Trump Derangement Syndrome and the tyrannical excesses of far-left apparatchiks in the organized bar threaten the longstanding principles of our legal system. The rule of law is at stake. This essay originally appeared in Tom Klingenstein’s blog, Save the American Way of Life, on April 23, …
California
The Perils of (Pure) Populism
Despite the Supreme Court’s recent ban on racial preferences in college admissions, special interests in California seek to gut the non-discrimination protections of Proposition 209. This essay originally appeared in Law & Liberty on April 3, 2024 (here). Thanks to Power Line and Real Clear…
California and Texas: The Blue and the Red?
Sibling Rivalry, Competing Archetypes, or False Dichotomy? When comparing California and Texas, the only criterion that matters is how people are voting with their feet. California loses decisively, but some academics insist otherwise. This essay originally appeared in Law & Liberty on Septem…
Kamala Harris and Me
My feature-length 2016 profile of Kamala Harris in City Journal, entitled “The Next Obama,” was written while she was still Attorney General of California, running for the U.S. Senate. That piece has proven to be prescient, although I must give credit to City Journal editor Brian Ande…
Dirty John 2: The Betty Broderick Story
Season 2 of this true crime series airs the San Diego legal community’s dirty laundry. Betty Broderick was raging against a corrupt ruling class as well as an adulterous, disloyal husband. I confess that I enjoyed season 1 of Dirty John, the Netflix series based on L.A. Times reporter Christoph…
Remembering Jonestown: The Forgotten Story of Jim Jones and His Enablers
This essay originally appeared, in a slightly edited form, in Modern Age, as”Drinking the Kool-Aid.” (here) On November 18, 1978 over 900 people—including many children—were poisoned or shot to death at a bizarre cult compound in a South American jungle. California congressman Leo…
Selective Outrage
Is Sen. Kamala Harris the victim of partisan politics, or its savvy practitioner and beneficiary? As has been widely reported, freshman senator Kamala Harris got off to a bumpy start in the Washington spotlight, but she quickly regained her footing during the nationally televised Senate Intellige…
Kamala Harris Goes to Washington
California’s vaunted “next Obama” debuts to mixed reviews in the national spotlight. Prior to arriving in Washington earlier this year, Senator Kamala Harris was known, mostly just among her fellow Californians, as the two-term district attorney in San Francisco and two-term state attorney …
The Next Obama
Meet Kamala Harris, California attorney general, aspiring senator . . . and future president? The 2016 race to replace four-term U.S. senator Barbara Boxer of California, one of Congress’s most liberal politicians, appears likely to result in the election of an even more liberal successor: stat…
A Tale of Two Judges
The importance of “judicial independence” depends on the context Judges usually manage to stay out of the news, but two of them in California have been getting lots of national attention lately: U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego, and Santa Clara Superior Court Judg…