For years, I’ve been haunted by the message of a slender volume written in 2014. Only China survived the challenges imposed by climate change. It did so because it alone had the ability to mobilize itself against the threat.
Western societies, western civilization, collapsed. We collapsed because we let consensus and individualism be the enemy of efficiency and decisive action.
"The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View From the Future," by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, is dystopian – a view of the future should things go wrong,...
April 1, 2020
Have you noticed something different about CNN in the past few weeks?
Sure, its round-the-clock coverage of the COVID-19 coverage is repetitive, urgent and filled with expert opinion and commentary. You’d expect nothing less from the cable network. I know I can turn the station on at any time for an update.
But in the past few weeks, I’ve noticed a glaring gap – the absence of legal commentary. What’s become of The New Yorker’s Jeff Toobin, or the surrogates for the various presidential candidates? It’s as...
March 29, 2020
The president has spoken, sort of, announcing hours ago on Twitter that he is considering a quarantine order for portions of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. I write from Connecticut, an easy drive from New York City. My message is simple: Don’t do it, Mr. President.
Creating federal precedent for a public health quarantine would forever darken constitutional doctrine in this country. Long after the COVID-19 crisis has passed, and it will, we will be left with precedent more terrifying than the virus itself.
During the...
March 28, 2020
A bold new body of law will emerge from the COVID-19 crisis. Expect expanded police powers for states, a re-striking of the balance between state and federal governments, and a re-examination of what is reasonable in terms of the Bill of Rights. Expect all that.
But beware the real danger – an algorithmic coup d’etat.
It all starts with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Abraham Maslow proposed the hierarchy in 1943 in a paper entitled, “A Theory of Human Motivation.” He argued our needs could be arrayed ...
March 27, 2020
November 25, 2019
Forgive me if I am not prepared to sacrifice the right to speak freely to the sensibilities of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and to comedian Sacha...
August 8, 2019
Suppose money were no object: Would you declare in your will that, upon your death, every effort should be made to preserve your body,...
June 28, 2019
How do you represent those people?
The question is common enough for criminal defense lawyers. In the past few weeks,...
November 13, 2019
UNITED STATED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT
CAMERON L. ATKINSON, Plaintiff, :
v.
FACEBOOK, INC., : MARK...
March 25, 2020
“Grandpa, what did you do doing during the war?”
I can imagine a time, a few years down the road, in which a...
October 10, 2019
I understand and accept the syllogism, I really do:
"All men are mortal.
"Mr. X is a man.
"Therefore Mr. X is...