John Culbreath Blog

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Over a period of two years at a nursing home in Waterloo, Ontario, a nurse identified in legal papers as DS “[stole] opioids for her own use and [falsified] medical records in order to conceal the thefts.” Now “a labor arbitrator has ordered the Regional Municipality of Waterloo to give DS her job back, and to compensate her financially for her unfair dismissal, including general damages for ‘injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect.’ The care home had a duty to accommodate the nurse’s unquestioned diagnosis of severe opioid use disorder and mild to moderate sedative-hypnotic use disorder, ruled arbitrator Larry Steinberg. This disease had left her with ‘a complete inability or a diminished capacity’ to resist the urge to feed her addiction.” [ National Post ] Tags: Canada , disabled rights , opioids , personal responsibility Canada: nurse who stole opioids wins reinstatement, damages curated from Overlawyered

A “string of civil lawsuits intended to pin liability on online platforms for allegedly providing material support to terrorists” has mostly fared poorly in court, with Section 230 providing a bulwark against liability in most cases, “but some of these cases are on appeal and plaintiffs have filed several new ones. If these suits are successful, they could be detrimental for the Internet: platforms would have little choice to become much more restrictive in what sorts of speech they allow.” In particular, “if online platforms no longer have Section 230 immunity for hosting content even remotely related to terrorism, those forums and services will take aggressive action to screen their users, review and censor content, and potentially prohibit anonymous speech.” [ Aaron Mackey, Electronic Frontier Foundation ; examples here (Facebook), here (Twitter), here , here (San Bernardino: Facebook, Google, Twitter), here (attacks in Paris and Brussels, Twitter), here (Orlando), here (Faceb

“Battle over stolen diamond-studded golden eagle takes flight as insurer fights order to pay up” [ Jason Proctor, CBC ] Fentanyl test strips save lives. Feds oppose their distribution [ Jeffrey Singer, Cato ] D.C. Circuit judicial nominee Neomi Rao (full disclosure: an old friend) “comes under fire for undergraduate writings on sexual assault — though her views from 25 years ago are consistent with today’s statutes and rulings.” [ K.C. Johnson, City Journal ] One reason the costs of rent control policies get understated: it’s hard to control and account for declines in the quality of apartment services [ Richard McKenzie and Dwight Lee, Cato Regulation magazine ] Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention video panel on antitrust law transparency with Deb Garza, Hon. Frank Easterbrook (“Always remember that sunlight is full of ultraviolet radiation”), Eric Grannon (incentive problems of “amnesty plus” program; “moral turpitude” provisions, more on which), moderated by Hon. J

In April of last year the California Supreme Court ruled that a large class of service workers historically categorized as independent contractors, those who are under contract with a host enterprise that performs the same kind of service they do, have to be treated as employees and brought under the full range of employment laws. Some labor advocates cheered, but many California workers did not. “I lost my entire staff,” said owner Anthony Giannotti of downtown Sacramento’s Bottle and Barlow barber shop. All seven of his barbers quit, he said. The ruling is expected to disrupt the marketplace for cosmetologists and tattoo artists, yoga and Pilates instructors, and even FedEx delivery personnel. [ Angela Greenwood, CBS Sacramento in September] Tags: California , freedom of contract , workplace Bans on Independent-Contractor Status Hurt Workers (Again) curated from Overlawyered

“Under the revised law, known as C-46, which went into effect in December, police can stop any driver, anywhere, for any reason and demand their sample. Furthermore, you could be cited even if you haven’t driven a car in two hours” because police are given the right to run tests on persons who have recently driven. One strange implication: if you drive to a restaurant and have enough to drink there to cross the blood-alcohol threshold, police can write you up even if you intended to rely on your sober spouse as the one to drive home. [ Jon Miltimore, FEE ; Maham Abedi, Global News/MSN ; earlier ] Tags: Canada , DUI , Fourth Amendment “Canada’s New Drunk Driving Law Will Make You Thankful for the 4th Amendment” curated from Overlawyered

New EEOC chief data officer says machine learning algorithms may soon enable agency to predict, and deploy resources against, workplace bias before it happens [ Paige Smith, Bloomberg Law ] “The BSO, in a statement, defended its pay structure, saying that the flute and oboe are not comparable, in part because the oboe is more difficult to play and there is a larger pool of flutists.” [ Geoff Edgers, Washington Post/Allentown Morning Call ] Even they can’t comply: “The case was ironic since the commission is charged with eliminating discrimination in Pennsylvania.” [ Matt Miller, PennLive , on the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission’s jury loss in a race discrimination complaint] “Do as they say, not as they do: employees accuse Planned Parenthood of pregnancy discrimination” [ Jon Hyman ] Fourth Circuit: maybe Title VII doesn’t create a right to swipe files from HR [ Jon Hyman ] Although libertarians support legalizing marijuana, they should not support laws that bar employers

“The woman whose toddler sparked a 2017 Bronx blaze that killed 13 people and whose own actions might have fanned the deadly flames is now demanding a total of $1.1 billion — citing the ‘negligence’ of others.” Among other defendants, the suit blames a stove maker for “knobs and valves that were too easy to turn on.” [ Dean Balsamini, New York Post ] Tags: fires , NYC , shotgun defendant selection “Mom whose tot started deadly Bronx fire sues for $1B from stove maker, city” curated from Overlawyered

Last year following the Russian Facebook scandal the Maryland legislature passed a bill regulating newspapers (!) and other online ad platforms. Gov. Larry Hogan refused to sign it, citing First Amendment concerns. Now a federal court has agreed and blocked the law’s enforcement as an unconstitutional infringement on the freedom of the press. I write about the case at Cato. “Social media trickery is bad. Chipping away at First Amendment liberties to stop it is worse.” Filed under: campaign regulation , First Amendment , Maryland , newspapers , social media Court: Maryland law regulating newspapers and social media flunks First Amendment curated from Overlawyered

“Sandwiches and main meal salads will be capped at 550 calories, ready meals will be capped at 544 calories and main courses in restaurants will be capped at 951 calories.” Guidelines from Public Health England aren’t mandatory yet, but expect U.K. government pressure on supermarkets and restaurants [ Christopher Snowdon , Baylen Linnekin , Scott Shackford , Ryan Bourne ] “We are not saying they can never give children a chocolate or biscuit ever again,” says the Public Health England official. “But it cannot be a daily occurrence.” And more from “2018: The [mostly U.K.] nanny state year in review” [ Snowdon ] Research paper on Philadelphia soda tax: cross-border shopping completely offsets in-city reduction in beverage sales, “no significant reduction in calorie and sugar intake.” [Stephan Seiler, Anna Tuchman, and Song Yao, SSRN via Caron/TaxProf ] More: owner blames tax for closure of Philly supermarket [ Eric Boehm ] Alternative headline: feds act to curb food waste by giving l

“The U.S. Department of Justice is asking federal judges around the country to dismiss lawsuits it says are brought by shell companies that misrepresent their true purposes – filing meritless litigation against health care companies…. The DOJ says these plaintiffs were created for the sole purpose of filing suit under the federal False Claims Act and is complaining that it spent hundreds of hours investigating kickback allegations only to find no merit to them…. Among the law firms representing the plaintiffs in the cases is the firm of prominent personal injury lawyer Mark Lanier of Texas.” [ P. David Yates, Legal NewsLine/Forbes ] “Significant to DOJ’s analysis was the fact that the qui tam relators used ‘false pretenses’ to obtain information from witnesses. According to the government, the actions all were filed by a ‘professional relator’ entity that sought to develop contacts and inside information under the guise of conducting a research study of the pharmaceutical industry,

“Stuck between anger and depression over Sunday’s debacle in the Dome, a few dyspeptic New Orleans Saints fans have settled into an equally predictable stage of grief: litigation.” Among the claimed damages: “loss of enjoyment of life” [ John Simerman, The Advocate ] Appellate lawyer Raffi Melkonian, on Twitter, writes : “Let me handicap this for everyone — this case has literally 0 chance of success. 0%. 100% minus 100%. It is dead on arrival. It is pushing up the daisies. A Court would rather deal with 200 sovereign citizen petitions than grant such relief.” Tags: football , New Orleans New Orleans fans file suit over Saints loss curated from Overlawyered

EPA reversal on Waters of the United States rule gives power back to states [ Andrew Wheeler, Kansas City Star ; related Federalist Society video with Donald Kochan and Robert Glicksman; earlier ] Even if one concedes that throwaway items generate environmental externalities, it still doesn’t mean laws should ban disposable diapers or other single-use plastics [ Ryan Bourne, Telegraph/Cato ] “New Jersey Plans a Plastic-Banning Spree” [ Christian Britschgi ] NYC’s Mayor de Blasio: “we will seize their buildings and we will put them in the hands of a community nonprofit.” [ John Sexton ] It’s sometimes claimed that NYC’s unusually high cost of constructing public infrastructure arise from its preexisting infrastructure, geology, and high land values, yet other world cities with tougher challenges in each category build at much lower cost [ Connor Harris, City Journal ] Podcast: Lynne Kiesling lecture on environmental economics [ Cato University 2018 ] Acrylamide follies: “Bid to i

The Eminent Domain Just Compensation Act, introduced by Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), would require the feds to pay at the time of taking, rather than long afterward, when taking land by eminent domain for the proposed border wall. “It is unjust for the government to seize someone’s property with a lowball offer and then put the burden on them to fight for what they’re still owed,” Rep. Amash said in a statement. “My bill will stop this practice by requiring that a property’s fair value be finalized before DHS takes ownership.” While the bill applies only to the Homeland Security Department, its principles could presumably be generalized through further legislation. [ David Bier, Cato ] Related: Ilya Somin , and earlier here and here . Filed under: eminent domain Amash bill: make feds pay when they take border land curated from Overlawyered

The feds plan to be less heavy-handed in using consent decrees to micromanage states and cities, and there’s a good case for that, I argue at National Review . Alas, as I explain, national media bungled the story in November by characterizing Jeff Sessions’s memo as if it were primarily aimed at reducing oversight of police. “Not once in its seven pages does the word ‘police’ even appear.” My short piece doesn’t take up the question of how the well-documented problems of consent decrees in other areas are to be weighed against the possible advantages of the device in curbing abuse-prone police departments. But at least some advocates of police reform and accountability have expressed doubts about whether the process, which can sometimes take political pressure off the local authority, really works as advertised [ David Meyer Lindenberg , Tim Lynch , Scott Greenfield ; see also John McGinnis ] Tags: consent decrees , Department of Justice , federalism , police , WO writings Justice

“How the Reformulation of OxyContin Ignited the Heroin Epidemic” [ William N. Evans and Ethan Lieber, Cato Research Briefs in Economic Policy ] Antiquated regulations on methadone need revision [ Jeffrey Singer, Cato ] Concept of addiction is constantly run together with that of dependence, and applied in such dubious areas as “social media addiction” [ Singer ] EEOC sues Tennessee hospital over lapse of religious accommodation in its mandatory flu shot policy (but is a mask as effective as the vaccine?) [ EEOC press release ] Free to Choose Medicine: a review [ Thomas Hemphill, Cato Regulation magazine ] Texas law limiting med-mal suits: “Fifteenth Anniversary of Proposition 12” [ Texans Against Lawsuit Abuse ] Time to include electronic components in the BAAA: “Biomaterials Access for the 21st Century” [ Jim Beck ] Affordable Care Act’s incentive program punishing hospitals for readmissions had unintended consequences, we know now. Were some of them lethal? [ Tyler Cowen on Ri

Not just football in its various forms with its known concussion dangers, but other games too face an insurance drought, especially as regards youth participation: “Overall, I think that there is a real threat to the viability of contact sports.” [ Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada, ESPN ] Tags: football , schools , sports “If you’re football, hockey or soccer, the insurance business doesn’t want you.” curated from Overlawyered

Of most interest for our purposes for the criminal-law consequences: “’Classic resolution of a lawsuit before it’s filed,’ he told the jury. But the argument didn’t fly: in the end, the jury returned with a unanimous verdict … of extortion.” [ Mark Seal, Vanity Fair ] Tags: Florida , legal extortion , real estate , settlement Cutthroat doings in Miami real estate curated from Overlawyered

Legislative relief finally in sight in Florida’s assignment of benefits mess? [ Michael Moline, Florida Politics , Insurance Journal on this Insurance Information Institute white paper , Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida and more , Rocco English, Florida Daily , earlier ] Update on 2018 developments in civil justice [ Mark Behrens and Christopher Appel, Federalist Society ] “Costs and Compensation of the U.S. Tort System” for 2016 [ U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform ] In first case to reach trial blaming Monster energy drink for heart attack, jury deliberates 15 minutes and reaches defense verdict [ Jessi Devenyns, FoodDive ] Contributing to judges’ election funds taints a verdict? Can both sides play? [ Jim Beck , ADA Journal on State Farm Illinois settlement] “The Rise of the Freedom To Arbitrate” [ John McGinnis, Law and Liberty ] “Trial Lawyers Find Unusual Allies In Fight Against Arbitration: Conservative State Treasurers” [ Daniel Fisher, Legal NewsLine/Forbes ]

“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has a rejected a products liability claim against Apple alleging that a woman’s neurobiological response to looking at a text message on her iPhone 5 while behind the wheel was the cause of a car crash that killed two people and paralyzed a child.” [ John Council/Texas Lawyer , Tim Cushing/TechDirt ; Meador v. Apple ] Filed under: Apple , cellphones , deep pocket , Fifth Circuit Fifth Circuit: Apple not liable for crash of driver reading texts curated from Overlawyered

By most injury-suit standards, it’s hardly exorbitant: “Curtis Brooner is only seeking $9,026.16. That is still a lot given the nature of the alleged injury, namely being locked for an hour in the bathroom of a Burger King in Wood Village, Oregon. … Here, though, it’s not the amount but how it was calculated: Mr. Brooner is demanding the equivalent of one Whopper meal per week for the duration of his remaining life expectancy, which he and his attorney estimate will be another 22 years.” [ Kevin Underhill, Lowering the Bar ] Tags: damages , emotional distress , restaurants “Man Locked in Burger King Bathroom for an Hour Wants Free Whoppers for Life” curated from Overlawyered

The two new heads of the judiciary committees in the Pennsylvania legislature are nonlawyers, and the legal community appears to be fine with that [ Max Mitchell, Legal Intelligencer ] Long after his downfall in one of the worst U.S. legal scandals in years, Stan Chesley was still listed as holding an honored position at a major charity until a reporter started calling [ Josh Nathan-Kazis, Forward , I’m quoted; update (Chesley’s name removed)] National security restrictions form an important part of regulatory practice these days for international business, discussed at a Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention panel with William J. Haynes II, Timothy Keeler, Randal Milch, Donald Rosenberg, and moderator Eric J. Kadel, Jr.; How seeking government intervention backfired on Silicon Valley [ Drew Clark, Cato Policy Report ] Are Baltimore schools underfunded? tales of the gun buyback, local adoption of Daubert, and more in my latest Maryland policy roundup [ Free State Notes

For the FBI to videotape the interviews it conducts would presumably allow an improvement in accuracy over note-taking, an important issue when statements can lead to criminal conviction (either on underlying charges or on charges of lying to the government). They would also permit improved oversight of how well the FBI does its work. So why did FBI guidelines forbid the practice until 2014, and even now establish a presumption of recording only for custodial interviews? [ Alex Tabarrok citing Michael Rappaport, Law and Liberty and Harvey Silverglate 2011 ] Tags: crime and punishment , police “Why Doesn’t the FBI Videotape Interviews?” curated from Overlawyered

“‘That buzzing noise over a construction site could be an OSHA drone searching for safety violations,’ Bloomberg Law reports , linking to a May 18, 2018 DOL memorandum obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Yes, your friendly neighborhood OSHA inspector is now authorized by the Labor Department ‘to use camera-carrying drones as part of their inspections of outdoor workplaces.'” And while current procedures call for obtaining employer consent before sending the spycams aloft, thus avoiding Fourth Amendment challenge, employers who refuse such consent “risk the ire of the DOL, with serious consequences. Nothing is more likely to put a target on an employer’s back for multiple and frequent future investigations than sending a DOL investigator away from your doors. Refusing consent will label you at the DOL as a bad faith employer that deserves closer scrutiny. This I know through experience practicing before DOL and as a former Administrator of DOL’s Wage & Hour D

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Minneapolis enacts major relaxation of residential zoning, issue has united ideological opposites [ Ilya Somin ; Christian Britschgi ; Somin on developments elsewhere ] “The Disconnect Between Liberal Aspirations and Liberal Housing Policy Is Killing Coastal U.S. Cities” [ Better Institutions ] “Steelmanning the NIMBYs” [ Scott Alexander , and a response from Michael Lewyn ] Ben Carson battles the NIMBYs [ Christian Britschgi ] “The use of new urbanist codes to promote inner-suburban renewal pose two distinct problems,” erosion of rule of law and high compliance costs [ Nicole Garnett at Hoover conference on “Land, Labor, and the Rule of Law,” related video ] Obscure zoning change could give NYC politicos a lot of new leverage over hotel developers [ Britschgi ] Cities are primarily labor markets, ordinances to suppress informal shanty town settlements commonly fail, and more insights from new Alain Bertaud book on markets and cities [ Tyler Cowen ] Tags: hotels , land use an

Concurring in a Second Circuit opinion declining to overturn an insider trading conviction in the case of U.S. v. Walters, Judge Dennis Jacobs points out “egregious” FBI leaks and “notices the irony that Walters and the FBI agent both apparently misused confidential information, but that only one of them is going to jail.” [ Ira Stoll, Future of Capitalism ] Filed under: prosecutorial abuse , Second Circuit , securities litigation Our inside tips vs. your inside tips curated from Overlawyered

VIDEO British neuropathologist Waney Squier spent many years as an expert witness in court assisting in the prosecution of defendants accused of causing Shaken Baby Syndrome. Then a closer engagement with the evidence caused her to change her mind — and the story that follows, which she tells in this TEDx Wandsworth talk , must be heard to be believed. Sue Luttner has more for the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism. More on the story: Jon Robins, The Justice Gap ; Theodore Dalrymple, Spectator . More: “Judge orders release of woman who served 11 years behind bars in grandson’s death” [ Marisa Gerber, L.A. Times ; earlier on shaken baby syndrome] More about Deborah Tuerkheimer’s 2014 book Flawed Convictions, which I haven’t seen, is here . Filed under: child abuse , expert witnesses , forensics A shaken baby syndrome researcher reconsiders curated from Overlawyered

Instructions : In Gotham City, Batman is a superhero who fights evil villains, and also engages in sophisticated property transactions. Please write a memorandum of no more than 1,000 words addressing five property issues affecting Alfred, Batman, Catwoman, Dracula, and Joker concerning  Caveacre, Wayneacre, Batacre, Fraudacre, and Arkacre. The Gotham District Court applies all American common law rules, a race-notice statute, the Texas Anti-Deficiency Statute, and is bound by the United States Constitution. — Question #1 Alfred owned Caveacre in fee simple. Batman owned Wayneacre in fee simple. The lots border each other. Alfred sold Caveacre to Batman, with a covenant that the property could only be used for residential purposes. Batman sold Wayneacre to Alfred with a covenant that the property could only be used for commercial purposes. Alfred sells Dracula a life estate on Wayneacre. Batman sells Caveacre to Catwoman in fee simple. Dracula builds a house on Wayneacre. Catwoman

“It also highlights the shortcomings of federal education [privacy] laws that protect even admitted killers like [the Parkland, Florida school gunman] who are no longer students.” [ Brittany Wallman, Megan O’Matz and Paula McMahon, South Florida Sun Sentinel ] Germany forbids homeschooling and the European Court of Human Rights has just upheld the removal of four children from their parents’ home over the issue [ BBC ] Is there a constitutional right to homeschool in the U.S.? [ Eugene Volokh ] By contrast, claims of a federal constitutional right to education tend to amount to a contemplated way for courts to order spending hikes for public schools, as many already do under state constitutions, a bandwagon the U.S. Supreme Court declined to join in San Antonio v. Rodriguez [ Alia Wong, The Atlantic on Rhode Island suit] Read and marvel at a waiver and indemnity form for letting an 8 year old walk home a block by herself [ Let Grow ] “Nine-Year-Old Boy Leads The Way As Colorado To

Ohio has passed a bill giving targets of ADA accessibility complaints a chance to fix the issue before becoming liable for attorneys’ fees, and a California state judge has ruled that the state’s jackpot Unruh Act does not cover website accessibility claims. Those are two bits of favorable news amid a lot of continued bad news, I argue in a new Cato post . Related: Domino’s argues before a Ninth Circuit panel in a web accessibility case [ Kristina Launey, Seyfarth Shaw ]: Domino’s argued, as a possible explanation for DOJ’s inaction: “there is no such thing as an accessible website, and there never will be.” He cited the plaintiff’s expert’s statement in Winn-Dixie, also cited by the Eleventh Circuit judges in that oral argument, that the expert had never seen a website that complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). To illustrate the difficulty businesses face in applying the guidelines, Domino’s posited how detailed the alt-text behind a picture of a basketball

When the Securities and Exchange Commission settles with defendants, it extracts gag orders forbidding them forever after from making or causing to be made “any public statement denying, directly or indirectly, any allegation in the complaint.” We noted that fact briefly in yesterday’s roundup adding the question : Is it constitutional for the government to do that? It isn’t according to the Cato Institute, which wants to publish as a book a businessman’s personal memoir telling his side of the story about his legal battles with the SEC, but cannot do so given that he consented to a settlement containing the gag order. Cato, represented by the Institute for Justice, has now filed suit seeking a court determination that the government cannot use gag orders in settlements to silence those it accuses of wrongdoing. [ Clark Neily, Cato at Liberty ] IJ’s press release about the case has fun with redaction: Filed under: Cato Institute , Securities and Exchange Commission , settlement

Instructions : Please write a memorandum of no more than 1,000 words addressing five property issues affecting Elsa and Anna on Iceacre and Sunacre. The courts in this jurisdiction apply all American common law rules, are bound by the United States Constitution, and all statutes of limitations are five years. — Question #1 Elsa and Anna live together on Castleacre, which is owned by their parents. Anna asks Elsa, “Do you want to build a snowman? Or ride our bike around the halls?” Elsa replied, “Sure!” However, Anna did not tell Elsa that their parents had prohibited building snowmen and riding bicycles on Castleacre. For the next five years, while their parents were traveling overseas, the sisters followed a precise schedule on Castleacre. On Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, Anna would ride her bicycle, and Elsa would build snowmen. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, Ana would build snowmen, and Elsa would ride her bicycle. After five years, their parents returned a

Maker of Steinway pianos threatens legal action against owners who advertise existing instruments for sale as used Steinways if they contain other-than-factory replacement parts [ Park Avenue Pianos ] When the Securities and Exchange Commission settles with defendants, it extracts gag orders forbidding them to talk about the experience. Is it constitutional for the government to do that? [ Peggy Little, New Civil Liberties Alliance/WSJ ] Judge preliminarily enjoins New York City ordinance requiring home-sharing platforms like AirBnB to turn over to authorities “breathtaking” volume of data about users [ SDNY Blog ] U.S. Chamber’s top ten bad lawsuits of 2018 [ Faces of Lawsuit Abuse ] “The Most Important Class Action Decisions of 2018 and a Quick Look at What’s to Come” [ R. Locke Beatty & Laura Lange, McGuire Woods ] “Small aircraft engines are much less reliable than automobile engines. Why? Well, they all must be FAA certified, and it’s not worth the cost to certify, say, a

Instructions : It is now December 2018. A group of migrants from Central America—known as “The Caravan”—is traveling through Mexico en route to the United States. They seek entry to the United States to claim asylum—that is protected status because of the oppressive conditions in their home countries. In anticipation of the arrival of the Caravan, the Trump Administration, Congress, and the Texas state government take several actions. Write a memorandum of no more than 1,000 words addressing these five issues. — Question #1 As the Caravan continue to travel towards the southern border, President Trump publishes three tweets: “There are a lot of CRIMINALS in the Caravan. We will stop them. Catch and Detain!” “There are some bad hombres [men] from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador in the Caravan. We’re going to get them out.” “The Caravan is full of SOCIALISTS who will suck dry welfare programs in our country. Go back home, Communists!” Pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1182, President

Instructions : The year is 1867. Against all odds, President Abraham Lincoln survived an assassination attempt two years earlier. However, his popularity soon plummeted. Members of Lincoln’s own party turned against him, for failing to aggressively promote Reconstruction in the South. Soon the House of Representatives approved four articles of impeachment against Lincoln. Now, the Senate is holding a trial over those four articles. You are a law clerk for Chief Justice Salmon Chase, who presides over the impeachment trial of the President. First, Chief Justice Chase asks you to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the four articles of impeachment. Second, he asks you to address a fifth issue that arose outside of the impeachment trial. Your memorandum, addressing all five issues, should not be more than 1,000 words. — Article 1 Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, on the 27th day of April, in the year of our Lord, 1861, at Washington, in the District of Columbia, in v

“Chicago has impounded and sold off nearly 50,000 cars for unpaid tickets since 2011. Not a dime of the sales went toward the ticket debt; instead, the city and its towing contractor pocketed millions.” [ Elliott Ramos, WBEZ/ProPublica via (quoted) Melissa Sanchez ] Filed under: Chicago , petty fines and fees , traffic laws Chicago’s impound accounting curated from Overlawyered

For years lawyers have been suing Johnson & Johnson claiming that its baby powder has caused ovarian cancer, a theory that has mostly met with failure in court. This summer, however, a St. Louis jury found liability and ordered the company to pay $4.69 billion, on a related theory that asbestos contaminants in the product (as opposed to talc itself) caused the disease. On December 14 Reuters followed with a lengthy piece laying out, and implicitly siding with, the plaintiff lawyers’ accusations; the piece drew wide publicity, and the company’s shares sank by about $50 billion. Some analysts have written that J&J’s lawsuit payouts on the issue could reach $20 billion. Now a leading business columnist has explained why he doubts that outcome. “Why? Because whether or not the company’s talcum powder contains asbestos, and whether or not it hid that fact from the public, the science remains firmly on J&J’s side.” [ Joe Nocera, Bloomberg ] How so? “There is no evidence that

New report estimates state and national economic costs of occupational licensing [ Morris Kleiner and Evgeny Vorotnikov, Institute for Justice ] Reform efforts proceed at both state and federal levels [ Angela Erickson, Cato Policy Report ] Another study: licensing reduces labor supply significantly [ Peter Blair and Bobby Chung, NBER ] Cosmetology schools serve as lobbying force behind high prerequisites before newcomers can practice in field [ Meredith Kolodner and Sarah Butrymowicz, New York Times ] “Occupational Licensing and Accountant Quality: Evidence from the 150-Hour Rule” [ John M. Barrios, Cato Research Briefs in Economic Policy ] “At public meeting, hydrogeologist criticizes Albuquerque, N.M.-based water district for fortifying ditch roads with rock rubble. District employee complains to the state professional engineer board, claiming that hydrogeologist’s critique amounted to the unlicensed practice of engineering. Correct, says the board. New Mexico Court of Appeal