Before Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, the #Resistance was calling for his impeachment. It was simultaneously adorable and horrible, reflecting that exceptional combination of passion and ignorance that could only possess the minds of so many well-intended, well-educated, totally batshit crazy people in the Age of Emotion.

It was Stephen Colbert who, in his humorous way, saw this coming years in advance and gave it a name:

Merriam-Webster’s #1 Word of the Year for 2006:

truthiness (noun)

1 : “truth that comes from the gut, not books” (Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” October 2005)

2 : “the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true” (American Dialect Society, January 2006)

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Should fear be the primary motivator for first year law students? At PrawfsBlawg, Andrew Guthrie Ferguson argues that it’s the wrong way to go.

Even with professors who try to be nice, open, inclusive and “definitely not scary,” fear exists.  I don’t consider myself a scary teacher.  I teach soft-Socratic with plenty of humor, banter, and encouragement.  I view myself as a “coach” not a drill sergeant (or appellate judge).  But, there is still fear.  The role of standing up in front of dozens of students and commanding attention, respect, and precision with the subject matter generates a healthy fear.

And, that is my question — is fear healthy?

Ah, the good old days of Professor Kingsfield. While John Houseman only played a law professor in the movies, this was very much the law school norm back in the old days, before students decided they were consumers and demanded a tummy rub with every valued thought. Continue reading →

In the midst of a year’s worth of scandal in a week, it’s hard to squeeze in the obvious, even when it’s captured on video in living color. But in almost any other time in history, Turkish goons beating and kicking protesters on American soil would have shocked a nation.

It’s a mark of these tumultuous political times that an act of outrageous viciousness this week by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s bodyguards on peaceful protesters in Washington, D.C., has barely caused a public ripple.

There’s a very important bit of insight hidden within this observation. No one who can spell his name would think Recep Tayyip Erdoğan anything other than a vicious authoritarian. When that’s your reputation, it alters expectations. After all, what kind of people would such a guy have protecting him? Just because Erdogan is in the United States doesn’t mean he stops being Erogan, or that his “security” detail stops being thugs.

But when it comes to beating protesters on American soil, that’s the job of our police, not theirs. They don’t know their place. Continue reading →

If New York Governor Andy Cuomo has a therapist, it has to be a really hard gig, as the split in his progressive personality keep revealing itself as he runs for re-election.  On the one hand, he’s desperately courting the campus feminist vote by doubling down on his Enough Is Enough law. On the other, how can he not include our “Community Heroes” in the hate crimes law?

Enough is enough? You bet.

“As Governor of New York, but even more so as a father, the safety of New York’s students is my top priority,” Cuomo said in a news release. “New York led the nation by signing into law the strongest policy to combat sexual assault on college campuses, and now we are ensuring every university fully meets their obligations under that law. We must take every measure to protect our students from harm, and we will accept nothing less from our state’s colleges and universities. Enough is enough.”

Andy is a father. Of two college-age girls. What kind of father wouldn’t take care of his own kids and fry the others to make their world just a little more wonderful? But with an election coming, he has to remind his progressive base how much of a feminist ally he is, and you can’t keep re-enacting the same law, so you need to come up with some other way to spend money, even if there isn’t enough to fulfill constitutional mandates that won’t buy him feminist love. Continue reading →

Being an old white cis-gendered male lawyer, it would be wrong of me to say this, so I’ll let Appellate Squawk* do my dirty work.

Scene: Arraignment pens, counsel visiting area. 

Lawyer: Hi there! I’m Suzy, a cis-gendered woman, and I’ll be your attorney for today.

Defendant: About time. I’ve been locked up for a week without seeing a lawyer. I’m innocent. The cops broke down my door without a warrant –

***

Lawyer:  [Reading from a card] I need to know whether your name expresses your internal deeply-held sense of your gender which may or may not be the same or different from your sex assigned at birth – Continue reading →

While its significance has faded over the course of the hours following all hell breaking loose, the news cycle was obsessed for a brief and glorious few hours on the president revealing classified information to the Russians in the Oval Office after the Washington Post revealed the botch.

The Post, however, did not share the details of the intelligence because officials warned this could help Russia identify the ally involved. When The Times confirmed the story soon after, it too left out the name of the country, saying only that it was “Middle Eastern.”

The point, pundits argued, wasn’t that Trump gave up the name, home address and social security number of the secret agent, but enough so that the Russians, or ISIS, could “reverse engineer” from what was said so that it could ascertain “sources or methods” from whence the intelligence came.

“This is code-word information,” said a U.S. official familiar with the matter, using terminology that refers to one of the highest classification levels used by American spy agencies. Trump “revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.”

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Never having been a fan of ankle bracelets to begin with, their being a vulgar use of jewelry only slightly worse than toe rings, the aesthetics alone would be offensive. But for some convicted of sex offenses in Missouri, the state has decided to compel their new fashion statement.

The devices send out alerts if an offender lingers near a school or a park. Cut the wide black strap and the waterproof device will tell on them.

It beeps to prompt a verbal command from state officials, say to make a payment or report to probation officers immediately.

The retroactive requirements are part of a revised state criminal code that went into effect Jan. 1. Offenders either found guilty or who pleaded guilty to 13 various sex crimes in question based on an act committed on or after Aug. 28, 2006, are subject to the added security measures.

To provide a little context, let’s say a person has completed his sentence, prison as well as post-incarceration supervision. He’s moved on with his life, somehow managed to get a decent job, perhaps a new family, and bought a house with a picket fence in a lovely suburban neighborhood. He’s learned from his mistakes and is dedicated to being a completely law-abiding citizen. Continue reading →

Jim Comey will be lucky to come out of this without whiplash. Having gone from hero to villain to hero and back again, he’s now beloved for being the butt of Trump’s angst. Getting fired by someone hated is the new resurrection. Look what it did for people who should otherwise be rightly despised, like former Southern District United States Attorney Preet Bharara and former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates. People speak of them in glowing terms, even though they know nothing more about them than that Trump fired them.

But in comes the newest Messiah, Bob Mueller, FBI Director under Bush and Obama. Scanning the tube after the announcement of Rod Rosenstein’s appointment, the love just oozed off the screen. There weren’t enough adjectives to praise Mueller. Jeffrey Toobin was fully erect, though it may have had something to do with his sitting next to Dersh. It was a moment of glorious agreement between the sides that Mueller would bring a nation together.

Marcy Wheeler then splashed cold water over the choir. Continue reading →

One of the greatest novels of the 20^th century is Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. The novel is set during World War II. It follows the life of Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Force B-25 bombardier.

As most everyone knows, the title Catch-22 has become a figure of speech.  The best explanation comes from the omnipotent eye of Heller: Continue reading →

The defense rested in the case against Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby, who shot and killed Terrence Crutcher, after calling prosecution witness Homicide Sgt. Dave Walker as its own witness. He was called to smear Crutcher, though it’s unclear how much got to the jury:

Constant objections and bench conferences didn’t allow him to say much after the defense tried to ask about Crutcher’s criminal background and outstanding warrants. Walker said the fact that Crutcher had warrants for his arrest at time of the shooting was important for his investigation into Shelby’s actions on that evening.

But that wasn’t the crux of the defense. Rather, it was Betty Shelby’s words that were offered in explanation.

Shelby told defense attorney Shannon McMurray that police training videos showed her that if suspects are allowed to reach into their vehicles, “they can pull out guns and kill you,” which is why deadly force can be warranted. “I’m told in my training that you don’t let them pull their arm back out,” Shelby said. Continue reading →