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  1. Cop Science is Junk Science

    Last week, I almost had my first trial. And it was going to be one of the most complicated cases to appear in Maryland District Court (which covers non-jury misdemeanor cases): a challenge to so-called Drug Recognition Experts.

    Take this hypothetical scenario: a woman is pulled over for driving over a dividing line (“erratic driving”). The cop talks to her, asks if she’s been drinking. She denies it, but seems a little out of it. He asks if she’ll take a preliminary breath test, ...

    Updated 03-18-2013 at 05:18 AM by Raistlin

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  2. "You can't yell fire in a crowded theater"

    Well no trout, Sherlock.

    The fact that you can't yell fire in a crowded theater is a point brought up in almost every debate about free speech in the US. And it has annoyed the hell out of me for years. It's always used as a justification for free speech being absolute, which is a position no one ever argues to begin with, during debates over whether a certain form of censorship is good or not. But unless the censorship at issue involves yelling fire in theaters, the point makes ...
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  3. I may end up killing myself within the next two months

    There is a widely-believed caricature of the law and lawyers, at least in the US. It is that the law mandates the use of legalese in order to make sure no one but lawyers has any smurfing clue what we’re talking about, and thus creating business for lawyers. That the law relies on archaic rules and procedures that make no sense in any modern setting to anyone outside the club. That the law is all form and little substance, and that lawyers promote this insanity in order to enjoy their monopoly on ...
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  4. The War on Pedophilia

    In the US, the hysteria against pedophilia has caused more harm and hurt more kids than the vast majority of actual pedophiles.

    Just recently in Iowa, three girls face charges for possession and distribution of child pornography. The kicker? The girls are ages 16-17, they took the pictures of themselves, and they only sent the pictures to one 19-year-old guy… who is being charged with “sexual exploitation” of those very same child porn mongers. Because he obviously ruined their lives ...
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  5. This job is made for me

    So I'm writing a federal habeas corpus brief for a pro bono client of my research professor, claiming ineffective assistance of trial counsel. Right now my job is basically to pick apart everything the state court did in denying our state-level habeas claim for ineffective assistance to try and persuade the federal court just how horrifyingly irrational the state court's decision was. I'm given pretty wide leeway to be as blunt as I need to, and some of things I write would not be out of place in ...
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    Personal Life , News & Politics
  6. Hilarious opinions and judicial antics

    Recently I've been keeping up with Lowering the Bar, a legal humor site. Just recently I noticed its Case Law Hall of Fame, and boy there are some nuggets in there. Even lay people can appreciate some of the biting humor here, so I figured I'd share some of the best quotes. Admittedly I was way too amused by some of these.

    First, there's Bradshaw v. Unity Marine, a case on whether to apply the statute of limitations for Texas or federal maritime law. It's only 4 pages long, so the ...

    Updated 04-18-2011 at 05:04 AM by Raistlin

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  7. Innocence Project

    I'm working in my law school's Innocence Project clinic this semester. The Innocence Project is one of my favorite non-profits, whose mission it is to find people wrongly convicted of crimes and work to exonerate them. The clinic basically involves getting law school students to do all the work, as the number of people petitioning the Innocence Project is massive. So I will be working to figure out if the clients given to me are innocent. The most well-known (and easiest) way this is done is by ...

    Updated 01-24-2011 at 07:06 AM by Raistlin

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    Personal Life , News & Politics
  8. Updates - Jesus and Healthcare

    I have been neglecting this since finals, so here's some interesting things.

    My pareidolia website was linked to in this HuffPo article, and we've received an exciting surge in activity. About 6k visits from HuffPo the day of the link, and we're still averaging almost 1k even this far after. It's also been popping up on Facebook and Twitter more.

    In legal news, a Virginia federal court issued an opinion which ruled the healthcare bill unconstitutional, at least as ...

    Updated 12-23-2010 at 09:48 AM by Raistlin

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