Blog Posts

I am not much of a son, so Mother’s Day doesn’t move me. My mother and I are estranged. We both struggled to get what we needed out of life. Her road put her in the arms of a man who despised me, and drove me from the home they built when I was still in high school. I carry a grudge...

I am going to miss Christopher Droney when he is confirmed as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. As a trial judge, he was always calm, always decisive in his rulings, always a model jurist. I am not aware of any practicing lawyer who believes...

Osama bin Laden is dead. Good. The mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the United States boasted of the jihad he and his like-minded followers were waging against the United States. For nearly a decade, he eluded capture. Then, this week, a bead was drawn on him. Commandoes assisted by intelligence...

Police aren’t releasing the name just yet, but another man died this weekend in Waterbury, Connecticut, after being zapped with a Taser. Of course, Taser International will report that Tasers don’t kill people. When folks die, it is as a result of something called spontaneous in-custody...

For those of you seduced by the notion that the world is a rational place, look no further than President Obama’s decision to release a copy of his birth certificate to satisfy those wondering about his pedigree. And while we are on the topic of pedigree, what’s all the fuss about the...

For those of you seduced by the notion that the world is a rational place, look no further than President Obama’s decision to release a copy of his birth certificate to satisfy those wondering about his pedigree. And while we are on the topic of pedigree, what’s all the fuss about the...

I was in prison yesterday, visiting clients and potential clients. Between meetings, I sat in a professional visiting room, where so-called "contact" visits are allowed: in other words, I was able to shake my client’s hand; there was no barrier separating us. The door to my room was open, and...

The line really isn’t all that hard to recognize, but when it is crossed, it forces wonder about how often such transgressions occur. It would be so easy to do. Sixty-three-year old Charles Daum, a criminal defense lawyer in Washington, D.C., is accused of manufacturing evidence to assist a...

A cold rain passed over our fields yesterday; all was damp, and chilly. It was a good morning to sit by the fire and wonder whether the Spring would ever come. And then the rain stopped. Odysseus, one of our border collies, coaxed us out of the house. He was on to something. What pushed the windy...

Mark DuBois retired the other day. He did so without fanfare, simply walking away from state service and back into private practice. I am sorry to see him go. Although he was the state’s top cop for policing lawyers, and therefore at least a potential foe on any given day, he brought a...