Blog Posts

I didn't get a chance to watch any of the Elena Kagan confirmation hearings yesterday. I spent the day doing lawyerly things: I went to court to argue about whether the state had violated the rights of a criminal defendant by seizing his life savings from his and his wife's bank accounts when...

Books for prisoners is an issue I care deeply about. It is not simply that I own a used bookstore, and therefore have an interest in feeding an addiction to words. No, the issue is more fundamental. Reading and a sense of spiritual freedom go hand in hand. Epictetus may have been a slave, but words...

Senator Leahy, Senator Sessions, other members of this committee, my name is Gerry Darrow, and I am here today to answer your questions. I won't evade or hide any inconvenient truth or attitude from you or the American people. But before I answer your questions, I have a few for you. The mere...

Senator Leahy, Senator Sessions, other members of this committee, my name is Gerry Darrow, and I am here today to answer your questions. I won't evade or hide any inconvenient truth or attitude from you or the American people. But before I answer your questions, I have a few for you. The mere...

My wife and I spent many hours this spring preparing our garden beds for planting. I neglected them at the end of the last growing season. Hard work in late autumn can make for an easy spring; you pay with labor for neglect. But we weeded each of the raised beds, we fertilized where necessary, we...

Supreme Court nominee Gerry Darrow held a surprise press conference this afternoon, bidding reporters to "Ask me anything." Across town, co-nominee Elena Kagan, was hidden away from the press with White House handlers, in preparation for the confirmation hearings set to begin Monday before the...

There is a difference between violent rape and other forms of sexual misconduct, just as there is a difference between the inappropriate touching of a child and that of an adult. We all recognize that in the cold light of day. Perhaps that is why Al Gore is being given a pass.
The former vice...

Consider the following case: A boy gets into an argument with a classmate. Tempers flare. The boy physically assaults his classmate, injuring the classmate. There is no question here of self-defense. Has a crime been committed?
All crimes have at least two things in common: A prohibited act and...

A question from the floor at yesterday's conference on reforming sex offender legislation surprised me. I wish I had the chance to answer it all over again. But I am back home now. The conference continues today and tomorrow in Washington, D.C.
The question went something like this: Although...

Confirmation hearings for Elena Kagan will take place before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. There is little doubt she will be confirmed, and even less doubt that she is intellectually capable to serve as a Justice on the United States Supreme Court. The real question is, I suppose, why...