Law and Legitimacy

Share, Like, Post, Tweet, Repost, Retweet, and start a conversation.  The State of New York recently suspended Rudy Giuliani's law license on an interim basis in one of the most shocking decisions I've read in quite some time. The court concluded, agreeing with bar regulators, that Giuliani posed an immediate threat to the public justifying an abrupt pulling of his license absent more formal heari...

He tried to sit on this one, but I wouldn't allow it.  This interview is with Mike Boyer of the Craft Carolina Legal group. As you know, I interview lawyers once a week or so. My goal is to take snapshots of what various lawyers do, how they came to be lawyers, what they like and dislike about the profession. Mike's practice areas are far different from mine: He actually advises and counsels peopl...

"Here is your servant; lord, have mercy on me." Zeus decrees that Odysseus shall be released from his captivity to Kalypso. He is sent to see along, on a raft built with his own hands. After many days, he spies land, but a vengeful Poseidon stirs the oceans. Odysseus is capsized and exhausted. He fears death, but is show the way to shore by by a helpful goddess and the gift of Athena, "the gift of...

This week, Connecticut's Chief State's Attorney, Richard Colangelo, Jr., graciously joined Law and Legitimacy for an hour-long interview and rare respite from the war stories that typify the prosecutor-defense attorney paradigm.   Indeed, Norm and Richard have long been trial attorney adversaries. Legend has it that Norm even pursued Richard on grounds of prosecutorial misconduct all the way up to...

This was an odd week on the frontiers of the emerging racial divisions in the United States.  From the federal appellate courts, good news — the 6th Circuit struct down a federal program giving preferential access to federal coronavirus relief funds on the basis of race and gender.  From Yale University, troubling news — it took the university months to finally distance itself from the remarks of...

Episode 32 is special in more ways than one.  Last week, the world lost a titan of American jurisprudence and criminal advocacy, F. Lee Bailey. This episode is thus devoted entirely to the man and the legend F. Lee Bailey was and will forever be known to be.  We start with a reading from the Norm Pattis Blog, Farewell to a Legend: F. Lee Bailey , which Norm penned on June 2, 2021, just moments fol...

I took a road trip to Vermont the other day. I found myself myself, in the end, standing along the border to Canada deep in the woods, looking at a marker dividing one country from another.  It was a source of delight, really, imagining myself as Humpty Dumpty on the wall, looking down on a continent filled with scrambling folks trying to reassemble just what, exactly?  Certainly not me. When I re...

My second long-form interview guest for Law and Legitimacy is a law student. We'll call him 'Student X'.  Some say lawyers are born and not made. I'm not so sure about that. Lawyering is hard work; it takes training to earn the right to stand in the law's trenches. In this interview, we'll discuss what it's like to be a law student. Student X is a rising 2L at an elite law school, by which I mean...

Calls for a commission to study the January 6 "insurrection" at the Capitol present an interesting opportunity to take a long and sustained look at what ails the American republic. But the Commission needs to ask the right questions. And? It needs to be staffed by the right scholars. In this podcast, I provide what I believe to be the proper framing and focus of the Commission, and propose a struc...

A son in search of his father; a mother's fearful tears; and the fidelity of lifelong friends. You will find some part of your life in these pages. Too busy to read? Fine—I will read for you. Listen as though your soul's life depends on it, because, in fact it does. Herewith, Book IV of Homer's Odyssey. See: LAL #024 for my reading of Book III . See Also: Norm Pattis on Patreon . _________________...

I re-read Orwell's 1984 the other day — one of the joys afforded by cross-country travel is the plenty of downtime in airports and on planes. How well does Orwell's fears of a totalitarian society account for what we have become, and are becoming? The work is bleak, as those of you who read it through to the end know.  But don't assume that just because Communism has failed as an ideology that Orw...

My first long-form interview guest for Law and Legitimacy is one of America's great trial lawyers, R. Rex Parris.  Rex is also a mayor, the founder of a biotech company, and an environmental activist.   My main question to Rex: what do you see in a courtroom? His answers will surprise you.  Rex has spent several decades mastering cognitive sciences, treating the courtroom and the city council cham...

What's going on?! However this episode is reaching you, I hope it finds you well.  My name is Michael Boyer. I am the managing attorney for Carolina Craft Legal here in beautiful Greensboro, North Carolina. I have for the last six-or-so weeks been assisting Norm from afar on all things technical and quality for this podcast, Law and Legitimacy.  I trust that you, like I, are hearing the march of p...

" Though as for death, of course all men must suffer it:  the gods may love a man, but they can't help him  when cold death comes to lay him on his bier ." Too busy to read? Fine—I will read for you. Listen as though your soul's life depends on it, because, in fact it does. Herewith, Book III of Homer's Odyssey. See: LAL #022 for my reading of Book II . See Also: Law and Legitimacy on Patreon . __...

The law is a clear: a defendant is entitled to a fair trial, not a perfect trial.  In the case of Minnesota v. Derek Chauvin , there are good reasons to doubt whether Chauvin received a fair trial. Even the federal government seems to acknowledge that; why else would federal prosecutors bring federal charges before sentence is even imposed? Chauvin's lawyer filed a motion to set aside the verdict...

Too busy to read? Fine—I will read for you. Listen as though your soul's life depends on it, because, in fact it does.  Herewith, Book II of Homer's Odyssey.  See: LAL #020 for my reading of Book I . _____________________________________ I've a confession: Months go by without my ever turning on the television; I cannot recall the last time I watched cable news. I see the talking heads, and I thin...

Big news!  Next week, Law and Legitimacy will conduct its first guest interview! We'll aim to interview at least one person a week in a long-form format.  If you'd like to be a guest or want to suggest a guest to be interviewed, shoot a note to npattis@pattislaw.com . Put "Law and Legitimacy" in the subject line. Onward . . . I'd prefer to have option to be armed. In an era in which police are bei...

I've a confession: Months go by without my ever turning on the television; I cannot recall the last time I watched cable news. I see the talking heads, and I think Macbeth: " Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing ." All th...

Brooklyn prosecutors rushed a prosecution to trial involving alleged "true threats" against federal officials. They did so for political reasons. That should worry everyone who cares about freedom of speech. Although the first amendment to the United States speaks in terms so clear as to defy confusion — " Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech " -- the Courts permit Congress...

I support the religious exemption to childhood vaccination and I will happily fight for repeal of the law abolishing it in Connecticut.  The law scares me. It should scare you, too. Who gets to decide the goals by which you live your life? Certainly not the state. Jesus once asked, "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?" Socrates similarly opined: "The reall...

Police reform is easy. It starts with an act of Congress requiring each and every shooting death case to be heard by a jury. Let the people decide what is and is not reasonable. We get the government we deserve, but that doesn't mean we should accept whatever is dished out in the name of justice. When government fails, we the people should have the right to demand reform.  I think meaningful refor...

Social media companies enjoy the benefit of immunity from suit for the things they publish, thanks to Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act.  Known commonly as "Section 230", this federal legislation gives the social media giants enormous competitive advantage over traditional media, who are not granted immunity. In theory, the grant of immunity was supposed to support freedom of s...

Adam Smith published "Wealth of Nations" in 1776—the same year that Thomas Jefferson composed the Declaration of Independence.  The two events are unrelated, of course, and, of the two works, I suggest that Smith's has been the more influential. Smith asserted that an unregulated economy in which each individual were free to pursue their own sense of what was good for them, their utility function,...

Recall Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, written in 1852? It helped galvanize abolitionists in the 1850s. Even if you've not read the book, you've no doubt heard the term "Uncle Tom." It's an insult leveled against persons of color if they appear to show too tender a regard for the white folks. Times have changed.  In an era of Black Lives Matter, where largely affluent white folks have t...

The verdict in the Derek Chauvin case was swift and unanimous: guilty on all counts.  I would have acquitted, and, candidly, I think I would have won the case if I tried it, but … Attention now focuses on Mr. Chauvin's appeal and post-conviction remedies.  He stands an excellent chance of winning a new trial on the basis of the trial courts refusal to grant his request for a change of view.  He tr...