A Troubling Decision

From The Daily Signal

Obama and The Constitution

Ordinary Injustice (2009)

http://www.c-span.org/video/?291161-1/book-discussion-ordinary-injustice

Georgia council to scrutinize private probation firm

Georgia council to scrutinize private probation firm

Lerner Emails Show Obama Justice Department Involved In IRS Targeting of Conservative Groups

Full story here.

Senate Report May Cause International Criminal Court to Prosecute US Officials

Full commentary here.

Witness 10 Shows Grand Jury Made the right call.

Good piece from the Voloch Conspiracy.

Article « Obamas Con Law « Commentary Magazine

Article « Obamas Con Law « Commentary Magazine

SWAT Raid To Check License Unconstitutional

Full story here.

Texas, Louisiana same-sex marriage cases linked

Texas, Louisiana same-sex marriage cases linked

Federal Judge Upholds Louisiana Gay Marriage Ban

Full story here.

Judge rules polygamy ban violates religious freedom | Christian News on Christian Today

Judge rules polygamy ban violates religious freedom | Christian News on Christian Today

Rick Perry Becomes a Victim of Lawfare | RedState

Rick Perry Becomes a Victim of Lawfare | RedState

Alabama Federal Judge Arrested for Family Violence

An Alabama U.S. District Judge has been arrested in Atlanta for battery on his wife.  Full story here. 

Australian Judge: Incest Should Be Legal

An Aussie Judge has opined that incest should be legal in the enlightened 21st century.  Read the story here.

In California Supporting the Boy Scouts May Disqualify Judges

If you support traditional marriage or are a member of the Catholic Church or other "hate groups" like the Boy Scouts you are not qualified to serve as a Judge.  Full story here.

Little Known Legal Challenge Could Torpedo Obamacare

Full story from Yahoo News.

Shaking Baby Syndrome

Shaking Baby Syndrome: Are parents going to prison for a diagnosis that doesn't exist?  Interesting article from The Verge.

Why it’s so hard for SCOTUSblog to get Supreme Court press credentials | Poynter.

SCOTUS blog is the premier source for information about cases before the Supreme Court.  Then why are they about to loose their press credentials?  Why it’s so hard for SCOTUSblog to get Supreme Court press credentials | Poynter.

Federal Judge Rules Ohio Must Recognize Out of State Same Sex Marriages

Full story here.

From the Anglo-Saxons to the ABA

I did it.  And it was quite an accomplishment, if I do say so myself.  I read all 1144 pages of Professors Langbein, Lerner and Smith’s massive textbook on legal history: History of the Common Law: The Development of Anglo-American Legal Institutions (Aspen, 2009).

This book could be described as everything you ever wanted to know about the Common Law but was afraid to ask.  The book begins by describing law and order in Anglo-Saxon England before the Norman Conquest of 1066 and ends with a description of the legal profession in the United States in the twenty first century.

Greatest Stars of the Common Law:  Lord Chief Justice Edward Coke

If you ever wanted to know what procedure was utilized in the Court of the Exchequer in the 18th century, this is the book for you.  It took me, off and on, probably about six months of mornings to read this all the way through.  It was a really worthwhile experience.  I learned a great deal of interesting facts which explain why we do things the way we do them.  For instance, the authors opine that the procedure of the Chancery Courts in England have swallowed up the Common Law in Civil Cases in the modern United States.  All of our pre-trial discovery procedures, interrogatories, depositions and pre-trial motions have their root in the practice of the Courts of Equity.  A common law trial on the other hand, was a pleading contest to narrow an issue to submit to a jury.  Depositions and written interrogatories were unknown to the Common Law.

There are liberal quotes throughout the book from all of the “greats” of the law.  Lord Hale, Lord Cook, and Blackstone are all here as well as American greats like John Marshall, Oliver Wendall Holmes, and Benjamin Cardozo.

If you have any interest in legal history, and you have the time.  History of the Common Law by Langbein, Lerner and Smith is well worth your time.

Professor John H. Langbein, Sterling Professor of Legal History, Yale University

Oklahoma Inmate Sues to Change Name to "Apokalypse God Allah"

Full story here.

EEOC Sues Business For Using the Same Background Check Used By EEOC

Full story here.

Man Cleared of Murder After 25 Years

Full story here.

Sharia Law Adopted By British Solicitors

More Sharia compliant news from the Country that used to be England.  Full story from the Telegraph.

Justice Scalia Has a Civil Liberties Debate In Brooklyn

Full story here.

D.C. Judge Denies Government Warrant Application Because He Doesn't Think the Government Needs a Warrant

Full story from The Volokh Conspiracy.

Rumpole Misbehaves

According to Wikipedia an Anti-Social Behavior Order or ASBO “is a civil order made against a person who has been shown, on the balance of the evidence, to have engaged in anti-social behavior.  The orders, introduced in the United Kingdom by Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1998, were designed to correct minor incidents that would not ordinarily warrant criminal prosecution.  The orders restrict behavior in some way, by prohibiting a return to a certain area or shop, or by restricting public behavior such as swearing or drinking alcohol.”  To Sir John Mortimer (1923 - 2009), who was famous for being a civil rights lawyer as well the creator of the fictional lawyer Horace Rumpole, the ASBO was an outrageous assault on the historic civil rights of the English people.  Hence, in his last completed Rumpole novel, Rumpole Misbehaves (2007) (published in Britain as The Anti-Social Behavior of Horace Rumpole), Mortimer uses his favorite creation to attack and parody the ASBO.

Actor Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole

Rumpole’s first client is twelve year old Peter Timson who has an ASBO issued against him for disturbing the resident’s of a posh neighborhood by playing football (soccer) on their street.  Rumpole’s second client is Graham Wetherby, a young government bureaucrat who is accused of strangling a prostitute.  The relationship between these two seemingly unrelated cases provides fine reading in the great Rumpole tradition.

Horace and Hilda (Leo McKern and Marion Mathie)

Of course, it would not be a Rumpole story without hilarity.  The fun really starts when Rumpole’s neighbors in Chambers at Number 4 Equity Court take out an ASBO against Rumpole for drinking alchohol in Chambers, eating in his office in violation of office policy, and smoking in the building.  Rumpole’s nemesis on the bench, Mr. Justice Bullingham (or as Rumpole calls him “Mr. Injustice Bullingham) still has the hots for Hilda and threatens to break up the Rumpole marriage.  She Who Must Be Obeyed has decided, once again, that she wants to read for the bar and Rumpole finally decides that he will apply to “take silk” as a Queens Counsel.

Although the earlier installments of the series were much better written than this, for fans who can’t get enough of Rumpole this is great fun.  Sadly, although Rumpole never retired and stayed, apparently ageless, in his early to mid seventies for thirty years, with Mortimer’s death in 2009 at age 85, Rumpole has finally argued his last case.  But, just like Holmes and Watson will always be waiting for a new client at 221 B Baker Street, Horace and Hilda will forever bicker at the Froxbury Mansion Flat and Horace will perpetually irritate his colleagues at No. 4 Equity Court.

  

Rumpole and the Reign of Terror

A respected Pakistani doctor living in England is arrested and imprisoned on the suspicion of being a terrorist.  Citing national security concerns, the government refuses to release any specific information to the accused’s attorneys regarding the particulars of the evidence against him.  The case appears hopeless and it is almost certain that the accused will remain incarcerated indefinitely without trial.  The accused’s desperate wife turns to an experienced criminal barrister for help.  What will happen next?

When the experienced criminal barrister is Horace Rumpole we can expect hilarity along with a painless lesson in the highest ideals of British Justice.  Published in 2006 when Rumpole’s alter ego and creator John Mortimer was 82 (Mortimer died in 2009 at age 85) this novel was Mortimer’s criticism of the anti-terrorism laws passed by the government of then Labour Party Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Author John Mortimer with the latest installment of his most famous creation.

Rumpole, who has been about age seventy something since the mid 1990s, never changes.  Neither does his wife Hilda and the entire cast of characters who practice law at Number 4 Equity Court.  In this outing Hilda buys a laptop computer which she hides away in a spare bedroom while she writes her memoirs.  There is a lot for Hilda to write about since Judge Bullingham, who Rumpole calls “The Mad Bull,” is actively pursuing Hilda after divorcing his wife.

Rumpole, of course, still doesn’t even know how to turn a computer on and takes notes with a fountain pen.  The Shakespeare and Wordsworth quoting barrister has what the government considers to be quaint notions about the right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence.  Witness Rumpole’s exchange with the “New Labour” Home Secretary:

‘Let me ask you this, Mr. Rumpole.  How do you take notes in court nowadays?’

‘I use a pen and my notebook.’  I gave him a truthful answer.

‘A pen!’  The Bristol accent rose to a high pitch of contempt.  ‘Would that be like . . . a quill pen by any chance?’

There were laughs from the audience, but I put him right.

‘No.  It’s a fountain pen.’

‘Really.  How very professional.  So you’re not computer literate?’

‘I’m literate.  I know very little about computers.’

‘That’s the trouble with your sort of lawyer, Mr. Rumpole.  You can’t move with the times.  Things like jury trials and the presumption of innocence may have been all very well in their day.  But times change.  History moves on.  We need quicker and more reliable results.  Modernize, Mr. Rumpole.  That’s what you need to do.’

Needless to say when it comes to the sacred rights guaranteed to Englishmen since King John issued Magna Carta, Rumpole will never compromise.