2015.44: One out of Seven—an F for McBrayer
Justin McBrayer laments the fact that our public schools are teaching our children that there are no moral facts, and therefore no moral truths. He gives seven examples, from online fact vs. opinion...
View Article2015.45: Problems in Evidence Tampering I
Suppose that a client comes to you with a problem: he has a computer hard drive full of child pornography, and he wants to know what to do with it. What do you tell him? It's illegal for him to...
View Article2015.46: Boom Goes the Thoughtcrime.
Whether he wrote DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, or whether he refrained from writing it, made no difference. Whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did not go on with it, made no difference. The...
View Article2015.47: HB101, HB 496, HB603 Unconstitutional
There are three nonconsensual-pornography-criminalization bills before the Texas House of Representatives' Criminal Jurisprudence Committee tomorrow: HB101 (Guillen) and HB603 (Davis of Harris) are...
View Article2015.48: To the Potential Client
Dear PNC (we call you PNCs, for “Potential New Clients”; it’s redundant, I suppose, but “PC” is already assigned to “probable cause” and “personal computer” and “politically correct”): You have told me...
View Article2015.49: Unlawful Disclosure of Intimate Visual Material in Texas
House Bills 101, 496, and 603, which I wrote about here and testified against in Austin, have been left pending in committee. Senate Bill 1135, “UNLAWFUL DISCLOSURE OR PROMOTION OF INTIMATE VISUAL...
View Article2015.50: Possibly the Worst Scaled Question Ever
From a sexual-assault appeal I’m working on: I want to ask everybody on the panel the following question: How likely do you think a child would be to lie about being sexually abused? One is very...
View Article2015.51: Trends in Policing
I was picking one of my kids up from school the other day when a guy in a clapped-out Ford Taurus drove by the crowded schoolyard honking his horn and screaming obscenities (“shitbag” was one)....
View ArticleClik here to view.
2015.52: Hot Texas First Amendment Action
Ex Parte J.I.L. (that’s the real name; it’s a juvenile case) is pending in the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas. Cocounsel Josh Andor of McKinney and I are challenging the constitutionality of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
2015.53: Get a Grip, Gaas
That’s a cop allowing a girl to get out of a minor-in-possession ticket by winning a game of rock-paper-scissors. Here‘s Burleson County Precinct 2 Constable Dennis Gaas’s take: Gaas says he found out...
View Article2015.54: Statute of Limitations Law Geekery
In 2010 D is charged with communicating through a commercial online service in a sexually explicit manner with a minor under Section 33.021(b) of the Texas Penal Code. He is convicted in 2011 and put...
View Article2015.55: Texas SB344 vs. HB861
Texas Senate Bill 344: By: Huffman S.B. No. 344 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT relating to the prosecution of the offense of online solicitation of a minor. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE...
View Article2015.56: HB2777 Is Unconstitutional
House Bill 2777 (Herrero) purports to provide trial courts with broad authority to admit evidence of prior bad acts for the purpose of showing action in conformity therewith in many cases. The statute...
View Article2015.57: 170 in Waco
More than one hundred seventy bikers are in jail in Waco on charges arising out of the Twin Peaks melee that killed nine. According to the LA Times article, in McLennan County, “there are just 100...
View ArticleClik here to view.
2015.58: New Jersey’s Revenge-Porn Statute
c. An actor commits a crime of the third degree if, knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so, he discloses any photograph, film, videotape, recording or any other reproduction of the...
View Article2015.59: Revenge Porn Statutes and Confidentiality
If I were to write a penal statute that was a content-based restriction on speech, I would come prepared with an explanation of how the statute passed constitutional muster, since such restrictions are...
View Article2015.60: Another Day, Another Lawyer Ego Scam
I’ll admit it: I sometimes envy guys like Steve Fairlie a bit. Meet Steve Fairlie of North Wales, Pennsylvania. Steve is: A “National Trial Lawyers Association” (the Givens boys of Dothan, Alabama)...
View Article2015.61: Unlawful Disclosure or Promotion of Intimate Visual Material
Texas’s new revenge-porn statute, Texas Penal Code Section 21.16, is effective 9/1/2015. It’s unconstitutional (content-based restriction on speech, and no recognized exception applies), but it’s...
View Article2015.62: An Apostrophe Too Far
Public defender “Norm DeGuerre” asks: Bringing the system to its knees is in you clients’ best interest. Why aren’t we doing it? @nytimes http://t.co/S0i8NG1lP6 — Norm DeGuerre (@NormDeGuerreEsq) July...
View Article2015.63: Functional Mindfulness for Trial Lawyers I
This is totally adorable: Jim, a litigator with a busy practice, spends 20 minutes each morning practicing something called mindfulness meditation. Meditation is great, but meditation is to mindfulness...
View Article