I recall the Watergate hearings in 1973. It was hard to ignore them. They were chaired by Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina. From time to time, he reached into his jacket pocket to take out a well-worn copy of the United States Constitution. He was a strict constructionist. He thought all the answers – at least all the answers that mattered – about the structure and function of the government were right there at his fingertips.
It took a law-school education and a couple of decades of being knocked around in a courtroom for me to learn just how...
September 24, 2020
Well, count me among the shocked.
This week, the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut did what I thought would be impossible. It found jurors ready, willing and able to sit on a jury trial. Evidence began this morning, in the case of Amica v. Coan, Trustee, in the courtroom of District Judge Victor Bolden. I saw some of the proceedings with my own eyes, on Zoom.
I believe it is the first jury trial to take place in Connecticut since mid-March, when the Covid-19 pandemic roared into our lives.
This trial...
September 22, 2020
I was startled during my annual physical this week when I asked my family physician how much longer he expected the pandemic to require restricted activity. “At least a year,” he said. When I asked him what he thought of my traveling by air in the near term, his answer was even more succinct: “Don’t.”
When I told my doctor that the federal courts in Bridgeport planned to hold a jury trial next week, and that the state courts were planning to do likewise in November, he shook his head slowly, and appeared to mutter to himself.
...
September 18, 2020
I’m not sure why Twitter suspended the account of Black Lives Matter leader Sasha Johnson. Her tweet that she wasn’t calling for equality with white people, but, rather, for the enslavement of white folks, was controversial to be sure. But how certain are we she actually wrote it? And if she did, candidly, I’m grateful for the warning about her hopes and dreams.
My hunch is that the tweet was actually authored on Komsomolsky Prospekt in Moscow, by trolls in the Unit 26165 of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), a lineal descendant of...
September 15, 2020
May 28, 2020
Oh, to be a digital overlord, a master of the social media universe, occupying an office at Twitter, or Facebook, or Google. The money...
August 28, 2020
I remain hopeful that come Wednesday, November 4, 2020, the republic will still exist, and that the winner of this year’s...
August 10, 2020
I’ve a confession to make: I’ve not stepped into a courtroom since sometime in early March of this year, and I haven’t...
November 13, 2019
UNITED STATED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT
CAMERON L. ATKINSON, Plaintiff, :
v.
FACEBOOK, INC., : MARK...
May 18, 2020
Just in case you’ve not had enough of all things pandemic-related, I recommend Lawrence Wright’s, “The End of...
August 27, 2020
If you want to know what a legitimation crisis is, look no further than the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin. At night, you will see...