Libertarian: Another Tort Bar Legal Misfire
Add to the list of cases in which the US tort system “has generated many litigation campaigns and completed verdicts we now recognize as scientific embarrassments,” says Walter Olson at Commentary. This month, a San Francisco jury ordered Bayer/Monsanto to pay $289 million to a school groundskeeper who contracted non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after using the popular weed killer Roundup. This, even though “most bodies of expert opinion both private and public around the world” do not consider Roundup’s active ingredient, glysophate, “a probable cause of cancer in humans.” But a single study suggested otherwise, and it’s been endorsed by the state of California. Following the verdict, the value of Bayer’s stock dropped by more than 10 billion euros ($11.4 billion). Says Olson: “It’s expensive when error prevails.”
Religion prof: Time for All US Bishops to Resign
So much for many Catholics’ hope that “the worst of the clerical abuse crisis was in the past,” suggests Georgetown Professor of Catholic Studies Gerard Mannion at Time. In the wake of the explosive Pennsylvania grand-jury report, the US Conference of Bishops is asking for guidance from the Vatican. But Pope Francis’ 2014 attempt to explore the abuse “met roadblocks from within the Vatican itself”: His commission’s recommendations weren’t implemented, and victims’ messages to leading Vatican officials were ignored. Which is why this is “a crisis of moral corrosion and corruption embedded into the church.” Mannion urges all US bishops to “make a collective act of repentance and then resign en masse, as those of Chile did in the wake of their own revelations” last spring.
Naval vet: The Strange Scuttling of USS Ling
USS Ling — “mottled, gray, rust-stained and listing ominously to port” — has long been a fading fixture in New Jersey’s Hackensack River, a floating memorial to America’s WWII submarine service, notes City Journal’s Bob McManus. Now comes word that Ling “has been deliberately flooded by vandals, leaving only the question of how best to dispose” of a decaying warship that “deserves much better.” She first went to war in summer 1945 and saw relatively brief front-line Cold War service. Sadly, there was only modest interest in Ling as a submarine memorial occupying “a space eyed by real-estate developers.” Last week, she was “seemingly scuttled by vandals with — curiously — more than a passing knowledge of how to get the job done.” But at this point, “Ling is beyond salvaging.”
Pollster: Paralysis on the Horizon for Next Congress
National Journal’s Charlie Cook currently is forecasting a Democratic pickup of 20 to 40 seats in the House, giving them political control. But unless they flip at least 46 seats, which seems unlikely at this point, “their majority would be smaller than the current GOP majority.” And anything short of 60 seats “means that it would be a real challenge for House Democrats to get much out of the chamber.” As for the Senate, it currently looks like “a Democratic tidal wave crashing up against a Republican seawall.” The reality, he says, is that neither party “is going to exceed 53 or 54 seats, making for a tough legislative sled.” And even if Democrats win big, President Trump “still wields the veto pen.” Bottom line: “Expect legislative paralysis to get even worse than it is today.”
Liberal: McGahn Served His Own Interests, Not Trump’s
Normal procedures are being “turned upside down” when it comes to White House Counsel Don McGahn’s cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller, observes Bloomberg’s Noah Feldman. Lawyers aren’t supposed to disclose conversations with their clients, “at least not without putting up a fight” over attorney-client privilege. And senior White House aides aren’t supposed to do so either, at least not without asserting executive privilege. But President Trump waived both privileges — possibly without “full understanding of the consequences.” Still, if McGahn didn’t warn Trump that his testimony might harm the presidency, that would be “a serious conflict of interest.” Yes, McGahn had reason to agree to cooperate, “so he doesn’t look guilty.” But “he should have put the presidency above his own interests.”
— Compiled by Eric Fettmann
