John Culbreath Blog

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and other California laws are notorious for delaying and driving up the cost of building projects. Aside from their uses for neighbors pursuing Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) goals, the environmental laws are also employed for leverage by labor unions who threaten to invoke them “to stop new construction unless they get a cut of the action. One developer is fighting back.” [ Scott Shackford , earlier on CEQA] Tags: California , environment , labor unions , legal extortion Unions exploit California environmental law for leverage curated from Overlawyered

By filing routine public records requests, reporters obtained a hitherto unreleased list of thousands of California law enforcement officers convicted of crimes over the past decade. “But when [California Attorney General Xavier] Becerra’s office learned about the disclosure, it threatened the reporters with legal action unless they destroyed the records, insisting they are confidential under state law and were released inadvertently. The two journalism organizations have rejected Becerra’s demands.” The list includes “cops who stole money from their departments and even one who robbed a bank wearing a fake beard. Some sexually assaulted suspects. Others took bribes, filed false reports and committed perjury.” [ Robert Lewis and Jason Paladino, East Bay Times ] Tags: attorneys general , California , police California AG: it’s illegal to possess secret list of convicted cops curated from Overlawyered

In move to protect itself against patent trolls, Apple plans to close retail stores in the troll-favored Eastern District of Texas [ Joe Rossignol, MacRumors ; Sarah Perez, TechCrunch ] Don’t: “Civil Rights Lawyer Faked Cancer to Delay Cases, Illinois Bar Authorities Say” [ Scott Flaherty, American Lawyer ] Don’t: “* lies about joint stipulation for extension * FABRICATES OPPOSITION BRIEF * constructs false chain of emails, forwards to partner. Dude, just doing the work would have been WAY less effort.” [ Keith Lee thread on Twitter, with punch line being what the New York courts did by way of discipline; Jason Grant, New York Law Journal ] I’m quoted disagreeing (cordially) with Sen. Mike Lee on whether criticism of judicial nominees at hearings based on their religious views oversteps Constitution’s Religious Test Clause [ Mark Tapscott, Epoch Times ; my 2017 post at Secular Right] Colorado may become 13th state to enact National Popular Vote interstate compact, an attempted w

Our series of guest lectures with ABA/GP Solo Rockstars continues and the inimitable Cynthia Sharp continues sharing her brilliant 6 steps to client mastery. And she is THE master in combining those intangible soft skills with the critical processes needed for guaranteeing a uniform and successful relationship with your clients. Attorney Sharp details how this relationship starts from before your clients become clients right through to those same clients becoming an endless source of referrals. You will learn that process is the key to success. It is great to get the masters of the game sharing their wisdom with all of you. Written by Susan Cartier Liebel 6 Steps to Client Mastery – Part 2 – Guest Lecture with Cynthia Sharp curated from Solo Practice University®

Last week the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Return Mail Inc. v. USPS , posing the patent law issue (to quote SCOTUSBlog) of “Whether the government is a ‘person’ who may petition to institute review proceedings under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act.” On pp. 30-31 of the transcript , Justice Sonia Sotomayor referred favorably to the Cato Institute’s brief on the unique dangers that can arise when federal agencies litigate before federal agencies. And that wasn’t even the best part! This was , from her comments immediately afterward, on the failure of the law to specify whether the word “person” includes the government: It does seem like the deck is stacked against a private citizen who is dragged into these proceedings. They’ve got an executive agency acting as judge with an executive director who can pick the judges, who can substitute judges, can reexamine what those judges say, and change the ruling, and you’ve got another government agency being the prosecutor at the s

A Capital News Service series published at Maryland Matters confirms that in Maryland, at least, bail reform has had trouble meeting its intended goals. In particular, while the number held for inability to meet bail has dropped sharply since the adoption of reforms in February 2017, Baltimore in particular has seen an offsetting jump in the rate at which judges hold defendants without making bail available. Statewide, “the number of people held with bail decreased from 29.8 percent to 18.4 percent over the past 18 months, while the number of people held without bail has increased from 13.6 percent to 22.6 percent.” [ Alicia Cherem and Carly Taylor with sidebar by Kaitlyn Hopkins and James Crabtree-Hannigan] I reported on the same trend in 2017 and again last year . A second entry in the series examines the adoption of pretrial risk assessment algorithms which can make up for some of the lost functions of cash bail, a county-by-county process still under way across the state [ Angel

We’ll pass the bill first, and let the courts tell us later whether it violates the First Amendment. That’s not how it’s supposed to work [ my Free State Notes on a Maryland “cyberbullying” bill] Local laws requiring government contractors to disclose/disclaim ties to the anti-Israel BDS movement have rightly come under criticism. Will that spill over to a constitutionally dubious new Los Angeles ordinance requiring contractors to disclose ties with an advocacy group devoted to a different issue, the NRA? [ Eugene Volokh ] “Lust on Trial,” new book by Amy Werbel on celebrated vice crusader Anthony Comstock [ Kurt Conklin with Alex Joseph, Hue (Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC); podcasts at FIRE with Nico Perrino and ABA Journal with Lee Rawles ] “The Rushdie affair became a template for global intellectual terrorism” from Paris and Copenhagen to Garland, Tex.; in a different way, it also foreshadowed the far pettier heresy hunts and sanctity trials of callout culture [ Jonat

Citing a study by Stanford University researcher Eric Hanushek, Howard notes that bad teachers have a much greater negative effect on student performance than good teachers have a positive effect. Based on student-performance data, Hanushek’s study concluded that dismissing the worst 8 percent of American public school teachers would put American students on par with those of Finland, which has the highest-scoring students in the world. Yet it’s nearly impossible to fire tenured teachers. In Los Angeles, an effort to fire just seven notoriously bad instructors cost the city $3.5 million, and only got rid of four of the teachers. — Jonathan Leaf, City Journal , reviewing Philip K. Howard’s new book Try Common Sense: Replacing the Failed Ideologies of Right and Left. Tags: Los Angeles , schools , teacher tenure Some costs of teacher tenure curated from Overlawyered

Ten years ago I wrote this piece for City Journal pronouncing slavery reparations dead as a national cause. Now, as Astead W. Herndon reports in the New York Times , presidential candidates are getting behind the word: Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) affirmed her support, and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) “also said she supported reparations for black Americans impacted by slavery — a policy that experts say could cost several trillion dollars, and one that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and many top Democrats have not supported.” Did I speak too soon? One complication is that while candidates have begun using the word, it’s often to describe policies that wouldn’t fit the definition accepted up to now. For example, as I noted in the City Journal piece, beginning in the 1960s many programs were enacted aiding poor persons of all races, often conceptualized and argued for as an alternative to more explicit race-based reparations. Some of the candidates who now describe them

The less you know: new push to “de-bias” faculty recruiting by removing CVs and interviews from the process [ John Morgan, Times Higher Ed/Inside Higher Ed on developments in Britain] “You Can’t Make This Up: A Speech Code that Investigates Students for Discussing the Freedom of Speech” [University of South Carolina: Ilya Shapiro and Patrick Moran on Cato certiorari brief in Abbott v. Pastides] “Sokal Squared” hoax runs into IRB (human subjects review) issues at Portland State, and it’s more complicated than you might think [ Jesse Singal, New York ] “A Liberal Case for DeVos’s Reforms” [ Lara Bazelon, New York Times ] After initial resistance, ACLU moving to acknowledge merit of some objections to Obama-era Title IX procedure [ Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic ] Attorneys general from 18 states plus D.C. sign letter arguing against presumption of innocence for students accused under Title IX [ same ] “Anti-Koch group tries to get hummus banned from university in BDS effort” [ Z

A 75-unit housing development in San Francisco’s Mission District, a block from a BART station, is running into delay over what is termed a “potentially historic laundromat.” It’s a total mystery why housing is so expensive in the city by the Bay, with the average one-bedroom apartment said to rent for $3,258. [ Adam Brinklow, Curbed via Derek Thompson ] Tags: land use and zoning , San Francisco San Francisco housing stalled over “potentially historic laundromat” curated from Overlawyered

A unanimous Supreme Court ruling in Timbs v. Indiana confirms that state governments, like their federal counterpart, may not impose excessive fines. The ruling also holds that “at least some state civil asset forfeitures” violate the Excessive Fines Clause. “As a result, the ruling could help curb abusive asset forfeitures, which enable law enforcement agencies to seize property that they suspect might have been used in a crime – including in many cases where the owner has never been convicted of anything, or even charged. Abusive forfeitures are a a widespread problem that often victimizes innocent people and particularly harms the poor.” [ Ilya Somin , ABA Journal ] Now keep your eye on the Privileges and Immunities Clause, advises Ilya Shapiro; Justice Gorsuch used a concurrence to signal that he is interested in revitalizing it, a position already held by Justice Clarence Thomas [ Cato ; see also Josh Blackman on Twitter] Tags: constitutional law , forfeiture , Neil Gorsuch

I could hear it in his voice, the frustration over trying to figure out how to deal with a never-ending flow of email was palpable. Unfortunately, before I could share a few thoughts, the elevator door opened and I had to walk away wishing I could have had a little more time. That’s the real issue, isn’t it? It’s always about time. There never seems to be enough of it. I suspect you can relate because I can’t imagine there are many out there who haven’t felt overwhelmed at some point by a cluttered inbox, a stack of phone messages, sticky notes posted all over the place (you should see my office!), the pile of files on their desk, and/or all the overdue items on their reminder list. So what do you do? Written by Mark Bassingthwaighte How in the World Can I Manage 2000 Email Every Day? curated from Solo Practice University®

Get me Civics, and make it an emergency: West Virginia legislature “moves to withhold judicial retirement benefits until state supreme court overturns a ruling” [ Gavel to Gavel ] Do threats to publish intimate pictures of Jeff Bezos fall under provisions of criminal blackmail law? [ Eugene Volokh ] Manuel Reyes, head of the Puerto Rico Food Marketing, Industry and Distribution Chamber, argues that policy shifts have heightened the costs of the Jones Act [ Cato Daily Podcast with Caleb Brown, earlier ] Battle of the Ilyas: Ilya Shapiro vs. Ilya Somin on sanctuary city and state litigation [ Federalist Society podcast ] “Most comprehensive study to date on the effects of voter ID argues that these laws have no effects on overall turnout or on the turnout of any group defined by race, gender, age, or party affiliation,” or on real or perceived fraud; results “cannot be attributed to mobilization against the laws” either [ Enrico Cantoni and Vincent Pons, National Bureau of Economic

“A better reason to reject the governor’s proposal is that the constitutional guarantee of a free press extends to all people. Professional journalists don’t deserve special treatment, and no self-respecting one wants it.” [ David Andreatta, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle ] Tags: Andrew Cuomo , crime and punishment , First Amendment Cuomo proposal: make assaulting journalists a felony curated from Overlawyered

New York City police have employed the equivalent of DNA dragnets, combining voluntary with covert (e.g., grabbing a discarded cup) collection methods. Thus, before identifying a suspect in the Howard Beach jogger case, “the NYPD collected well over 500 DNA profiles from men in the East New York area….But things get worse from there. For those people excluded from the jogger case, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the city’s crime lab, permanently keeps those profiles in their databank [with more than 64,000 others] and routinely compares profiles to all city crimes.” In other words, cooperate with police by giving a DNA sample in order to help solve (or clear yourself in) some dreadful crime, and you’re in the database to nail for anything and everything else in future. “In this respect, [you] will be treated just like someone convicted of a crime.” And did you guess this? “Under their labor contract with the city, rank-and-file officers don’t give the lab their DNA, which me

Supreme Court could help rein in the administrative state by overruling Auer v. Robbins (1997), which directs courts to defer to agencies’ interpretations of their own regulations [ Ilya Shapiro, Trevor Burrus, and William Yeatman on Cato amicus brief in Kisor v. Wilkie , earlier ] “Does Kisor Really Threaten the Foundations of Administrative Law?” [ William Yeatman ] “What Is Regulation For?” [ video panel from Federalist Society National Lawyers’ Convention with Richard Epstein, Philip Hamburger, Kathryn Kovacs, Jon Michaels, moderated by Hon. Britt Grant] Plus, panel on the use of adjudication in place of rulemaking [Jack Beermann, Allyson Ho, Stephen Vaden, Chris J. Walker, moderated by Hon. Gregory Katsas; Antonin Scalia, “Making Law Without Making Rules,” Regulation magazine 1981 ] “Businesses in regulated industries rely on the regulating agency’s advice to make decisions.” But if advice from agency staff can neither be relied upon for legal purposes nor be subject to jud

After nearly a decade of silence, the Supreme Court finally takes another Second Amendment case. And it’s a doozy, on New York’s “eccentric and abusive” ban on gun transport [ Ilya Shapiro, Cato , Jacob Sullum (including headline), Dave Kopel (“eccentric and abusive”), Joyce Lee Malcolm on New York State Rifle and Pistol Association Inc. v. City of New York, New York ] Tags: guns , NYC , Supreme Court “Have Gun, Can’t Travel” curated from Overlawyered

The Arkansas constitution caps allowable interest rates for lending at 17 percent. Is the effect more to protect consumers, or deprive them of desired choices? A study [ Ben Lukongo and Thomas W. Miller Jr., Mercatus ] Tags: Arkansas , banks , debtor-creditor law Arkansas’s border-hopping borrowers curated from Overlawyered

I’ll be speaking to the Federalist Society chapter at Duke Law School in Durham on Monday at 12:30, on the subject of gerrymandering and redistricting reform, with Prof. Bob Joyce responding. Drop by and introduce yourself if you’re local! Tags: live in person , North Carolina , redistricting reform At Duke Law on Monday curated from Overlawyered

“Twenty-five years of developments in both the law and social science show that a police command to ‘stop’ is more than a mere request for information.” Courts should handle accordingly [ Ilya Shapiro on Cato amicus brief in Cisse v. New York, New York Court of Appeals] Procedures must be followed: “Murder suspect tries to turn himself in at New Orleans jail, but deputies demand proper ID” [ Matt Sledge, The Advocate ] New project aims to educate public on how to navigate oft-complex police complaint process [ Cato Daily Podcast with Steve Silverman and Caleb Brown] “Are We About to See a Wave of Police Using ‘Victim’s Rights’ Laws to Keep Conduct Secret?” [ Scott Shackford , earlier ] “Militarization Fails to Enhance Police Safety or Reduce Crime but May Harm Police Reputation” [ Jonathan Mummolo, Cato Research Briefs in Economic Policy , earlier ] In letter to Google, NYPD threatens legal action if Waze app fails to remove feature allowing users to post locations of police c

One of the most significant changes happening at the moment in the ideological complexion of the courts is not related to the federal courts at all. The Florida Supreme Court, for many years firmly in the hands of a liberal majority of justices, is likely to take a new turn with three appointments from new governor Ron DeSantis, a conservative Republican who campaigned against what he called judicial activism. The previous court is remembered especially for holding the national stage during the 2000 Bush v. Gore controversy. Among its other hits, it killed a school voucher program and liberalized tort law in such areas as premises, municipal, recreational, and rental-equipment liability. It also repeatedly struck down legislation aimed at reining in litigious excess in such areas as medical liability and expert testimony. [ David Freddoso, Washington Examiner ] Tags: Florida , politics , state high courts Finally, the Florida Supreme Court is changing curated from Overlawyered

Claim: Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) obliges live-entertainment vendors such as Broadway shows to offer “sensory-friendly” versions for autistic customers as “a civil right.” [ Whitney Ellenby, Washington Post/Taunton Gazette ] Tags: disabled rights , music and musicians Frontiers of the ADA: must live-entertainment vendors stage sensory-friendly versions? curated from Overlawyered

In the 10 years since Emery K. Harlan, co-founder of the National Association of Minority & Women Owned Law Firms, was featured as an ABA Journal Legal Rebel, he says little has changed for diversity in the profession. “I think it’s stayed about the same,” Harlan says. “The lesson we can take from diversity and inclusion is that there needs to be vigilance. There can never be a point where we can say we’ve achieved all there is to achieve. I think this year’s [Am Law] partnership classes is an indicator of that.” Indeed, Harlan, who originally was named a Legal Rebel for his efforts in fostering more racial and gender-based diversity in the legal profession, doesn’t foresee any improvements in the near future. “NAMWOLF continues to do very good work. We are seeing an increase in terms of companies that are open and government entities that are open to considering diverse lawyers, particularly diverse law firms,” he says. “It’s still not where things should be.” Something tha

Michigan’s Oakland County seizes rental property owned by elderly man over $8.41 unpaid tax bill plus $277 in fees and interest, sells property for $24,500, keeps all the surplus cash for itself. Constitutional? [ Joe Barnett, Detroit News ] Pruning obsolete laws: “Teaneck Council repeals more than a dozen old laws, including ban on cursing” [ Megan Burrow, North Jersey Record , quoting Councilman and longtime friend of this site Keith Kaplan] “What does the Constitution have to say about national emergencies, both real and imagined?” [ Cato Daily Podcast with Gene Healy and Caleb Brown] Lawyer in drunk-driving case: my client’s chewing on her coat could’ve thrown off breath test [ AP/WSBT (Berwick, Pa.)] Baltimore police corruption, tax policies that attract people, densifying MoCo and more in my latest Maryland policy roundup [ Free State Notes ] Busybodies in Bismarck: “North Dakota’s Excellent Food Freedom Act Is Under Attack Yet Again” [ Baylen Linnekin ] Tags: Baltimore

While not too much in the main stream media, there is a grass roots movement of on line lawyer communities unaffiliated with traditional legal organizations. I bet you belong to one and don't even realize you are part of a movement! Why is this happening and where are they congregating online? Should you belong to one? Listen and learn. Written by Susan Cartier Liebel The Rise of Grass Roots Online Lawyer Communities – Guest Lecture with Jared Correia curated from Solo Practice University®

Are the federal courts really becoming a lost cause for liberal Democrats? My new piece for the New York Post , complete with detailed map, examines claims that Trump administration nominations are transforming the lower federal courts, with results that, as the cliche goes, will last for generations. But “the nature of the courts in our system is not that one side wins any permanent victories on judicial selection. And that’s a good thing.” Over the eight years of the Obama presidency, of the 13 federal appeals courts, the number with a majority of Republican appointees fell from 10 to 4; even though Trump has had a higher number than usual of holdover vacancies to fill, that number for the moment remains 4. Tags: judicial nominations , WO writings In the New York Post: “Trump is chipping away at Obama’s remade federal courts” curated from Overlawyered

The courtroom camera in San Juan County, Washington “zoomed back out and then panned to the left to the defense counsel’s table and zoomed down directly on [her] yellow legal pad….” So why’d it do that? The sheriff appears to have argued that releasing the video in question “‘could expose weaknesses in court security,’ but it’s a little late for that. In any event, there is a more interesting question still to be answered, namely why the sheriff can control a courtroom camera from his office.” [ Kevin Underhill, Lowering the Bar ] Tags: cameras in the courtroom , Washington state “Sheriff Says Use of Camera to Zoom in on Defense Attorney’s Notes Was ‘Inadvertent'” curated from Overlawyered

“Illinois Supreme Court Allows No-Injury Biometric Information Privacy Act Claims in Complete Victory for Plaintiffs’ Bar” [ Locke Lord ] Google’s “which museum portrait is your selfie like?” an early local casualty [ Illinois Policy and generally on the law ] “Class action reform isn’t dead. It’s just not coming from Congress” [ Alison Frankel, Reuters ] To get around Daimler v. Bauman line of cases, state statutes now provide that by registering to do business in the state an out-of-state business consents to general personal jurisdiction. Is that consistent with due process? [ Anand Agneshwar and Paige Sharpe, WLF , and on Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway case in Pennsylvania; Beck with survey of state statutes] “As Pelvic Mesh Settlements Near $8 Billion, Women Question Lawyers’ Fees” [ Matthew Goldstein, New York Times , earlier and more ] More on Department of Justice crackdown on fraud and mismanagement in asbestos bankruptcy trusts [ ABA Journal , AP , Alison Franke

“For Congress to impose a racialized and non-neutral regime on parents and children is not only unwise and unfair, but unconstitutional.” The Cato Institute has joined an amicus brief challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in the Fifth Circuit case of Brackeen v. Bernhard. I’ve got more details in a new post at Cato at Liberty . Earlier on ICWA here . Tags: adoption , Cato Institute , Indian tribes Cato joins amicus brief challenging Indian Child Welfare Act curated from Overlawyered

“An end to industrial civilization, but like in a totally pro-union way.” My two cents at Ricochet on the politics of this week’s “Green New Deal” boomlet, the land of pure imagination that exists beyond trade-offs, and the likelihood of universal high-speed rail’s getting even through its preliminary litigation stages, let alone built and operating, within ten years. Tags: environment , politics , railroads , WO writings Green emergencies and grownups curated from Overlawyered

Sued if you do, sued if you don’t: drugmaker faces lawsuits over failure to provide Fosamax warning that FDA told it not to provide [ Jim Copland , James Beck on Merck Sharp & Dohme v. Albrecht, pending at Supreme Court] On new APA masculinity guidelines, Sally Satel cuts to the point: will they improve the success of therapy for people seeking help? [ Washington Post ] What does it mean to say the opioid litigation might follow the tobacco model? [ Rob McKenna, U.S. Chamber ] Citing fate of earlier gun lawsuit filed by city of Bridgeport, state judge dismisses lawsuits by four opioids lawsuits filed by Connecticut cities against opioid industry [ Daniel Fisher, Legal NewsLine ] I do miss the days when leaders of the public health profession focused on communicable diseases like typhus rather than running after Bloomberg grants to promote soda bans [ Joel Grover and Amy Corral, NBC Los Angeles ] Cooking the books on infant mortality: about those Cuban life expectancy stats [

“The rational basis test is hard to fail, says the Middle District of Tennessee, but Tennessee’s policy of rescinding the driver’s licenses of people who fail to pay criminal fines and fees is up — or maybe down — to the task.” [John K. Ross, IJ “ Short Circuit ,” on Robinson v. Purkey ; Dave Boucher, Nashville Tennesseean ] Tags: petty fines and fees , Tennessee , traffic laws Canceling drivers’ licenses for nonpayment of fines curated from Overlawyered

Diane Redleaf led a symposium at Cato Unbound in November in which I participated (more here and here ) on the formidable power of Child Protective Services. And now The Atlantic has published an article in which Redleaf explores some of themes of her newly published book They Took the Kids Last Night: How the Child Protection System Puts Families at Risk. Not surprisingly, there are horror stories galore: After detecting a second possible rib fracture, Texas CPS authorities demanded that the family abide by a restrictive safety plan. The parents, in turn, pointed out that the fractures were quite possibly the result of birth trauma or a potential genetic condition, and asked the state for an independent evaluation, but their request was denied. The family was compelled to use its own resources to gather five medical opinions from a geneticist, an endocrinologist, an obstetrician, a maternal- and fetal-medicine specialist, and a neonatologist. All took the family’s side, but the C

Local crackdowns on home-sharing can do a lot of harm [ Christina Sandefur, Federalist Society teleforum ] Sandefur on laws banning working from home [ Regulation mag , Cato Daily Podcast ] “Apparently the ad [about a 9-year-old daughter willing to do household chores for neighbors] generated multiple phone calls from paranoid neighbors thinking I was using my child as a slave,” and next thing the sheriff called [ Lenore Skenazy ; Woodinville, Wash.] Seventh Circuit rules against “disparate impact” age discrimination claims for job applicants, and a Forbes columnist writes as if it had decided to abolish disparate treatment claims for them as well [my Twitter thread on botched coverage of Kleber v. CareFusion Corp. ] “The Law Merchant and Private Justice. A Conversation with Professor Barry Weingast” [ Kleros ] “Disabilities Rights Group Files Lawsuit Against San Diego, Scooter Companies” [ Rachel Kaufman, Next City ] Ideology vs. kid placements: “Some 440,000 kids are in foster

The belief that “The odds of a computer or network breach isn’t an if, it’s only a when” is practically dogma now. Given this reality, every law practice, to include solo attorneys, should have a data security plan in place. Yes, I know the task can seem a bit daunting, particularly if you have no idea where to start; but failing to do this is no longer an acceptable choice. Putting our ethical duties and various state and federal regulations aside, every client expects to have whatever sensitive and personally identifying information they provide to you properly safeguarded. That’s the bottom-line. Here's a guide put out by the FCC to help you fulfill your ethical duties. Written by Mark Bassingthwaighte Lawyers and Other People’s Personal Information curated from Solo Practice University®

“A federal appeals court on Thursday blocked a San Francisco law requiring health warnings on advertisements for soda and other sugary drinks in a victory for beverage and retail groups that sued to block the ordinance.” The ruling, by a unanimous 11-member en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit, found that thelaw violates First Amendment rights of commercial speech. [ AP/BakersfieldNow ; American Beverage Association v. City and County of San Francisco ] Tags: advertising , First Amendment , Ninth Circuit , obesity , San Francisco , soft drinks San Francisco law requiring warnings in sugary-drink ads struck down curated from Overlawyered

My piece of two weeks ago for National Review about consent decrees, police, and the Jeff Sessions memo (briefly summarized here ) drew a detailed response from Radley Balko in the Washington Post , whose writings on police misconduct I often link here. I’ve now responded in a second NR piece , arguing that while there is much common ground to be found on the issues here, I will stick with seeing the memo as generally on the right track in articulating proper limits to the feds’ constitutional role (especially under the post-Civil War Amendments) in restraining misconduct by lower levels of government. “The very real and sometimes dire failings of local governments do not change the most important fact about our federal government, which is that it is one of limited powers.” Tags: consent decrees , constitutional law , Department of Justice , police , WO writings Consent decrees: an exchange curated from Overlawyered

Decision time coming up for administration on whether to reverse one of Obama’s worst initiatives, overtime for junior managers [ Veronique de Rugy ; Robin Shea ] California observes different rule on overtime for offshore oil workers than does federal government, exposing employers to huge retroactive back pay liability [ Washington Legal Foundation , Supreme Court granted certiorari last month in Newton v. Parker Drilling ] Today in bad ideas: Philadelphia becomes latest jurisdiction to regulate shifts and scheduling in retail, hospitality [ WHYY , National Law Review , BillyPenn ] “I’m a restaurant employee in a city with a $15 minimum wage; here’s how it’s hurt me” [ Simone Barron, Washington Examiner ] Virginia could wind up with a $15 minimum law before long, tough luck for rural parts of state [ Hans Bader ] “Nurses allege Corona, Calif. underpaid them, rounding down their time to the nearest quarter hour. Ninth Circuit: This can proceed as a class action. Five judges, dis

Investigation of asset forfeiture outrages in Philadelphia, where the D.A. “pursued nearly door-to-door confiscation of real estate” on some blocks [ Ryan Briggs, Plan Philly ] Texas police made more than $50 million in 2017 from seizing people’s property, but not everyone was guilty of a crime [ Texas Tribune ] How police departments in South Carolina make millions by seizing property [ Anna Lee, Nathaniel Cary and Mike Ellis, Greenville News ] “Civil Asset Forfeiture: An Overview & Conversation”, short video featuring Stefan Cassella and Darpana Sheth [ Federalist Society ] And this is how the Governor of Mississippi, Phil Bryant, defends forfeiture [ @PhilBryantMS on Twitter] Tags: forfeiture , Mississippi , Philadelphia , South Carolina , Texas Asset forfeiture: Philly, Texas, South Carolina, Mississippi curated from Overlawyered

My obituary for the great sociologist is up at the Washington Examiner magazine . “Because of his long association with the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, at which I was a fellow, I got to spend time with him on many occasions and he formed my model of the character of a public intellectual: benevolent, wise, curious, kind, and unassuming, his mind well-stocked with knowledge of all sorts, always taking the long view…..Rather than bicker about theory with his former progressive colleagues, Glazer simply showed again and again that their prescriptions had failed to work on behalf of the intended beneficiaries.” Tags: Manhattan Institute , WO writings Nathan Glazer, R.I.P. curated from Overlawyered

“30 Years After the Rushdie Fatwa, Europe Is Moving Backward” on speech that gives religious offense [ Jacob Mchangama and Sarah McLaughlin, Foreign Policy ] Whether you call it blasphemy or hate speech, chilling effects on expression are the same [ Helen Dale, Unherd ] British writer faces police inquiry after “deadnaming” transgender activist online [ Katie Herzog, The Stranger ; Sophie Law, Daily Mail on Graham Linehan case] Social media “like” contributes to another police call [ James Kirkup, The Spectator ] How American law came to recognize hate speech as part of the zone of protected free speech: a look at the history [ Flemming Rose, Cato Institute ] Labour MP introduces bill to ban private Facebook groups [ Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner ] Far-right French politico Marine Le Pen, prosecuted over speech on Twitter, “ordered to undergo a psychiatric examination as part of the investigation.” Say what? [ Jacob Sullum ] The U.K.’s new anti-terrorism efforts should be terri