“The authorities were corrupt, even the best of them. The power they held was often by default.... They had as much power as we gave them, and when we wanted to take some back we could. Yes, they might jail us in the end, but only because we held ourselves back. Fear and respect flowed in our blood, and despite all the rage and disgust, we were afraid of what might happen if the system collapsed.”
You have to love a book that so expresses the tenuousness of our sense of legitimacy. So I was prepared to love Keith Scribner’s, The Oregon Experiment. A not-so-young...
July 16, 2011
Does anyone really care whether major league baseball players use steroids? Isn’t that sort of like carping about breast implants at a strip club? Professional sports, like pole-dancing, is entertainment. We expect a little extra effort for the sake of our admission fee.
The mistrial declared today in the trial of Roger Clemens, who allegedly lied about steroid use, is welcome news. After two days of testimony, federal prosecutors disobeyed a federal court order limiting the evidence it could produce before a jury. United Stated District Court Judge Reggie Walton had no choice...
July 14, 2011
News that 57 Connecticut state troopers and hundreds of Department of Corrections workers received lay-off notices this month compels the following question: Are we missing an opportunity? Rather than hand-wringing that the loss of these public safety employees will somehow make the streets less safe, perhaps we ought to wonder about the value each added of increment of law-enforcement.
Don’t get me wrong. I see the pain everywhere I go. Morale in the courthouses is at an all-time low. The dockets in the G.A. courts, never quick to move, are now near standstill. It takes half a...
July 14, 2011
One need not be guilty of a crime to assert the right to remain silent under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This testimonial privilege permits a person to refuse to answer any question that may tend to implicate them in a crime. The Obama administration is seeking to cheapen the currency of the right to remain silent in an Oregon case in a case with chilling implications for anyone who uses a computer.
Ramona Fricosu is accused of participating in a mortgage fraud scheme. The Government wants access to her computer files. While agents have seized...
July 11, 2011
July 7, 2011
Live long enough and the line between reality and farce becomes blurred: If we can imagine something happening, reality has a way of overtaking our...
July 6, 2011
How did Jose Baez, the lawyer for Casey Anthony, win this most difficult of trials? The chattering class wants to know. Pundits from one end of the...
July 5, 2011
You are disappointed, aren’t you? Perhaps even enraged. Why no verdict since the O.J. Simpson case has so offended you. Of course, O.J....
July 5, 2011
I was late to develop an interest in the Casey Anthony case in Florida. A jury deliberates today on whether she murdered her toddler. If she is found...
July 4, 2011
It is not at all clear to me why the Founding Fathers matter. I understand the significance of the colonies’ break with Britain. And the...
July 3, 2011
Now that the dust is settling in the Casey Anthony case, trial watchers are going to feel all dressed up with no place to go. I say head to Mangum,...