction forbidding the Clerk of the House from enrolling the bill for the signature of Gov. Robert Bentley, who has said he would sign it. The AEA argued that lawmakers violated the state Open Meetings Act in the course of bringing the bill to passage. Republican lawmakers are appealing the judge’s action to the state supreme court; presumably they’ll argue for the old principle that equity will not enjoin legislative acts, even if it can enjoin legislation from taking effect once it is signed. [WAFF, more] Further: some background on the education bill from Jeff Poor at the Daily Caller.

Tags: Alabama, legislature

Alabama: state judge enjoins legislature from sending education bill to governor is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“When Bad Things Happen to (Supposedly) Good Legislation”

Walter Olson — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:36:39 +0000

Warren Meyer (Coyote Blog) advances a typology of failed lawmaking. [Forbes]

Tags: legislature

“When Bad Things Happen to (Supposedly) Good Legislation” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Blue-ribbon excuses: shoplifting California lawmaker

Walter Olson — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:01:45 +0000

Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi (D-Hayward), who chairs the Committee on Business, Professions and Consumer Protection, has “pleaded no contest to charges that she tried to walk off with $2,500 in clothes.” [L.A. Times via Amy Alkon] “Hayashi spokesman Sam Singer has called the incident ‘a mistake and a misunderstanding.'” [Dublin Patch, KGO] “Hayashi’s attorney, Douglas Rappaport, told reporters that the lawmaker is taking medication for a benign brain tumor and that the ailment may have been responsible for her behavior.” But that doesn’t mean she’ll be taking a medical leave from her duties: according to her attorney, the tumor “is being treated with medication and no longer affects her,” reports the Sacramento Bee, which continues in a skeptical vein: “Medical experts said Monday that it is very rare, however, for a brain tumor that does not require surgery to influence behavior so significantly.” “I am confident that with the close of these proceedings, she will continue to ably serve her constituents with the same talent and passion she has displayed throughout her time in office,” wrote Assembly Speaker John Pérez in a supportive statement.

Tags: blue-ribbon excuses, California, legislature

Blue-ribbon excuses: shoplifting California lawmaker is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system