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BurtLaw's Law And Everything Else
BurtLaw.Com	- LawAndEverythingElse.Com - Copyright (c) 2001 Burton Randall Hanson

"[F]or every specialist field...we should seek...suitable spokesmen...to act as a centre for information...." Carl Jung

10.03.2001-10.09.2001 Weblog & webzine on law and its relation to everything else - updated daily.

BurtLaw Daily Quick Links (Daily Weblog):

-- USSCt Fall Term 2001 + 2000-01 highlights (Cornell)

-- Conason: rush to conform endangers liberty (NYOb)

-- 3-2 ruling upholds ban on Giuliani's gf (NJCom)

-- Op. piece on MN's attention-grabbing AG (StPPP)

-- Text of Tony Blair's speech

-- End of judicial independence in Zimbabwe? (UKInd)

-- Right to sleep v. night flights (UKTimes)

-- The sleep of reason (UKTelegraph)

-- India is turning into a great ally (TimesIndia)

-- The Dersh speaks to The Crimson More...

-- Sara Jane Olson seeks trial delay (StPPP) Guess why

-- Fla. court system layoffs begin (Yahoo)

-- Did IU violate sunshine law in firing Bobby? (Yahoo)

-- Security beefed up at Cedar Rapids Library (Onion)

-- Man uses attack as excuse to call ex-gf (Onion)

-- Great column by Tom Friedman (NYT; reg.req.)

-- Cruella DeVil for Congress (Newscoast) More...

-- Photo: Bush preceded by security dogs (Yahoo)

-- How El Al does it (USAToday)

-- NRO drops Ann Coulter's column (WashPost)

-- Front Page adds Ann Coulter's column

-- Good column by Suzanne Fields (TownHall)

-- Good column by Adair Lara (SFGate)

-- John Bresnahan on Don Rumsfeld (RollCall) More

-- George Edmonson on Bob Barr (Cox)

-- Chelsea & Bill arrive at Oxford for frosh week (BBC)

-- Alistair Cooke's Letter from America (BBC)

-- Suing private school for one's later failure (UKTimes)

-- Mom, you're gonna be proud of me (MSNBC)

-- Seymour Hersh: what went wrong (NewYorker)

Earlier Daily Quick Links (Daily Weblog): [click here]

The war on terrorism. I am posting current original material relating to the events of 09.11.2001 and thereafter on this page. Earlier entries may be found here, here, and here. If you wish to contact me, click here.

Ken Starr & Co. They still don't get it. Word has gotten out that Bill Clinton kept an audiotaped diary during his Presidency and that he'll be using the tapes in writing his big-budget book for Knopf. Former aides of the Special Prosecutor, Ken Starr, are claiming the tapes should have been turned over to them in response to one of their subpoenas. [more] Presidents -- ordinary citizens -- ought to, and I submit do, have a right to keep private diaries, whether in writing or on audiotape, without fear that anyone, under any circumstances, will later be able to successfully use the authority of government to subpoena or seize them during the diarist's lifetime. The differences between the alleged "Clinton tapes" and the "Watergate tapes" are rather obvious. One, e.g., has a much greater privacy expectation in "conversations" with oneself than one has in conversations with others. In any event, Ken Starr's day in the sun, and that of each of his aides, is over. We've moved on. So should they. (10.03.2001)

The Israeli way. In the weeks before 09.11 some members of the Bush team criticized the Israelis for its policy decision permitting pre-emptive strikes against specific individuals who not only were planning and plotting terroristic acts against Israeli citizens but who were literally in the "attempt stage," that is, who already had taken significant overt steps toward carrying out their plans. I had no way of knowing whether Israeli intelligence was correct regarding specific targets. But I didn't agree with our government's criticism of the policy, criticism that I felt was hypocritical. I think it's now clear that we believe we have the right, based on ordinary principles of self-defense, to strike pre-emptively those who are intentionally engaged in conspiracies to commit terroristic acts against our citizens. Moreover, recent polls have shown that a very high percentage of our citizens believe that not only do we have the right but so does Israel. [more] I don't always agree with everything Israel does. And I have a great deal of sympathy for ordinary Palestinian people. I think further that we need to encourage a peaceful and fair settlement of their disagreements with Israel. But if recent events have done anything, they've caused many of us in America -- indeed, in "the West" -- to appreciate more what we knew all along, that our basic core heritage is not simply Christian but Judeo-Christian. More on this later.... (10.03.2001) Cf ., G oldberg: Berlusconi is right (NRO)

Dahlia speaks. I always like reading what Dahlia Lithwick writes about the U.S. Supreme Court. Here she is on two of the attorneys who argued on the opening day of the Fall Term: "One thing [Attorney] Phillips does that is either genius lawyering or unmitigated sass involves laying out for each justice what he calls the 'flaw in your theory.' He tells each of Justices Souter, Breyer, and Ginsburg exactly how they misapprehend the case law....[Attorney] Lamken argues for the solicitor general and speaks so quickly, you might think he's trying to beat out some statute of limitations in some other case he's racing off to file...." [more] Lithwick writes her reports for Slate. (10.03.2001)

Spinning the truth. "Last week, President Bush flew to Chicago and urged Americans to 'get on board' airplanes and enjoy life 'the way we want it to be enjoyed.' Three days later, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft warned of 'a very serious threat' of additional terrorist activity, particularly if the United States launches a military retaliation...." From "Rhetorical Contradictions Flourish in War on Terrorism" by Dan Balz in the Washington Post, 10.03.2001. [more] What gives? I personally think the answer is simple. The President was saying things are bad but not so bad that we shouldn't resume flying and buying. He doesn't want the economy to keep sliding downhill. If we don't fly and buy, it will. The AG, on the other hand, was saying that things are so bad that Congress had better give him everything he asked for in his counter-terrorism package. When the President spoke to Congress he sounded like a statesman. But when he urged us to "get on board," he sounded like a TV pitchman. That's how he sounded before 09.11 when he was flying around the country conducting a photo-op Presidency. The AG? All I'll say for now is I'm glad some Congressmen, on both sides of the aisle, seem to be making it clear to the AG they're not going to give him a blank check and are going to keep an eye on him in the days ahead. I believe we can have both security and liberty. The antinomy is an old one. There is no reason why our representatives, men and women of good faith, people with warm hearts and cool heads, can't strike the balance true. We, as citizens, must insist they do. We also must insist they level with us. (10.03.2001)

Killing women for being women. Here are links to some good reports on what it's like to be a woman in Taliban-dictated Afghanistan: The Taliban's bravest opponents (Salon); The sad, perilous lives of Afghan women (McClatchey); Putting Afghani women in perspective (National Post). Here are links to related stories about the plight of women in countries experiencing a resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism: Return to Pakistan (Salon); Fears of acid attacks rife in Kashmir (Irish Times); Fundamentalists are afraid of our women (New Republic). Quite revealing, I believe, is this story: Women shunned to the end by hijacker (UKTimes). (10.03.2001)

BurtLaw Places. Ornamental grass late in the afternoon on a fall day at Lake Cornelia in Edina, MN. Click here.

BurtLaw Daily Poem. "My God, what is a heart?/ Silver, or gold, or precious stone,/ Or starre, or rainbow, or a part/ Of all these things, or all of them in one?" From Mattens by George Herbert (1593-1633). For more poetry (on other subjects), click here and here.

From 09.01.2001, something I forgot I'd said. I posted the following on 09.01, before the events of 09.11. What I said then about the First Amendment, I feel even more now:

"Page requests. That's a term of art in web-site readership statistics. I don't know who my readers are except when they write me (BurtLaw@LawAndEverythingElse.Com), but I do receive daily and monthly statistics from my web-hosting company as to the number of distinct page requests made by readers. By that standard, site readership increased considerably (by nearly 10,000 page requests) in August, which I had thought would be a "stagnant" month. I still have not "promoted" the web site, something that's fairly easy and cheap to do on the web, because I'm not ready to do so, if I ever will be ready. I like the idea of being able to experiment in both content and style. Not to sound schmaltzy, but hardly a day goes by that I don't appreciate the First Amendment and the other freedoms that are so easy to take for granted, freedoms that allow us to experiment in content, in style, and in so many other ways. Too many of us, because of employment or family or social restraints, are reluctant to think for ourselves, much less "tell it" the way we see it. We have allowed ourselves to become like W. H. Auden's The Unknown Citizen., of whom the narrator of the poem says, with irony, "he held the proper opinions for the time of year;/ When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went." All my life I've been somewhat of a contrarian. As a result of certain developments in my life, not all of them planned or happy, I find myself in the position of being a bit freer than most to express my sometimes contrary opinions. In doing so, I like to think I am fulfilling the "obligations" of what Justice Felix Frankfurter referred to as "the most important office in a democracy -- that of citizen." If it sometimes seems as if I have a quarrel with the world, rest assured it is the same one Robert Frost had, "a lover's quarrel." (09.01.2001)"

That posting of 09.01 started out as one about web-site readership statistics. I reread it just now to compare the September statistics, which I just received, with the August ones, referred to in that posting. Our monthly readership increased by nearly 10,000 page requests in August. I was surprised today to learn that it increased by an additional 12,500 page requests in September. In other words, we had 22,500 more page requests in September than we did in July. This is still a small one-person -- one citizen -- noncommercial law-related weblog/webzine. I am not affiliated with any political party, any think tank, or any other advocacy group or organization. I don't criticize anyone who is so affiliated, but I've never been a "party man" or an "organization man" or, for that matter, a "bar association type." Don't expect me to change. (10.02.2001)

Tony. If you've been impressed by the performance of Tony Blair, England's Prime Minister, during the current crisis, you're not alone. His latest speech reads as if written by Margaret Thatcher. That is a compliment. "Be in no doubt," he said, "bin Laden and his people organised this atrocity. The Taliban aid and abet him. He will not desist from further acts of terror. They will not stop helping him....Yes, we should try to understand the causes of terrorism, but let there be no moral ambiguity about this, nothing could ever justify the events of 11 September, and it is to turn justice on its head to pretend it could." Full text of speech. (10.02.2001)

Homecoming. This week is Homecoming Week here in my town. Our homecoming consists of the usual parade of events. Coronation of Homecoming King and Queen. Bonfire

the night before the game. Parade at 4:45 the afternoon of the game - right past our house. Game Friday night at 7:30, just a short walk from here. Dance Saturday night. I prefer college football to pro football, and high school football to college football. High school football and homecoming.are two "fundamental things," as fundamental as caramel apples and hot dogs lathered with relish and mustard and ketchup. I don't doubt they're the sort of things some of our young American soldiers in foreign lands are longing for right now. (10.01.2001)

Ted Olson. Here's a link to Newsweek's profile of Ted Olson, the Solicitor General, whose wife, Barbara Olson, the conservative activist, died with the other passengers in the hijacking and piloting of the plane into the Pentagon on 09.11. Olson, understandably in emotional terms, has become a political partisan in recent days, something Solicitor Generals ought not do. Don't be surprised if Olson is President Bush's first pick for the Supreme Court, if a vacancy occurs within the next year. Olson has been a Bush loyalist and was a key figure on his legal team in the court battle over the Florida recount. It would be harder for Democratic senators to oppose him now than it would have been before 09.11. (09.30.2001)

Verbal liberalism, verbal conservatism. Justice O'Connor made some critical statements about the death penalty and about our society's over-reliance on lawyers in a speech on 07.02.2001 to an organization of feminist lawyers at the Hilton in Minneapolis. But, in "votes" since then, she has continued "siding" with the majority of the Court in upholding death-penalty challenges. According to this report in the NYT of 09.29.2001, she has spoken once again, on 09.28, this time to some law students in NYC. In this speech she speculated that as a result of governmental responses to the events of 09.11"we're likely to experience more restrictions on our personal freedom than has ever been the case in our country." She also posed some rhetorical questions to the students: "First, can a society that prides itself on equality before the law treat terrorists differently than ordinary criminals? And where do we draw the line between them? Second, at what point does the cost to civil liberties from legislation designed to prevent terrorism outweigh the added security that that legislation provides? These are tough questions," she said, "and they're going to require a great deal of study, goodwill and expertise to resolve them. And in the years to come, it will become clear that the need for lawyers does not diminish in times of crisis; it only increases." I'm in a minority in my views, but I have been and am critical of judges giving speeches like this. Not to focus on Sandra Day, who's an o.k. judge, but in general speeches like this, of necessity, are wishy-washy. Worse, the wishy-washy statements are stereotypically judicial in prose style. Even worse, the statements are delivered in the usual judicial cadences, cadences that say, "I am filling the role of a judge and what I'm saying should sound profound. Because I am a judge, what I am saying must by definition be profound and should be treated as such." (About the last two points, I read recently a comment by Felix Frankfurter that judges should be judicial-minded but not always so judicial-sounding.) Finally, and again I'm speaking generally, judicial speeches, to the extent they say anything, are often, while not intentionally so, in some way misleading. Some judges, perhaps unconsciously, want to sound more "liberal" than they might seem to be in their rulings, e.g., their rulings upholding judicial executions. Verbal liberalism is the result. Pontius Pilate is the prototype, "washing his hands of the matter" of the judicially-sanctioned execution of Jesus Christ, laying the blame on the will of the crowd. On the other hand, other judges, perhaps unconsciously, often go on and on about the importance of judicial restraint. And then they go back to their chambers and somehow convince themselves that, by some happy coincidence, the Drafters of the Constitution had in mind what they themselves now have in mind. Perhaps I'm exaggerating to make a point. My point is this. It's o.k. for some judges, those who have something non-platitudinous to say, to give an occasional speech, assuming they're carrying a full load and are current in deciding cases. Holmes, who always wrote his opinions immediately after oral arguments were over, gave around 30 speeches in his 50 years as a judge. All but two of them (which are major addresses) are collected in a slim volume I have that is called The Occasional Speeches of Justice Holmes. Most all of them are still worth reading. Some, including one I read the other day and linked to, the Memorial Day Address in Keene, NH (click here), are among the greatest speeches ever penned. Most judges, however, would be better off staying in their chambers, doing the work we expect of them. After all, they already have a captive audience. And everything they say gets published, regardless of its merit. (09.30.2001)

Nobel Peace Prize. "We have reached a decision and it will be announced on Oct. 12." So said Geir Lundestad, the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, referring to the Nobel Peace Prize. There is much speculation that the United Nations or Secretary General, Kofi Annan, will win the prize. [more] What a laugh. The U.N. and Annan were both big players at the recent anti-semitic, anti-American "conference" in Durban, in which the U.S. and Israel wisely did not participate. Of the Durban Conference, Alistair Cooke wrote: "I doubt there has ever been a conference called by the United Nations that was so well-meaning in intention as the one in Durban but also so ill-considered, so doomed in prospect, a conference more dominated, if not paralysed, by hate-mongering delegates and loony outdoor bigots whom the conference was supposed to pacify or reform...." [more] Some have even speculated that there is a "Durban connection" to the events of 09.11. Opinion (WorldNetDaily). I don't know the answer. But I do know that the "conference," including Annan's sanctimonious remarks, irritated me. Who should get the prize? Give it to the N.Y.P.D. and the F.D.N.Y., the folks who try their damdest to keep the peace and protect people on a daily basis, the folks who gave their lives on 09.11 trying to save the innocent victims of the hateful apostles of anti-Americanism and anti-semitism. (09.29.2001)

BurtLaw Featured Sites. The battle over civil litigation reform. One of the most-read weblogs/webzines on the internet is Overlawyered.Com, edited/written by Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Olson's view is that ours is a legal system that "too often turns litigation into a weapon against guilty and innocent alike, erodes individual responsibility, rewards sharp practice, enriches its participants at the public's expense, and resists even modest efforts at reform and accountability." While I don't agree with everything Olson says, I think his basic critique is correct. For example, like Olson, I get irked when the settlement class action lawyers negotiate "on my behalf" entitles me to coupons I'll never use and them to cash to pay them for their costs and effort. More... The ATLA (American Trial Lawyers Association), a politically-potent lobby, is doing its best to counter the influence of critics like Olson. It has launched a site in which it presents what it calls The Other Side of the Story. Earlier featured sites.

BurtLaw Daily Quote. "The deadliest enemies of nations are not their foreign foes; they always dwell within their borders. And from these internal enemies civilization is always in need of being saved. The nation blessed above all nations is she in whom the civic genius of the people does the saving day by day, by acts without external picturesqueness; by speaking, writing, voting reasonably; by smiting corruption swiftly, by good temper between parties; by the people knowing true men when they see them, and preferring them as leaders to rabid partisans or empty quacks." William James (1842-1910), from Memories and Studies (1911). More quotes: here and here.

The war on terrorism. As I stated earlier, I am posting current original material relating to the events of 09.11.2001 and thereafter on this page. Earlier entries may be found here, here, and here.

Unlicensed, uninsured motorists - 17 million of 'em. Robert Miniter has an Op/Ed piece dated 09.10.2001 in the Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal making a plausible argument that illegal aliens -- of whom there are an estimated six to nine million -- should be allowed to obtain driver's licenses. He notes, although it is not the point of his piece, that there are an estimated 17 million unlicensed drivers, a very high per cent of whom are illegal aliens and presumably almost all of whom are uninsured. One in five fatal accidents involves an unlicensed (and therefore uninsured) driver. "As a result," says Miniter, "auto insurance rates for law-abiding Americans are artificially higher. Insurance companies have learned the hard way that unlicensed, uninsured drivers rarely pay up -- so you do." While Miniter at that point moves on to other matters to support his main argument, I would like to stop at that point and remind everyone that there is a sensible solution to the problem of high insurance rates we all pay because there are so many uninsured motorists. It's called pay-at-the-pump auto insurance. Many insurance companies, oil companies and personal injury lawyers apparently don't like the idea, as the popular consumer finance writer Andrew Tobias found out in promoting his version of the plan in California. But it is an idea that I think merits careful consideration by lawmakers. Since everyone has to buy gas to drive, motorists who now drive without insurance could not escape paying. Moreover, they, like everyone else, would pay according to their use of fuel. Therefore, an additional benefit of the plan, among several, is that it would encourage use of fuel efficient vehicles. The idea is explained here in detail. (09.10.2001)

BurtLaw Featured Essay(s): "[W]e talk about art -- and write about art -- so poorly. If you eliminated all the easy, lazy superlatives -- beautiful, wonderful, powerful, amazing, incredible -- from use in any context relating to art, the silence would be deafening. People would stare at each other and stammer and gesticulate, and feel utterly at a loss to describe what they just experienced. This is all the more a problem when the art form, such as music or dance, has no verbal element. In the face of silence, we always have clichés, comfortable, ready at hand, and so meaningless as to be infinitely adaptable...." Herewith, an essay by Philip Kennicott, Maybe It's Your Platitude, that lists the top 50 clichés about art, including the ever-popular "Art is a universal language," "Art captures the eternal human spirit," "Art brings us closer to our fellow man," "Art makes us better people," and "Art is timeless." Also of interest: movie clichés - cliché finder - sports clichés - political clichés.

Bozzy & Dr. J. My friend, Justice John E. Simonett, introduced me to James Boswell's Life of Johnson. It's a terrific book. I find it interesting that few people these days read anything that Johnson himself wrote. I tried and didn't find it worth the effort. But Johnson the person remains interesting, primarily because of Boswell's portrait of him. Boswell was a lawyer and kept a detailed journal throughout his life. The discovery of those journals was one of the major literary events of the 20th century. I've read a couple of volumes of them. I'm looking forward to reading more of them. There's also a new biography of Boswell, reviewed here, that looks worth reading. More...

When "governments" (including courts) buy computers. In his weekly radio address on 08.25.2001, Pres. Bush announced that OMB (Office of Management and Budget) was "releasing a report identifying 14 long-neglected management problems in the federal government...." As an example, he said that "the United States government is the world's single largest purchaser of computers and other technologies for gathering and using information. In 2002, we will spend $45 billion on information technology. That's more than we've budgeted for highways and roads. Yet so far, and unlike private sector companies, this large investment has not cut the government's cost or improved people's lives in any way we can measure." I am encouraged by this sort of talk, and I hope the President follows through on it. In 2000, when I was a candidate for judicial office, I publicly addressed this same basic issue.... [more] (08.26.2001)

Cheerleading competitions and the "rule of law." When word got out that the faculty sponsor of the cheerleading squad at Brazoswood High School in Brazoswood, TX had told the supposedly impartial judges which girls she wanted them to select, parents of rejected girls threatened legal action. What to do to right this wrong? More...

The perils of ignoring our boys. Last week the novelist, Doris Lessing, delivered a "give 'em hell" speech that attacked the vitriolic, hot-air brand of feminists who seem to think something is gained by dissing men in general. She warned about the effects of this nonsense on the psyches of both men and boys, as well as the effects on society. [more] Richard Morrison, writing in The Times of London, does a good job of expanding on Lessing's comments. He says, in part: "Preoccupied with the task of creating a 'level playing-field' for girls, we have fatally ignored the problem boys. And 'fatal' is not too dramatic a word in this context. In the 15-to-24 age group, males are five times more likely to attempt suicide than females, four times more likely to be addicted to drugs or alcohol, and nine times more likely to be sleeping rough on the streets. If they also happen to be black, badly educated and from poor homes, the scales of life are weighed even more cruelly against them." It seems to me that the situation in the UK parallels that in our country in many ways. At one point Morrison says, "It’s as if the very qualities that differentiate boys from girls are being suppressed by offical diktat." Doesn't that ring a bell? [more] For some of my views, click here, here, and here. (08.21.2001)

Chivalrous lawyers win coupons for consumers, cash for themselves. I'm not one to question the motives of any of the lawyers who prosecute class action law suits to benefit consumers, etc. I'm willing to concede that most, maybe all, of them are indeed chivalrous soldiers in a civil crusade for justice for ordinary folks who've been wronged (and may not even know it). But I'm always irked when the settlement they negotiate on my behalf entitles me to coupons I'll never use and them to cash to.... More....

Slopping out may be on the way out. Nelson Mandela, who knows of what he speaks, has said that "no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails." Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which went into effect in 1999, provides that no one should be subject to inhuman and degrading conditions. One such practice that, surprisingly to me, still exists in prisons and jails in certain European countries is the practice known as "slopping out." More....

Those nice guys you meet in church. During my years as a research attorney at the Minnesota Supreme Court I worked on a number of appeals in sexual abuse cases in which it came out that the convicted defendant's modus operandi was to meet the women and/or children he victimized at social gatherings of single parents. Nick Hornby, author of High Fidelity and How to Be Good, also wrote a novel titled About a Boy, reviewed here, in which a relatively benign fellow perfects the "single-mom scam" to "market" himself as a sensitive guy to (and thereby "score" with) attractive gullible single mothers. Here's a link to a real-life story about a less-than-benign Maine guy convicted of sexual assault who has used churches throughout the state to meet the women and young girls he has assaulted. It's sad to say but believers, like buyers, must beware.

Our voyeuristic society. At times, especially in the winter when I need a cinematic escape from the cold weather of Mpls, I say it's my favorite movie -- Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954). It's a literally-hot movie that's about romance and love and suspense --

and a lot of other things, including voyeurism. James Stewart plays an aging commitment-phobic globe-trotting playboy photo-journalist who finds himself in the middle of a heat wave confined to his apartment recuperating from a broken leg. With no t.v. to watch (it's 1954) and nothing much to do except play the grouch during daily visits by his nurse (Thelma Ritter) and his high-society high-fashion girl friend (Grace Kelly at her absolute loveliest), he becomes a voyeur, watching the.... [more] (08.09.2001)

Is our criminal justice system "criminally unjust"? Wendy Kaiminer, writing in the Sept. 2001 issue of The American Prospect, argues it is: "When people start identifying with the victims of law enforcement, they stop accepting its systematic abuses. Laws against medicinal marijuana are vulnerable because their targets include respectable citizens....Imagine the political consequences of subjecting affluent whites to the same degree of police surveillance and abuse that poor blacks and Latinos endure. The war on drugs is a war on minorities, partly because police pay relatively little attention to drug-law violations by whites." [more] Also worth reading: "Hard-Time Kids" by Sasha Abramsky, who argues: "We are a country reeling under a changing definition of childhood, shifting views about redemption and rehabilitative potential, and an increasingly pre-Enlightenment notion of punishment as an emotional catharsis for victims and an automatic response to violations of the moral code." [more] For some of my views on the issues discussed in these pieces, click here and here. (08.10.2001)

Bill of Rights Golf - The Game. Professor Doug Linder, University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School, has devised an online computer game that you can play right now. It tests your knowledge of hornbook Constitutional Law, the kind law students learn and lawyers tend to forget. It's called Bill of Rights Golf. At the end of your round, drop by the James Madison Clubhouse and quaff a beer or two.

Best decision? In my opinion, the decision in this case, written by the redoubtable Justice Rosalie E. Wahl, is far and away the most objectively beneficial criminal law decision of the Minnesota Supreme Court in the last 30 years. [more]

"Counselor, would you repeat your objection -- I was thinking about my hair." USA Today reports on the results of a survey about what's on the minds of women. According to the survey, "women" -- and presumably this includes female judges and lawyers and legal secretaries -- spend an average of 43 minutes a day thinking about.... [more]

Law and Dogs. Pat Murphy, 50, a Boulder, CO plant ecologist, wants the dog-waste-pickup laws enforced. He's gone about it in a methodical, even scientific way. On one day in March he used a GPD (global positioning device) to locate precisely each of 661 piles of dog doo at a middle school yard in Boulder, then.... [more]

Raising teens: what the researchers agree on. The folks at the Center for Health Communication at the Harvard School of Public Health have released a 101-page report titled Raising Teens: A Synthesis of Research and a Foundation for Action. The report "pull[s] together current research on the parenting of adolescents and distill[s] from it key messages for the media, policy makers, practitioners, and parents." The Report puts "particular emphasis on identifying those conclusions about the parenting of adolescents about which there is widespread agreement among researchers and practitioners." It identifies "Five Basics of Parenting Adolescents, with a list of strategies for each." and lists "Ten Tasks of Adolescence...delineat[ing] the main aspects of adolescent development that parents and other adults need to be aware of and support." You can download it or order "one" free copy here. More and more

Dick Nixon, America's greatest bowling president. ...Truman had a bowling alley installed in the White House, but Ike, an obsessive-compulsive golfer, tore it out. Dick righted that wrong, as he did so many others, by having another one installed. Undoubtedly, nobody ever bowled wearing a necktie (or walked on a beach in a suit) better than Dick. And

no one ever bowled so many games in a row: legend has it that he once bowled 20 games in a row (!), all by himself, with the loyal White House staffer who managed the alley keeping his score and keeping him company. [more] Who knows how many crises (six? maybe more) Dick solved while bowling by himself. And who can blame him for scratching occasionally (see foot on the line in photo right), given that he was balancing the weight of the Free World on his shoulders as he released the ball.... [more]

Thoughts on racial profiling and "'consent' searches." It is curious, and I think telling, how easy it is for police to spot and stop and search black drivers [click here and here] when it is so difficult for taxi drivers to spot and stop for black passengers [click here]. New Jersey is considering barring its law enforcement officers from conducting so-called consent searches of motorists during routine traffic stops. See, e.g., this news report and this one. Justice Esther M. Tomljonovich of the Minnesota Supreme Court, in her prescient concurring opinion in a 1997 case, State v. George., broached the possibility of "reject[ing] the concept of consent to search in the context of routine traffic stops and so-called voluntary street encounters." I have come to the conclusion that Governor Ventura and the Minnesota Legislature ought to do just that, prohibit state and local law enforcement officers from conducting consent searches in these contexts. The virtue of this proposal is that, at minimal cost and without the need for more "studies," it would eliminate the incentive of officers to stop motorists, regardless of race, on flimsy grounds in the hope of obtaining "consent" to search. Such a policy would go a long way toward eliminating stops based on racial- and other impermissible types of profiling. Police want us to believe we can trust them to eliminate bias as a factor in stopping motorists. Maybe so. But the routine asking for "consent" to search from stopped motorists of any race is a separate, independent insult to free citizens of a free country. Updates: a) G. Callahan & W. Anderson, The Roots of Racial Profiling, Reason Magazine, Aug-Sept 2001. b) James Forman, Jr., The Conservative Case Against Racial Profiling, The New Republic, 09.10.2001 issue, on how profiling hurts kids.

"What does the Herfindahl-Hirschman index measure?" That's the first of 71 questions on the last version of the infamous trivia quiz U.S. Circuit Court Judge Danny Boggs gives his law clerk applicants. I know the answer to the first question because the "Herfindahl" in the HHI is my late mom's late cousin, Orris Herfindahl, who died trekking in Nepal. Click here for the latest story about Judge Boggs & his clerks, three of whom have appeared on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, click here for the quiz, and click here for the answers.

Funny-papers lawyer. Ruben Bolling started drawing his Tom the Dancing Bug comic strip for the student newsweekly, The Harvard Law Record, while he was a student at Harvard Law, from which he graduated in 1987. The strip, which blends social and political commentary, now appears in syndication in many newspapers. Bolling also draws "Tom" cartoons for The New Yorker, Salon, and the "Week in Review" section of the New York Times.

"Imagination and Insurance." "From 1918 to 1941, the main office of the Hartford Insurance Company on Asylum Avenue in Hartford, Connecticut, 'a solemn affair of granite, with a portico resting on five of the grimmest possible columns,' housed two most unusual employees. Upstairs in a big corner office, a Harvard graduate bond-surety lawyer, who became (in 1934) a vice-president of the company, and, on the side, wrote poetry. Downstairs, in the fire insurance division, a fire prevention specialist, an engineering graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who on the side practiced linguistics...." [more] For more poetry, click here, here, and here.

Fathers and kids. I occasionally "do a Google" on familiar names. Among the things I found doing one on my law-student daughter's name the other day was this piece in a University of Colorado alumni publication by William C. Marolt, CEO/President, U.S. Olympic Ski Team, Park City, Utah, recommending three books to kids about to go to college and their parents: "1.Letting Go: A Parents' Guide to Understanding the College Years by Karen Levin Coburn and Madge Lawrence Treeger, 2. The Real Freshman Handbook: An Irreverent & Totally Honest Guide to Life on Campus by Jennifer Hanson, 3. 101 Things a College Girl Should Know, from a Big Sister Who's Been There by Stephanie Edwards." J.HA's book has done well enough that the publisher, Houghton-Mifflin & Co. of Boston, is planning a revised, updated second edition. More...

Female boss means softer workplace? It was reported recently that women are close to being in the majority among students in American law schools. Some have suggested that more women in the profession will mean the practice of law will be less adversarial. This may happen. Then again it may not. I do know that appointing a woman as boss won't necessarily make a workplace better or more humane. One female lawyer I know who has worked in a number of different settings told me once that not one of the women she'd worked under had been a good manager. A feminist, she referred to one of them as "that bitch." I've had lots of bosses. Best boss I ever had was a woman. Then again, worst boss I ever had was a woman. More...

Law and Norwegians: All of my ancestors were Norwegian -- including the Harveys, who were from the place depicted at right, Horvei (Americanized to Harvey), Evanger, Voss, Norway. The photo was taken at my request in the summer of 1999 as a courtesy by a generous Vossinger named Svein Ulvand, who maintains a truly wonderful website devoted to Voss, on which he posts a new picture every day. [more] One of my Vossinger great-grandmother Ragnhilda Harvey Herfindahl's grandchildren was Orris Herfindahl, who died, too young, while trekking in Nepal. Circa 1960 he wrote the essay, "What is Conservation," which has been called a "classic" in the field of environmental philosophy and resource management. [more] The so-called "Herfindahl Index," used by the trustbusters in the U.S. Dept. of Justice, is named after him. [more] For more on "Law and Norwegians," click here.

Law and writing, legal secretaries. a) There was an interesting article in the NYT the other day [click here] on the silly battle that opposing camps of appellate judges are waging about the "right" way to write an opinion deciding an appeal. Purists or traditionalists favor the approach of generally citing prior decisions in the main body of the opinion, not in footnotes. In recent years that approach has been challenged by devotees of a legal-writing guru, Bryan Garner, who writes books (too many, I think) and gives MCLE seminars on how to write legal prose... I have been amused in recent years by all the judges and lawyers (usually not very good writers) who run around not only trumpeting Mr. Garner's books and seminars but trying to coerce other judges and lawyers (some of whom are good writers) to read the books and attend the seminars.... [more] b) "Alot" or "a lot"? Paul Brians maintains a site explaining common errors in English usage. You wouldn't write "alittle" and you shouldn't write "alot." There's a lot of useful information here, for judges, lawyers, secretaries, and others who want to be "correct." [more] For more on legal writing, click here.

Click on "kiss" (left) for a collection of poems about "luv."

Click here and here for picks of the most romantic movies of all time, a few of which have lawyers and judges, those poor, unromantic souls, as characters.

Click here for some stuff about law and love.

Games people play...at work. In one monthly study WWW.Pogo.Com, which features scores of online games, led the Nielsen list of "stickiest" web sites visited by people using their work computers. Its audience size? Over 1,750,000 people. Average time spent on site per person? Slightly over two hours. E-Bay wasn't as "sticky" among workers (average time per person: 1:57 hours), but its audience was over 7,500,000 people. One wonders how many visitors to these sites were lawyers. One wonders if any clients got billed for those hours. :-) a) Slapping judges. A large number of disappointed Democrats apparently have visited this site, which I don't endorse, to play a game that I admit having played, a game that involves trying to help Al Gore become President by "slapping" those U. S. Supreme Court Justices whose "votes" ultimately had the effect of awarding the election to Geo. W. Bush. b) Tossing Cows. I understand from the feedback I've gotten that a number of people who regularly visit BurtLawEtc. have become addicted to the ancient and honorable Norwegian sport of cow tossing. As I've emphasized, you may participate without fear of prosecution for violating any cruelty-to-animal statutes or ordinances because the cows you fling are far away in Norway, and Norway doesn't have jurisdiction over you! You need not be a Norwegian or "a rube" to participate. If you score higher than 450 (out of 500), you beat me. If you're good, the best time to play is Sunday, when the previous week's highest scores are erased from the scoreboard. My 450 was up there briefly a few weeks ago. I was "in the zone" when I attained that score. If you do poorly, well, you may be asked, as my daughter was, whether you're Swedish. [click here] c) Hangman. When I was a kid, we played games using a blackboard or a scrap of paper, games like Battleship...and this one, Hangman. Now you can play it on the boss' dime on your office computer. Click here.