December 26, 2004

I'll be out of town through New Year's, so I won't be posting the rest of the week. For those interested in more reading, though, you may want to check out these two new entries from our friends at the Washington Legal Foundation:

Gibson Dunn's Ted Olson, former U.S. Solicitor General (who argued Bush v. Gore at the Supreme Court), has a co-authored legal opinion letter on the Kentucky Supreme Court's decision in Sand Hill Energy, Inc. v. Smith, which we discussed here.

Glenn Lammi, who heads WLF's Legal Studies Division, has a co-authored Legal Backgrounder discussing positive guidance from the Michigan Supreme Court on challenges to tort reform laws.

Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't point readers to our own Ted Frank's wonderful post on Overlawyered, "Center for Justice & Democracy's Zany 'Zany Immunity Law Awards.'" Ted picks apart CJD's flimsy document on supposedly outrageous legal immunity laws that was apparently designed to counter the American Tort Reform Association's well-documented "Judicial Hellholes" report. (Judicial Hellholes is 54 pages and has 391 footnotes; Zany Immunity is 15 pages long with 20 footnotes and humorous illustrations. Last year, CJD resorted to the tried-and-true tactic of calling ATRA's report "racist" because the judicial hellholes were in disproportionately minority counties.) It really boggles my mind that CJD thinks it's "zany" to stop baseball fans from suing stadium owners if they're hit by an errant fly ball, or -- get this -- to stop thieves who break into anhydrous ammonia tanks on farms to make methamphetamines from suing the farmer if they're injured in the theft. Read Ted's full posting for a thorough and entertaining analysis.

See you all in the new year!