When Noam Scheiber began his pitch for socialized law, he opened with the “requisite anecdote.” It’s a rhetorical device, used by those knowledgeable in the art of persuasion against the unwary.  It’s also used by the unwary because they fail to understand that it’s of no conceptual significance and they think it proves their point.  Let me tell you a tale of woe or joy, they begin, and you will then agree with me.

Linda Greenhouse explains the pitch as well as I’ve ever seen in her New York Times op-ed on the little nuns, a grandmother, Hobby Lobby and the murder of two abortion clinic workers.

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live,” Joan Didion famously wrote in her essay collection “The White Album.” It’s a haunting line, because it’s so universally applicable. We tell ourselves stories not only for profound reasons but for mundane ones as well: to process the ambiguous and complex events that unfold every day around us, or even to try to understand the issues presented in a major Supreme Court case. Continue reading →

Bob Autobee was a corrections officer. His son, Eric, followed in his footsteps, and was murdered by Edward Montour, a prisoner already doing life.  Bob wants to speak at the sentencing of his son’s killer, as is his right under law as a victim, but a legal battle is at hand to stop him, to silence him.

Via Andrew Cohen at the Atlantic:

Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler . . . wants to block one couple’s efforts to speak out against the death penalty for the man who murdered their child. Brauchler has filed a motion in a pending case seeking to bar Bob and Lola Autobee from participating in the sentencing phase of the trial of Edward Montour, their son’s killer. The law only guarantees the rights of victims to “discuss the harm that resulted from the crime,” Brauchler argues.

What distinguishes the Autobees is that they are against the death penalty. Continue reading →

It’s not a new idea, by any stretch of the imagination.  At worst, it’s a variation on an old theme.  Target those who are hated and helpless, steal from them and, boom, Profit!!!  How long it worked for Suffolk County Police Sergeant Scott Greene isn’t clear, but it’s over now.

Via Newsday, courtesy of Radley Balko’s morning links (every one of which would be post-worthy on its own):

Sixth Precinct Sgt. Scott A. Greene was arrested during a sting operation after stealing a $100 bill from a car driven by an undercover Latino officer, Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota said Friday.

Moments later, the uniformed patrol officer was caught on videotape taking the money from an envelope on the passenger seat, then folding the bill and stuffing it in his left sleeve. Continue reading →

When Eugene Volokh took up the pro bono cause of Crystal Cox, whose insane rantings and accusations bought her $2.5 million in judgments for having smeared Kevin Padrick and Obsidian Finance, it was believed to be a principled stand.  Ken White described it best:

So it shouldn’t be any surprise that we protect the free speech rights of the disturbed and vengeful blogger Crystal Cox, even though she abuses the legal system in an effort to censor and retaliate against people for criticizing her.

That’s how we roll.

And the 9th Circuit agreed, reversing the judgment and holding that anyone, not just bloggers as has been widely misreported, Continue reading →

In outraged voice, Noam Scheiber offers a radical proposition in the New Republic.  He sets the stage with the requisite anecdotes, since an appeal to emotion is always a great way to get the juices flowing despite it being a logical fallacy, tell of how the wealthy walk away from criminal charges unscathed while the poor go to prison forever, and their little dog, too.

One anecdote, however, strikes the mark pretty well.

This maxim is illustrated perfectly by the cases of two notorious Fort Worth teenagers, who trailed five dead bodies behind them. One night in 2004, 16-year-old Eric Bradlee Miller got drunk on a bottle of vodka, stole a pickup truck at a convenience store, then plowed into a car, killing the driver. Almost ten years later, Ethan Couch, also 16, packed several friends into his father’s pickup, stole two cases of beer from a Walmart, and proceeded to scream down a local thoroughfare until he collided with a disabled vehicle, killing its driver and three passersby. Continue reading →

There is no shortage of stories about a parent going into a bar while leaving a child alone in a car.  This is one such story.

INDIANAPOLIS – A woman was arrested after police said she left her two children alone in an unlocked, running car while she went into a bar to get a beer Sunday evening.

Police were called to John Wayne’s Pub & Eatery in the 2300 block of East Stop 11 Road after a concerned person called for a welfare check on two children left alone in a car.

When police arrived, they found a 1-year-old and 9-year-old alone in the back seat of an unlocked Volkswagen Beetle.

Denise Shannon, who will not win mother of the year, didn’t see the problem. Then again, she was drunk.  And she left the engine running.  Few will argue that it was wrong to arrest her for endangering the welfare of her children. Continue reading →

The New York Times’ public editor, whose job it is to concede its editorial foibles in such a way as to create the appearance of fairness while not dulling the newspaper’s shine, admitted that a story failed to do something critical to legitimate journalism:

Curtis Tate, a reporter for McClatchy News’s Washington bureau, spent a recent weekend generating spreadsheets from a database on hazardous materials for his story on the increasing amount of crude oil spilled in rail accidents.

A week later, The Times ran a broader article on the same subject, complete with photographs, requisite anecdotal lead, and big-picture sweep. It included findings that came from Mr. Tate’s research, but it did not credit McClatchy.

The excuse was that the reporter “didn’t realize that what he paraphrased was based on another news organizations’s exclusive reporting.”  Because, you know, there are simply free-floating “findings” out there for anybody to use. Continue reading →

Via South Florida Lawyers blog:

And they’re”insightful!”  And “dynamic!”  And “outspoken!”

Terrence McCoy over at Riptide broke this amazing story.  According to Terrence, this appears to be an email Mike sent out to the media:

Are you a member of the media? Do you care about Justin Bieber? Of course you do. Silly question.

That’s where I, Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Grieco, come in. Not only am I a former state prosecutor and defense attorney — but I’m  also available for comment. Right now. Call me. I know I told you last  time that I’d only ask once. I was wrong. Whatevs. But, really, last  time I’m asking: Let’s talk Bieber. (Please.)

–XOXO Michael Grieco Continue reading →

Orin Kerr, at his new WaPo Volokh Conspiracy money machine gig, combines the holdings in two cases to arrive at a mathematical solution to one of the most intractable problems in criminal law.  First, the scenario:

Imagine a police officer pulls over a car for a routine traffic violation, such as speeding or driving with a broken taillight.  During the stop, the officer develops a hunch that there may be drugs in the car.  He contacts a local K-9 unit and requests a trained drug-sniffing dog; when the unit arrives, another officer will walk the dog around the car to see if it alerts to drugs inside.  Although the Supreme Court has held that the use of the dog is not a search, the length of a warrantless stop must be reasonable. The officer can’t delay the driver forever.

While Orin relies on a hunch, it’s really not critical that the cop have any basis whatsoever. Even if the situation was changed to cover the cop who calls for a dog because it’s a black driver in a new Mercedes, or a couple of Hispanics in a car on a drug route in an area where there aren’t a lot of folks with colored complexions, the tactic is the same. Stopped car. No reasonable suspicion. Call in the dog. Continue reading →

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for an academic to stake out a place for himself in the universe of worthless scholarship.  Danielle Citron owns Cyber Civil Rights.  Mary Anne Franks nailed down revenge porn.  Even the empathetic killer space was nabbed by Robert Blecker.

Poor Thane Rosenbaum of Fordham Law School was nicheless. Sure, he tried his hand at being the hero of revenge, but nobody noticed. There were lots of articles about the enemies of Judaism, but there is no juice left in condemning Eichmann, even with Osama bin Laden thrown in for timeliness.  He would never become a brand this way.

But maybe, just maybe, by combining his interests he could develop a new niche, a heretofore unrecognized space that he could fill?  Enter the Daily Beast:

New studies show that unbridled hateful speech can cause emotional harm. Is it time for the United States to follow other democracies and impose limits on what Neo-Nazis and other haters say? Continue reading →