Insights < BACK TO ALL INSIGHTS
Baltimoronic Investigation
FEATURED
July 8, 2025
Baltimoronic Investigation
By: James Trusty
June 24, 2025, may mark the day that the criminal justice system for Baltimore, Maryland finally established its lunacy. If the allegations are correct, an employee of Pretrial Services committed what Maryland officials view as a cardinal sin—he or she let ICE know that there was an illegal alien coming to the office. Armed with that information, ICE showed up at the courthouse, was allowed up to the 4th floor, and arrested an illegal alien. There are no allegations of disruption to the Pretrial Services office, no suggestion that the arrest caused a courthouse-wide panic, and no lawyers rushed to microphones to announce the alien had been tortured, beaten, and shipped off to a Salvadoran prison. But the Baltimore City…
Biden and DOJ’s Spiteful Ploy Boomerangs: How Politics Destroys Privilege
June 30, 2025
Biden and DOJ’s Spiteful Ploy Boomerangs: How Politics Destroys Privilege
By: James Trusty
During the pre-indictment period in which I was one of President Trump’s lawyers, there was a considerable amount of then-sealed litigation over the Special Counsel Office’s (“SCO”) insatiable search for incriminating evidence. We regularly found ourselves fighting against prosecutors providing ex parte information to the Court in support of their singular claims that Donald J. Trump did not have the same legal privileges as almost…
AI Conversations Feel Private. Could They Be Privileged?
June 11, 2025
AI Conversations Feel Private. Could They Be Privileged?
By: Robert Ward
The New York Times’ lawsuit against OpenAI continues to spark debate, and not just about copyright. Most recently, a federal magistrate judge ordered OpenAI to preserve chats that the company might otherwise have deleted at a user’s request. In response, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman suggested that it may be time for a version of the attorney-client or physician-patient privilege, but for AI. While any attempt…
Will the Internet Taint a Loughner Verdict?
February 22, 2011
Will the Internet Taint a Loughner Verdict?
By: Ifrah Law
As Arizona plans a trial for accused Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner, a new set of questions has arisen: How will a jury be able to sit in impartial judgment, untainted by nonstop online coverage of the crime and its aftermath? What safeguards should a judge impose to keep the jury from following the case on the Internet and reaching a verdict based on facts…
Facebook Friends and Judicial Ethics
February 15, 2011
Facebook Friends and Judicial Ethics
By: Ifrah Law
Last December, another legal ethics commission addressed the question of whether a judge may become a “friend” on a social networking site with attorneys who appear as counsel in the judge’s courtroom. The Ohio Supreme Court Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline opined that a judge may “friend” attorneys as long as the judge takes care to protect the integrity and impartiality of the…
Is D.C. on the Way to Legalizing Online Poker?
February 2, 2011
Is D.C. on the Way to Legalizing Online Poker?
By: Ifrah Law
An amendment introduced to the District of Columbia Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Support Act and approved with little fanfare or advance warning could signal a major change in the law of i-gaming. The amendment, introduced by at-large Democrat Councilmember Michael A. Brown, would allow the D.C. Lottery to administer online poker by defining the D.C. Lottery to include both “games of skill and games of…
Amicus Briefs Urge Reduction in Rubashkin Fraud Sentence
January 25, 2011
Amicus Briefs Urge Reduction in Rubashkin Fraud Sentence
By: Ifrah Law
We first posted about Sholom Rubashkin—the former plant manager at the now-defunct Agriprocessors, Inc. — back in May 2010, when Rubashkin was awaiting sentence for more than 80 counts of fraud in connection with his operation of the kosher slaughterhouse. Since then, Chief U.S. District Judge Linda Reade of the Northern District of Iowa sentenced Rubashkin to 27 years in prison, an action that sparked…
California Court OKs Warrantless Search of Cell Phone
January 19, 2011
California Court OKs Warrantless Search of Cell Phone
By: Ifrah Law
The text messages in a defendant’s cell phone are in no way different, for the purposes of a police search after an arrest, from the defendant’s clothing or a cigarette package. That was the holding of the California Supreme Court on January 3, 2011, in People v. Diaz, a case in which the state’s highest court approved the police’s warrantless search of the text message…
