Last night, Amy Coney Barrett was sworn in as the newest associate justice of the United States Supreme Court by Justice Clarence Thomas. This should come as no surprise to anyone, as it was absolutely certain that it would happen, and yet it brought howls of anger, outrage and condemnation. That should probably come as no surprise either, as it’s become America’s favorite pastime.

The dire predictions of disaster have generated a variety of ways to “fix” the Court now that the Republicans have “illegitimately” seized control of it by a 6-3 conservative majority. But this begs the question: Does the Court need fixin’? Liberal Harvard lawprof Noah Feldman was ahead of the curve on this question. Continue reading →

Not too long ago, there was an argument on the twitters between a friend of mine, an old criminal defense lawyer, and a prominent think-tank crim law reformer about jury nullification. The theorist was pandering to unduly passionate reformers about the glories of nullification when the lawyer called him out.

The old lawyer argued that, based upon a career trying cases in front of juries, the belief that they’re the defendant’s friend, hate criminal laws and, given a free hand to ignore the law, would acquit defendants in the name of justice, jury nullification was no silver bullet, but a steaming pile of malarkey. Others with neither the old lawyer’s experience, nor any actual experience in crim law, joined into the fray to parrot the reform belief that Jury nullification will absolutely work to save defendants from bad laws and never be used to convict the innocent. Continue reading →

Five hundred thousand dollars wasn’t enough, so the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors upped the ante to a cool mil. Not for new school books. Not for free lunches for hungry kids. Not to add more teachers. They had a far more important need at stake.

Dauber told the board the audit is “urgent.”

“Students are returning to campus now, and when they do, the epidemic of sexual violence will return with them,” Dauber said.

Continue reading →

It’s happening on the left coast, where weird things happen with sufficient frequency to suggest that it’s not worthy of being taken seriously, but it reflects a shift in perspective that could soon come to a state near you. Proposition 16 will be on the ballot in California.

A “yes” vote supports this constitutional amendment to repeal Proposition 209 (1996), which stated that the government and public institutions cannot discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to persons on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in public employment, public education, and public contracting.

Amending the state Constitution isn’t unusual in California, since legal stability is for squares. The point of Prop 16 is to repeal Prop 209, which prohibits discrimination. Continue reading →

To the right, I’m just another soy boy libtard. To the left, I’m everything from sexist to Nazi. So are most of my friends, as we discussed at dinner last night. We had a wonderful dinner, with caviar, shrimp and brie before a dinner of rib eye and lobster tails. It was at the Hamptons home of an old, dear pal, who has largely abandoned his Manhattan townhouse due to COVID, crime, garbage and overly-aggressive homeless who now own the streets when the streets aren’t otherwise occupied to mostly peaceful protesters destroying other people’s property.

Like me, he’s of a certain age, and will never miss a meal no matter what the next administration decides to tax or give away for free. Like me, he’s got kids for whom he’s worried. Like me, he’s known Trump long before his presidency and is well aware of who he is and what he cares about, which isn’t my friend or me or you. And like me, he’s aware of the next battle after Trump’s demise. As has become commonplace, he has a gun. If nothing else, the protests have turned New Yorkers into gun owners. Continue reading →

The two candidates for president are old. Trump is 74. Biden is 77. Unless you’re prepared to beclown yourself beyond repair, that’s old. And as anyone over 50 years of age realizes, even if they won’t admit it publicly, our bodies and minds begin the slide down the other side of the mountain.

It doesn’t make us useless or incapable of doing a strenuous job. Indeed, we’re often much more tenacious than youngsters, and push ourselves to our limits and beyond. Continue reading →

It’s unfortunate that Michael Sokolove can’t resist the impulse to prove his woke manliness up top, when arguing that if the vote were left to white men, Roy Moore and David Duke would be the sort of people elected. “White men are all racist misogynsts” may well serve to prove he’s the exception, but it’s no way to introduce his point. And it’s a point worthy of consideration.

Why do men and women, even some living under the same roof, have such divergent views on what issues matter and what people are fit to be our leaders?

Statistics reflect a gender gap, although it’s hardly as huge as Sokolove claims. Continue reading →

There are dreadfully few things the warring tribes of Washington agree upon, or to be more precise, are willing to publicly agree upon, since they’re required to at least appear to be in disagreement about everything for the sake of their unduly passionate base. Then comes Google, the great unifier, which spans right and left because neither tribe gets to own it.

What the suit says

“Two decades ago,” the lawsuit begins, “Google became the darling of Silicon Valley as a scrappy startup with an innovative way to search the emerging internet. That Google is long gone.” Here are some of the Justice Department’s central complaints:

Continue reading →

Ed. Note: Greg Prickett is a former police officer and supervisor who went to law school, hung out a shingle, and now practices criminal defense and family law in Fort Worth, Texas. While he was a police officer, he was a police firearms instructor, and routinely taught armed tactics to other officers.

When there is a police involved shooting, it is a common practice for the prosecutor to present the case to a grand jury, and to let them make the decision on whether to charge the officer(s) or not. It provides cover for both the prosecutor and the police, as the proceedings are secret. The grand jury either indicts or no bills the officer(s), and they are either prosecuted, or not. The public is happy, the police are happy, and the prosecutor is happy.

Continue reading →

In an unfortunate, if typical, disconnect, Staci Zaretsky notes that while law school graduates are finally getting jobs at the rate they did before the 2007 recession, black law school graduates are left out of the good news.

[T]he number of graduates employed in full-time, long-term jobs where bar passage was required was 74.3 percent (an increase of more than 3 percentage points), a percentage higher than rates measured before the recession. It’s actually the highest level ever recorded.

This is great, and frankly surprising in light of the pandemic, news. But this great news doesn’t extend to everyone. Continue reading →