John Culbreath Blog

This week the Supreme Court heard oral argument ( transcript ) in Benisek v. Lamone , the challenge to Maryland’s gerrymandered Sixth District. I was there with some critics of the gerrymander in front of the Court steps and spoke to a number of reporters afterward [ Danielle Gaines, Frederick News-Post ; Bruce DePuyt, Maryland Matters ] See also Eric Boehm, Reason . Earlier here . Background links on Maryland case: Cynthia Prairie, Maryland Reporter in January. Tags: Maryland , on TV and radio , redistricting reform , Supreme Court Maryland gerrymander before the Supreme Court is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Maryland gerrymander before the Supreme Court curated from Overlawyered

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle ruled Wednesday that coffee merchants are liable under Prop 65 for not warning of the possible cancer risks of the beverage. I’ve got a write-up at Cato at Liberty noting that the primary problem is with the law itself, jealously guarded by lawyers who make out well from it. Excerpt: Almost everyone agrees by now that the over-proliferation of warnings makes it less likely that consumers will pay attention to those few warnings that actually flag notable risks. … What happens next? As the Post reports, “In addition to the warning signs likely to result from the lawsuit, the Council for Education and Research on Toxics, which brought the lawsuit, has asked for fines as much as $2,500 for every person exposed to the chemical since 2002, potentially opening the door to massive settlements.” And the financial shakedown value here is far from incidental; it’s the very motor that keeps the law going. Earlier here . See also Michael Marlow, C...

Lawyernomics 2018  is set to feature a multitude of industry leaders, peers, and legal marketing experts – working together to ideate and advance the application of different strategies and best practices related to managing and growing your practice. This includes keynote sessions from two of our speakers – Dan Abrams , Chief Legal Affairs Anchor at ABC News, and Wendy Davis , Deeds Not Words Founder, and Former Texas State Senator. We sat down with them to learn more about their experiences and the advice they have for others in the legal industry. Read the Q&A below. Q: Dan, when did you realize you wanted to combine law and broadcast TV?  A: Dan Abrams : I was the anchor of my college news show (at Duke) so I had always been interested in journalism but also really liked the law. When I found out about Court TV, I found a place where I could do both. Q: Wendy, what inspired you to create your foundation Deeds Not Words ? A: Wendy Davis : There are so many wo...

High cross-border remittance costs for globally mobile workers slow ascent from poverty, and know-your-customer and money-laundering regulations have made things worse [ Money and Banking ] “The Supreme Court should find ALJs to be ‘officers of the United States’ and thus make them subject to presidential appointment and removal.” [ Ilya Shapiro on Cato merits amicus filing in Lucia v. Securities and Exchange Commission] “Settlement of Lawyer-Driven ‘Merger Tax’ Litigation Stumbles in New York” [ Greg Herbers, WLF ] “Financial Regulation: The Apotheosis of the Administrative State?” 2017 National Lawyers Convention Federalist Society panel with Richard Epstein, Hal Scott, Peter Wallison, and Arthur Wilmarth, moderated by Judge Carlos Bea; With advances in Oregon and even California, deregulation of commercial insurance lines is having a moment [ Ray Lehmann, Insurance Journal ; Lehmann’s 2017 Insurance Regulation Report Card for R Street Institute] Perennially troubled Massachu...

In the pending Janus case, the Supreme Court may recognize a First Amendment right of government workers not to be obliged to pay mandatory union dues as a condition of employment, while not disturbing the situation for private sector employees, who have no such First Amendment right. Presto, an opening for union subterfuge involving pretend privatization of the government jobs: The unions’ version is to create and insert between government and employees sham “private” units to handle human resource and payroll functions and, thereby, assume the role of “legal employer.” Ironically, some of the first groups of unionized employees to be targeted for such a strategy are in sectors where public-employee status had itself been a subterfuge: independent home health care workers paid with state moneys who had only been declared public employees in the first place as a way to herd them into unions. With the new twist, these independent workers could thus have been reclassified twice: firs...

One-woman false-accusation machine induced Pittsburgh police to file eight criminal cases against couple; one was jailed for six days and the other for six months before she admitted making it up [ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ] Regulation is the bane of a great many California small businesses, and that goes for Humboldt County marijuana growers too [ David Boaz, Cato ] One Billy Goat might have cause to regret picking trademark fight with another [ Timothy Geigner, TechDirt ] “Antitrust Jurisprudence Is the Right’s Greatest Legal Success” [ John McGinnis, Law and Liberty ] State Attorney General Election Tracker is a new resource from law firm Cozen O’Connor tracking campaign and election news from state attorney general elections across the country; “Iowa judge admits hundreds of his rulings were ghost-written by attorneys” [ Clark Kauffman, Des Moines Register ] Tags: antitrust , attorneys general , Iowa , judges , Pittsburgh , small business , trademarks March 28 roundup is ...

Marketing is job #1 for small firm attorneys and solos. It's a simple equation: no marketing = no clients, and no clients = no firm. But, quite frankly, marketing can really suck. There's a cacophony of BigLaw websites, advertising, and social media drowning out small firm voices. And then there are about a million new small firm sites every single day. Not to mention that referrals from other lawyers and professionals can be tough to come by when everyone knows an attorney or ten who do what you do. And don't forget the do-it-yourself options like LegalZoom and Findlaw. How do you make yourself heard amongst all that noise? There's no point shouting into the wind. You can't make yourself louder than everyone else, so don't bother trying. Written by Suzanne Meehle Shouting Into the Wind – How Not to Market Your Solo/Small Firm curated from Solo Practice University®

Class 19 Equal Protection I Watch Brown v. Board of Education Video on Casebook Connect Brown v. Board of Education (I) (1003-1012). Bolling v. Sharpe (1012-1015) Brown v. Board of Education (II) (1015-1017) Massive Resistance to Brown and the Role of Courts (1017-1020) Cooper v. Aaron (1020-1026) Loving v. Virginia (Equal Protection) (1041-1047) The lecture notes are here . Brown v. Board of Education This is Linda Brown, the third-grader who challenged the Topeka, KS law requiring her to enroll in a segregate school. Here is Brown’s family. (Linda Brown of Topeka (left), with her parents, Leola and Oliver, and younger sister Terry. ) Here are all of the plaintiffs from the various companion cases to Brown v. Board, and their parents. Front row: Vicki Henderson, Donald Henderson, Linda Brown, James Emanuel, Nancy Todd, Katherine Carper Back row: Zelma Henderson, Oliver Brown, Sadie Emanuel, Lucinda Todd, Lena Carper. Here is an other photograph of all of t...