Bakersfield woman wins $3.6 million in first of trials related to medical device

Stephen Sugarman quoted in The Bakersfield Californian, July 23, 2012

It’s common in large-scale personal injury litigation for both sides to see how the first few trials go before deciding how to dispose of the rest of them, said Stephen Sugarman, a professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley. “Both sides are treating each jury case as an experiment,” he said. “They see what works and what doesn’t before a jury. If they have a bad witness, they switch them out. After a while, a pattern emerges.”

S.F. ahead of curve on jail realignment

Barry Krisberg quoted in San Francisco Chronicle, July 16, 2012

Barry Krisberg, a criminologist at UC Berkeley’s law school, said San Francisco is “showing how to make realignment work. Some counties are just building jail cells and hiring prosecutors. San Francisco is doing what people who conceptualized realignment envisioned―a fundamental shift in the way California handles nonviolent, nonserious offenders.”

China’s young and restless could test legal system

Stanley Lubman writes for The Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2012

The Shifang protests…. may augur both a growing public anger over environmental degradation and a rise of political activism among China’s younger generation—trends that could lead in turn to an increase in legal challenges to the arbitrary behavior of local governments.

States of Delinquency

Barry Krisberg writes for Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books, July 2012

In States of Delinquency, Miroslava Chávez-García…. was able to mine thousands of case files of young black and brown children who were pulled into the California juvenile justice system. Unlike other histories that mostly tell a “top down” story of reform, she describes the role of the youth themselves, their families and their communities in opposing abusive practices and forcing governmental actions.

Surveillance tools at issue in lawsuit

Paul Schwartz quoted in The Wall Street Journal, (requires registration) July 15, 2012

Paul M. Schwartz … said the use of pen registers and trap-and-trace technology is likely up because the public is spending more time on smartphones and the Internet. … The data available to agencies is much broader than when investigators tracked phone calls to and from a single line, he said. “It’s not surprising they’re going to make use of it,” he said.

How Google products go from creepy to cool

Christopher Hoofnagle quoted in CNET News, July 13, 2012

Google’s moral compass is steered to a large degree by its mantra of “don’t be evil.” “They believe their intentions are pure and therefore privacy problems are not a problem because they don’t intend to harm people,” said Chris Hoofnagle.

The Supreme Court’s Obamacare legacy (part 1)

John Yoo interviewed by The Washington Post, Right Turn, July 13, 2012

I’m sorry to say that Roberts’s opinion does not follow the conservative approach to interpretation, which should focus on the text and history of the Constitution. Take, for example, his opinion on the taxing power. He does not examine the Framers’ original understanding of the distinction between financial penalties and taxes — he seems to conjure out of thin air that penalties and taxes are the same.
This story also appeared in the following outlets: North County Times and Conservative Daily News.

Mobile phones and privacy

Christopher Hoofnagle writes for Technology | Academics | Policy, July 13, 2012

Consumers need the ability to change their minds and walk away from a service. While the Federal Trade Commission has so far focused upon improving consumers’ positions ex ante, increasingly we need to consider ex post interventions, such as a right to delete information associated with an account, so that the consumer can exit whole.

Mobile phone users sorely mistaken about how much privacy they have

Christopher Hoofnagle, Jennifer Urban, and Su Li’s report cited in Ars Technica, July 12, 2012

A new study from the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology asked 1,200 households several straightforward questions about what level of privacy they think they have when using a cell phone, and what information is and is not OK for companies to track and store. The majority thinks they have far more privacy than they do, and are unequivocally opposed to some of the most common forms of data collection.
This story also appeared in Boing Boing.

Why all govs will opt into ‘Obamacare’

Jennifer Granholm writes for POLITICO, July 11, 2012

Turning down the Medicaid expansion would mean rejecting $76.3 billion in federal help for 2014-2019. But Texans will still be paying billions in federal taxes to pay for the rest of the country’s Medicaid costs — payroll deductions don’t go away if a state opts out of ‘Obamacare.’