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 →

To read the New York Times, there is no question but that the story is totally, completely, absolutely, irrefutably true.

“I hope you can let this go.”

Those are President Trump’s words, according to the former F.B.I. director, James Comey…

No “allegedly.” No caveat of the details buried in the original story.

Mr. Comey shared the existence of the memo with senior F.B.I. officials and close associates. The New York Times has not viewed a copy of the memo, which is unclassified, but one of Mr. Comey’s associates read parts of it to a Times reporter.

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In response to a twit about Harvard’s first-ever black student commencement, a random law student told me it wasn’t the bad sort of segregation because black students wanted it. While I understood her point, it reflected the irrational infantile perspective that segregation is an unspeakable evil when perpetrated by some and totally wonderful when perpetrated by others.

I replied that she didn’t get it (which she naturally denied, as everyone who doesn’t get it invariably insists they do, they *do*), but that the response that failed to honor her opinion was condescending. You bet it was. Not only did I not know who she was or care what she thought, but we were not peers. What could make a law student assume that she was entitled to expect not only my attention, but my respect?

The problem with children believing they’re entitled to unearned respect starts in the classroom. Not long ago, there was a discussion about students taking liberties with their professors, as if the teachers were no different than the students, except they go to stand in the front of the room instead of sitting in the seats. The discussion devolved into the risks taken by profs in offending students, not pronouncing their names properly, giving rise to complaints of discrimination. Continue reading →

Some people like Taylor Swift’s music. Others may ask, “Taylor who?” For the latter group, I’m here for you. She’s the party in an action in the District of Colorado federal court trying to get a gender studies professor admitted as an expert witness to “profile” the kind of person who would grab her behind.

David Mueller has been accused of lifting up Swift’s skirt and groping her at a Colorado meet-and-greet in June 2013, an allegation that saw him lose his job as a DJ at the Denver country music radio station 98.5 KYGO. Mueller initially sued Swift for what he described as her “false” allegations, a move that was soon met by a counter-suit from Swift for sexual assault and battery in October 2015. In her deposition, Swift described feeling “frantic, distressed and violated” by the alleged incident.

While these feelings pretty much explain every song Swift has written, it nonetheless does not excuse Mueller if he, in fact, reached under her dress and touched her. But Swift’s lawyer, apparently, is unwilling to try his case based upon her testimony, and seeks instead to bolster her claim by calling an expert witness. Continue reading →

The first thing that hits you when you read something by or about Laurence Tribe is Carl Loeb, which is a bit ironic given that Loeb made his fortune as a Wall Street financier. But it’s right there, front and center, of his Washington Post op-ed.

By Laurence H. Tribe

Laurence H. Tribe is Carl M. Loeb University Professor and Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School.

The time has come for Congress to launch an impeachment investigation of President Trump for obstruction of justice.

It’s an impressive thing, to hold an endowed seat at Harvard Law School. He has attributed credibility. And, indeed, Larry Tribe has done much in his career to earn that credibility, even though he’s done a few things to raise questions as well. Continue reading →

For those who believe that training is the answer, two Las Vegas cops came upon a guy who was apparently suffering some sort of psychotic episode. It’s hardly unusual for police to be called upon to deal with people suffering from some sort of mental illness, and it’s not as though this is such a wild, new problem that they are utterly clueless as to what to do. So, they handled it.

The incident unfolded about 1 a.m. when the man approached two uniformed officers inside The Venetian, 3355 S. Las Vegas Blvd. South, the Metropolitan Police Department said in a release.

The Metro officers described the man as “acting erratic” and paranoid. The man told the officers that “people were chasing him.” He ran off, and both officers followed, police said in a release.

As the man came to the cops, it would be fair to assume he sought their assistance for whatever delusion he was suffering.  Certainly, acting erratic inside the Venetian can’t be all that unusual. Continue reading →