Word: legalism
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Philip Corboy doesn't need to chase ambulances. They seem to chase him. Just one day after the July 19 crash of United Airlines Flight 232 in Sioux City, Iowa, the white-thatched, patrician-looking Chicago attorney was asked for legal help by the family of one of the survivors. Within 24 hours, Corboy had filed the first lawsuit to come out of the disaster. Since then, he has received calls from twelve other people involved in the crash. His fee, if he wins: as much as one-third of the damages...
Corboy's lawsuit was the first volley in what promises to be a high-stakes legal battle over the Iowa crash. Some attorneys have even taken to calling the tragedy "Sue City" because of the huge number of lawsuits that are expected to follow. While the 185 survivors and the next of kin of the 111 who were killed are the ultimate beneficiaries, the struggle will take place between a small cadre of plaintiffs' lawyers and their counterparts, who represent airlines, aviation manufacturers and their insurance companies. That kind of tug-of-war has grown increasingly fierce over the past...
...rules being considered on college campuses to punish students for making racist and other defamatory remarks go beyond social and commercial pressure to actual legal muzzling. The right-wing Dartmouth Review and its imitators have understandably infuriated liberals, who are beginning to take action against them and the racist expressions they have encouraged. The American Civil Liberties Union considered this movement important enough to make it the principal topic at its biennial meeting last month in Madison, Wis. Ironically, the regents of the University of Wisconsin had passed their own rules against defamation just before the ACLU members convened...
Equating morality with legality is in effect what people do when they claim that anything tolerated by law must, in the name of freedom, be approved by citizens in all their dealings with one another. As Zappa says, "Masturbation is not illegal. If it is not illegal to do it, why should it be illegal to sing about it?" He thinks this proves that Gore, who is not trying to make raunch in rock illegal, cannot even ask distributors to label it. Anything goes, as long as it's legal. The odd consequence of this argument would be a drastic...
...Polish bishops agreed to the diplomatic ties only because Poland's Parliament on May 17 passed laws allowing religious freedoms that are unprecedented in the Communist world. Dozens of new legal provisions now guarantee the rights of Catholicism and other faiths, encompassing such matters as the church's right to own property, build churches, publish freely and operate charities. The Polish church will also receive compensation for buildings the Communists seized in the 1950s, and members of the clergy are guaranteed pensions. Most observers believed the timing of the decision strongly signaled Pope John Paul's approval of the events...