Blog Posts

The Choate Rosemary Hall school in Wallingford, Connecticut, is one of the nation's premiere prep schools. Kids go there with hopes of a bright future. Most are boarders, but many are day students. All live in a privileged bubble. But they are still kids, and kids do stupid things. So, frankly,...

Tyler Clementi's death has provoked a predictable storm of controversy about on-line rules, civility and standards. I suppose the discussion is inevitable, but it worries me. Moral panic generally yields bad law. The desire to act in response to great grief and sorrow often produces an...

There's just no way to sugar coat the killing of Oscar Grant. A white cop shot the kid to death, in the back, in front of witnesses, and was videotaped doing so. And still a jury could not find it in its collective heart to convict the cop of murder. Instead, jurors concluded the cop made a...

How desperate is Attorney General Richard Blumenthal in his race for the Senate? Yesterday, he unveiled his wife, Cynthia, who wrote an email to supporters asking for money.
Waint a minute! She's got a million dollar in her checking account according to financial disclosure forms. The family is...

We have begun the slide down the slippery slope. Where this ride ends is anyone's guess. But we may soon be asking of the Fourth Amendment what libertarians often ask of the Ninth Amendment: Where did it go?
The Fourth Amendment is fragile of necessity. It draws no bright line against the...

The New York Times reports today a trend among online news organizations. It seems the days of the anonymous commenter are rapidly coming to an end. It is a welcome development.
The Internet is a great tool for fostering discussion about all manner of things. I think of it as a virtual agora, a...

The wonder of it is that anyone is willing to run for public office and serve. That’s my first reaction to the latest scandal to surface in Connecticut politics. I call it “Listgate” because the politician involved has a name that does not lend itself to a cognate jingle.
It...

I'll bet a lot of folks charged with federal white collar crimes are feeling more than a little betrayed today. That's because the government has bared its teeth at claims of private wrongdoing while turning a blind eye to the suspected criminals in its midst.
John C. Yoo and Jay S. Bybee...

Ice is melting in a New Haven courtroom, and the world has turned out to watch. Will members of the Connecticut General Assembly pay any attention? Will they open their eyes and realize that individual sequestered voir dire wastes time and contributes little or nothing to the pursuit of...

This week's trial is a nightmare, and I've had trouble sleeping for days.
A couple of years ago, two parents confronted their teenage daughter with the contents of text messages on her cell phone. A peer was writing to the girl in tones too salacious to be repeated even here. He wanted her, in...