Blog Posts


Who Funds The Right To Self-Representation?

Lishan Wang just called the bluff of bar regulators, although no one yet seems to realize it. The 47-year-old physician is insisting on representing himself against charges that he shot and killed a colleague. He has been appointed a public defender as stand-by counsel to assist him with court...

Let King Solomon Loose In Family Courts

A good friend of mine is tied down in never-ending litigation in family court. He’s trying to get back into the lives of his children. He’s never been accused of abusing them. He pays his child support dutifully. He’s never neglected them. But he’s still been locked out of...

One Shooting; Two Victims

I didn’t see many news crews or protesters in court the other day. I was standing next to a young victim of gun violence whose life was destroyed by too-easy-access to firearms. No one cared about him.






He is a young black man. He...

So Long To The Fourth Amendment

“If you see something, say something.” That’s the mantra of the new national security state.
In a post-9/11 world, we’re all junior G-men on the lookout for terrorists. But if you try to complain in a courtroom when Government overreaches, you just might get thrown out...

The Power To Tax ...

I didn’t see any headlines heralding the anniversary, but I noted it nonetheless. Feb. 3 was the 100th anniversary of ratification of the 16th Amendment to Constitution. It enshrined the income tax in federal law.
It’s not the sort of date I would normally notice. But I was...

Truth, Justice and Other Illusions

SIGMUND FREUD was rarely accused of being too timid. Religious ideas are illusions, he wrote. God and the notion of an afterlife are mere products of our wishes. They are no less real for being illusory. Call them necessary fictions.
But Freud was cautious, even coy, about government and...

Go Brush Your Teeth With A Gun


A good friend of mine can’t needle me enough about my outspoken support of gun control. He’s a criminal defense lawyer, so he likes to stand tall for the defense of the rights of ordinary people. The very idea that someone could take his guns enrages him. He marshals all sorts...

Time To Rethink The American Rule

“Can I sue?”
I am asked the question almost daily. The answer is, of course, simple: You can always sue. The real question is, can you file a lawsuit and win. In the United States, there is little harm in trying. That’s because losers aren’t required to pay the cost of...

Wayne LaPierre's Empty Rhetoric

One of the down-sides of practicing law is having little time to do such things as watch television. Without a steady diet of the flickering screen, a certain sense of cultural illiteracy grows. So when I found myself in a hotel the other day, I turned on the tube. Wow.
I was huffing and...

Time To Reform Connecticut Jury Selection

Justice delayed, we’re told, is justice denied. In Connecticut, delay is routine. State lawmakers can change that during the current session of the General Assembly. Lawmakers should reform the manner in which jurors are selected in civil and criminal cases. All it would take is a simple...

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