The Roman orator Cicero defined a commonwealth, or a republic, as a group of people drawn together by common interests and a common conception of right, or justice. In other words, not just any group of folks constitutes a stable political entity.
By this standard, we are no longer a republic. The evidence is everywhere.
Consider the case of King v. Burwell, now on the docket of the United States Supreme Court. This is the case in which opponents of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, have seized upon four misplaced words in a complex piece of legislation to try to...
November 15, 2014
From time to time, a young person turns up at my office door looking for career advice. They are considering a career in the law. What, they ask, should they do? My answer is typically succinct: consider medical school. The law, I tell them is dark place. I’ve imagined that medicine offers light.
Law school does next to nothing to prepare lawyers for their role as counselors. There is no requirement that lawyers acquire any formal training in psychology, social work or counseling of those in need. Yet the situations driving folks to a lawyer’s office are often life changing,...
November 6, 2014
If I had Tom Foley’s tax accountant, there is one thing I most assuredly would not do: I would not run for public office pretending I had any idea about what is and is not sound public policy. Foley lives as a free-rider, avoiding taxes while living like a plutocrat. Why would anyone vote for him?
Foley paid $2,000 in federal taxes in 2011 and 2012. Yet in 2010, he spent $11 million of his own money in a failed attempt to become governor. He didn’t go broke running for governor. Odds are, he still has millions of dollars tucked away.
But he is a savvy tax planner: He...
October 29, 2014
There are secret courts operating in our midst, and I am not referring to those tribunals whose focus is national security. I’m talking about something more basic and closer to home. I’m talking about our juvenile courts, where the fate of children is sometimes determined.
Consider the case of Jane Doe and John Doe, two Connecticut parents stuck in Kafkaesque proceedings. They are in the midst of a divorce. They have three children. Those children are now in foster care, and it is not clear when the parents will again have the right to raise them as they see fit. In fact, it...
October 26, 2014
October 22, 2014
I'm not a fan of the Justice Department, so I ought to be rooting for Kurt Siuzdak, a 17-year veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who has...
October 16, 2014
The law of evidence governs what is and is not admissible in a trial. A judge’s decision on what a jury hears could quite literally be the...
October 14, 2014
I wasn't on the New Haven jury that convicted Angelo Reyes of arson and conspiracy charges. But I know a thing or two about Mr. Reyes, having...
October 9, 2014
Juries are fickle, especially in civil cases, where we give them the right and the power to award money in the form of compensatory damages, and, in...
October 2, 2014
"Do you think anyone should go to jail?" The speaker, a youngish FBI agent, looked at me with the same devilish grin I had seen on his face any...
September 30, 2014
“Everybody talks,” the prosecutor said. He was confident, strutting his stuff in the well of the court. “In the end, everyone...