Brian R. Merrick

If you want to be Governor, don’t run for AG

Mass. Lawyers Weekly, November 14, 2014 Attorney General-elect Maura Healey does not seem to have much chance of becoming governor of Massachusetts. No one should be surprised that Attorney General Martha Coakley was defeated in her recent campaign for governor. In all of Massachusetts political history, no sitting elected attorney general has ever been elected…

Throw money at obesity

Boston Globe letter, September 21, 2015 THE HEADLINE of Joanna Weiss’s Sept. 11 opinion column — “Politicians are needed to help end the obesity crisis” — highlights its essential flaw. So, what’s the solution she wants to see? New taxes? New subsidies? More politicians, guided by their contributors and lobbyists, picking economic winners and losers?…

Trump & Silber – No Comparison

Boston Globe letter, August 27, 2015 JOHN SILBER certainly had a memorably acerbic and ear-catching style of expression, but Scot Lehigh is wrong to equate him to Donald Trump (“Donald Trump is John Silber Redux,” Opinion, Aug. 26). Silber’s often colorful comments were grounded in a well thought out philosophy. Trump is a bombastic blowhard…

OK for Brady to Pass

Boston Herald letter, September 24, 2014 Steve Buckley has it exactly wrong ( Sept. 19). Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is an exceptional football player. It is not part of his role to comment on social issues or other players’ off-the-field conduct for the titillation of sportswriters. Athletes and actors should be judged by their performances,…

B&Bs vs. Rentals; Let’s Reverse Question

Cape Cod Times letter, April 15, 2015 Noting that the hotel room occupancy tax has been extended to bed-and-breakfasts and arguing that it should be extended to summer home rentals (“Falmouth seeks expansion of hotel room taxes,” April 10), Falmouth Selectman Sam Patterson says, “It seems to me to be an unfair situation that needs…

Liston Henry’s Instructive Immigration Tale

By Brian R. Merrick Cape Cod Times column, November 2, 2015 Puzzling over the sudden extraordinary success of the presidential campaign of a certain noisy, immigrant-baiting real estate developer, it is useful to consider the case of Liston Henry (“Cape man deported after conviction wins appeal,” Oct. 3, and “Deported Hyannis man on long road…

Political Leanings Should Not Dictate Business Licenses

Cape Cod Times Letter, September 29, 2015 Stonehill Professor Peter Ubertaccio’s letter (“Davis’ actions singular in contempt for the law,” Letters, Sept. 25) perceptively notes the impropriety of the Kentucky clerk’s denial of a marriage license to a gay couple because of her own personal religious preferences. That thoughtful letter is a useful juxtaposition to…

Revamping Our Approach to Mental Illness

Cape Cod Times column, September 18, 2015 by Brian R. Merrick In a very thoughtful Aug. 27 column, Cynthia Stead asks whether it’s time to reopen state mental hospitals. The answer must be an emphatic “yes.” Reviewing the history of deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, Stead notes that over the past half-century a perfect storm…

The Lesson of D-Day

Cape Cod Times Letters, June 5, 2015 The question of whether ISIS represents a threat to the homeland, possibly warranting some use of American military ground forces, is not an easy one. Jim Coogan’s column (“Contemporary lessons from D-Day,” June 2) does not advance an intelligent discussion. His stated ad hominem reason for opposition is…

Criminalizing Politics

by Brian R. Merrick Cape Cod Times column, May 16, 2015 The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently heard oral arguments in a case arising out of Barnstable County that may have a major impact on the future of political speech in Massachusetts. Even casual readers of the Cape Cod Times will be aware that during…

Robert H. Quinn; An Appreciation

Cape Cod Times column, January 17, 2014 By Brian R. Merrick Robert H. Quinn died Sunday here on the Cape at his summer home in Falmouth at age 85. Obituaries in the Cape Cod Times and other newspapers in the commonwealth general led with his sponsorship of the eponymous Quinn Bill. That signal legislation provided…

Yale’s Little Robespierres

WSJ Letters, November 16, 2015 “Yale’s Little Robespierres” (Review & Outlook, Nov. 10) makes the Yale of William F. Buckley’s “God and Man at Yale” seem an academic paradise. Buckley bemoaned the academic freedom he saw undermining Yale’s traditional religious values. True academic freedom, like Western liberal democracy, in its tolerance of values inimical to…