Cato Institute To Hold Conference On Kelo Case; Horton To Speak.

On Thursday, June 11, the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank, will hold a conference on the legacy of the United States Supreme Court’s now ten year old, famous (infamous? notorious?) decision in Kelo v. City of New London, described by some as the “most controversial modern property rights decision” in the history of the court.  Wes Horton, who represented the city, will speak, as will Scott Bullock of the Institute for Justice, which represented the petitioner.  Other distinguished panelists will also present their thoughts on the decision.

Looks like a great conference. Go Wes!

A More Diverse State Judiciary

Mark Pazniokas, over at The CT Mirror, has this interesting article today on Governor Malloy’s successful efforts to increase the diversity of the state judiciary.  Paz writes, “Thirty percent of the 47 judges Malloy has nominated to the Superior Court since taking office in 2011 have been minorities, twice the percentage of those named by his immediate predecessors, Rell and Rowland. . . .  Of his 47 nominees for the trial bench, Malloy has picked 14 minorities: two Asians, nine African-Americans and three Hispanics. Nineteen, or 40 percent, have been women, who now comprise 35 percent of the trial bench.”

Klau To Share Society of Professional Journalists’ 2015 Helen M. Loy Award

I am deeply honored to share this prestigious open government award with four fantastic journalists, editors and publishers at the Connecticut Law Tribune: Tom Scheffey, Paul Sussman, Jeff Forte and Isaac Avilucea.  One could not ask for better clients or a better cause worth fighting for.

UPDATE: A friend suggested I link to a song I wrote a few years back about freedom of information.  It’s worth a chuckle or two, especially late at night, after a few drinks. . . .

Second Circuit Strikes Down NSA Bulk Telephony Metadata Collection Program

Ruthann Robson has this excellent post on the Constitutional Law Prof Blog on yesterday’s very important decision by the Second Circuit, which held that the NSA lacks the statutory authority under section 215 of the PATRIOT Act to collect millions and millions of call records from commercial providers, like Verizon.  Edward Snowden revealed the existence of this program.

Today’s Same-Sex Marriage Arguments In Plain English

Amy Howe, writing for SCOTUSblog, has this helpful “plain english” post on today’s arguments in the United States Supreme Court concerning same-sex marriage.  Bottom line: The justices are divided on this hot button issue.  We’ll have to wait until the end of June for what could be a socially transformative decision.

Open Meetings: Asset Or Albatross

On April 10, 2015, about 150 state and local government officials attended the state Freedom of Information Commission’s annual conference, an educational program featuring a number of panel discussions on various aspects of our state FOI law.  The theme of this year’s conference was “Open Meetings: Asset or Albatross.”  I had the honor and pleasure to moderate a panel discussion concerning the benefits (and costs) of requiring government to conduct its business in public.  I had the support of three terrific panelists: WNPR’s Jeff Cohen, Durham First Selectman Laura Francis, and Stamford Assistant Corporation Counsel (and former FOIC Commissioner) Amy LiVolsi.  CT-N taped the conference.  The panel discussion I moderated starts at approximately 2:31:00 into the program.

Inside The Connecticut Supreme Court

This Sunday (April 19), on WFSB’s Face the State, Dennis House will present an “exclusive, rare look inside a place few people in Connecticut have been:  the State Supreme Court.”  Although politics and specific cases are off limits, House’s interview of Chief Justice Chase Rogers and justices Richard Palmer, Dennis Eveleigh, Richard Robinson and Andrew McDonald should be enlightening to viewers unfamiliar with the way the state’s high court works.

Hat tip: Proloy Das

The General Assembly’s Constitutional Authority To Sanction Or Expel Its Own Members

With the Hartford Courant calling on the General Assembly to sanction Hartford Representative Minnie Gonzalez for an email she wrote the other day, I was curious about what the Connecticut Constitution says about the authority of the House or Senate to punish its own members.  Article III, section 13, entitled “Powers of each house”, states:

Each house shall determine the rules of its own proceedings, and punish members for disorderly conduct, and, with the consent of two-thirds, expel a member, but not a second time for the same cause; and shall have all other powers necessary for a branch of the legislature of a free and independent state.

Father Of The Champ!

It is time once again for me to divert from my usual subject matter to give a shout out to my son, Ari, a senior at Hall High in West Hartford and winner of the 1600m race in yesterday’s state indoor track championships!  He opened the throttle in the last 50m to win the race in 4:19.84, nudging out Darien’s incredibly impressive Alex Ostberg by a tenth of a second.  It was an amazing race! (Fast forward to 1:25 on the video to watch the great finish.)