Blog Posts

I'd like to ask a question or two under oath, if you don't mind. Answer them quickly, and without guile.
Q. Where were you born?
A. Toledo.
Objection: Foundation. you cannot know this without having been told by others. The answer necessarily calls for hearsay.
Q. When were you...

I enjoy vigorous and bold debate. But folks if you are going to post comments here, please don't call people drunks, perverts, etc., unless such claims are a matter of public record. I've had to avoid publishing several otherwise very good comments because they crossed that line.

Read this Slate piece about why right's ballyhoo about judicial activism is hogwash, and why "originalism" is the most dangerous form of "activism." Slate
Hat Tip: My Wife

No court this afternoon, so I stole some time to read a back issue of the Wall Street Journal. A good friend of mine who is a former federal prosecutor tried to explain to me earlier in the week why the SEC's prosecution of Goldman Sachs was a crock of ... well, feces. So I struggled through the...

The one-size-fits-all approach to the law-enforcement treatment and classification of sex offenders is on the chopping block. Both the George House and Senate have approved legislation that would give folks required to register on the state's sex offender registry to the right to petition the...

It is sadly inevitable. United States District Court Judge Robert N. Chatigny will be approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee for a seat on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. I am told this by folks who pretend to know such things. The vote on his nomination could be as early as today.
I...

I’ve never been to Lancaster, California, and the fault is mine. A good friend is now mayor. He’s also a personal injury lawyer with a big shop. I had a standing invitation to come visit him in Lancaster for many years, but I never made the trip. Now I am half-hoping my friend calls me...

Butner, North Carolina -- President Barack Obama stood before a federal prison today and announced that he was nominating an unknown 42-year-old lawyer as the next justice of the Supreme Court, replacing retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.
"I promised hope when I asked for your trust during the...

A woman called yesterday. She was a stay-at-home mother with two small children. Her husband had a good job. Then he touched a woman on the leg in an airplane. Federal prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation moved in. The man is a sex offender, they concluded. So he goes to prison next...

Animal lovers throughout the United States may be distressed by today's ruling in United States v. Stevens. But they should not be. The laws against animal cruelty pending in every state remain intact. All that changed today is the Government's freedom to apply vague laws in whatsoever manner...