Senate – 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

Why not retrocede Washington, D.C. to Maryland?

Walter Olson — Sun, 22 Sep 2019 15:59:22 +0000

Well, why not? I outline some arguments in a new post at Cato.

Tags: Maryland, Senate, Washington D.C., WO writings

Why not retrocede Washington, D.C. to Maryland? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

A crisis of democratic legitimacy for the U.S.?

Walter Olson — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 10:59:17 +0000

At National Review, Lyman Stone challenges the currently popular idea that American electoral processes are in the grip of a crisis of democratic legitimacy. While there is real room for process improvement, as with the issue of gerrymandering, it is less clear that imperfections in our electoral system 1) have worsened a lot or 2) are especially different from than those found in other mature democratic systems. It is also far from clear that over the long run the imperfections systematically benefit one “side”: at the moment Republicans hold more seats than their share of votes would predict, but one needn’t go far back in time to find periods when Democrats held the same sort of edge.

Two areas where the U.S. is unusual: we have low voter turnout, well below that of most advanced countries, and each member of our House of Representatives represents a very large number of people.

Tags: redistricting reform, Senate, U.S. House of Representatives

A crisis of democratic legitimacy for the U.S.? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

October 17 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 09:56:32 +0000

Antitrust legislation once targeted the unstoppable rise of chain stores A&P and Sears, both now bankrupt [my new Cato post, quoting Joe Nocera, Bloomberg (“The next time you hear somebody say that the dominance of Walmart or Amazon or Facebook can never end, think about Sears. It can — and it probably will.”)]
When you wish upon a suit: visitor grabs Disney cast member and screams at her after she asks him to move out of parade route, later pleads no contest to disorderly conduct, now wants $15,000 [Gabrielle Russon, Orlando Sentinel]
Tomorrow (Thurs.) at noon Eastern, watch a Cato panel on “Coercive Plea Bargaining” with Scott Hechinger of Brooklyn Defender Services, Bonnie Hoffman of the NACDL, and Somil Trivedi of the ACLU, moderated by Cato’s Clark Neily. Could you resist taking a plea bargain if faced with a false accusation? [Marc John Randazza, ABA Journal]
“I am a Democrat. But this may be the dumbest thing I have seen…. the Speech or Debate Clause makes about as clear as anything in the Constitution that a court cannot enjoin legislative officials from taking a fundamental legislative action such as a vote.” [Howard Wasserman on suit by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) asking court to, among other things, order delay of Senate vote on Kavanaugh nomination]
An ideological screen for CLE? Following demands from tribal attorneys, Minnesota bar authorities order shelving of continuing legal education class on Indian Child Welfare Act developments taught by attorney Mark Fiddler, who often handles ICWA cases on side adverse to tribes [Timothy Sandefur]
Left-leaning Florida Supreme Court nixes plan to let incumbent Gov. Rick Scott fill vacancies, entrenching its leftward lean for a while at least depending on outcome of governor’s race [Spectrum News 9]

Tags: antitrust, crime and punishment, Disney, Florida, Indian tribes, judicial nominations, Senate, small business

October 17 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Annals of nastygrams: Roy Moore’s lawyer to Alabama press

Walter Olson — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 05:04:52 +0000

Lawyers, grammarians and connoisseurs of nastygrams will be studying this one for a long time: attorney Trenton Garmon, representing Alabama Senate candidate (and longtime Overlawyered favorite) Roy Moore, has sent a demand letter to Alabama press outlets instructing them that they had better not run certain negative stories. [Elliot Hannon, Slate; Ed Kilgore, New York mag] More: Kevin Underhill, Lowering the Bar.

Tags: Alabama, libel slander and defamation, nastygrams, Senate

Annals of nastygrams: Roy Moore’s lawyer to Alabama press is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

November 15 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 11:01:29 +0000

“A Link Between Alcohol and Cancer? It’s Not Nearly as Scary as It Seems” [Aaron E. Carroll, New York Times; Ronald Bailey]
Court rejects “sovereign citizen” pitch on behalf of disgraced Subway pitchman Jared Fogle [Matt Reynolds, Courthouse News]
I’m quoted on U.S. Senate’s Roy Moore perplex [Matt Kwong, CBC] And my Twitter thread on the signed yearbook that figures in Monday’s allegations went viral;
Time to end it: “Low-Income Housing Tax Credit: Costly, Complex, and Corruption-Prone” [Chris Edwards and Vanessa Brown Calder, Cato]
“When Statutes Conflict, Agencies Shouldn’t Get to Pick Which One They Like More” [Ilya Shapiro, Cato on Cato certiorari amicus in Chevron deference case of Perez-Guzman v. Sessions]
“More Lawyers or More Justice?” Mark Pulliam reviews Barton and Bibas’s Rebooting Justice, earlier here and here]

Tags: administrative law, alcohol, folk law, real estate, Senate

November 15 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Trial lawyers’ stake in Alabama Senate contest

Walter Olson — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 04:05:32 +0000

As far back as 2004 Alabama’s powerful trial lawyers were supporting former state chief justice Roy Moore, twice removed from the bench for defiance of federal court rulings. So no surprise they’re backing his Senate aspirations this time around [WSJ editorial, Tiger Joyce, Washington Examiner]

Tags: Alabama, politics, Senate

Trial lawyers’ stake in Alabama Senate contest is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Individual liberty and the Israel Anti-Boycott Act

Walter Olson — Sun, 23 Jul 2017 15:56:49 +0000

A bill sponsored by roughly half the members of Congress would — so we are warned by New York magazine, at least — “make it a felony for Americans to support the international boycott against Israel” and “make avoiding the purchase of Israeli goods for political reasons a federal crime.” While those claims may be somewhat overstated, I argue in a new post at Ricochet that the proposed Israel Anti-Boycott Act “is plenty bad enough. By punishing boycott participation grounded in political belief, it would infringe on individual liberty.” And: “It is not a proper function of law to force Americans into foreign commerce they personally find politically objectionable, whether their reasons for reluctance be good, bad, or arbitrary. The furor would make a good occasion to revisit the 1979 law itself in light of principles of individual liberty; at a minimum, we should decline S. 720’s invitation to extend it further.”

Tags: Israel, Senate

Individual liberty and the Israel Anti-Boycott Act is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Podcast on FICALA, the class action reform bill

Walter Olson — Thu, 18 May 2017 04:05:10 +0000

Andrew Grossman (Baker & Hostetler), longtime friend of this site, and Howard Erichson of Fordham spoke last month to a Federalist Society online audience on pending class action reform proposals, resulting in this podcast. Description:

On Saturday, March 11 the House passed the Fairness in Class Litigation Act by a vote of 220-201. The stated purpose of the Act is to “(1) assure fair and prompt recoveries for class members and multidistrict litigation plaintiffs; (2) diminish abuses in class action and mass tort litigation; and (3) restore the intent of the framers…by ensuring Federal court consideration of interstate controversies of national importance consistent with diversity jurisdiction principles” (H.R.985, 2017).

The Bill amends the federal judicial code’s standards for the certification of class action. For example, the bill requires that proposed class members to show that they suffered the same type and degree of injury. The bill also limits the amount and timing of attorney’s fees in a class action. Attorney’s cannot be paid more than the class members, and they must be paid after the class members receive payment….

Earlier on FICALA here and here.

Tags: class actions, Senate

Podcast on FICALA, the class action reform bill is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 19 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 04:05:03 +0000

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), key vote on tort reform in upper house, plans Texas visit to raise funds from trial lawyers [Palmetto Business Daily]
“Indeed, most major law schools have fewer conservatives or libertarians on their faculty than can be found on the U.S. Supreme Court.” [Jonathan Adler, Martin Center]
Anti-craft-beer bill, Marilyn Mosby followup, legislature rescinds earlier Article V calls, Baltimore minimum wage in my latest Maryland roundup;
Man given $190 ticket for having pet snake in park off-leash. Off leash? [John Hult, Sioux Falls Argus-Leader]
As victim’s wife looks on, identity thief and 20-time illegal border crosser testifies that he fathered two of victim’s children [Brad Heath on Twitter citing Judge Bea ‘s opinion in U.S. v. Plascencia-Orozco, Ninth Circuit]
Central California: “State and federal legislation take new aim at predatory ADA lawsuits” [Garth Stapley, Modesto Bee]

Tags: ADA filing mills, Article V, California, law schools, Maryland, politics, Senate, South Carolina, South Dakota

April 19 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system