Blog Posts

The Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s decision to vacate the conviction of Bill Cosby and discharge him is a stunning rebuke of the prosecution. Not only is his conviction reversed; the Commonwealth cannot try him again for the sexual assault of Andrea...

Among the world’s mysteries is the transformation of naked power into authority. Yes, from time immemorial, there have been those with the means to impose their will on others. But we say, or at least we used to say, that when the state acts, its agents possess not mere power, but...

A good friend of mine is a physician. In a recent conversation, I was describing a new book I had just read, referring to a powerful critique of Judith Jarvis Thompson’s famous defense of the right to have an abortion, first published in 1971 in Philosophy and Public Affairs....

Libertarianism and individualism generally run hand-in-hand with a robust view of property rights. If the state is an artifice, then aren’t limitations on how much property individuals can acquire arbitrary and therefore suspect? Individualism and limited government are fast...

The problem with natural law theories can be simply stated: They beg the question they need to resolve.
Consider John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government. In chapter two, when discussing punishment for violation of the law of nature, he writes: “it would be...

Legitimacy, the near magical property that distinguishes the use of naked power from lawful authority, is conferred upon the state in three ways, the German sociologist Max Weber taught a century ago. There is tradition, of a sense of authority derived ancient custom and usages; think of...

I’ll never forget the thrill of first reading John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government, first published in 1689. (Its actual title is An Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent, and End of Civil Government; the essay is routinely published with an essay attacking Robert...

I spent more than a decade suing poiice officers in federal courts under the tutelage of one of the nation’s best civil rights lawyers, John Williams of New Haven. I like to joke that I educated my children on the proceeds of those suits. Federal judges weren’t happy with all...

It was a scene right out of a thriller. A man diagnosed with an infectious disease walks out of a hospital and is suddenly at large in the community. He is homeless. There is no telling where he went. Officers search for hours, fearing that he is infecting others as he lurches from one...

This is the pre-prepared portion of the talk I gave to the Hartford County Bar Association for Law Day this year:
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LAW DAY 2019
HARTFORD COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH HATE SPEECH?
We’re here today to celebrate Law Day under the...