Blog Posts

I usually enjoy arguing in appellate courts, and one of my favorites is the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The federal appellate courts are, for most people, the most powerful courts in the land. Yes, the Supreme Court is the top of the pyramid, but that court agrees to hear...

There is no way of knowing what will happen in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Tuesday, April 17, 2012, when the motion for a stay pending appeal in the Occupy New Haven case is argued. All that is certain is the time and place: 500 Pearl Street, 9th floor at 10:00...

I spent some of the unhappiest years of my life pretending to be something I was not: You see, I was a member of an editorial board. I earned my living writing daily opinions about all matters far and wide. The opinions appeared under the masthead of the Waterbury newspapers, and then under the...

“You’re a lawyer?” The man looked at me with disdain, his paunch creeping out from beneath his bulletproof vest. I had just pulled up to the York Correctional Institution to visit with a client. He sauntered out of the booth acting put upon.
“Yes,” I...

New Haven’s Mayor John DeStefano took to the air waves this morning to defend the City’s actions yesterday on the New Haven Green. He’s defending his police chief, Dean Esserman, against charges that Esserman jumped the gun in efforts to evict protestors from the Green. I take...

New Haven's Mayor John DeStefano will be on the Chaz and AJ show on WPLR 99.1 FM on Thursday at 7:30 a.m. His mission? To explain why he did not look like a complete ass on New Haven's Green this week when he ordered the eviction of the New Haven Occupy protestors only to be stopped dead in his...

I stood in a public place yesterday and watched two tearful parents say goodbye to an American hero. The young man was leaving for a year. Odds are, he will return safe and sound. But the world is a dangerous place. There are no guarantees. They were sending him into harm’s way.
His...

I saw the White Devil the other day, and it terrified and saddened me. He was reflected in the look of wariness and suspicion in a young man’s eye. The kid couldn’t have been more than fourteen. He had the lean and supple look of someone not yet bent by time. He was carrying a sign with...

The claims and counterclaims regarding the killing of Trayvon Martin are flying fast and furious. It’s well past time to get this case into a courtroom. Here is how it can get to court immediately.
But first, some preliminaries.
Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in Sanford,...

I find it almost impossible to walk away from a fight, which explains, I suppose, my choice of vocation. Trying cases is one of the few places left in which a hired gun can take aim and fire. So I am still grumbling about Occupy New Haven and the Committee of Proprietors of Common and Undivided...