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Category Archives: Lawyer stuff

It’s graduation time, and the pundits are whining

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

It's graduation time, which means graduation speakers, which means controversy about graduation speakers, which means inevitable claims that protest against graduation speakers somehow implicates the right of free speech. The example that provoked this post is here (Open Season on Free Speech), but its brothers and sisters are legion. The fact is that despite the […]

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Never give the 99.9% an even break

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

I rarely pay attention to the emails I receive at work from organizations like the ABA and the National Law Journal, but this one caught my eye. For anyone not somewhat experienced in litigation this issue might seem esoteric, but for me this attempt to game the rules of discovery is emblematic of the ongoing […]

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Evidence 101

Monday, March 17, 2014

As most politically aware people know, Paul Ryan recently blamed inner city poverty on “culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working”. It has been pointed out, entirely fairly, that this is a clear signal to the racists in his party that […]

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A bit of sanity, in Utah of all places

Thursday, January 2, 2014

A state legislator in Utah is proposing a state constitutional amendment “that that would exempt religious institutions from performing same-sex marriages even if the state is required to issue marriage licenses to gay couples”. Now, your first reaction might be to roll your eyes, but the guy's rationale, to my mind, makes sense, and even […]

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What religion is Exxon?

Monday, November 25, 2013

We truly have come to a strange place in this country, even jurisprudentially speaking. In this morning's Times we read that the court is likely to take up the question of the “Religious Rights of Corporations”. It seems that the Hobby Lobby objects to providing mandated health insurance benefits to its employees. We seem to […]

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Tender Corporate Consciences

Friday, November 1, 2013

Back in July the 6th Circuit turned back a challenge to the Affordable Health Care act’s birth control coverage mandate, on the common sense grounds that while Mitt Romney may think they’re people, they can’t have religions. I thought I wrote about it at the time, but can’t find the post. Anyway, this decision is […]

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Equal Justice Under the Law

Thursday, October 24, 2013

As a certified bleeding heart liberal, I'm really not sure what to think about this: A former US campus policeman who pepper-sprayed peaceful protesters has been awarded $38,000 (£23,400) in compensation for psychiatric damage. Lieutenant John Pike received threats after footage of the incident went viral on the internet in 2011. It showed him casually […]

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A helpful suggestion

Saturday, August 31, 2013

I read this story in the New London Day, but was unable to find a link there. It was these paragraphs that caught my attention: ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) _ Massachusetts prosecutors in the Aaron Hernandez murder case said Friday there’s no truth to an allegation by lawyers for the former New England Patriot that investigators […]

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Constitutional Law 101

Friday, August 23, 2013

Some good, if basic, discussion here about the right’s abuse of the 10th Amendment. The bigger problem, which author Robert Parry notes, is the refusal of the press to provide basic information to readers, many of whom will therefore come to the natural conclusion that there must be some validity to these specious arguments. The […]

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The Court rules on gay rights

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

We got a bit of good news out of the Supreme Court yesterday, proving among other things that race remains the final frontier in this country. Who would have thought that the Supreme Court would protect gay marriage one day after reinstating Jim Crow. Some folks are disappointed that the court ducked the chance to […]

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