The "gun-show loophole" is the popular name for the idea that people who wouldn't be able to buy guns from federally licensed firearms dealers can go to gun shows and buy guns without background checks from non-FFLs. I've been to several gunshows, and haven't seen more than a handful of guns for sale by non-FFLs. The loophole—if it is a loophole—is, more accurately, a private-transfer loophole. "Loophole"

Scott Greenfield comments on my take on Robb Fickman's post about Joan Campbell: Maybe there's some variant of entropy that applies only to criminal defense lawyer bar associations, where they start out bold and purposeful, with a clear understanding of why they exist and whose voice they express. But over time, the strong grow old and weary, and new people come into the organization. The old were

Commenter Akio Katano writes in part: One thing that needs to be established is that the infographic debacle (which, mind, has caused significant criticism across the board) is that it’s a failure of statistics, rather than reflective of a broader ideology.… * * * * * Another, more important point is that it is CERTAINLY possible to be misogynistic – or racist/homophobic/classist/what have you – without intent or

Two views of recently retired judge Joan Campbell: The Houston Chronicle's view, from Brian Rogers. The criminal-defense bar's view, from Robb Fickman. I say, "the criminal-defense bar's view," but of course there is more than one view represented in Harris County's criminal-defense bar. Some criminal-defense lawyers—at least one of whom aspires to be the next president-elect of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association—would vocally disagree with Fickman telling

I got a writing sample in the mail today. I'm not looking for contract help right now, but if you write better than I do I might give you a shot: smart people seek to hire smarter people.  One thing that I can do is write; another is edit. So if you send me a writing sample and there are grammatical errors on the cover page (there were),

I believe this is the first time I have ever written about a TMZ article. Sources connected with the L.A. prosecution of Lindsay tell TMZ ... Heller -- who according to the New York Times has been called a "menace to the public" by some lawyers -- sent a letter to Holley saying he was now repping her on all criminal matters. Bad timing on Lindsay's part,

There are, I suppose, many flavors of feminism. The behavior of some feminists cannot reflect on all feminists any more than the behavior of some libertarians reflects on all libertarians. But many feminists, like many libertarians, are barking mad. I recently wrote a post on the nonsense of the Enliven Project's "truth about false accusation" infauxgraphic. One of my commenters wrote a comment (cross-posted elsewhere, which is annoying,

Recently a young man, by all accounts a brilliant hacker, took his own life. One of the young man's friends wrote a beautiful eulogy. He addressed what I would call the ethics of the suicide: Because whatever problems Aaron was facing, killing himself didn't solve them. Whatever problems Aaron was facing, they will go unsolved forever. If he was lonely, he will never again be embraced by his friends.

I got a chance this week to speak to a class at South Texas College of Law about the criminal-defense contract. I shared my standard contract with them, and we had a wide-ranging discussion about getting hired, getting paid, and taking care of clients. One of the subjects that came up was turning down business: how do you know if you shouldn't take a case, and what do

Returning to the topic of the Enliven Project rape infographic: Two Percent? Sarah Beaulieu, trying to justify the infographic, assumes that only 2% of rape reports are false. This is, as it turns out, not only her assertion; it is also a meme. Edward Greer of Brookline Massachusetts did some detective work to try to track down the meme's Patient Zero. In an article (PDF, via dinky_hawker on reddit) published