Might we be better off today if the Bill of Rights had never been written? If your reaction to that begins, "but the Bill of Rights gives us…" I'm halfway to my point. The Bill of Rights doesn't give us any rights. It simply confirms a few of the rights that the founders thought God had given us. But somehow the notion became popular that the Bill

The Houston Chronicle, on Harris County DA Mike Anderson's proposed new DWI deferred adjudication legislation: Deferred adjudication is a form of probation that allows suspects who successfully complete probation to go on with their lives without a criminal conviction on their record. * * * * * Anderson's proposed change would allow first-time convictions for DWI to be erased from a defendant's record, but, unlike DIVERT, prosecutors

An excellent piece by our old libertarian friend Arizona cirminal-defense lawyer Marc Victor (warning: autoplay audio on that firm site): I Am a Peaceful AR-15 Assault Rifle Owner. Our society is a sick one, certainly emotionally and arguably mentally ill. It sexualizes children and worships violence. If American society were a young man, we damn sure wouldn't want it to own an assault rifle. But the vast majority of assault rifles

With the President claiming, and Congress going out of its way to affirm, the executive's authority to detain and even kill U.S. citizens without due process, it's difficult to imagine what more is needed to convince those who doubt that tyranny is a real danger in America. Theoretically, the courts might stand in the way of despotism, but the courts don't have the power either of the

Seventeen years ago, when I started representing people accused of crimes, former prosecutors didn't have to explain to potential clients why they should hire former prosecutors: the clients just knew that former prosecutors had connections in the DA's Office that would help the clients get favorable resolutions. I never saw a criminal-defense lawyer advertising himself as "never a prosecutor" before I started doing so; when I would

(Despite the "hey, look at me, I'm a list" title, this is a post for law geeks). The Texas online-solicitation-of-a-minor statute, Texas Penal Code Section 33.021 (as it existed before September 1, 2015) violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution because it bars adults making sexually-related communications that are neither solicitative nor obscene to minors. The Texas online-impersonation statute, Texas Penal Code Section 33.07, violates

Former Judge Mark Davidson, who often ranked at or near the top in local judicial polls, lost his bench in the Barack Obama tidal wave of 2008. He does not like what he sees now, with a polarized electorate voting along party lines, and he has no intention of running again soon. "To run and know it doesn't matter anything about my or my opponent's qualifications -

(H/T up front to Scott Greenfield and his ostreoid Simple Justice, in the ABA's Blawg 100 once again.) “I … watch him working at the stove.  His easy concentration, economical movements, setting up in me a procession of sparks and chills.” – Alice Munro, Dear Life, according to this post by Stewart Baker. I am not a woman, but I am a cook. And I can imagine why

Is this illegal? A Splendora woman is facing charges for allegedly posting a personal ad on a classified website for her husband's ex-girlfriend as a joke. Christy Dawn Rash, 35, is facing an online solicitation charge. According to court documents, she's accused of posting the classified on Craigslist earlier this month with the victim's photo and cell phone number. The victim contacted Pasadena police after she says

Prosecutors can find it challenging to prove the intent to harm was present in online interactions. "It's a hard burden for us to prove with any activity on the Internet," Wakefield noted. It is common for users to mimic celebrities or politicians by creating fake social media accounts, but Wakefield said it would be difficult to prove the intent to harm with satire or joke accounts of