Blog Posts


Memo To Bridgeport Lawmakers

Here's the latest in the ongoing saga of the Bridgeport school board crisis. Unless you have followed the story to date, this will not make a lot of sense. Sorry about that.
Rumor has it that Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch has been telling General Assembly members that I have concluded some sort...

The Sad Case of Tanya McDowell

I hope Tanya McDowell will forgive us, someday, for our hypocrisy and cruelty. I hope her son will as well. But first she will have to serve her prison term. Her son will have to learn to get along without her.
Ms. McDowell was sentenced to a five-year term behind bars. Her crimes: Larceny...

Attacking the Vote in Hartford

I have long grown accustomed to the facts of life known to all criminal defense lawyers: little people get run over and crushed in court. When a defendant errs, he is prosecuted, sanctioned, held accountable. When the government errs, an exception to the rule defining the error saves the day. We...

A Goose-Stepping Governor?

This just in from a source watching Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's mad scramble to deprive Bridgeport voters of the right to vote for their own board of education:
"Have you heard the latest that Governor Malloy is utilized something called and emergency certification that allows him to draft a...


War Of Attrition Begins In Bridgeport School Case

The war of attrition has already set in on the Bridgeport school board case. Notwithstanding the 6-1 decision of the Connecticut Supreme Court declaring the state's ouster of elected school board members to be unlawful, the state board still remains in power. Apparently it intends to govern by...


The Supreme Court Reverses Bridgeport School Board Takeover

At 3:35 this afternoon the Connecticut Supreme Court dropped a long-awaited bombshell: The state takeover of the Bridgeport school board broke the law. It ordered a new election to fill vacant seats. My clients, who are mid-term, presumably can return to work. I am much relieved.
State...

A Stolen Vote, A Sleeping Court, And A Busy Governor

Timing, they say, is everything. There are no coincidences. Things happen when they do for a reason. Thus the conspiratorial mind reckons. Those of more sober disposition acknowledge the great god Chaos. His method is chance. Life simply happens. We make such meaning of it as we can. Conspiracy...

The Stolen Vote In Bridgeport: Justice Delayed Is Business As Usual

A senior federal judge once pulled me aside in the hallway of the court and asked, with a twinkle in the judicial eye, if I didn’t worry about burning bridges when I wrote critical of sitting judges.
"Burned bridges? No judge," I exclaimed. "I know how to swim."
The truth is that...

© Norm Pattis is represented by Elite Lawyer Management, managing agents for Exceptional American Lawyers
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