Well, today is Memorial Day. It's also my birthday. And my dad's birthday is in a few days. To celebrate, the paramedics took my father to the emergency room at Hines Veteran's Hospital. He had trouble breathing this morning and asked my mother to call 911. By the time the paramedics showed up, my dad was feeling better, and didn't think he needed to go to the hospital. So … [Read more...] about A Busy Memorial Day
How Not To Handle a Police Encounter
I complain a lot about abusive cops, so it's only fair then that I link to this video of a bunch of cops handling some outrageously abusive people with calm professionalism. Caution: Very bad language. … [Read more...] about How Not To Handle a Police Encounter
A Really Evil Law: Civil Forfeiture
Last August I started a series of posts about troublesome features of laws that were absurdly complicated or that prescribed disproportionately heavy punishment, usually as a result of legislators trying to show they were "tough on crime." In a homage to Gideon's post on the "most evil legal principle," I called my series "Evil Lawmaking." Unfortunately, that kind of hyperbole … [Read more...] about A Really Evil Law: Civil Forfeiture
Interviewing a Client Without the Lawyer’s Permission
Houston Criminal Defense Lawyer Mark Bennett wrote about reporter Jennifer Latson's attempt to interview an accused criminal without approval from his lawyer. The suspect's lawyer was not amused. The lawyer wrote to the reporter requesting that she not talk to his client without first asking him. Her response was "I'd refer you to the United States Constitution, Amendment I. I … [Read more...] about Interviewing a Client Without the Lawyer’s Permission
Don’t Ask About Imaginary Child Porn
Scott Greenfield has an interesting response to the Supreme Court's ruling on the Protect Act in U.S. v. Williams. ...The problem is that criminalizing the speech of making offer/requests for kiddie porn, but then not requiring that there actually be kiddie porn or that the porn under discussion actually involves children, disconnects the speech from the underlying bad … [Read more...] about Don’t Ask About Imaginary Child Porn