Abusive Lawsuits: News Miner 45

Also: Denver crime, a BLM school, AI journalism, Satan, anti-transgender bigotry, libertarian women, and more.

Kopel on Abusive Lawsuits

In a new paper for the Independence Institute, Kopel begins by recounting the abusive lawsuits leveled against Black-run newspapers in the Jim Crow era and into the 1960s, verdicts often rendered by all-white juries.

Then Kopel reviews comparable abusive lawsuits against gun makers and sellers starting in the 1980s. These suits sometimes affected free speech. The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act and other measures limited such suits.

Then Kopel critiques a Colorado bill:

SB23-168 is not a mechanism for creating “reasonable controls.” Rather, SB23-168 would turn Colorado courts into a national vehicle for the destruction of the firearm industry—the “death by a thousand cuts” lawsuit abuse program touted by the lawsuit architects. . . .

SB23-168 repudiates the rule of proximate cause. Instead, a special, inescapable theory of liability is invented. It applies solely to firearms businesses. There is a “presumption” of “proximate cause” “notwithstanding any intervening act by a third party.” . . . The bill creates a “presumption” that every firearms business is liable. No matter how remote the circumstances. . . .

Every time a gun is used in a crime in Colorado, “the Attorney General’s designee” can sue every firearms business remotely related. Even though the businesses rigorously followed all gun control laws. . . .

The bill also specifically targets guns marketed to minors, Kopel notes, which undermines gun-safety programs for youth.

Kopel writes: “Imposing tort liability for third-party misuse would eliminate press manufacturers and arms manufacturers. It has always been known that presses and arms are sometimes misused.”

Read the entire report.

See also Mark Hillman’s critique of the proposal.

Quick Takes—Colorado

Crime: Chase Woodruff has out a good context-rich piece for Colorado Newsline on public safety, one that meshes news analysis with advocacy. Woodruff points out that people in Denver are relatively more at risk now from auto crashes and other unintentional injuries and suicide, yet crime and homelessness seem to get most of the political and media attention. And often those issues are badly framed. The great crime writer Radley Balko says the piece is a “superb demonstration . . . of how to provide proper context and nuance when crime becomes the dominant issue in a political campaign.” (I don’t agree with all of Woodruff’s framing though.)

Taxes: “Senate Bill 143 . . . would exempt businesses that do less than $500,000 in annual sales from having to pay the 27-cent retail delivery fee,” reports Ed Sealover.

Guns: Some legislators want a three-day waiting period for gun purchases. I recently Tweeted about this: “Problem: What if someone needs a gun immediately for self-defense? Potential fix: Anyone can request and get, at state expense, 24/7 police protection while they wait.”

Nannyism: For Pete’s sake! Now some Democrats want to mandate large-facility “substance-free seating.”

Science: Colorado science educator Steve Spangler discussed his background and approach with PBS. See also my interview with him.

Feminism: “Up until 1974, many women needed to have a male co-signer to open a bank account or acquire a line of credit. So, eight women came together to change that by opening their own U.S. Women's Bank,” History Colorado reviews.

Education: A Denver school started by Black Lives Matter activists, “where Black people are loved, valued, safe, and free to be themselves in a place where students become leaders for social change,” “did not reach the enrollment requirement” to open but is “exploring some options,” reports Courtney Yuen.

AI: Andrew Kenney said ChatGPT “can also try to summarize legislation, but. . . it gets plenty of stuff wrong, and overly confident.” I joked, “So. . . basically a journalist.” This sparked a humorous retort that “ChatGPT never asks for a raise, doesn’t take breaks, and won’t steal your lunch from the break room fridge.”

Election: “Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis [was] censured in Colorado for false election claims,” Newsline reports.

Satan: Satan’s been getting altogether too much media attention in Colorado recently, what with a Satanic school club opening. But the theme has taken a humorous turn. One political activist misspelled Satan as “Satin.” Someone ran a poll asking who is worse, 9News journalist Kyle Clark or Satin. Not to be outdone, Jon Caldara, who recently hosted Clark on his “Devil’s Advocate” show, ran a poll asking who is worse, him, Clark, or the Devil. Here is my contribution: Clark, Caldara, and Satan wearing satin (with apologies to Rush).

Quick Takes—General

Bigotry: I hope you’ll read Radley Balko’s outstanding article about Michael Knowles’s anti-transgender bigotry (something I’ve also discussed) and disingenuous conservative efforts to unleash abusive lawsuits.

Bigotry II: “Hate can be mainstream,” Aaron Ross Powell reminds us.

Freedom: Most elements of Ron DeSantis’s “Blueprint for Freedom” undermine freedom.

Work: “Maybe remote work is making it easier for couples to become parents—and for parents to have more children.” Derek Thompson reviews.

Liberty: Robert Tracinski reviews Tim Sandefur’s book Freedom’s Furies, about Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand. Sandefur writes that these three women “saw themselves as genuinely modern, and they viewed fascism, communism, and the New Deal as reactionary movements that sought to turn back the clock, undoing the progress toward individualism.”

Youth: Derek Thompson plausibly argues that overly demanding school prep contributes to depression. Some students, he notes, effectively put in 60-plus-hour “work” weeks on school activities. As Thompson notes, as with much social media use, the emphasis seems to be on status and “winning” the competition rather than on self-care and overall well-being.

Abortion: Many Christians are self-styled abortion “abolitionists,” Heidi Beedle reviews.