Blog Posts


Qualified Immunity Gets More Teeth

I was getting ready to board a trans-contintental flight the other day when an email arrived: "Saucier v. Katz" has just been over-ruled." I was overjoyed for a distracted moment, and then a small voice asked: "What was it that Erwin Chemerinsky said?"
Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194 (2001), is...

The Parable Project: A Marginal Jew

I've been getting plenty of emails on a private account in response to a piece I wrote not long ago on my renewed interest in the historical Jesus. A few folks are hoping that I see a light of some sort. Several others have made recommendations for future reading. I am compiling a reading list and...

Biglaw Gets A Wakeup Call: The Goose Is Sterile

News flash: Clients are balking at the legal fees charges by megafirms. Question: What took so long? You can spend $800 an hour for a lawyer at Manhattan's Cravath, Swaing & Moore. That is $13.33 per minute. But the firm probably charges in tenths of an hour, or perhaps two tenths of an hour,...

An Invitation To Carelessness

I miss Linda Greenhouse's reporting on the law in The New York Times. She has been replaced by a fellow named Adam Liptak. Liptak writes well enough for the Times, but his analysis rarely rises above the obvious, and he sometimes misses nuances that are important.
In this morning's paper,...

Another Ho Hum Slap At The Fourth Amendment?

The Fourth Amendment prohibition against warrantless search and seizures sounds impressive. Standing alone, this looks like a mighty oak providing shelter against an overreaching government. However, the amendment more nearly represents a bush now overtaken with weeds. The various exceptions to the...

What's Wrong With Group Voir Dire?

Connecticut’s constitution is unique: Alone among its counterparts, it guarantees that each lawyer picking a jury will have the right to question potential jurors individually. But it does not follow from this right that all other jurors should be sequestered during that questioning....

Van de Kamp v. Goldstein: Two Down, One To Go?

Immunities from suit bother me, and not just because I sue people for a living. Immunities for public officials who violate the law seem inconsistent with a republican form of government. We the people created a government composed of folks who are immune from the consequences of their error? That...

Compulsory Jury Service At A Living Wage

I am picking a jury this week in a manslaughter case. It is heart-breaking. My client is charged with causing the death of two of her three small children in a head-on crash with another car. Blood-alcohol tests at the hospital, where my client had been resuscitated, yielded results consistent with...

Jus Cogens And Section 1983

My wife and I just returned from four days on the left coast, Seattle to be exact, where we were visiting a couple of our children who have migrated west. One of the benefits of trans-continental travel is uninterrupted reading time during long travel days. My return trip was consumed by time...


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