A Prescription For CNN -- A Dose of the Law

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

Mr. President: A Federal Quarantine Is Unjustified

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

Beware An Algorithmic Coup

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

COVID-19: Ruminating about Ruminations

“Grandpa, what did you do doing during the war?”
I can imagine a time, a few years down the road, in which a grandchild asks about the COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the virus, we are told on the news day after day, that has “changed everything.”
I won’t have much to say about how I’ve spent the first week or so.
The honest answer: “I slept.”
I’m neither a health-care worker nor the provider of a service that is really all that essential in a public health crisis....
March 25, 2020

Sahsa Baran Cohen Auditions To Become Chinese Censor

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...

Fall, or, Dodge in Hell -- The Case for Mortality

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,...

How Do You Defend Those People?

June 28, 2019
How do you represent those people?
The question is common enough for criminal defense lawyers. In the past few weeks,...

Atkinson v. Facebook: Here's the writ

November 13, 2019
UNITED STATED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT
CAMERON L. ATKINSON, Plaintiff, :
v.
FACEBOOK, INC., : MARK...

Covid19: Tough Questions On The Horizon

March 18, 2020
Things are getting a little crazy, and, I suspect, they will get crazier by the day until we either get control of the viral infection...

A Sad Farewell To A Great Judge -- Warren Eginton

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...

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Taking Back the Courts
Norm Pattis Taking Back the Courts

The Wizard of Oz was one of my favorites movies as a kid. Little did I know judges were so much like the wizard, hiding behind empty trappings of power. This book tells you things you need to know about what really goes on in court. Read it, weep, and then demand that the courts do better.

In the Trenches
Norm Pattis In the Trenches

Plenty of lawyers write about the law, but few who write try cases. Judge for yourself whether I talk the talk and walk the walk in this collection of occasional essays about life in the law's trenches.

Juries and Justice
Norm Pattis Juries and Justice

How prepared are you to take seriously the notion that 'we the people' are, in fact, sovereign? Discover the secret, and unused, power of jurors. 'Ask why; then nullify.'

Norm Pattis

About Norm

Norm Pattis is a Connecticut based trial lawyer focused on high stakes criminal cases and civil right violations. He is a veteran of more than 150 jury trials, many resulting in acquittals for people charged with serious crimes, multi-million dollar civil rights and discrimination verdicts, and scores of cases favorably settled.

© Norm Pattis is represented by Elite Lawyer Management, managing agents for Exceptional American Lawyers
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