Cape Coral FL, March 16, 2016 The Republican majority in the United States Senate should confirm the nomination of Judge Merrick Brian Garland to the Supreme Court. Not because of the name, although for some reason I find it appealing. I set out the smart move for Obama here on February 29 in Replacing Scalia….
Category: Law
Scalia’s Posthumous Critics
Boston Globe Letter, February 29, 2016 On the day of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s funeral, the Globe published four letters about him, all critical (“The Scalia way,’’ Readers’ Forum, Feb. 20). They objected to the policy consequences of his decisions, alleged that he applied religious beliefs to his decisions and failed to interpret the…
Replacing Scalia
February 29, 2016 Justice Scalia the giant cannot be replaced. Justice Scalia, the member of a sharply divided court will have to be. In the last half century the courts – the Supreme Court in particular – have become the forum of choice for partisan minorities of both the right and, especially, the left to…
Justice Scalia – An American Originalist
As with the loss of many charismatic public leaders, especially those with an outsize, engaging personality, the sudden death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on February 13 leaves a great sense of individual loss in many of us who were not personally acquainted A brilliant and clear thinker, Judge Scalia expressed himself but…
Letters: The President’s Pick
Boston Herald letter, February 22, 2016 Justice Antonin Scalia, the Originalist, would have been horrified by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s assertion that “the American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice” (“Battle is on for Scalia’s replacement,” Feb. 17). The Constitution provides that a president, elected by electors, shall…
Gants’ response to Speaker’s request a misstep
Mass. Lawyers Weekly, November 19, 2015 To the editor: When The Boston Globe Spotlight team published a series of articles revealing, to no one’s surprise, that there was political patronage hiring in the Probation Department, the Supreme Judicial Court hired attorney Paul F. Ware Jr. and armed him with subpoena power to conduct an investigation….
Attacks on DA not helpful to sentencing debate
Mass. Lawyers Weekly letter, April 9, 2015 To the editor: Having recently retired after 25 years on the District Court bench, I approach the current controversy over minimum mandatory sentences in drug cases with a natural bias against limitation of a judge’s discretion. I can understand, however, why a prosecutor finds them to be useful…
Judge Young’s Comments on O’Brien
Mass. Lawyers Weekly, November 26, 2014 To the editor: Any sentient being in the legal or court communities has known about the influence of political patronage in judicial hiring not for decades, but for generations. U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young’s comments on the subject at the sentencing of former Probation Department Commissioner John…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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