A few weeks ago the New York Times published this piece addressing the serious issue that “most low-income Americans cannot afford a lawyer to defend their legal interests, no matter how urgent the issue.” The Times suggested several ways to provide better access to justice for low-income people. Those suggestions included allowing [...]
A joke. That might be the appropriate response. If you don't believe me, then check out this post by Paul Craig Roberts over at LewRockwell.com. Here is a sampling: With bank fraudsters, torturers, and war criminals running free, the US Department of Justice (sic) has nothing better to do than to harass the famous Tennessee [...]
[This is another installment in the Matters of Practice series—designed to explain specific problems facing Supreme Court cert petitioners.] Not every granted petition for certiorari raises an issue on which the lower courts are divided; it just seems that way. While circuit conflicts are by far the most common [...]
So after the misery of first year is over, the question for law students becomes which elective courses to take. I have a couple of thoughts on this, although I must admit that I may be misguided. So if anyone has a better answer, then by all means please share it and/or tear my opinions to shreds. I started [...]
It is nice to see California attempting to rectify one of the more serious problems with the criminal justice system. The problem is what I call "conviction by jailhouse snitch." This is when the prosecution locks up someone in a county jail with known snitches. These snitches question and prod and sometime interrogate the defendant [...]
This year marked the twentieth anniversay of the Seattle Hempfest. To mark the big occasion, U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich spoke to a crowd of stoners pro-pot proponents. He compared the quest to legalize marijuana to the uprisings in the Middle East, the push for womens’ right to vote and the civil rights [...]
There has been a ton of prisoner-related news over the last few days and almost all of it courtesy of the New York Times. First, the Times noted a trend amongst conservative states: they are lightening harsh sentences in an effort to save money. Then came word that Texas--the incarcerationa and death penalty capital of [...]
Should law schools switch from three years to two and then tack on an additional year of work in a school-owned law firm? Sounds like an interesting possibility. That is the subject of an article entitled, The Law School Firm, written by Brooklyn Law School Professor Bradley Borden and University of Maryland School of Law [...]
I've been away from blogging for about 10 days now. My wife and I drove across the country from Omaha to Seattle (my father-in-law and his wife flew our 19-month old son). We are somewhat moved into our new place and ready to start the next chapter, tentatively entitled "Baby Girls and Law School." As many [...]
As I explained last year, there may be no more daunting task in all Supreme Court practice than distilling a 9,000-word—or hopefully less—cert petition down to one or two Questions Presented. Although crafting QP’s are difficult, you can improve your QP’s by combining a few of the following techniques with lots of [...]