The appellant’s brief on behalf of Ladar Levison and Lavabit was filed yesterday (10/10/13) in the Fourth Circuit, seeking to clean up the mess left behind by the government’s sledgehammering the “secure” email provider into cooperation.  It tells a shocking story of how the government sought to strong-arm Levison into giving up the Lavabit encryption key, what the brief calls the “private key” because it was the “master key” held only by Lavabit that enabled access to every account, every customer, every email, everything.

The government, of course, only wanted (or so it said) access to one customer, one account, which is redacted in the brief but bears a remarkable likeness to Edward Snowden.  On his own, Levison sought to negotiate a deal with the feds, to give up Snowden by doing the decryption on his end and handing everything “Snowden” over. Continue reading →

Tempe’s conscience, criminal defense lawyer Matt Brown, found a fascinating post by United States District Judge Richard Kopf at his Hercules and the Umpire blog. Despite his occasional bloggy naiveté, Judge Kopf is generally frank, funny and transparent, sometimes to the point of awkwardness.

But the post Matt found, a response to a comment by another federal judge, Mark W. Bennett, was disturbing.  Judge Bennett, who has been at the forefront of challenging the federal reaction to drug conspiracies that has failed miserably to win the War on Drugs while wreaking havoc with our poor and minorities, was implicitly called “foolish” by Judge Kopf for not embracing the view that drug crimes are inherently violent crimes. Continue reading →

It’s either the most brilliant or the stupidest move ever.  And that applies either to American Lawyer Media or to the first 500 people dumb enough to take them up on it. Or maybe both.  Bob Ambrogi broke the news:

Law.com will be inviting outside authors to become regular contributors to the site. When this network launches in November, it is expected to have at least 100 contributors. By the time of LegalTech in February, the Law.com editors hope to have as many as 500 contributors.

The contributors will not be paid but will be given access to a WordPress-based platform that will allow them to publish directly to the Law.com site. Continue reading →

Allegations of rape have become a flashpoint for both problems with the legal system and its intersection with pop culture.  On one side, it’s a terrible crime and one worthy of our most severe condemnation. On the other, it’s often a tough crime to prove, and that’s resulted in watering down the demand for proof, sometimes to the point of mere finger-pointing.

The problem is that this doesn’t bother certain societal interest groups, who don’t seem to have a problem with the potential of wrongful convictions if it results in more convictions. It’s the old “take one for the team” theory, or better to convict ten innocent men than let one guilty rapist go free theory of law. Continue reading →

While no one argues that there is any virtue whatsoever in the posting of nude images of nonconsenting people on the internet, or that such images don’t harm the victims, the same can’t be said about a variation on the theme, the mugshot.  Unlike the gutter websites doing revenge porn, the mugshot industry operates above-board and with the acquiescence, if not approval, of the government. Where do you think they get the mugshots?

Mike Riggs does a great job of presenting the arguments by both sides of this problematic issue:

In a feature that ran this past weekend, The New York Times drew some much needed attention to a very ugly business: websites that trawl sheriff and police databases for mugshots, post those mugshots on their own sites, then charge arrestees to have their mugshots taken down. Continue reading →

There is a line that asks for your relationship to the person being endorsed.  Mark Bennett picked the only answer that truthfully applied: Other.

The latest plague going around the interwebz for lawyers is the endorsement scam.  It’s happening at LinkedIn. It’s happening at Avvo.  And just in case nobody wants to endorse you for anything other than dog catcher (and maybe not even that), there are buttons to push that enable you to beg for endorsements from people you don’t know. Easy-peasy. Sleazy. Continue reading →

The First Monday in October brings chills to some in the blawgosphere.  Title 28 of the United States Code, §2, commands us to care:

The Supreme Court shall hold at the seat of government a term of court commencing on the first Monday in October of each year and may hold such adjourned or special terms as may be necessary.

And so it starts. There will be stories and posts today about the important cases on the docket, and how the decisions of five people will change the course of our law. Continue reading →

When Rick Horowitz and Jeff Gamso ripped the decision of Sam D’Aquilla, District Attorney of Lousisiana’s 20th Judicial District and the brains behind reindicting Herman Wallace in the hours before his death from cancer, they noted his banal explanation:

I’m a prosecutor. This is what we do.

It was not merely heartless and infuriating, but it was also false. A blatant lie. It’s the sort of statement that adds fuel to the fire of hatred toward prosecutors, when it’s a reflection of one prosecutor, a rogue, whose exercise of discretion was used to vindictively and, in this instance, absurdly, explain the job.  Not even D’Aquilla can prosecute a dead man, as much as he may want to or think it’s “what we do.” Continue reading →

Refusing to be a slave to spaghetti western titles, I begin with the bad.  Herman Wallace died. Freed from prison at age 71 for a bad trial for a crime he denied, after spending 41 years in solitary confinement, Herman Wallace succumbed to cancer the day after his release.

The Good comes from Jeff Gamso and Rick Horowitz, both of whom addressed how such a thing could have happened to Herman Wallace.  From Gamso:

But this isn’t just a story of love and warmth.  It’s not just a feel-good tale of redemption.  This is a story to piss you off.  As much as it’s the story of Herman Wallace, it’s also the story of Inspector Javert District Attorney Sam D’Aquilla.  Who had urged the warden to keep Wallace in prison after Judge Jackson ordered his release.  And who obtained a new indictment against him Thursday afternoon, again charging him with Miller’s murder. Continue reading →