Blog Posts

John Kindley's People v. State is one of my favorite blogs. He's a libertarian of sorts. His page is steeped in the history of anarchism. He is a young lawyer. This is a recipe for heart break, and this morning I read that he is, in fact, heart broken. You see, it is wearing on him to appear in one...

I'm mid-way through a month away from the office and something like calm has descended. It therefore came as a rude awakening last night to be reminded of emergencies in the office. I tossed and turned all night long, considering the issues that had arisen in the course of an afternoon. When I got...

Hat Tip: Jamison Koehler

There's just no way to sugar coat the killing of Oscar Grant. A white cop shot the kid to death, in the back, in front of witnesses, and was videotaped doing so. And still a jury could not find it in its collective heart to convict the cop of murder. Instead, jurors concluded the cop made a...

I would not normally write about the voir dire of a prospective juror. I respect how difficult it is to answer questions in open court in the presence of strangers. But I am going to make an exception just this once. I am going to make an exception because the prospective juror is a public...

There’s something funky about the Justice Department’s lawsuit to invalidate Arizona’s immigration legislation. I keep thinking about Roe v. Wade and the right to abortion. Could it be that federalism is in its death throes? Arizona’s immigration law requires lawmen to...

The Justice Department's long-anticipated suit challenging Arizona's new immigration law raises a radical question: Is federalism dead? If so, we ought at least to have the integrity to declare it so in some more formal manner.
Arizona contends that it needs to act to preserve the health,...

Some of the best lawyers I know are public defenders. Period. What's more, I envy public defenders. Imagine the practice of law without the grimy necessity of having to ask clients for money? But there is no paradise, life keeps reminding me. Times are tough now from coast to coast. Even public...

It is too hot for sustained outdoor work today. So I am taking it easy. While my wife watered the garden early this morning, I trimmed back some of the overgrowth in the area adjacent to the outbuilding where Socrates sleeps. It's overgrown just now, and there are a lot of prickers.
My favorite...

One of the worst days I ever had in a courtroom took place a decade ago. My client was a young man accused of selling crack cocaine. Police officers testified they saw him hand a small bag to another man and receive cash in return. The cops caught my client; the other guy got away. Shortly after...