Defending People

“The First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech does not extend only to categories of speech that survive an ad hoc balancing of relative social costs and benefits. The First Amendment itself reflects a judgment by the American people that the benefits of its restrictions on the Government outweigh the costs.” The legislature must strike a […]

I wrote yesterday about a loss, so I hope you’ll indulge me in talking about two recent wins, one before the loss and one after. A couple of weeks ago I described my bizarre oral-argument experience in Tyler, where the prosecutor (bless his heart) melted down in front of the court. I wrote: When you’re […]

This is a truly bizarre law. It presumes that there is “an interest in sex” that is not prurient. We are not sure what kind of interest that is. We are also left guessing at who gets to determine whether an image has sex appeal. … What the “prurient interest in sex” means is anyone’s guess. It […]

I don’t think I’ve ever voted in a State Bar election. I’ve certainly never endorsed a candidate. But I feel compelled to endorse a candidate in this year’s election for State Bar President. Randy Sorrels is running on a platform of 12 Ideas (12! Like jurors! Or apostles! Or months!) most of which will make life […]

I lost a DWI jury trial yesterday. (Most lawyers wouldn’t write publicly about their losses. Most lawyers don’t seem to find the generalizable lessons in their losses that I find in mine.) I had argued to the jury that criminal court is the wrong place for common sense. The argument did not go over well—I got […]

From 1791 to the present … the First Amendment has permitted restrictions upon the content of speech in a few limited areas, and has never included a freedom to disregard these traditional limitations. These historic and traditional categories long familiar to the bar—including obscenity, defamation, fraud, incitement, and speech integral to criminal conduct—are well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech, […]

“Enjoy the lawsuit I’m in the process of filing against you, psycho, arrogant, inferiority complex-ridden moron.” -Matthew, then. “I was just trying to make a living. I didn’t intend to defraud anyone. I was desperate, and desperation knows no boundaries.” -Matthew, now.   I have now removed Matthew’s last name from my posts about him […]

Thanks to the several blog posts I’ve written about crooked lawyer-marketing company R.W. Lynch, I get about a call a month from some lawyer who signed a contract with R.W. Lynch before doing due diligence, and wants to know how to get out of it. Suing crooked marketing companies is not one of my fields of […]

At 12:15 there will be an “Award Presentation Honoring Sens. Whitmire and Huffman; Reps. Smithee and Herrero and the Honorable J. Keller.” I googled those names, and the first thing that I found that they all have in common is membership in the Timothy Cole Exoneration Review Committee. Hey. Let’s talk about exoneration. Exoneration for […]