After a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat, we sat at the table talking about one of our guest’s new job in academia. Eventually, we got to the problem of learning students’ personal pronouns, which the university required. It was, he explained, not that big a deal, as only one or two use a pronoun out of the ordinary, and when he messed up, there was no offense taken. It wasn’t a big deal, he told me.

Then I asked him about the singular “they.” He went through the usual litany of excuses, that it was always there, had deep linguistic roots, was better than the alternative of “he/she” when gender was unknown, and was only an issue because old school English teachers, all named Miss Grundy, insisted that the proper English convention was “they” was plural. Real people, he told me, didn’t talk that way. I, for one, appreciate having a young person explain to me what “real people” do. Continue reading →

After the disaster years of 2007-8 for young lawyers, and for years beyond, when the recession hit and hopelessness for a lost generation of law students put a cloud over the legal profession, the gurus of legal success urged baby lawyers to do whatever they could to promote themselves. Lie about their experience and skills on their website? Check. Pay to get a gig giving CLE presentations to lawyers far more experienced and knowledgeable in order to manufacture credibility? Check. Create a logo? Hey, desperate times call for silly measures.

Jenna Ellis graduated from the University of Richmond School of Law in 2011. We were still neck deep in lawyers without futures, cranking them out even though they had nowhere to go, and Richmond was no Harvard. To her credit, Ellis got a job, even if it wasn’t much of a job. Continue reading →

From the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, criminal reform activists screamed about what it meant for jails and prisons for obvious reasons. Not only do they lack the ability to take basic safety precautions available to people on the outside, but they exist under conditions particularly prone to spreading infection. But then, they’re prisoners. So while it was obvious that jails and prisons would be hit hard by COVID, the cries of activists never caught serious traction.

The same question, what to do about prisoners, is playing out again now that vaccines are expected to become available.

“There’s no way it’s going to go to prisoners before it goes to people who haven’t committed any crime,” Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado, a Democrat, said this week.

Continue reading →

Sheriff Roy woke early on a cold morning. Pouring a cup of coffee and turning on the radio, he studied the pre-dawn view from his kitchen window.

According to the weather person on the radio, Mud Lick finally saw its first southern snow of the year overnight. That meant enough white stuff dusted the ground to where school officials called a two hour delay opening.

The Sheriff put on his uniform and helped Roy Junior get ready for school. Continue reading →

If your kid came home from college, where he was studying physics at not-insignificant expense, but didn’t learn quantum mechanics, you might be a bit miffed. But, your beloved child explains, he did learn to be more compassionate, to contextualize his privilege. Just no quantum mechanics. Is that a problem?

Two winning seasons, followed by four losing seasons, mark the end of my tenure at Saint Michael’s College and possibly my complex relationship with a profession that I did not fit into.

Those are the parting words of Josh Meyer, head basketball coach at St. Michael’s College in Vermont. His two winning seasons came with a team that his predecessor coached. His four losing seasons are all his. But then, winning wasn’t everything. Continue reading →

Neither Trump nor Biden are fans of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, albeit for very different reasons. The former because his twits are labeled as false, and his sycophants keep being tossed off social media for being too violent, crazy or absurdly false. The latter because platforms aren’t censoring enough hate speech and allowing white men to disagree with women of color.

But Trump upped the ante by announcing that he will veto the defense spending bill necessary to fund the military unless it includes the repeal of Section 230.

President Trump tweeted late Tuesday that he will veto the National Defense Authorization Act unless Congress repeals Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which critics say unfairly shields social media platforms from liability over items posted on their platforms. Continue reading →

On the fifth of January, a runoff election will be held in the State of Georgia. The assumption going in was that at least one, if not two, Republicans would prevail. After all, this is Georgia. Then came the right wing’s craziest voices, inexplicably loved for their willingness to give their careers, fortunes and perhaps even their lives for the cause.

Here's Lin Wood telling Georgia Republicans NOT to vote for Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue next month.

"They have not earned your vote. Don't you give it to them. Why would you go back and vote in another rigged election for god's sake! Fix it! You gotta fix it!" pic.twitter.com/Uvj1QIpqFL

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) December 2, 2020

Whether this will have an impact is unclear, but what is clear is that telling people not to vote, and not to vote for a party’s candidates, is generally not a good idea if they want to win. It may turn out to not have any impact, but if it draws enough voters away, it could affect the outcome. Continue reading →

There is probably no power of the Executive less constrained than the one set forth in Article II, Section 2.

[The President] shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

Is this power ripe for abuse? Absolutely. The president can use it to buy off the silence of co-conspirators, allies, campaign contributors, pals and pretty much anybody else. Of course, there is an inherent limit on the exercise of the power, as no one gets to use it without first being elected president. Vote well and the power doesn’t get overly abused. Vote poorly and, well, who knows? Continue reading →

An effort to parse the various assertions and statements, both legal and extra-legal, of Trump’s “Elite Strike Force Legal Team,” is not merely a fool’s errand, but one that grows by the day. Add in Trump-adjacent insanity, like Lin Wood’s call for martial law, and the task becomes nearly impossible. Yet, one of Trump’s lawyers, Joe diGenova, has stood out for saying something monumentally reprehensible.

Anybody who thinks the election went well, like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity. That guy is a class A moron. He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot.

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Turk sent me over a warm and fuzzy note from New York State’s chief judge, Janet DiFiore, reminding lawyers that as bad as things are due to COVID, the courts still love us. Aww. Buried in Judge DiFiore’s message was a very curious tale about the first jury trial in Queens since the pandemic struck.

And if anyone had any doubt as to the critical importance of restoring functioning grand juries or petit juries, I would highlight the circumstances of the criminal jury trial concluded last week in Queens County. The defendant in that case was arrested in July 2018, more than two years ago. He has been held in custody since then, charged with two counts of burglary in the second degree, and criminal trespass as a misdemeanor. The case was scheduled to go to trial in March, but the arrival of the pandemic and the statewide stay-at-home order halted jury selection and led to a mistrial.

Continue reading →