Mark Bennett | November 29, 2012
(Despite the “hey, look at me, I’m a list” title, this is a post for law geeks). The Texas online-solicitation-of-a-minor statute, Texas Penal Code Section 33.021 violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution because it bars adults making sexually-related communications that are neither solicitative nor obscene to minors. The Texas online-impersonation statute, Texas Penal […]
Mark Bennett | November 27, 2012
Former Judge Mark Davidson, who often ranked at or near the top in local judicial polls, lost his bench in the Barack Obama tidal wave of 2008. He does not like what he sees now, with a polarized electorate voting along party lines, and he has no intention of running again soon. “To run and know […]
Mark Bennett | November 27, 2012
(H/T up front to Scott Greenfield and his ostreoid Simple Justice, in the ABA’s Blawg 100 once again.) “I … watch him working at the stove. His easy concentration, economical movements, setting up in me a procession of sparks and chills.” – Alice Munro, Dear Life, according to this post by Stewart Baker. I am not a woman, […]
Mark Bennett | November 26, 2012
Is this illegal? A Splendora woman is facing charges for allegedly posting a personal ad on a classified website for her husband’s ex-girlfriend as a joke. Christy Dawn Rash, 35, is facing an online solicitation charge. According to court documents, she’s accused of posting the classified on Craigslist earlier this month with the victim’s photo and […]
Mark Bennett | November 25, 2012
Prosecutors can find it challenging to prove the intent to harm was present in online interactions. “It’s a hard burden for us to prove with any activity on the Internet,” Wakefield noted. It is common for users to mimic celebrities or politicians by creating fake social media accounts, but Wakefield said it would be difficult to […]
Mark Bennett | November 24, 2012
Suppose that you have a client. The client, after thorough consultation with you, wants you to take some action. That action is in the best interest of the client, is legal, and is ethical. You do it, right? Now suppose that the action is not in the client’s best interest, but is legal and ethical. Again, you do […]
Mark Bennett | November 23, 2012
This may be the greatest television news interview I’ve ever watched.
Mark Bennett | November 21, 2012
Detroit lawyer David Draper should not be representing criminal defendants. Draper left this comment on this post: “I agree with these guest posts you really don’t get anything expect for me content you don’t agree with or matches up with your site.” One of a criminal-defense lawyer’s core competencies is the ability to string together a […]
Mark Bennett | November 21, 2012
Curtis Robert Burns, also known as “Blogger Bob,” the Tokyo Rose of the TSA, responded publicly—and petulantly—to Amy Alkon’s post questioning TSA thugs concealing their identities from the traveling public (which I wrote about here and Greenfield riffed on here). As usual, TSA’s response to criticism is that they did everything “by the book.” What Burns and his fellow […]
Mark Bennett | November 18, 2012
I don’t, as a general principle, allow anonymous comments here. Chief among the reasons is that the more anonymous people are, the worse they behave. People do things behind tinted glass on the freeway that they would never do on the sidewalk. They say things from the cover of darkness that they would never say […]
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