Thomson Reuters, the venerable marketeer legal publisher, has joined hands with the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, and not too small a smattering of federal alphabet law enforcement agencies, to produce a report on the future safety of the digital world.  It’s called The Digital Economy: Potential, Perils and Promises, a report of the Digital Economy Task Force.

Curiously, news of the report was broken by David Lat at Above The Law, under the heading “The Dark Side of the Web.”  After all, it’s not like ATL isn’t all about serious legal issues confronting the safety of children, right?  Lat begins by offering his position:

I am on record as an optimist when it comes to the internet. The free flow of information on the web, including but not limited to websites like Above the Law, helps people make better decisions about their lives and careers (and also entertains, a value that shouldn’t be ignored). Continue reading →

While courts have taken little issue with law enforcement lying (or, in the parlance of the judiciacy, “pretext”) to the public, they assume they’re being told the truth. After all, they’re the judges, and judges are, of course, special.  It’s not like law enforcement can’t trust them, or worse still, think so poorly of their benefactors that they would treat them the way they treat the public.

But then, there was Stingray.  For those who don’t keep up with the law enforcement technology, it’s a device that mimics a cell tower and captures phone data.  A few years back, the WSJ stumbled upon it, and it turns out that the cops were having a field day with it, but for one detail.  They had neither sought nor obtained judicial approval to use it. Heck, they didn’t even tell the courts it existed. But, oh boy, did it exist.

During an appellate argument in a sexual battery case in Tallahassee, some previously unknown details came out. From Wired via Mike Masnick Tim Cushing at Techdirt: Continue reading →

It was the couple quick glances at a wristwatch that derailed the re-election campaign of George Herbert Walker Bush during a presidential debate with Bill Clinton. But for a watch, we wouldn’t have had Monica Lewinsky to talk about. How could you live with yourself?

I’m a watch nerd. That means I love watches. Wrist watches. Dash timers. Pocket watches. Not clocks, so much, but watches.  It’s not that they’re fancy, but that they’re tools reflecting the artistry of the watchmaker’s craft.  Telling time is easy. Watches can be a thing of beauty. If you can’t appreciate beauty, ingenuity and craftsmanship, then your life is empty. I’m sad for you.

In a post the other day, a tangential piece dealt with a lawyer whose watch of choice was a Patek Phillipe Calatrava.  This gave rise to no small issue, Continue reading →

When the Supreme Court considered whether to grant cert in Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus, the Cato Institute brief nailed the free speech issue, from the critical question of how one determines “fact” in a political context, as well as the inherent chilling effect of criminalizing speech if one guessed wrong.  It was never a question of adoring political lies, but the price to be paid for robust political speech.

Now that cert has been granted, Cato’s Ilya Shapiro has filed its amicus curiae brief on the merits, and it may be the best amicus brief ever filed.  To wet your whistle, here’s the opening:

“I am not a crook.” Continue reading →

One of my complaints about journalists is that no matter how well they write, they aren’t inherently endowed with expertise on the subject of their reporting. The same goes for lawyers, and particularly judges, who sometimes confuse the majesty of their robes for subject matter expertise.

It’s not that we can’t become reasonably well-versed in a very narrow subject with some effort, but that we should never confuse ourselves with real experts. The Supreme Court heard argument in Hall v. Florida, the follow-up case to Atkins v. Virginia which held it unconstitutional to execute a mentally retarded person.

Because of their disabilities in areas of reasoning, judgment, and control of their impulses, however, they do not act with the level of moral culpability that characterizes the most serious adult criminal conduct. Moreover, their impairments can jeopardize the reliability and fairness of capital proceedings against mentally retarded defendants. Continue reading →

While most altlaw businesses try to dodge and weave around the fact that they’re committing the crime of Unauthorized Practice of Law, one not only admits the obvious, but is proud of it. Via Carolyn Elefant at My Shingle:

Tandem is structured differently from traditional law firms as well.  D.C. Ethics Rule 5.4(b)  allows for non-lawyer partners, provided that they are also firm employees (as opposed to passive investors) and provide services that “assist the organization in providing legal services.” Capitalizing on this rule, one of Tandem’s co-founders, Michael McDevitt is non-lawyer and former CEO of a successful weight-loss company while the other co-founder, Randy Price brings six years experience as a big law associate. The remaining firm members are comprised of a mix of big firm expatriates and management types, including two with deep roots in e-discovery.

As much as my view toward the ownership of law firms by non-lawyers is negative, one of the key ingredients is that it is also unlawful.  Tandem Legal Group is a law firm. It’s half-owned by a non-lawyer, who brings his experience in running a weight-loss company to the firm, and it comports with the District of Columbia’s ethical requirements. Continue reading →

The side of a NYPD police cruiser bears the letters CPR, for Courtesy, Professionalism, Respect.  It’s aspirational at best, and a cynical marketing ploy at worst. In any event, it is not something to point out when an interaction with police doesn’t go as well as one would hope.

But Mayor Bill de Blasio has decided that his new (and Giuliani’s old) police commissioner should commence a new initiative to make New York’s Finest more user-friendly. Via Newsday:

The NYPD’s encounters with the public will soon begin with a polite introduction and end “on a positive note” under a new “Seven Steps to Positive Community Interactions” curriculum announced Thursday by Mayor Bill de Blasio and Commissioner William J. Bratton. Continue reading →

Willie King took the full ride after recording the Indianapolis police arresting a guy.  From the Indiana Lawyer (via a twit by Radley Balko):

Indianapolis resident Willie King who was arrested in February, 2011 after he used his cellphone to videotape police officers arresting another man. King was charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and public intoxication.

He was acquitted after a bench trial, but didn’t stop there.

Following a bench trial that found him not guilty, King filed a federal civil rights case against the city of Indianapolis and the police officers involved in the incident. The lawsuit, Willie E. King v. The City of Indianapolis, Jonathan M. Lawlis, Robert K. McCauley, Brad Alford, Michael B. Wright and David Miller, 1:11-cv-01727, was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division. Continue reading →

I twit. When Twitter first came on the scene, I was certain I wouldn’t. I was wrong. Before going any further, I call what I do on Twitter a “twit.” I’ve called it that since the beginning, because the place is called twitter. This makes some people furious, because, they tell me, it’s a “tweet.” Is it called “Tweeter”? You can call it whatever you like. I will call it what I like. Get over it.

Over the years since I first wrongly decided Twitter was worthless, I’ve written about it numerous times, as it plays a role in digital life whether I like it or not. It is a poor medium for many purposes: arguments on Twitter are terrible and a waste of time, as it’s impossible to engage in any depth of thought within the constraint of 140 characters.

Serial twitterers are annoying.  Any jerk can @me and expect me to twit with them, as if I’m obliged to engage with anyone with a computer keyboard. Continue reading →

The pressures to select a jury, to move a case to trial, have become somewhat overwhelming in New York, following the exposes of long, inexplicable delays.  The Office of Court Administration has “standards and practices,” which are used to smack judges whose numbers aren’t where the newspapers think they should be. For some judges, the smack is well deserved.

For others, particularly those who have stood up to power by ruling against the local political structure and pissing off a lot of people, standards and practices is a sword hanging over their head, an excuse to sacrifice them on the altar of regularity.

Queens Supreme Court Judge Joel Blumenfeld stood firm when he ruled against the Queens District Attorney’s practice of eliciting confessions from defendants after arrest but before they got to see their lawyer.  This put a target on his back. Continue reading →