Friends, this weekend feels different.

No, I’m not just talking about the cooler temperatures since it’s fall now (Thank you Jesus, I was sick of the “Satan’s Asshole” temperatures we’ve had all summer). I’m talking about this weekend’s big game in college football between the number 1 Texas Longhorns and my beloved Tennessee Vols.

It’s not just that this will be true freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon’s first real SEC test. It’s not just that it’s the #1 and the #14 teams in the country facing off to see who’s better. It’s not even that the President will be in town in all of his own personal orange glory.

This is basically the movie “300” in real life, friends. Continue reading →

Ed. Note: Chris Halkides has been kind enough to try to make us lawyers smarter by dumbing down science enough that we have a small chance of understanding how it’s being used to wrongfully convict and, in some cases, execute defendants. Chris graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Ph.D. in biochemistry, and teaches biochemistry, organic chemistry, and forensic chemistry at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.

Ed. Note 2: A reader has kindly provided a postmortem picture of one of the victims. It is horrific and disturbing. I’ve added it in, but if you do not want to see it, do not scroll down.

The murder of three women in March of 1960 at Starved Rock State Park in Illinois had gone cold when Chester Weger confessed under dubious circumstances. Shortly thereafter, he recanted. The recent publication of the book Murder at Starved Rock: How the System Framed an Innocent Man by Jim Ridings and a petition for executive clemency are reasons to examine the events again. One of many reasons to have concerns over Weger’s confession is that it is not consonant with some of the forensic facts. Continue reading →

District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, granted a 14-day temporary restraining order against Trump’s ban of CNN, MSNOW and Politico from the White House. The decision was based on the Fifth Amendment denial of due process, Trump having neither given the news outlets notice of why he was banning them nor an opportunity to be heard. Judge Kelly emphasized that the order is temporary.

It’s unclear that such notice could have been given, as there is nothing to show that Trump gave any thought to his ban before the words emitted from his mouth or Natalie Harp’s fingers as she typed up Trump’s Truth Social twit, wherein he explicitly based the ban on his displeasure at their negative reporting of him. Trump calls it fake news because it makes him feel bad, and news that isn’t what Trump wants to hear is fake. Continue reading →

After announcing at his hourly presser that he was banning CNN, MSNOW and Politico from the White House because he didn’t like what they said about him, the five networks that make up the White House pool consortium, including Fox News, decided to suspend coverage of Trump. What this means is that Trump’s every public act and utterance will no longer flood the airwaves and social media. Does a president exist if he’s not on air?

What does the TV pool actually do?

The activities of TV pool correspondents depend on the president’s schedule. If the president stays at the White House, they may attend meetings in the Oval Office or other parts of the White House accompanied by their camera crews. While the camera operators gather footage, the correspondents often shout out questions for the president after the official proceedings have concluded.

On overseas presidential trips, the TV pool correspondents rush between news conferences, diplomatic photo-ops, dinners and more. They also travel on Air Force One and ride in motorcades.

Continue reading →

The ploy is obvious. Trump’s next venture into building a monument to himself (because who else will, duh) is built on the shakiest of foundations. His claim that it was long ago approved by Congress is flimsy, bordering on spurious. A 250-foot-tall arch that blocks everything around it isn’t a pair of 166-foot columns explicitly designed to frame Arlington National Cemetery without interfering with the view of the Lincoln Memorial or the Lee Mansion, and Trump knows that he’ll never get approval to build his homage to himself.

Plan B has just dropped.

Continue reading →

Out of the blue, Trump twitted that he’s banning CNN, MSNOW and Politico from the White House, with “Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.”

Calling critical and unflattering media coverage “fake” has long been a ubiquitous Trump tool to persuade the MAGA faithful to ignore reality and believe him instead. Trump, and others in his administration like Hegseth and FCC chair Brendan Carr, have tried desperately to silence or chill speech that fails to please and support Trump’s claims of greatness. Continue reading →

My kids have a school dance tonight. It’s my son’s first of middle school and one of the last my daughter will see at this particular grade level. And of course, because I’m a sucker for this sort of thing, I’m chaperoning everyone.

The school has a very interesting schedule for dances. Sixth graders come an hour before everyone else is allowed in. They dance and holler for an hour and none of the other kids are even in the building. After that first hour, the sixth graders are shuffled out and the seventh and eighth grades arrive for the big dance.

Personally I’m a fan of this system. Sixth grade is a weird enough age for kids. They don’t need to be mixing with their older peers at a dance. Does this make me a prude? Answer: Yes, and I’m quite comfortable with that, thank you very much. Continue reading →

The Supreme Court recognized that cellphones were different in Riley v. California. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals, with JFK airport, among others, within its jurisdiction, hadn’t yet joined the fray as district judges around the country tried to figure out whether cellphones at borders were controlled by the law as it applied to cellphones or as applied to borders. It’s now made its decision.

We do so now. First, we conclude that the district court properly denied Alisigwe’s motion to suppress evidence obtained at the border. Contrary to the district court’s reasoning, however reasonable suspicion was not required. The “longstanding recognition that searches at our borders without probable cause and without a warrant are nonetheless ‘reasonable’ has a history as old as the Fourth Amendment itself.” United States v. Ramsey, 431 U.S. 606, 619 (1977). Continue reading →

Rochester, New York resident David Streever was angry following the ICE killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and let Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons know.

You are a monstrous human being and will go down in history as America’s
Reinhard Heydrich, the butcher.

The way you are protecting the obvious execution in Minnesota, even as we see the
videos, will lead to your downfall. Even Trump will turn on you before the end,
and you will be a sad, despised man who eats himself alive with shame at your own
pathetic weakness.

You will never know peace. You will seek to lose yourself, to escape the burden
of knowing the truth about yourself. But wherever you go, you will find yourself.
You will torment yourself until your last day on Earth.

Strong words that conveyed strong feelings, which is exactly what the First Amendment is supposed to protect. That didn’t stop ICE agents from going to Streever’s home to issue him a “WARNING NOTICE”* that his email could land him in prison. Continue reading →

Three things happened on the same day. Judge Christopher Cooper rejected the attempt by the Kennedy Center board to circumvent his earlier order by putting Trump’s name on the building as “appropriate recognition” of his renovation and restoration of the structure. The Board closed the Kennedy Center immediately, in defiance of Judge Cooper’s order, calling it an emergency. Trump did what Trump does.

Continue reading →