Mimesis Law

March 9, 2017 (Fault Lines) — We are thrilled to announce that Fault Lines has moved to its new home as a standalone online legal commentary magazine. It can be found at FaultLines.us. The new Fault Lines has been set up as an educational non-profit, FL Foundation Inc.
We hope that if you enjoy and appreciate the Fault Lines concept, the aggregation of all perspectives on criminal law by the people who know and do criminal law, rather than just one point of view, you will help us keep Fault Lines thriving by contributing at the new website. Thanks
Continue Reading Meet the New Fault Lines! (Update: Comments Here Are Closed)

March 8, 2017 (Fault Lines) — Deanna Caraballo killed a defenseless, fuzzy, little animal, and she got a year in prison:
A Cleveland woman was sentenced to the maximum penalty of one year in prison Monday for killing her boyfriend’s 8-week-old puppy in one of the first cases in Cuyahoga County prosecuted under Goddard’s Law.
It isn’t a particularly alarming sentence, or even one that you’d think would require a law named after someone to achieve. These days, most people just don’t view animals as property, as belongings they can use and abuse however they want. Many people treat
Continue Reading Deanna Caraballo Almost Got What She Deserves

March 8, 2017 (Fault Lines) — While working for the New York Times as the paper’s Supreme Court correspondent, Linda Greenhouse won the Pulitzer Prize and embarrassed the paper along the way as well. After leaving the paper, she ended up at Yale law school despite the fact that she isn’t a lawyer. As I shall explain in more detail, this move was, in a way, the perfect “golden parachute” for both Greenhouse and the Times.

In 2006, Greenhouse got her ass chewed by the Times public editor for fulminations about the failure of her generation (and mine) to
Continue Reading Outsourcing Linda Greenhouse to Yale

March 8, 2017 (Fault Lines) – The United States Supreme Court ruled on a major federal sentencing guidelines case this week. For the last decade plus, since the Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in Booker, the guidelines have been advisory rather than mandatory. But most lawyers know the idea of “advisory” sentencing guidelines sounds great, but doesn’t always play out so well. With the opinion in Beckles v. United States, the Supreme Court keeps holding on to the fantasy that the guidelines are just advice, not rules.
Beckles considered a due process challenge to the advisory sentencing guidelines.
This Court
Continue Reading In Beckles, SCOTUS Perpetuates the Advisory Guidelines Fantasy

March 8, 2017 (Fault Lines) — Last week, the Washington State Supreme Court handed down a decision sending two juvenile males, who robbed trick-or-treaters at gunpoint in a mini-crime spree, back to court for new sentencing hearings. The juveniles were 17 and 16 at the time of the robberies, which enriched them by one cell phone and 96 pieces of candy, and possibly a pair of interesting prison nicknames.
They were sentenced to 31 and 26 years respectively, even though no one was hurt.
Armed robbery is a serious crime, but the sentences were very harsh when you consider the
Continue Reading Nine out of Nine Washington State Supremes Agree: “Children Are Different”

March 8, 2017 (Fault Lines)—The Supreme Court recently denied cert in one of those classic cases: good facts mixed with incomplete lawyering. But in a stirring dissent, Justice Thomas may have provided the roadmap to a decision that could rock the foundations of our august kleptocracy.
Police pulled James Leonard over at 3 in the morning for speeding and following too closely. For some reason, this led to a discussion of how much money he was carrying with him. He said $800. His passenger said $1000. Police asked the passenger for consent to search the car, and she allegedly
Continue Reading Justice Thomas: Civil Forfeiture May Violate Due Process

March 7, 2017 (Fault Lines)–  Robert Evans must be smiling a little brighter inside his cell in the Garden State. After a good fondling by Jersey cops looking for drugs, he now gets a new trial after years in jail because someone in the Vineland Police Department doesn’t understand how “plain feel” searches work in the framework of the Fourth Amendment.
Officer Felipe Laboy performed a “warrant check” at the beginning of his shift on January 4, 2012. This was an irregular practice for Officer Laboy, but one that included Evans’ name that night. Never you mind that warrant was
Continue Reading Court Clarifies: Cop Can’t Constitutionally Snatch Crack from Crotch

March 7, 2017 (Fault Lines) –Protests have become a regular thing in the time of Trump. While many remain peaceful, others turn into violent events where trash cans burn, Starbucks gets looted, and necks get yanked. Some people like the opiate of protests, marches, sign-carrying, regardless of whether this actually changes others’ hearts and minds. Fortunately for them, the Free Speech clause gives them wide latitude to get high on protesting.
But one place where you can’t protest is at the Supreme Court. You may be familiar with the gatherings out front, usually with signs and
Continue Reading At the Supreme Court, You’ve Got the Freedom to Speak Elsewhere

Fault Lines (March 7, 2017)– In the cacophonous debates about President Trump’s travel bans and his overt hostility to immigrants and refugees, civil libertarians have been quick to recount horror stories about Homeland Security agents doing really terrible things to people trying to come into the U.S. For example, a U.S.-born NASA engineer of Indian descent made news in January after Customs officers detained him until he turned over the password for his government-issued smartphone so that officers could search through it.
Recently Oregon Senator Ron Wyden penned a letter to the Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security calling this
Continue Reading Customs: Unlock Your Phone or Else