If you suffer the burden of thinking like a lawyer, it makes perfect sense.

When Cesar Garcia pulled the letter out of his mailbox, he immediately recognized the name of the law firm on the envelope – Silver & Wright. Eighteen months ago, they had dragged him to court, called him a criminal, cost him thousands of dollars and made his life hell. What did they want now?

Garcia opened the letter, prepared for the worst, but was still shocked by what he found inside.

The law firm had sent him a bill for $26,000.

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When the cop claims that the reason he had to plug the black guy in the forehead was his fear that the newly deceased was trying to grab his weapon and murder him, some of us might tend to question the characterization and expect, if not demand, that the cop’s claim be characterized as an allegation. There’s a reason for this. Just because the cop said so doesn’t make it true.

And I would venture to guess that 98.7% of deeply passionate woke lawyers would adamantly agree that the word “alleged” was required. But that’s because it involves a cop and a black guy. What’s different here?

Some women’s rights advocates chafe at the media’s delicate approach, which has been pretty consistent across a range of editorial perspectives.

“I’m a lawyer, and I understand why lawyers advise this sort of qualification, to try to avoid libel claims,” said Camille Hébert, a professor at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law who specializes in sexual harassment.

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She denied it. She lied about it when she denied it, and when she accused Mike Masnick of being a liar about it, because she is without shame or intellectual honesty. But this?

But for all it has given us, Section 230 of the CDA has also protected some of the worst parts of the internet. If a small-town factory pollutes the water supply, the company can be held legally responsible for the negative consequences of the factory. But on the internet, armed with the protection granted by the CDA, “you can reap all the rewards for whatever it is you’re producing, and you basically will be accountable for none of the negative things that you might also be producing,” says Franks. “So unlike a factory, people can’t sue you for the negative side effects your online product.”

Tim Cushing believes Mary Anne knows better, realizes that her factory analogy is utterly absurd. But then, if she is smart enough to realize that her analogy was ridiculously inapt, then Hanlon’s Razor would dictate that her words were born of malice rather than stupidity. Continue reading →

Female Cook County public defenders sued over the hostile work environment created by the men they are charged to defend.

Marshall Project: Hold my beer.

But the worst abuse came from inmates, who would make sexual remarks and masturbate at her as she did rounds in their housing areas. [Paula] Purdy says she reported the behavior to her bosses, but there were few consequences. “I would get emotional at work several times a day,” she said.

Over the years, the harassment by male prisoners grew more intense, and Purdy says she became reluctant to do everyday things like grocery shop, afraid she’d encounter one of the men on the outside. As a single mother, she felt trapped in her job. “It’s not like you can up and quit,” she said. Eventually, she decided she’d had enough. In 2015, she retired early at age 55, even though it meant taking a reduced pension.

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Not that I have a clue who he is, as rap music isn’t my preferred genre, but Meek Mill was doing pretty well for himself as a rapper.

Born in South Philadelphia, Mill grew up around North Philly; his father was murdered when he was 5. He’s infused his music with his experiences growing up in a poor, single-parent home. His career took off after his 2009 release from prison.

His third album, Wins and Losses, climbed quickly to No. 3 on Billboard’s albums chart after its release this summer.  Its 2015 predecessor, Dreams Worth More Than Money, entered the charts at No. 1. Almost as much attention has been given to his two-year romance with the singer-songwriter Nicki Minaj, which ended this year.

An impressive climb out of a troubled childhood to commercial success. But then there was his 2008 drug and gun conviction which, if news accounts are remotely accurate, resulted in a split sentence, during which he spent 8 months in jail with some unnoted period of probation to follow. And in 2017, some bad stuff happened. Continue reading →

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar.

–William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene II

If Al Franken hadn’t plopped his pudgy senatorial butt high on the pedestal of progressivism, he wouldn’t have so far to fall. So when Leeann Tweeden spilled the beans on the former SNL writer, who a mere day ago took Texas Tweeter Laureate Donny Ray Willett to task for his twit, he probably didn’t anticipate how quickly it would come back to bite him in his ample ass. Continue reading →

Ed. Note: This is a guest post by Fort Worth, Texas, criminal defense lawyer Greg Prickett.[1]

Every time I think I’ve seen the dumbest thing a cop can do, all I have to do is wait and they will prove me wrong. Sheriff Troy Nehls is apparently upset at the political speech of one of the citizens of his good county, and he intends to put a stop to it.

On Wednesday, he posted the message below on Facebook, and it immediately went viral. In addition to the “offensive” words that are blacked out, there is also a drawing of a middle finger in the center of the F**K.

Sheriff Nehls is an elected Republican in Fort Bend County, Texas, which is just to the southwest of Houston, Texas. The county overwhelmingly voted for the Clinton-Kaine ticket over the Trump-Pence ticket in the presidential election, but the county is generally Republican.[2] So there’s a disconnect between the county citizens and the elected officials, at least as far as national politics are concerned.

Sheriff Nehls is apparently offended by the window sticker, but he also hasn’t tried very hard to find the truck. It took a local news station less than 24 hours to find the owner, Karen Fonseca. Fonseca told ABC-13 in Houston that she put up the sticker about 11 months ago to voice her family’s disapproval of President Trump. Continue reading →

I don’t know Matthew Buck, but I like him. And would want him beside me if I was in a street fight.

Be as prissy as you want. I’ll take a lawyer with a sense of humor any day.

H/T Isabella, Esq.

The reaction to efforts to “explain” for the sake of distinguishing why Brett Talley wasn’t qualified to be a federal judge proved to be curious. Most of the arguments centered on the fact that he had only “practiced” for three years, had never tried a case, “never even argued a motion!” Certainly these aren’t the sorts of things that give rise to a sense of competence, but I admonished Talley’s detractors to be careful.

Elena Kagan: 3 years practice. Never tried a case. Prawf & dean. 1 year as solicitor general. Sup Ct justice. Be careful.

This brought a flurry of retorts designed to distinguish Kagan from Talley. Notably, few raised the most substantive distinction, that her decades of experience as a scholar provided Justice Kagan with a base of knowledge and experience, even if not the same as actually trying a case, that Talley lacks. One could argue whether writing law review articles and being on panels discussing legal theory is the equivalent, or perhaps even better, experience, but that wasn’t where this headed.

Rather, the argument was that a judge of a district court, where trials happened, needed a different skillset than an appellate judge. The district judge was, I was informed, a glorified calendar clerk, pushing cases in and out, while an appellate judge was expected to have a brain and be capable of serious legal thought. Continue reading →

It would be a jarring headline anywhere but Vox.

The most respected Supreme Court reporter of her generation slams media “objectivity”

Even if it was true, it’s so utterly lacking in humility that it would be shameful anywhere else. But there’s no shame at Vox. As for the subject of this headline, Linda Greenhouse, her accomplishments demand no such hype.

Greenhouse covered the Supreme Court for the New York Times for “nearly three decades.” She won a Pulitzer Prize “for her consistently illuminating coverage of the United States Supreme Court.” She’s not a lawyer, yet she’s now the “journalist in residence” at Yale Law School, whatever that means.  Continue reading →