Blog Posts

The law is, and always shall be, a late-comer to any crisis. By the time legal doctrines and rules evolve, take shape and respond to a crisis, the crisis is often passed. We lawyers are forced sometimes to look to other professions to learn more about what is going on in our own midst. I read this...

I am lucky I came of age many years ago. Were I a college student today, I am sure I would be expelled, or perhaps even imprisoned. College was a time of vast and sometimes foolish experimentation. (Actually, so was high school.) I found myself on probation for a spell, when I confessed, during my...

I was in New Haven the other day, crossing the street near one of the courthouses.
"Gimme your money," a voice said. He was young, black, and hiding behind large sunglasses. He was also smiling from ear to ear.
"F@#k you," I replied. "Give me yours." The man was a former client I...

Christopher Murphy wants to be a United States Senator, so it is understandable that he will tilt at windmills from time to time. But his poking at the United States Supreme Court doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, and ought to be rejected. An independent judiciary is fundamental.
The...

Just how tight is the market for legal fees just now? Tight enough that some private defense lawyers are complaining that too many defendants are being offered the services of a public defender, thus depriving lawyers of the chance to earn a fee.
The Sixth Amendment to the United States...

I don’t write about it much here because, frankly, I don’t get to spend much time at it, but one of my avocations is as bookseller. My wife and I own a used bookstore called Whitlock Farm Booksellers in Bethany. We have a great staff of bookworms who keep the inventory flowing and the...

I suspect that my days as a country lawyer are numbered. The economy is that bad. Although I have only anecdotal information to support the following hypothesis, I believe it nonetheless to be true: the middle class has run out of cash. We see this in the tones of despair with which potential...

Reform of sex offender legislation will most likely not take place in the courts. Real change will come in the form legislation. Lawmakers need to be taught the consequences of the laws they pass. They need to learn these lessons from those targeted by the laws. Hence, I say every lawmakers in the...

Who is Scott Walker? The question should be on the lips of every American who has lost a home, a job, or a sense that the American Dream is something worth pursing. The question might yield the significance of the disappearing elite’s refrain in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged -- Who is John...

I wonder what the Government told grand jurors in the case of United States of America versus Julian P. Heicklen. The 78-year-old retired college professor was indicted on charges of jury tampering. He was charged under a statute designed and intended to make it a crime to try to influence a juror...