This has been an ongoing annoyance for me, for pretty much as long as I’ve been paying attention to U.S. politics. The U.S. militia movement is never around when they might actually be useful. Seriously, this is an active political…
Legal Bribery: Big Law Pays Protection
This particular story is getting some press, but no one’s mentioning the bribery aspect. And it’s definitely bribery. Even under the Supreme Court’s corrupt “it’s only bribery if you explicitly say so in advance” standard this is bribery. And abuse…
Taking the 4th: Privacy And The Subcontracting State
The 4th Amendment to the U.S. constitution says: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable…
Hitting Escape: Like Marriages, Sometimes Countries Need To End
Situations change, people change, governments change; and now the United States is not the country they taught you that it was back in grade school civics. And it needs to just end. To be honest, the U.S. has never actually…
Due Process: No, I Don’t Trust you Bro
The U.S. has always had a tempestuous relationship with the idea of due process. Obviously, some process requirement is necessary. You can’t actually have a “nation of laws” if the operation of those laws is left entirely up to the…
No Delegation: The State Should Do Its Own Work
I’m not optimistic on anything being fixable at this point, but we should still think about how to do better next time. Because there will (eventually) be a next time. And when it comes time to write the constitution for…
Authoritarians United: Most Courts Will Be Too Slow To Matter
If the police are mostly on the wrong side, then it shouldn’t be surprising that most courts will be too. It’s where their class affinities lie, after all. Judges are wealthy and, for the most part, they grew up that…
Authoritarians United: Most Police Will Be On The Wrong Side
Police organization in the U.S. are no more democratic than the military. Which is to say: not democratic at all. Officers are trained to obey, and to have no role in choosing their leaders (and no role in interpreting the…
Showing Their Work: Laws Should Be Version-Controlled
The tech industries appear to have provided most of the foot soldiers, many of the generals and pretty much all the lunacy behind Musk’s ongoing coup attempt. For which many of us in the industry sincerely apologize. For the most…
Calexit: Dumb Name, Smart Idea
So, California has an independence movement. I know; this is not a surprise. (Many states, mostly Republican party strongholds, have California independence movements these days; they love to say they want us out of the Union. We’re one of the…