Reflections of a Boston Lawyer

In my closet hangs a reddish-orange silk tie of excellent quality that subtly bears the logo of The Lawyers Council of Thailand.  The tie was presented to me by a delegation of The Lawyers Council in the fall of 2005.  I was asked by the American Bar Association to speak to the group about American class action practice, which they were studying to help develop Thailand's own class action rules.  I was advised shortly before I made the trip to Washington that it is a Thai custom on such occasions to exchange gifts.  I quickly managed to pull together some small gift items from my law firm (a notepad and a baseball cap bearing my firm's name), and received the tie from the head of the Thai delegation after I delivered my remarks. The ABA had also arranged for the lawyers to get a tour of the Supreme Court and a meeting with the Clerk of the Court.  They invited me to join them, which I gladly did.  Although I was already admitted to the Supreme Court bar, this was my first act

I swore I'd stop writing so many politically charged posts, and then I read t his column by Michael Kinsley in The Atlantic Monthly.  Since it touched so closely on the theme of my last post, I thought I had to share it.  Now, I hope, I will move back to law-related topics and away from politics.  At least, that's the goal.

I have been reading about the Tea Party Movement, and trying to understand the principles of the extreme right.  The problem is, I find it difficult to identify any unifying principles underlying extreme right-wing positions.  They say they oppose big government spending, yet they have supported the largest buildup in military spending in our history, a buildup that is responsible more than any bank bailouts for record national debt.  They want the government not to interfere with their lives, yet they support anti-libertarian legislation like the Arizona immigration law.  They want the federal courts to enforce their right to bear arms, but they want the same courts to deny a woman's right not to bear children.  They say they are pro-life, but support the death penalty.  They complain that our judiciary is anti-majoritarian, yet seek to impose a minority agenda on national policy. I am not criticizing all of these positions, and indeed I respect several of them.  But I suspect t

If you follow my blog, you may suspect (correctly) that I have been too busy to keep it up the way I would like.  Sometimes, however, others say all that needs to be said, as is the case with President Obama and the speech he delivered at the University of Michigan commencement ceremonies yesterday.  So, rather than bore you with my own feeble attempts to pontificate or entertain, I am posting a link to the President's address, which really says it all.  I will make every effort to write again very soon for my readers (who bear a resemblance to the Marines, in that you are not only proud, but also few).  P.S. - Please excuse the transcription's misspelling of "genteel."  I'm sure the President did not mean it the way it came out.