Two of my older readers have protested that the white text on black background is hard to read. I'm thinking about changing my layout to something a little less badass and more user-friendly.Opinions?

Mensa is an organization for people with IQs above the 98th percentile. That translates to IQs above 132 on the Stanford-Binet IQ test (wikipedia). (It is, to borrow from John Bender, sorta social -- demented and sad, but social.)Lawyer is a typical occupation for people with an IQ in the 130s. According to the Michigan Bar Journal, "the mean, that is the mathematical average, IQ of attorneys

A reader sent me this link: Japanese Justice. In Japan, you can be detained by the police for up to 23 days without habeas corpus. "Forced signed confessions, still considered the "king of evidence" by Japanese courts, are often the result." No kidding -- if you have a guy in custody for 23 days and can't get him to confess to whatever you want, you've got no

I'm not the biggest fan (y'all might have detected this) of the idea of Kelly Siegler as Harris County D.A. It's time for a change at the DA's office, and unless Kelly starts telling us how she would institute real change at the Office, I'll be dubious about whether she will bring real change. But they tell me that change is not always good; they say that

From Earl Musick: The Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association feels that the election of the next Harris County District Attorney is extremely important to our organization and to the citizens of Harris County. Because of the importance of this race, HCCLA has organized a debate involving candidates seeking this important position. The debate is sponsored by HCCLA, the South Texas College of Law and KHOU-TV. It will

Steve Gustitis at the Defense Perspective reminds us that "hidden head trauma may be linked to behavioral problems in society", which is of great import to the criminal-defense lawyer. Steve's post was inspired by an email from John Niland of the Texas Defender Service, who sent the Texas capital defense bar a link to a Wall Street Journal front-page article: That severe head injuries can lead to

Today (January 29th) I got a fax from the prosecutor on a misdemeanor case. The fax contained: A Motion to Disclose Experts; and An order granting that motion. The motion carried a certificate of service claiming that the motion had been served on me on the day the motion was filed or before. It had not been served on me before today. In fact, the prosecutor had

Phone Call from a Slave Ship Rupert File Why worry over frail Josie not knowing where I am When I don't even know where I am, but Judging through steel mesh, we're headed downtown Me and Major, just met, cuffed-up. "Got DAMN," Major goes, knee-pounding the DAMN, my left hand helping his right, having to. Me with problems too - frail Josie not knowing Where I am

In Texas, a "car" is a car. In New York, apparently, a "car" is what a fancy-pants criminal-defense lawyer calls a white stretch limo, which is what Scott Greenfield sent to pick me up from the airport when he found out that I was coming in to do some work on a cocaine conspiracy case in his stomping ground, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District

Scott Greenfield writes to "deconstruct" (whatever that means) the Boucher confusion on password and privilege. Scott and Orin Kerr and Gideon all presumed that Mr. Boucher had input the password at the border when agents asked to see what was on the computer. But the Boucher opinion doesn't actually say that Mr. Boucher input his password at the border. In fact, "Agent Curtis did not see Boucher