The Director’s Cut
Why Justice Alito Is Absolutely, Profoundly, Decidedly Wrong.
On November 12th, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito delivered, via Zoom, a speech to the right-wing Federalist society. It was blunt, and clearly articulated his highly politicized views about current issues, including Covid-19 and the attempts to control it. Justice Alito also discussed Obergefell, the Supreme Court decision which recognized gay marriage. Here is an…
Read MoreRoundup in the News
There is a weed-killer called Roundup. It is manufactured by Monsanto, which is now owned by Bayer. Roundup contains a chemical called glyphosate, which may or may not be carcinogenic. That, at least, is the question that juries around the country are being asked to answer. The evidence on the question is split, with Monsanto,…
Read MoreIt’s All Personal, Not Just Business.
There is a famous scene in the classic movie The Godfather, where Michael Corleone, off to meet with an enemy, says, “It’s not personal, it’s just business.” The terrible tragedies of crashes of the Boing 737 Max 8 aircraft in Indonesia and Ethiopia remind us, once again, how wrong that statement it. These tragedies were…
Read MoreFighting Back
Remember when we wrote about the lawsuit filed against Alex Jones and Infowars by families whose children were butchered in the Shady Hook Massacre? “When Madness Walked the Earth,” April 19, 2018? Here’s some context: Shortly after that terrible event, Conspiracy theorists began claiming that the parents of the dead children were “actors in an…
Read MoreHere Comes The Future (Again)
We live in an era when the law is constantly working to keep up with new developments in science, medicine and technology. And right now, we have a chance to watch the law surrounding drones emerge and evolve. What do you do when a drone flies over your backyard, maybe while you’re sunbathing, or having…
Read MoreThey Thought That The Law Would Save Them, But…
Public Justice is working on a critical new case, and the facts will alarm you. Over the course of four months in late 2015 and early 2016, a natural gas well in California released thousands of tons of methane and other chemicals into the air. To put the seriousness of this event into context, consider…
Read MoreA Corporate Court
By Richard Newman & Tom Lebert The world is becoming increasingly driven by large corporations and those who would benefit from them as wealth inequality skyrockets and antitrust law is seldom used. The tort law system we celebrate at the American Museum of Tort Law has helped to protect the people from the wrongdoings of…
Read MoreLegal Immunities Mock the Law
So there’s this gimmick, see? A special interest group of one sort or another goes before a legislature somewhere – a State Capital, or Washington D.C., and says, “We’re so important, but at the same time so helpless, that you must preserve and protect us, by making us immune from lawsuits.” It’s a clever gimmick,…
Read MoreFor Shame
Tort law, as noted historian Eric Foner put it, is the “weapon of the weak.” It lets the wrongfully injured hold wrongdoers accountable. It is a centuries–old mechanism whereby juries – regular people like you and me – decide how much money will fairly compensate someone who has been devastated by the wrongful, harmful act…
Read MoreOn Frivolous Lawsuits
We’ve all heard about them – frivolous lawsuits – that are allegedly plaguing the courts, bedeviling the civil justice system, making jurors skeptical. First, let’s be clear: The fact that a lawsuit is lost does NOT mean that the case was frivolous. Lawsuits are adversarial, meaning that when a case goes to trial, one side…
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