Wednesday Writs for 11/14

Em Carpenter

Em was one of those argumentative children who was sarcastically encouraged to become a lawyer, so she did. She is a proud life-long West Virginian, and, paradoxically, a liberal. In addition to writing about society, politics and culture, she enjoys cooking, podcasts, reading, and pretending to be a runner. She will correct your grammar. You can find her on Twitter.

Related Post Roulette

18 Responses

  1. Michael Cain says:

    L5: Yes, I knew that the feds couldn’t hold a copyright. OTOH, trying to get a copy of software code written by one of the national labs that is nominally in the public domain can be… difficult. Speaking from experience.Report

  2. PD Shaw says:

    L3: I guess I expected a little worse. A local judge once dismissed an entire day’s traffic docket because the prosecutor wasn’t ready to start. But this judge engaged in a juvenile stunt.

    The prosecutor is complaining about the (temporary) release of violent offenders, but around here, I would assume that the most violent offenders would be shifted into the regular court system. My concern would be about the extent to which juvenile courts serve social service functions in encouraging/forcing therapy or counseling or evaluating the home life situation before being release.

    I would never vote for this guy.Report

    • Em Carpenter in reply to PD Shaw says:

      He released them all to their guardians, sort of like being released on bail, to await the next hearing. It would have to be a pretty serious violent offense to be moved out of juvie court to adult status.
      That said, I see detention used more often than it should be, and this just goes to show that it isn’t done in the best interest of the child or the community but rather as a message.Report

  3. Jaybird says:

    Decisions like L4 are why we need to make Supreme Court justices retire after they hit 70.Report

  4. Saul Degraw says:

    L1: The handwritten petition in Gideon is technically true and makes for a nice story but the reality is much more complicated. Earl Warren and Hugo Black were looking for a case to establish the right to counsel for criminal defendants. They sent their clerks on a fishing expedition to find a petition like Gideon’s. Not only that, they asked Abe Fortas to represent Gideon in the Supreme Court argument. For those that don’t know, Abe Fortas was one of the founders of the firm we now call Arnold Porter Kaye Scholer. He had been a powerhouse in Democratic politics since the New Deal. At the time, he was probably the best litigator in the United States. Abe Fortas would later serve on the Supreme Court himself briefly and get nominated by Johnson for Chief Justice but needed to step down completely to avoid a corruption or “corruption” scandal depending on your point of view.* Fortas famously wrote the Tinker decision that declared the “constitution does not stop at the schoolhouse door.”

    Gideon was decided correctly but it is a lot less sentimental than the R.F.K. remark about Gideon’s crude handwritten petition changing the wheels of American justice.

    *Earl Warren hated Richard Nixon and did not want Nixon to appoint his replacement. He waited a bit too long to step down though and the GOP was able to mount a rebellion against Johnson’s Fortas nomination.

    Fortas was also the lawyer Johnson hired in 1948 to ensure that he received the Texas Senate seat instead of Coke Stevenson.Report

  5. Chip Daniels says:

    L10:
    Something something Kavanaugh, Zillow floor plans, Google maps.Report

  6. Jaybird says:

    Apparently, the lawyer Michael Avenatti has just been arrested for Domestic Violence.Report

    • Doctor Jay in reply to Jaybird says:

      Aha. That explains the cryptic “BELIEVE THE VICTIM” post a rightish friend of mine posted on social media this week.

      As it turns out, I do. Of course, I think Avenatti might well be truthful in saying, “she hit me first”, as well.Report

      • Jaybird in reply to Doctor Jay says:

        *November, 2017*
        PSYCHIC. "Cross my palm with silver & I'll tell you your future for the next year"
        PSYCHIC. *takes money*
        PSYCHIC. *stares into crystal ball*
        PSYCHIC. *stares harder*
        PSYCHIC. *stares even harder*
        MICHAEL AVENATTI. "Well?"
        PSYCHIC, still staring. "what the shit"
        — David Hines (@hradzka) November 14, 2018

        Report

      • Maribou in reply to Doctor Jay says:

        @Doctor-Jay I don’t believe him, although it’s of course *possible*.

        I have known and know of so many abusers who a) grandstand for abused people in public, and b) then sincerely tell some completely fabulated story about why they physically abused someone…. a story they believe but which has far more to do with their own broken mind than with whatever the other person did or didn’t do. My father does that, the person who shot my cousin does that, on and on… when you grow up intimately involved with violent people, it really changes your perspective on them.

        I honestly have never met an abuser who seems to have been telling the truth about what happened, or even to know what the truth of what happened *was*, least of all the ones who admit to their physical violence but blame someone else for it.

        Pretty much the minute I became aware of Avenatti, I suspected him of being a violent man. The best I’ve ever been able to say is that it may take an abusive asshole to take down an abusive asshole.

        I’d like to think that isn’t true though.

        :/Report

    • Jaybird in reply to Jaybird says:

      Michael Avenatti is arguing on Twitter that this was a setup by Jacob Wohl.

      First Mueller and now me. When we are fully exonerated I am coming for you Jacob Wohl aka Surefire.— Michael Avenatti(@MichaelAvenatti) November 15, 2018

      Report

      • Maribou in reply to Jaybird says:

        “I am coming for you” is always such a convincing way to communicate that one has been unfairly accused of felony DV.Report

        • Stillwater in reply to Maribou says:

          Avenatti’s ex-wife, the alleged victim, has released a statement via her lawyer saying Avenatti didn’t hit her on the night in question and that she wasn’t at the apartment where the incident reportedly took place. … ??? !!! ?!?Report

          • Maribou in reply to Stillwater says:

            TMZ got the details of who was involved wrong ??? !!!! ?!?!?! FWIW, I’m not particularly invested in this being true, he just strikes me as a violent abusive sonofabitch so I would be completely unsurprised if he did, in fact, commit the crime for which he was arrested. And “coming after you” is never a good look. Avenatti of all people knows about optics.Report

          • Jaybird in reply to Stillwater says:

            Here’s the LAPD:

            Update: We can confirm that Michael Avenatti (DOB: 02-16-71) was booked this afternoon on a felony domestic violence charge (273.5 PC). His bail is set at $50,000.— LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) November 15, 2018

            Please do not read the above as an endorsement of the LAPD’s trustworthiness nor reliability.Report