Blog Posts

Criminal defense lawyers have two reactions to cases involving possession of child pornography: either the lawyer does not take such cases as a matter of principle, or the lawyer takes the case with a sense of foreboding approaching despair. The law involving possession of child pornography is...

Mike Cernovich is hanging out at my house for a week. He comes out to Connecticut from the left coast every so often to help with briefing. But the real purpose of his visit is to talk. Mike, of Crime and Federalism fame, is a young guy, but he is precocious. One might even say wise. In any case, I...

I spoke to a young lawyer on the telephone this evening. He was despondent about the state of the law. Why, he wondered, are juries so quick to believe what police officers say, even when there is powerful evidence that the police have lied? The young man had recently tried and lost a case alleging...

United States District Court Judge Roboert Chatigny was nomination to the Second Circuit was approved by an 11-7 vote this afternoon. His nomination now goes to the full Senate, where he is all but certain to be approved. Chatigny Approved
Alas.

A few days ago I posted about my decision to fire Westlaw. I've had inquiries from all over the country since then. It turns out I am not alone. Plenty of folks feel hooked on Westlaw. They also feel that the pusher has grown unresponsive. When it comes to its billing practices, the company is run...

We don't pray in my household. Perhaps we ought to. There's more than enough chaos to keep a band of angels busy. But our heavens are silent. We give thanks for one another and for such health as we enjoy. Among the things for which we are thankful is the Bill of Rights and a historical tradition...

"[B]ehind most dreams of a simpler Constitution there lies a basic human hunger for ... certainty and control ... And who has not felt that same hunger? Is there any one of us who has not lived though moments, or years, of longing for a world without ambiguity, and for the stability of something...

My wife and I own one of New England's oldest bookstores, Whitlock Farm Booksellers, or the Book Barns, in Bethany. The shop has been operating out of two barns in a rural area since 1949. Of course, neither my wife nor I had any business buying a bookstore. But we both love books and we love to...

I have a confession to make: I've had several verdicts in excess of one million dollars. In each case, I had no idea that the jury would make the awards. I still don't why the juries did. I've lost cases I thought I should have won, and won cases I thought I would lose. Juries seem unpredictable to...

I once stood on the courthouse steps with a man about to go to trial. It was many years ago. "You are confusing me," he told me. "You keep telling me I should settle, but you are willing to fight." When I tried to explain that being both counsellor and advocate was part of the job, be didn't get...