The doom and gloom forecasts about the consequences of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union are bewildering. Why all the storm and stress? The vote — Brexit, it was called — makes perfect sense. So does the sense of inevitability revolving around Donald Trump’s run for the presidency.
Trump’s campaign also represents an exit strategy, call it USexit, as in “stop the world, we want to get off.” We’re overextended, unable to meet domestic commitments, and not up to shouldering the burdens of empire, much less being lectured on what we...
June 29, 2016
Connecticut has now joined the majority of states requiring lawyers to complete continuing legal education (CLE) courses each year. The only thing I don't like about the requirement is that the Judges of the Superior Court have ordered us to do it. The judges, all members of the bar themselves, exempted themselves from the requirement.
I grazed my way through law school, an indifferent student, working full time and attending classes with decreasing frequency as the years passed. At the final examination in Labor and Employment Law, for example, a classmate remarked on seeing me at the...
June 29, 2016
Walk into criminal court some time to listen to closing arguments. Odds are you will hear the prosecution talk about holding the defendant accountable for his crimes. But who holds the government accountable when it errs?
Judges are extremely reluctant to do so.
Consider this week’s 5-3 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Utah v. Strieff. At issue was what consequences should follow when the government violates the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures in seizing evidence.
The facts of the case are simple enough.
A...
June 23, 2016
Experienced litigators learn the hard way that some institutions regard themselves as too big to comply with the humdrum requirements of the law. I've seen large institutions simply ignore a subpoena, not even bothering to show up as directed. Yale University is notorious for doing this; so are some of the state's larger hospitals.
Judges are reluctant for reasons I do not understand to issue capias warrants requiring these institutions to appear in court. Only little people get arrested, taken into custody, and hauled into court for ignoring a subpoena.
Add Facebook to the list...
June 18, 2016
June 16, 2016
I’m not hopping on the bandwagon circling the Santa Clara County, California, courthouse. Don’t add my name to the million-plus names of...
June 5, 2016
What should the law require in the wake of the shooting of Harambe, the 17-year-old gorilla shot to death by zoo officials last weekend at the...
May 17, 2016
Gov. Dannel Malloy will soon be given an opportunity to demonstrate his commitment to the Second Chance Society to which he committed more than one...
May 4, 2016
The Federal Reserve Board holds the key to why Donald Trump could easily become the next president of the United States, and it has nothing to do...
April 29, 2016
If your child suffers a serious unexplained injury, the state just might seek to terminate your parental rights. It will do so in a closed courtroom,...
April 29, 2016
Donald Trump walked away from the so-called "Acela primaries" in the Northeast a complete winner, sweeping the Republican contests in Connecticut,...