Posted on September 15, 2011 in Uncategorized

Sometimes people call and ask me, using a phrase that I'm not going to mention here because I don't need any more such calls, whether I take cases for free.

Of course I take cases on which I'm not compensated. I think that any lawyer worth his salt helps people who can't afford him. In the criminal courthouse, the problem of the working poor is a serious one, and we're not going to solve it by abandoning to the tender mercies of the lowest bidder those people who have jobs and can make bail (and so will be denied indigent representation by judges trying to save a buck) but can't afford to pay for the work that needs to be done to preserve their rights.

(The separate problem of the indigent sometimes getting poor representation is also serious, but it is diminishing in Harris County. People sitting in jail with no money at all get better representation than people who can afford bail but don't have a rainy-day fund.)

What the callers really mean, though, is, "will you take my case for free?"

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 Posted on September 15, 2011 in Uncategorized

What to do about the TSA?

A commenter suggested posting TSA agents' personal contact information online for all to see. While I think their names should be widely known (so that those who don't want to do business with TSA employees can refuse to), the idea of publishing government thugs' home addresses doesn't sit well with me.

Those of us who see the TSA as an out-of-control bureaucracy that exacts too great a civil-liberties cost for too small a security benefit are right. Having been handed the high ground of righteousness, we should strive to keep it. Our adversaries say, "Whatever it takes!"; we should do whatever is right to solve the problem. If whatever is right doesn't work, then we can regroup and consider how dirty it's worth getting.

TSA employees' identities are not private information. TSA agents are public servants, wearing ID, working in public; they have no right to privacy, nor should they. Publishing their identities is simply disseminating otherwise-public information about our employees. Publishing their home addresses and home telephone numbers is an intrusion into their privacy. While they have unduly intruded into our privacy, we don't need to intrude into theirs. Yet.

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 Posted on September 14, 2011 in Uncategorized

From the Houston Chronicle:

A Houston man was arrested after a handgun and bullets were discovered in his luggage at Bush Intercontinental Airport Tuesday evening.

Here's a news flash for the Chronicle: this happens often in Houston. If not weekly, then every month somebody flakes out and packs his carry-on bag, forgetting until the bag is in the x-ray machine that when he last used the bag he was carrying his firearm. When the TSA brags about the number of firearms it has seized, this is the most common scenario.

If the person has a concealed-handgun license and seems properly surprised, the cops might cut him loose. Otherwise they typically arrest him for felony possession of a firearm in a secured area. Then he makes bail, hires an expensive lawyer, goes to court a few times, appears before the grand jury, and most likely gets no-billed. (The requisite mental state is recklessness.) Then he gets the case expunged, and it's almost like the whole embarrassing mess never happened.

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 Posted on September 14, 2011 in Uncategorized

"Motor vehicle" means a device in, on, or by which a person or property is or may be transported or drawn on a highway, except a device used exclusively on stationary rails or tracks.

In other words, a motor vehicle does not have to have a motor. A little red wagon is a motor vehicle, for purposes of Texas's DWI statute (a street is a highway). So if you are walking around Lights in the Heights operating (pulling) your wagon full of beer, and you're intoxicated, you could be charged with driving while intoxicated.

I have found what I believe, in light of this information, to be the One True Grail of DWI arrests:

Yes, that's fifteen possibly intoxicated people "operating" (pedaling) a "motor vehicle" (people-transporting device) in a public place: The Pedal Party.

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 Posted on September 14, 2011 in Uncategorized

Newt Gingrich at last week's GOP Debate:

The fact is, we have enemies who want to use weapons against us that will lead to disasters on an enormous scale. And the original goal was to have a Homeland Security Department that could help us withstand up to three nuclear events in one morning. And we need to understand, there are people out there who want to kill us. And if they have an ability to sneak in weapons of mass destruction, they're going to use them. We need to overhaul and reform the department, but we need some capacity to respond to massive events that could kill hundreds of thousands of Americans in one morning.

Okay.

So stop hiring airport screeners and admonishing people to "say something if they see something" and start training mortuary technicians and admonishing people to stockpile food. Because if we had massive events that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans in one morning we'd have a mess on our hands. Think of the immediate logistical problems alone: burying the dead, moving the living to safety, triage, moving doctors to where they can help. Much of the national infrastructure would freeze up. People would be hungry, angry, and frightened.

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 Posted on September 14, 2011 in Uncategorized

Ron Paul has got a "Rain Man" vibe-not that that is a bad thing. Watch how he presses on regardless of the boos when he challenges the conventional 9/11 story.

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 Posted on September 13, 2011 in Uncategorized

There are people out there who want to kill us.

Newt Gingrich (via Reason.com).

As a people, we are not widely traveled. The great majority of Americans have never traveled outside of North America. It's no surprise to me at all that a passenger on a Denver-to-Detroit Frontier Airlines flight would, seeing two Indian passenger going several times to the restroom, conclude that OH MY GOD THEY'VE GOT A BOMB THEY'RE GOING TO BLOW UP THE PLANE! and report it to the cabin crew. Because it's a scary world "out there" if you've never been "out there" where the "people" are who "want to kill us" and you can't be too careful.

Airline crews, however-maybe not Frontier Airlines crews, but crews in general-are more widely traveled. So I would expect said cabin crew to take said report with a grain of salt. Maybe talk to said Indian passengers? Ask them how they're doing? See if there's suspicious smoke coming out of their footwear or undergarments? Offer them a drink? Engage them in conversation? See what vibe they're giving off?

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 Posted on September 13, 2011 in Uncategorized

Only in California, I suspect, would it be "unlikely" for a good lawyer who is not a media whore to be representing someone on trial for his livelihood, his freedom, and his future.

When asked, I did my best to explain that there is no positive correlation between being a high-profile criminal-defense lawyer and being an excellent criminal-defense lawyer. Indeed, there is often a negative correlation: our clients don't benefit from publicity, so the lawyers who seek and get publicity are usually not acting in their clients' best interest, and are therefore failing in their jobs. I failed in my explanation. Californians are too in-love with celebrity to admit that there is no correlation between celebrity and quality.

I would pick Ed Chernoff over any of "legal star[] who practice[s] cable punditry between celebrity cases." Cable TV networks don't know diddly-squat about what makes a good lawyer, and they care even less; celebrities who get in trouble care more, know less, and aren't generally known for their smarts.

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 Posted on September 13, 2011 in Uncategorized

Have you ever wondered about the "IRS Circular 230 Notice" language you often see at the bottom of lawyers' emails? Here's a sample, from the email of a criminal-defense lawyer:

IRS CIRCULAR 230 NOTICE: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. tax advice contained in this communication (or in any attachment) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed in this communication (or in any attachment).

Here's another:

IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: This communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written by the sender to be used, and cannot be used, by any recipient for the purpose of avoiding any penalties that may be imposed under U.S. tax laws.

And another:

Treasury Circular 230 Disclosure – To comply with requirements imposed by the Internal Revenue Service, we inform you that any tax advice contained in this written communication (including any attachment) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, by any person for the purpose of avoiding tax penalties that may be imposed on the person. If this written communication contains any tax advice that is used or referred to in connection with the promoting, marketing or recommending of any transaction(s) or matter(s), this written communication should be construed as written to support the promoting, marketing or recommending of the transaction(s) or matter(s) addressed by this written communication, and the taxpayer should seek advice based on the taxpayer's particular circumstances from an independent tax advisor. No limitation has been imposed by [law firm name] on disclosure of the tax treatment or tax structure of the transaction(s) or matter(s).

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 Posted on September 13, 2011 in Uncategorized

What does the transportation of oxycodone and cash have to do with transportation security?

Reuters:

Three Transportation Security Administration employees, a police officer and a state trooper were among 20 people arrested and accused of running an interstate prescription drug ring, officials said on Tuesday.

This case stands not only for the proposition that TSA employees are not incorruptible, and shouldn't be trusted with our personal property (part of the problem, in case you're interested, is that TSA doesn't track who has searched which bag), much less our civil liberties, but also for the proposition that the TSA is a bureaucracy out of control, meddling in affairs unrelated to the reasons it was created.

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