Defending People

After almost 16 years of intermittent blogging, I’m moving along to a different platform, which I think will better suit both my talents and the times. Please visit https://defendingpeople.substack.com and subscribe to my newsletter. Thanks to you all.

Interesting voir dire question on Twitter, from a Gideon’s Promise (it’s a terrific program; if you have some charity dollars to direct, please consider sending them yeaward) alumna: Just want your thoughts: During a Voir Dire in a very conservative area, would you use the Trump impeachment process in any way? Just was a thought […]

I think I have discovered a bug in how DPS administers the sex-offender registry in dealing with people who have ten-year sex-offender registration offenses and prison sentences. If you went to prison for a ten-year-registration offense, and have been out of prison (regardless of parole status) for more than nine years, I’d like to hear […]

Some dolt ((Not an argumentum ad hominem: I’m not saying his argument is wrong, because he’s a dolt. I’m saying he’s a dolt, because his argument is wrong. Read on, and tell me if I’m wrong.)) in Illinois thinks my handling of the “speech of purely private concern” argument here is too “dismissive”: You're right […]

In an opinion rife with logical and legal error, the Illinois Supreme Court has upheld that state’s revenge-porn statute in the face of First Amendment challenges. The opinion is here: [pdf-embedder url=”http://blog.bennettandbennett.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/123910.pdf”] What’s wrong with that? Just about everything. First,the Illinois Court explicitly claims, at *10-*12, not to identify a new category of speech that […]

Dear Mr. Bennett, I’m writing to follow up on a voice mail I left late yesterday. I’m a writer with the ABA Journal, the American Bar Association’s member magazine, and I’m writing an article on First Amendment challenges to revenge porn laws. This of course includes your current case for Jordan Jones before the Texas […]

SECTION 1. Chapter 21, Penal Code, is amended by adding Section 21.19 to read as follows: Sec. 21.19. UNLAWFUL ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION OF SEXUALLY EXPLICIT VISUAL MATERIAL. (a) In this section, “intimate parts,” “sexual conduct,” and “visual material” have the meanings assigned by Section 21.16. (b) A person commits an offense if the person knowingly transmits […]

My friends, you have some habits in using Microsoft Word that are making your life more difficult. More importantly, they are making it difficult for me to collaborate with you, and are therefore making my life more difficult. First, stop using tabs. Stop hitting the spacebar more than twice (more than once, really) at a […]

I was a fan of Kim Ogg’s candidacy for the Harris County DA. It was time to break the Republican party’s chokehold on that office, and Ogg was a good person to do it. Unfortunately, the promise was greater than the product. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office has been my principle adversary for almost […]

This week the Fort Worth Court of Appeals decided Ex parte Barton, No. 02-17-00188-CR, holding unconstitutional section 42.07(a)(7) of the Texas Penal Code. This is an issue that I have pending in Houston’s First and Fourteenth Courts of Appeals, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (Ex parte Sanders), and, with the University of Texas’s Supreme […]