A comment yesterday from abwman gave me pause.

Scott, I don’t know you other than through this blog, but I’m worried about some of your recent missives. Over the years I’ve read your views as concerns about misguided efforts of political and social extremists (on both sides of the spectrum) to break the mold of American liberalism.

My sense has always been that this was founded in a fundamental optimism that a less extreme majority could reason their way to social and economic improvements that don’t undermine the principles that have allowed the U.S. to make course corrections over time that, on balance, enhance the lives of the vast majority of folks. Your recent posts have dark overtones that seem imbued with a more pessimistic view of where we stand now, and what lies in the future. Continue reading →

It’s still early as I write this, and perhaps the New York Times will post a headline or editorial about today being Memorial Day later today. But as I write this, there is nothing. The closest it comes is an op-ed by Drew Faust, former president of Harvard, quoting Frederick Douglass from May 30, 1871, asking “What shall men remember?”

For reasons I’ve expressed in the past and need not say again, I remember the men and women who gave their lives for their country. But when my generation is gone, will there be anyone left to remember? Will there be any left to care whether anyone remembers? Continue reading →

Five years ago today, George Floyd died. Contrary to many who knew little about issues of police racism, abuse and violence, and criminal law reform, this one death gave rise to a movement that seized the nation as if there were no serious, meaningful, intelligent efforts to make change. Instead, the mantra of Black Lives Matter appeared ubiquitous and progressives in government began reinventing our socio-economic-legal processes around the “marginalized” at the willing expense of the “privileged.” Continue reading →

Have I mentioned I hate omnibus bills? Oh yeah, I did when Biden did it and now I’m doing it again when Trump does it, because nobody knows what’s buried in its bowels. Like this:

No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(c), whether issued prior to, on, or subsequent to the date of enactment of this section.

Did anybody mention that the House Republicans snuck this gem into their Big Beautiful Bill? Well yes, Chicago Prawf Sam Bray mentioned it, and explained what’s wrong with it as well. Continue reading →

Don’t laugh. I might have run into trouble with the cops recently. It’s nothing to be excited about, mind you, and as soon as my mean-ass editor helps me get all of this sorted with the authorities I’ll be in the clear.

Oh, get your minds out of the gutter.

It all started innocently enough. My doctor, a rather tall ginger with a mustache screaming “I own a snowblower,” informs me it’s time to check the ol’ plumbing. “You’re not getting any younger, Chris,” he said, handing me a prep kit apparently designed by sadists at a laxative convention. The instructions? Take three Dulcolax and wash them down with a gallon of what looks and tastes like Satan’s Gatorade and spend the next twelve hours regretting every life decision that led you to this moment while hugging your toilet like the porcelain throne it is. Continue reading →

Not only was the question bound to arise from Trump’s “firing” of board members of agencies created by Congress to be independent, such that they could putatively perform their function based upon impartiality and expertise rather than political partisanship, but it was bound to be decided. Humphrey’s Executor was on the table and everybody knew it.

What everybody did not know, and did not expect, was that the Supreme Court would effectively overrule a 90-year-old precedent on the shadow docket. Yet, that’s what it did in a 6-3 two-page per curiam decision in Trump v. Wilcox. Continue reading →

It’s been clear for a while now that the Trump administration ignored Judge Boasberg’s order, violated Judge Xinis’ order and even ignored the Supreme Court’s decision in Noem v. Abrego Garcia, which may have been unclear with the meaning of the word “effectuate,” but held that “facilitate” was more than clear.

The order properly requires the Government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.

Seen Abrego Garcia around lately? Heard about the government’s efforts to “facilitate” his return? That’s because the government didn’t facilitate. The government did nothing to comply with Judge Xinis’ order, even though the Supreme Court held it must. And what did the courts do about it? In fact, it’s largely disappeared from the news, something else to be forgotten in the daily hourly fog of Trumpianism. Continue reading →

The debate has largely centered around a fellow named Kilmar Abrego Garcia, largely because his case has captured the headlines and the docket. In continuing violation of Judge Paula Xinis’ order, the government has yet to lift a finger to “facilitate” the return of an alien they renditioned by admitted mistake. The case made a good vehicle for the challenge given an immigration judge’s order that he not be deported to El Salvador was ignored and he was sent there to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Of course, President Trump wasn’t concerned since, in his twisted mind, Abrego Garcia had “MS-13” tattooed to his knuckles, proving the righteousness, if not lawfulness, of the rendition. But as for the rest, the argument has largely taken for granted that the renditioned Venezuelans were, indeed, Tren de Aragua (or MS-13?) gangbangers, and really, who cares whether they were lawfully deported to a Salvadoran torture prison? Continue reading →

There are a great many question arising from the fact pattern in Doe v. KIPP NY, a case decided last August that just found its way onto Eugene Volokh’s radar with a rather salacious title. How did the video get into the hands of students? Why would the teacher use a district-provided cellphone to take video of her pleasuring herself? Why did she take video at all? If the plaintiff continued her employment as a junior high and high school teacher, would her students have something other than education on their minds such that she would have difficulty teaching?

[P]laintiff commenced this action a year after her employment as a teacher at KIPP middle school and high school was terminated following the dissemination of a video to students depicting plaintiff in a sex act that was saved on her KIPP-issued cellular phone (the “Video”). On June 3, 2022, plaintiff alleges she became aware of the video dissemination, when students brought it to her attention that the video had just been “airdropped” to certain students at KIPP. The plaintiff maintains that the video was taken on personal time and personal property and was potentially accessed and disseminated by students and others, without her consent. Continue reading →

The salaries range from $190,000 to $235,000 per year, excluding bonuses, numbers that bring tears to the eyes of many hard-working, experienced and highly-skilled trial lawyers, the babies of Biglaw earn incomes that bear no relation to the value they bring to the table. The only drawback is that their work went from engagement in the practice of law that prepared them to be lawyers one day to the indignity of document review, work best suited to back office drones.

With the incorporation of AI by Biglaw into its mind-numbing grind, even that may soon be gone.

There are growing signs that artificial intelligence poses a real threat to a substantial number of the entry-level jobs that normally serve as the first step for each new generation of young workers. Uncertainty around tariffs and global trade are only likely to accelerate that pressure, just as millions of 2025 graduates enter the work force.

Continue reading →