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Whoever said, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” probably wasn’t referring to motor vehicle search and seizure law.   Because the “small stuff” is just what the minions of the law will use to stop your car. Minor violations are used routinely by police to justify stops. The “pretext stop” is defined the NYS Court of […]

When I was a kid, there was a cartoon called “There Oughta be a Law”.  The cartoon took a humorous look at some of the absurdities our species gravitates toward long before the “Darwin Awards” books became popular. The inference was if there were laws against doing silly things, people might not do them.  Having […]

Words have power.  This obvious fact is often forgotten, even by judges and lawyers.  And they should know better.  The use of a single word can set the wrong tone, falsely frame the issue, destroy the presumption of innocence, and absolve the guilty. To demonstrate, here are some words with alternate phrasing: Gulag…….Vocational rehabilitation camp […]