Progressives meed to learn to use religious symbols and their religious faith to make arguments about public policy.

It makes sense to have an effective way to know which human beings are responsible for maintaining rental properties. The county’s registry seems inane because owners can avoid accountability by paying a $150, and apparently only when they’re caught. www.dispatch.com/story/news/l...

How school districts should plan around religious holidays:

I would rather the Chinese Government control a social media site’s data and algorithm than anyone MAGA. It seems that most in the US who might fear the CCP would also have reason to fear MAGA, and MAGA is a lot closer, and MAGA is mad at a lot more Americans than the CCP.

We have far too many ex-prosecutors on the bench & far too few former criminal defense lawyers, especially former public defenders, but this judge is an example of the reality that some ex-criminal defense lawyers make awful judges. (And some ex-prosecutors hold former colleagues accountable.)

You can’t “demonize” demons

I have no idea whether UW should fire its football coach. I was happy just to learn that this story had nothing to do with Charlie Kirk.

My monthly “free” Audible download finally came, and halfway into chapter two, it’s as fun as I’d hoped. Sidekick/friend Gretchen Trujillo finally gets a major role.

Only a very few years ago (maybe only 2 or 3), lawyers in Ohio could be disciplined for saying that specific judges were manipulating facts and procedural law to make their desired side win. Now, that prominent jurists are saying the same thing, I hope that doesn’t happen anymore.

Obviously, our cat is saying, “I love you” and not begging for treats or play, because that would be undignified. Happy Caturday.

This story deserves a lot more attention than it’s getting. Expelling a kid for calling for war crimes tribunals is outrageous.

Update: The most-violent thing this student seems to have said was calling for Nuremberg-style trials & sentences for war crimes. Regardless of what you believe about what’s happening in Gaza or anywhere, calling for war crimes tribunals shouldn’t get you expelled. www.dispatch.com/story/news/e...

“I have no conviction, if that's what you mean. I blow with wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy.” Vance is not a true believer, he just plays one on social media. Vance is a craven opportunist. Captain Renault is too positive of a comparison, but the quote fits.

I just canceled my DisneyPlus subscription, although I’m on an annual plan, so it doesn’t disappear right away. Maybe, if enough people cancel, Disney will stop caving to fascist.

I’m a GenXer, and I hate it when people link to videos that provide information that could easily been converted in text and static photos. It’s so much easier to read a sentences or paragraph for a second time than it is to go back to just the right place. And you can’t ctrl-f in a video.

The Ohio ACLU is suing Ohio State University for expelling a student for rescinding his condemnation of the murder to two Jewish Israelis in the US. The murders deserve condemnation, but OSU shouldn’t punish students for arguing otherwise. (Link to the complaint at link card in the ACLU’s post.)

Another great post-oral argument song—I’m Still Standing.

One key to a productive afternoon—taking time off for lunch. I love this courtyard at the building my office is in. Perfect place for quiet reading. Now, all I have to do is put my down phone and start enjoying the lawyer-less book I have to read.

Random music choice, from my post oral argument playlist. The surfing instrumental version of Ghost Riders in the Sky.

It’s Zoning-Notice Tuesday Night.

Oral argument time. A beautiful building, and my favorite fountain pens—one an Aiken Lambert eyedropper pen that was given to my partner’s great-great sometime in 1916, the other a Mont Blanc my dad saved up for years to buy, used for years, and then passed on to me.

Sgt. Beck missed his chance. He should have turned around and said, with an enormous smile, “I LOVE the First Amendment!” And then kept on walking, still with a smile.

One thing my state does right—we have a Youth at the Booth program for high schoolers to serve as poll workers. One thing my school district does right—no school on (general) Election Day, partly for security because so many schools are polling locations, partly so it’s easier to vote.

Become a poll worker! I’m going to train up, and so should you. Attend this online Voter Protection event, or find an event in your neighborhood: mobilize.us/s/yCbtci

Just signed up to be a poll worker to see what it's like while we still have elections.

Stephen Colbert on Ohio Rep. Jim Jordon’s reaction to Trump’s creepy & perverted birthday message to Jeffrey Epstein: “And if Jim Jordan didn’t see it, it didn’t happen, especially not in the showers at Ohio State. Google it.”

Another thing I learned while in the Peace Corps in Tunisia (‘89-‘91)—military troops in the street really can reduce certain kinds of crime, but then you have friggin’ military troops in your streets & 1) it’s hard to call your country a “democracy,” & 2) overall lawfulness probably doesn’t improve

When I was in the Peace Corps, the US Gov ordered me to lie on my Tunisian visa application—the purpose of my visit was “tourism.” Because a nearby cop didn’t like that I had a woman (American) roommate, I couldn’t get my lease «legalisé» before my tourist visa expired—I was undocumented for a time.

One more example of why we should no longer use the term “law enforcement” to apply to federal cops, especially to members of the federal secret police.

Too many comments say that legality doesn’t matter. It does. First, because illegality gives us another tool to fight it. An imperfect tool, but still a tool. And second, if we’re at the point that legality is irrelevant to us, the fascists have won.

We need to stop using the term ”law enforcement” for anyone in Trump’s federal government, including FBI agents and especially ICE agents. Each officer needs to individually earn that label.

The Trump Administration is literally poisoning kittens. And by “literally poisoning kittens,” I mean “literally poisoning kittens,” not just “really strongly metaphorically poisoning kittens.”

Sunday morning breakfast—homemade blueberry muffins.

This may sound like just a humorous aside, but it matters how fiction writers treat individual self-determination, including gender and names.

Kind of reminds me of the library in the Iowa Capitol, the building in which I was lucky enough to intern as an undergrad. statelibraryofiowa.gov/i-want-0/law...

Petition to be able to mute words in alt-text.

If you qualify, get the shingles vaccine. If you know someone who got it, you’ll know why.

From Sunday, the day I left to head home after my mom’s memorial service. I’m not a fan of cappuccinos, but she was. So I had one.

Is this an oral argument flex or just annoying and distracting?

I don’t call myself “doctor.” I just walk around in a hooded academic robe with a hexagonal cap.

Truly sad that I feel lucky to have received both my flu & COVID vaccines today.

To Kill A Mockingbird sanitizes Jim Crow, creating white heroes who were ineffective and timid. Just one example—the book treats as praiseworthy the judge’s decision to sentence an innocent Black man to prison for life instead of ordering that the man be murdered.

Thank you to the amazing and caring Episcopal congregation & clergy at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco for giving my Baptist parents such a loving adopted home, and for giving my mom such a beautiful memorial service last week in a setting whose majesty is topped only by that of the people there.

So, does some new Apple quirk mean Lyft really needs full access to my calendar to add stuff (as opposed to add-only permission), or is Lyft lying about that so it can data mine, or some combination of both or neither?

If you’re applying to a public defender office, or, I’d guess, most public interest jobs, one good question to ask is how many lawyers have been there 5-10 years. If they have almost all new lawyers, or mainly new lawyers with a few >20-year people, that may not be the best place to build a career.

Doctor I trust more than RFK, Jr. Any juris doctor I follow here.

9 Surrender Firms. - Paul, Weiss - Kirkland & Ellis - Latham - Skadden - Simpson Thacher - Sullivan & Cromwell - Milbank - Willkie - A&O Shearman Never forget.

If you weren’t watching the Golden State Valkyries come back to beat the Dallas Wings, you missed out.

I’m getting really tired of Poe’s Law.

If you want some fun in your timeline, follow the NE Ohio Regional Sewer District. Yeah, they talk about sewer management, but their jokes flow like, well…