Experts argue the constitutionality of the school reform movement's most controversial proposal.
A Maine sheriff wants the Legislature to let authorities dole out confiscated pot to people who need medicinal marijuana. As solicitor general in the Bush administration, and later as a corporate appeals lawyer specializing in tort cases, Starr has often made the same arguments, echoing his friends in the Federalist Society and their allies on Capitol Hill. First, they gutted the capacity of the federally funded Legal Services Corp. to bring class-action lawsuits against corporate malefactors on behalf of clients too poor to hire their own attorneys. Then they weakened enforcement of consumer, workplace safety and environmental statutes by federal agencies. The punitive damages awarded in tort lawsuits do more than occasionally enrich such lawyers and their clients.