John Culbreath Blog

Wearing two hats: mayor of Imperial Beach, Calif. suing oil companies is also with an environmentalist group [ Ben Wolfgang, Washington Times ] “Cross Examination Is Going To Be Brutal” given local officials’ earlier statements [ Karen Kidd, Forbes , citing Richard Epstein] Municipalities’ suits ignore important goal of California law “that emissions should be reduced, not simply shifted out of state due to high costs and burdensome regulations” [ Dorothy Rothrock (CMTA), Sacramento Bee ] Washington Legal Foundation webinar on public nuisance suits with Richard Faulk of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP and Neil Merkl of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP; “Schwarzenegger to Sue Big Oil for ‘First Degree Murder’” [ Edward Isaac-Dovere, Politico ] “What is a non-mood-affiliated way to get up to speed on climate change issues?” [ Tyler Cowen and commenters ; brief Cowen explainer on mood affiliation] “Whether it is lawsuits against opioid manufacturers or lawsuits against oil companies, public...

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The Fourteenth Amendment provides that a state cannot deprive a person of “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” With respect to substantive due process cases, courts determine whether an asserted right constitutes a protected “liberty” interest within the meaning of the 14th Amendment. That is, does denying someone a right to contract, abortion, or marriage, for example, deprive them of a constitutionally-protected “liberty.” For some–but not all-famous substantive due process cases, there is an additional liberty interest at stake: jail. It is shorthand to call the case  Lochner v. New York , but the full name is  Lochner v. The People of New York  (1905). A violation of the New York Bakeshop Act was a misdemeanor. Lochner was “sentenced to pay a fine of $50, and to stand committed until paid, not to exceed fifty days in the Oneida county jail.” (I have been unable to determine whether Lochner in fact spent any time in jail, or whether he was a...

Activist high court, no-fault PPI auto insurance, assignment-of-benefits (AOB) claims helped Florida win top Judicial Hellhole ranking from American Tort Reform Foundation [ Amy O’Connor, Insurance Journal ] Maybe getting people interested in the age-old ethical dangers of champerty and maintenance would be easier if litigation finance were framed as a Chamber of Commerce vs. Peter Thiel match-up [ Jacob Gershman, WSJ ] “Prosecutors Investigate Firms That Offer Plaintiffs Early Cash” [ Matthew Goldstein and Jessica Silver-Greenberg, New York Times ] Seventh Circuit: parents, not Starbucks, bore duty of protecting 3-year-old from harm resulting from playing on crowd-control stanchions [ Roh v. Starbucks ] British Columbia is only Canadian province without limits on soft-tissue injury claims after car crashes, and now fiscal implosion at province-owned auto insurer ICBC may force leftist NDP government to reconsider that [ Mike Smyth/The Province , Jason Proctor and Karin Larsen, CBC...

The Stanford law professor has penned “Dressmakers, Bakers, and the Equality of Rights” for the forthcoming volume “Religious Freedom, LGBT Rights, and the Prospects for Common Ground” (William N. Eskridge, Jr. and Robin Fretwell Wilson, eds. 2018). [ SSRN , Volokh ] Abstract: Using recent examples involving dressmakers refusing to create designs for the First Lady at the Trump inauguration, this paper explains why Masterpiece Cakeshop should be decided in favor the baker who refuses to create a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding ceremony, and why this should be understanding as an equality of rights, rather than prioritizing free speech over nondiscrimination. Earlier on Masterpiece Cakeshop here . Tags: discrimination law , First Amendment , Supreme Court Michael McConnell on the Masterpiece Cakeshop case is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Michael McConnell on the Masterpiece Cakeshop case curated from Overlawyered

Advocates claiming the mantle of public health would like to introduce scary new warnings on foods high in sugar, salt, or fat, and restrict marketing, as by banning the use of cartoon characters. For years they’ve been trying to advance their schemes through the use of international organizations and institutions, but now the United States, or at least its federal government, has begun pushing back. The New York Times doesn’t like that one bit and my latest Cato post examines the difference between what a principled position might look like, and the position the Times actually takes. Excerpt: Like international organizations, treaty administration bodies tend to draw for guidance on an elite stratum of professional diplomats, conference-goers, NGO and nonprofit specialists, and so forth, most of whom are relatively insulated from any pushback in public opinion. That might be a good reason to minimize the role of transnational panels in governance where not absolutely necessary. It ...