Back in the early days of SJ, during the throes of #Reinvent Law and A2J, access to justice, two beliefs meshed into the fantastical belief that because lawyers were too expensive and inaccessible to much of the public, putting statutes and caselaw online would enable non-lawyers, regular people if you will, to gain sufficient legal information to knowledgeably conduct their affairs and engage with the law. This belief gave rise to such sites as the Cornell Legal Information Institute as well as a handful of free websites publishing court decisions.

While I was not against the concept of putting law online, I argued that this notion was not merely wrong, but dangerously nuts. The nice folks at Cornell LII were not pleased with me. More than a decade later, there is little doubt that it was just a sweet fantasy, and that people are not only ignorant of law, but proud and certain of their ignorance. I pointed this out with regard to people’s beliefs as to the legality and propriety of the United States murdering people on the high seas and ICE’s flagrant violation of constitutional rights in its zeal to get every “illegal” at all costs.  The reactions were, well, sadly unsurprising. Continue reading →

Oral argument in Trump v. Slaughter will be heard on Monday before the Supreme Court, addressing the question of whether the president has the authority to fire and appoint members of what Congress crafted to be “independent agencies” such as the National Labor Relations Board.

Wags will argue that since the Constitution vests all executive power in the president, and these bureaucracies exist under the executive branch, of course he does. Sarah Isgur puts a bit more flesh on the bones, but essentially agrees, putting it in the context of the Supreme Court using Slaughter as an opportunity to retune the relationship between Congress and the presidency. Continue reading →

Whether they were called progressives, woke or social justice warriors, they reflected an illiberal extreme that could not mesh with what were once-liberal values, tolerance, respect for differing views and the defense of rights, even when it meant fighting for the rights of your adversaries. It wasn’t that liberals wouldn’t let them into the big tent, but that they refused to be in a big tent with heretics, people who failed to meet their ideological purity test.

Conservatives find themselves in the same situation with the “groypers.”

Legitimate differences and debates exist among authentic conservatives. Although conservatives certainly reject socialism, there is no canonical conservative position on, for example, how much regulation of markets is desirable. Some conservatives lean heavily in the direction of strict libertarianism; others allow more room for government interventions in the economy. 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.

Larry Swearingen was his own worst enemy. He had repeatedly been in trouble with the law; there are reports that he was violent toward women. He may have denied knowing the murder victim, Melissa Trotter, to the police, despite their being friends (possibly with benefits). When imprisoned, he dictated a letter that claimed to be authored by someone else who had knowledge of the crime in a strange attempt to divert suspicion from himself. Those prevarications don’t make him guilty. Yet despite more than one robust line of evidence indicating that he was innocent, the State of Texas executed him in August of 2019. Continue reading →

To say that a student in a wheel chair needs a ramp to enter a building is easy to understand. Or that blind students need textbooks in Braille. Few would question either the need to accommodate such students’ disabilities, or that their disability doesn’t mean they can’t be smart students with successful futures ahead of them.

But when it comes to more amorphous disabilities, from ADHD to anxiety, both the needs and the accommodations become more fuzzy. Unsurprisingly, this has given rise to smart students from well-to-do families gaming the system to enjoy accommodations such as extra time on tests and distraction-free test environments. And you’ll never guess where these students end up going to college. Continue reading →

Charity isn’t a substitute for government funded medical research or a social safety net, but charities are critical to as the government can’t fulfill all needs even under the best of circumstances. Today is Giving Tuesday, and if you’re so inclined, please give to the charity of your choice.

If you can, please give to the Fragile X Research Foundation, Fraxa, which will double every donation with matching funds. Thank you.

Alina Habba has had a really bad week. First, the Eleventh Circuit, by Judge William Pryor of all people, affirmed a $1 million sanction against her and Trump for a frivolous defamation suit. Now, the Third Circuit affirmed her disqualification as Acting United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, rejecting the Trump administration’s efforts to circumvent the law limiting unconfirmed officers from serving more than 120 days, or having the attorney general call them “special” (though “special” they may be) to circumvent the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.

Not only was this turn of events a foregone conclusion, but it created chaos in the courts for no better purpose than Trump wanted his former personal lawyer (before the million dollar sanction was affirmed, at least) to be rewarded with a cool title (bearing no relation to any legal work she had ever done before) no matter what. Continue reading →

The prosecution and conviction of Juan Orlando Hernández, former president of Honduras, and sentence to 45 years imprisonment was one of the big victories in the unfortunately named War on Drugs, a metaphor that’s gone full tilt when it comes to killing.

For your Christmas wish list… pic.twitter.com/pLXzg20SaL

— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) December 1, 2025

So why then, would Trump state his intention to pardon JOH, as he’s known? Continue reading →

The Washington Post reported that there was a second strike of the first boat alleged to be transporting drugs out of Venezuela.

A missile screamed off the Trinidad coast, striking the vessel and igniting a blaze from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck.

The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack — the opening salvo in the Trump administration’s war on suspected drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere — ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown apart in the water.

As previously argued, the first strike was illegal. But even if one assumes that’s debatable, there is no question that the second strike was murder. Secretary of War Defense Pete Hegseth gave the order to kill everybody. Continue reading →

The shooter turned out to be an Afghan migrant, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, admitted under a bipartisan program to allow Afghanis who worked with and aided our military to enter the United States to avoid being put to death by the Taliban. He entered while Biden was president, and was granted amnesty when Trump was president. There was nothing about this that would have raised concerns, until Lakanwal shot two West Virginia National Guard persons, one of whom has since died and may, perhaps, have President Trump attend her funeral.

While the motive has yet to be determined, the hysteria has rushed forward. Initially, Trump has directed the suspension of immigration processing for all Afghan immigrants, because one committed a heinous act. Ilya Somin explains why this collective “punishment” is wrong, discriminatory and counterproductive. Continue reading →