The Limits Of Leadership: Structural Impediments, Ctd.
Posted: May 17, 2013 Filed under: General Law | Tags: structure Leave a commentProfessor Sandy Levinson continues to highlight political punits who lambast the president and members of Congress for individual failures of leadership, while failing to recognize structural flaws in the design of the U.S. Constitution that are at least equally, if not more, responsible for the inability of our government to solve the pressing problems we face.
Is Harry Connick Jr. An Originalist?–Interpreting Musical And Legal Texts
Posted: May 16, 2013 Filed under: General Law 2 CommentsLawyers and judges are interpreters of legal texts: constitutions, statutes, regulations, judicial opinions and so on. Singers are interpreters of musical texts: notes of varying duration written on different lines and spaces of a treble or bass clef, and lyrics of course.
Do the “rules”–I use that term very loosely–that govern the interpretation of legal texts apply to musical texts and vice versa? How are the acts or processes of interpreting legal and musical texts similar? How are they different? Does one “perform” a legal text the same way a musician performs a musical text?
Star Trek And The Law, Ctd.
Posted: May 10, 2013 Filed under: General Law | Tags: star trek Leave a commentI think I may have died and gone to heaven. A U.S. District Court judge has actually prefaced his opinion with a memorable quote from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982): “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” (Spock)
The Limits Of Leadership: Structural Impediments To The Exercise Of Presidential Power
Posted: May 9, 2013 Filed under: General Law | Tags: sanford levinson, structure Leave a commentThe political pundit class has recently taken to criticizing President Obama for his lack of effective leadership, particularly on issues like gun control. The pundits argue that poor leadership skills are responsible for the defeat of such legislation.
Prominent among these pundits is Maureen Dowd, who wrote a scathing column in the New York Times, in which she said of the president:
[He] thinks he can use emotion to bring pressure on Congress. But that’s not how adults with power respond to things. He chooses not to get down in the weeds and pretend he values the stroking and other little things that matter to lawmakers.
Briefs Are (Way) More Important Than Oral Argument
Posted: May 3, 2013 Filed under: Appellate Law, Practice and Procedure 1 CommentWhich is more important: The appellate brief or oral argument? Without question, the brief is more important. Don’t take my word; listen to Chief Justice John Roberts:
The Public’s Right To Record Police Activities
Posted: April 27, 2013 Filed under: General Law | Tags: first amendment, police, recording police 18 CommentsLast Tuesday, April 23, the Connecticut Foundation for Open Government (“CFOG“) sponsored a panel discussion on the public’s right to record police activities. It was my honor, as the president of CFOG, to moderate the panel discussion, which featured Chief States Attorney Kevin Kane, South Windsor Chief of Police Matthew Reed, Mickey Osterreicher (General Counsel for the National Press Photographer’s Association), Ben Solnit of the ACLU of Connecticut (sitting in for Sandy Staub, ACLU legal director), and Mario Cerame, creator of www.righttorecord.com, a blog that covers this issue. We had a great discussion. For anyone interested in this topic, video of the discussion is available here on CT-N. Read the rest of this entry »
Warrantless Searches And The Watertown Manhunt
Posted: April 25, 2013 Filed under: General Law | Tags: boston marathon, exigent circumstances, fourth amendment 5 CommentsIn the wake of the Boston Marathon tragedy and the manhunt in Watertown, MA for the two suspects, many people have asked me whether it is constitutional for the police to set of up a perimeter in a town and search–without a warrant–every house in the perimeter for potentially armed and dangerous suspects.
Of course, there is no Fourth Amendment problem with the search if the occupants of the house give their consent, assuming it was not obtained under duress. But what if they do not consent? Must the police obtain a warrant, or does the “exigent circumstances” exception to the warrant requirement apply? Read the rest of this entry »
Miranda Rights And The Boston Marathon Bomber
Posted: April 21, 2013 Filed under: General Law | Tags: miranda 1 CommentThere is a great deal of misleading and confusing buzz in the traditional media and the blogosphere about the Department of Justice’s decision not to read Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokar Tsarnaev his Miranda rights before questioning him (once his medical condition improves). The DOJ is invoking the “public safety” exception to Miranda, set forth in New York v. Quarles, 467 U.S. 649 (1984). Read the rest of this entry »
The United States Senate: Our Undemocratic National Disgrace
Posted: April 18, 2013 Filed under: General Law, Legal History | Tags: filibuster, structure 3 CommentsBlame Aaron Burr. Not only did he kill Alexander Hamilton in a duel, he is arguably responsible for the filibuster, the procedural rule that effectively requires 60 votes in the U.S. Senate–ten more than a simple majority–to pass any bill. The institution oft-described as the “world’s greatest deliberative body” has been reduced to a national disgrace, a laughing-stock, a body composed of mostly rich, mostly white men, who can’t even enact legislation requiring meaningful background checks on individuals who want to buy firearms. Read the rest of this entry »
Appealingly Brief! 