Moment Of Awe For Jaded Lawyers
Posted: May 19, 2014 Filed under: Legal Health Break Leave a commentWe lawyers are a jaded bunch. We think we’ve seen it all. We are control freaks. And just when we really believe that we’ve seen everything and are in total control, something like this pops up on our screen. All I can say is, “Wow.”
Click here for more about this video.
Judge Releases Detailed Memorandum In Jane Doe/DCF Case
Posted: May 19, 2014 Filed under: General Law | Tags: dcf, jane doe Leave a commentLast Friday I posted about the obstacles that the confidentiality of juvenile court proceedings and DCF records have posed to an informed public debate about DCF’s supervision of Jane Doe. Although prior news reports noted an April 8, 2014 order of the Superior Court judge who granted DCF’s request to transfer Jane Doe to the York correctional facility in Niantic, the judge subsequently articulated his reasoning in greater detail in a 22-page memorandum released on May 6, 2014. (I have posted a copy that redacts the references to Jane Doe’s first name.) An appeal from his initial decision was filed in the Appellate Court on April 16, 2014.
To the best of my knowledge, no one has reported on that memorandum yet. [See Update at end of this post.] If you are truly interested in Jane Doe’s case, PLEASE READ IT. And be prepared to reevaluate many factual assumptions you have had about the case. Here is a selection from the beginning of the decision:
Debating The “Jane Doe” Case Without The Facts
Posted: May 16, 2014 Filed under: General Law | Tags: dcf, jane doe, joette katz, juvenile court 1 CommentI finally blew a gasket when actor/playwright Harvey Fierstein, of all people, decided that he knew enough about the facts of Connecticut’s Jane Doe case to write an op-ed in the New York Times. The troubling story of Jane Doe has been the subject of many articles, editorials and op-eds over the past several weeks. Jane Doe is the transgender teen that the Department of Children and Families (DCF) asked a judge for permission to transfer to the York Correctional Institution for Women in Niantic because of her alleged history of physical violence towards other girls and DCF staff.
The transfer of a youth to an adult correctional facility–especially when the youth has not been convicted of a crime–is a very serious and newsworthy issue. It not only warrants, but demands, public attention and debate. Read the rest of this entry »
TOTB (“Thinking Outside The Box”) No. 1
Posted: May 13, 2014 Filed under: TOTB Leave a commentWelcome to the first edition of Thinking Outside the Box (“TOTB”), pronounced “Tot-B” for short! TOTB will be devoted to examples of people who have found a new way of thinking about something old, often by reframing the issue or asking a different question. The capacity to look at old things in a new way, to reframe issues, to ask new and interesting questions about old and seemingly settled matters, to challenge settled assumptions, is, I think, what distinguishes great creative thinkers (e.g, Newton, Einstein, etc.) from us mere mortal folk.
Arguendo
Posted: May 10, 2014 Filed under: General Law | Tags: arguendo, first amendment, international festival of arts and ideas Leave a commentFolks,
This coming June, the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven will present a unique theatrical experience, Arguendo:
In this “wittily inventive” (The New York Times) and “boisterously entertaining” (Entertainment Weekly) show, acclaimed theater ensemble Elevator Repair Service explores the drama emerging from Supreme Court oral arguments in Barnes v. Glen Theatre, a 1991 First Amendment case brought by a group of erotic dancers and the proprietors of the Kitty Kat Lounge in Indiana.
Arguendo is a staging of the case’s entire oral argument verbatim, interspersed with bits of real interviews with the justices, the lawyers and an exotic dancer who traveled all the way from the Déja Vu Club in Saginaw, Michigan to listen to the argument at The Supreme Court.
Each performance will be followed by a post-performance discussion with First Amendment experts. Someone thought I fit that category and invited me to participate in the discussion after the performance on June 21. Check out this preview of the show!
30,000 Hits!
Posted: May 6, 2014 Filed under: Uncategorized 2 CommentsDear Friends:
Just moments ago we surpassed 30,000 hits! That’s more than double the number of views we had in the same period last year. Thank you so much for your continued interest in Appealingly Brief! I’m having a great time blogging, and the increased readership suggests folks are finding something worthwhile in what I have to say (at least on occasion). So I’ll keep on writing and please keep on reading!
Warmly,
Dan Klau
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
Posted: May 6, 2014 Filed under: General Law | Tags: crime scene photos, foi, freedom of information Leave a comment
(Used with permission of the CT Post)
Supreme Court Rules On Town Meeting Prayers
Posted: May 5, 2014 Filed under: Appellate Law | Tags: coercion, establishment of religion, first amendment Leave a commentA divided (5-4) United States Supreme Court ruled today that a small town in New York that opened virtually every single town meeting since 1999 with a prayer expressly invoking Jesus as lord and savior did not run afoul of the First Amendment prohibition against government establishment of religion.
When Inadvertent Errors Change The Law
Posted: May 5, 2014 Filed under: Appellate Law Leave a commentIn a recent post I suggested that the Connecticut Supreme Court had misinterpreted one of its own cases and then incorporated that mistake in a recent decision, thereby perpetuating what I believe was an unintended change in the law concerning judicial deference to an administrative agency’s interpretation of its own regulations.
Message To Law Clerks: Protect Your Bosses From Embarrassment
Posted: April 30, 2014 Filed under: Appellate Law | Tags: law clerks, scalia Leave a commentJustice Scalia made what some are describing as an “epic blunder” in his dissent yesterday in Environmental Protection Agency v. EME Homer City Generation, in which the Supreme Court upheld the EPA’s right to regulate coal pollution that moves across state lines.
Appealingly Brief! 