Milwaukee – Overlawyered

“Evicted”

Walter Olson — Sat, 07 May 2016 18:39:23 +0000

Charles Sykes reviews the much-praised new Matthew Desmond book “Evicted,” based on observation of poor persons’ housing problems in Milwaukee, which advances the notion of a right to housing and (relevant to our Civil Gideon coverage over the years) a right to free anti-eviction lawyers [Commentary; more on the current full-employment-for-tenant-lawyers push]

Tags: civil gideon, landlord tenant law, Milwaukee

“Evicted” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Storefront ATF stings: Absolute Tom Foolery

Walter Olson — Sun, 30 Nov 2014 16:20:25 +0000

NPR’s This American Life digs into some bizarrely counterproductive sting tactics by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, which might have gone unchallenged had the bureau not stiffed a Milwaukee landlord badly enough to provoke him into taking his story to Journal Sentinel reporter John Diedrich. “The whole effort has resulted in some attempts to actually disband the entire ATF, which might not be such a bad idea.” BATF is part of the U.S. Department of Justice. [Mike Masnick, TechDirt citing Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and This American Life; earlier on stash house entrapment]

Tags: Department of Justice, guns, Milwaukee

Storefront ATF stings: Absolute Tom Foolery is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Crime and punishment roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 20 May 2014 04:05:35 +0000

Radley Balko weighs in on Philadelphia bodega-robbery scandal: “I want to refer to these thugs as ‘rogue cops,’ but given that [they’ve thrived] how rogue can they really be?” [Washington Post, earlier here, here, here, etc.]
Speaking of Philadelphia cops: “16 Philly police, firefighters earned more than $400,000 in overtime since ’09” [Brian X. McCrone and Emily Babay, Philly.com]
Also from Balko: “Police cameras are great, except when the video goes missing“; “Police shooting 377 rounds into a car occupied by two unarmed men “raises concerns.” That’s one way of putting it.” And a not very funny t-shirt;
“Mission creep”: Department of Homeland Security has its fingers in many more pies than you might realize [Albuquerque Journal]
Felony murder rule: “Sentenced To Life In Prison For Loaning His Roommate His Car And Going To Sleep” [Amy Alkon] Sentencing reform is bipartisan issue on both sides [L.A. Times]
How many parents and caregivers are behind bars on scientifically bogus “shaken-baby” charges, and is there any urgency to finding out? [Matt Stroud, The Verge; earlier]
Milwaukee cop drives into sober woman’s car, charges her with DUI [WITI via Greenfield]

Tags: crime and punishment, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, police

Crime and punishment roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Supreme Court and constitutional law roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 04:05:20 +0000

New Yorker legal correspondent Jeffrey Toobin as unreliable narrator, part 483 [Damon Root, Pejman Yousefzadeh re: attack on Justice Clarence Thomas]
Background of Halliburton case: Lerach used Milwaukee Archdiocese to pursue Dick Cheney grudge [Paul Barrett, Business Week] More/related: Alison Frankel, Stephen Bainbridge (rolling out professorial “big guns”), Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (paper, “What’s Wrong With Securities Class Action Lawsuits?”)] & update: new Chamber paper on extent of consumer losses;
Roger Pilon on NLRB v. Canning recess-appointments case [Cato]
States’ efforts to tax citizens of other states stretch Commerce Clause to breaking point [Steve Malanga]
Richard Epstein on his new book The Classical Liberal Constitution [Hoover, more; yet more on why Epstein considers himself a classical liberal rather than hard-core libertarian]
Corporate law and the Hobby Lobby case [Bainbridge]
Some state supreme courts including California’s interpret “impairment of contracts” language as constitutional bar to curbing even future accruals in public employee pension reform. A sound approach? [Sasha Volokh first, second, third, fourth, fifth posts, related Fed Soc white paper]

Tags: Bill Lerach, California, Clarence Thomas, constitutional law, Milwaukee, Supreme Court

Supreme Court and constitutional law roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

ADA vs. school choice programs, cont’d

Walter Olson — Mon, 27 May 2013 11:41:35 +0000

Patrick Wolf at Education Next and my Cato colleague Jason Bedrick have more on the Department of Justice’s aggressive interpretation of federal disabled-rights law to go after the successful Milwaukee school-choice program (earlier). Private schools that accept vouchers, Bedrick writes, do not become government contractors “any more than grocery stores become ‘government contractors’ when citizens use their EBT cards to purchase food there.”

Tags: disability & schools, Milwaukee

ADA vs. school choice programs, cont’d is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

A swipe at school choice?

Walter Olson — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 05:31:19 +0000

“The Department of Justice has begun an investigation into Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction, probing whether Milwaukee’s state-administered voucher system is discriminating against students with disabilities.” [Joy Resmowits, Huffington Post]

Tags: disability & schools, Milwaukee, schools, Wisconsin

A swipe at school choice? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Update: “Milwaukee teachers drop Viagra suit”

Walter Olson — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 11:31:01 +0000

“The Milwaukee teachers union has dropped a lawsuit seeking to get its taxpayer-funded Viagra back.” [Madison.com, earlier]

Tags: labor unions, Milwaukee, schools

Update: “Milwaukee teachers drop Viagra suit” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Wisconsin: a frisky-union vignette

Walter Olson — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 15:37:25 +0000

Headline from last August, recalled by James Taranto: “Milwaukee teachers union files suit over lack of Viagra coverage.” The lack of coverage for erectile dysfunction drugs amounted to sex discrimination, according to the complaint. [Journal-Sentinel]

More on the Wisconsin union showdown from Cato Institute scholars Chris Edwards (Virginia has much sharper restrictions on public-employee unionism than what Gov. Scott Walker is proposing), Neal McCluskey (for the kids? really?), David Boaz (president, with his entire political machine, “is inserting himself into a medium-sized state’s battle over how to balance its budget,” Roger Pilon (unions’ quarrel is with voters) — and see also this 2009 background paper on the unsustainable costs of some union victories.

Tags: labor unions, Milwaukee, pharmaceuticals, sex discrimination, Wisconsin

Wisconsin: a frisky-union vignette is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Milwaukee law firms in Google keywords dustup

Walter Olson — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:00:49 +0000

When you search Google on the name of the prominent Milwaukee personal injury firm of Habush, Habush & Rottier, you get a paid ad link from one of its competitors, the Brookfield, Wisc. firm of Cannon & Dunphy. So now Habush is suing its rival. [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel]

Tags: advertising, Google, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Milwaukee law firms in Google keywords dustup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Felon posing as lawyer spoke at local legal seminar”

Walter Olson — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:02:28 +0000

You supply the quips: “Dozens of Milwaukee-area lawyers earned education credits a little while back for attending a local seminar featuring a convicted felon posing as an expert on criminal sentencing.”

Tags: ethics, Milwaukee

“Felon posing as lawyer spoke at local legal seminar” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system