Guy Hamilton-Smith

I think people debating about whether Holmes was lying or not are missing the point about you can see everything. It's really a much more interesting (and unsettling) film than the Holmes documentary costume it's wearing

after a long hiatus I have been discussing law with non lawyers on reddit and now I remember why I took a long hiatus from doing that

A reminder on Indigenous Peoples' Day: Native people are incarcerated in state and federal prisons at more than 4x the rate of white people. This is the direct result of centuries of oppression and theft from Native people.

It occurs to me that the tendency towards medicalizing executions is not for the benefit of the person being executed. It's for us -- to give it an appearance of being humane, even as it makes it far less so. It's so we don't have to be made uncomfortable by the sight of our own lust for blood.

much like how pants go from skinny to baggy and back again, we are in a constant cycle of learning and forgetting the importance of due process

Colley Hill, Surrey: coffee break from birding the steep scrub. Love the plaque on the bench I’m sitting on

a lot of questions being asked about my "this military flyover is actually a memorial" shirt etc etc

NEW: Report from @prisonpolicy.org documents the growth of conviction-based registries based on sex offense registries, and their presumed similar shortcomings in creating public safety www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2026/08...

She's kind of camo'd here

airbnb I’m staying at unintentionally created the toughest punk album cover of 2027

Good news on voting rights from Missouri! @boltsmag.org boltsmag.org/gop-run-miss...

Despite this sort of thing being commonplace, this is (I believe) the first time I have heard of someone being criminally charged with harassing someone on the sex offense registry abc13.com/post/woman-c...

Now here is a grand juror doing the 5th Amendment proud www.documentcloud.org/documents/28...

How about you Switch 2 reading the Holy Bible

I cannot stress enough that there is no language in the First Step Act that suggests Congress intended such a parsimonious reading of compassionate release; indeed, there is language that suggests the exact opposite. One major goal was to expand compassionate release. So why is SCOTUS shrinking it?

"Tala-freako" is another exhibit supporting the "everyone is 12" theory

I've been neglectful of my writing lately, so I wrote something about a recent argument, though not so much about the argument, more about the last few years, or twenty, however you want to look at it. open.substack.com/pub/littlere...

I wrote, I think, the best thing I’ve ever written yesterday. It just happened to be filed in federal court, and in support of a client and an issue I’d stick my neck out for. Also, I got to use “transmogrification” in a brief, which, believe it or not, was the right word to use.

I think the thing people miss when someone with resources gets acquitted or a conviction reversed is that it happens because the government cuts corners. It takes resources to find out where they cut them. Don’t be upset that someone found them, be upset that they were cut in the first place.

Chief Justice Roberts says the court isn't political. This week, six justices "read" 107 pages of legal briefing in 38 minutes and let Alabama gerrymander its congressional map mid-election. The stopwatch says otherwise.

New from me at the @brennancenter.org: Once again, Alito uses disingenuous reasoning and bad data to take an ax to the Voting Rights Act.

Great essay that's worth your time nymag.com/intelligence...

Probably an unpopular take, but I think if we’re going to have the death penalty, it should be something like the firing squad. We shouldn’t dress it up as a medical procedure. Also, arguably, it‘s more humane than lethal injection.

I’m confused by l*z o*er going after Ghislane Maxwell’s attorney. Is she not supposed to have a lawyer? Or, only one who doesn’t zealously advocate for their client?

Poor Sleep Linked To Gong https://theonion.com/poor-sleep-linked-to-gong/

At most, a cat can commit a misdemeanor. Dogs are, for sure, capable of committing felonies.

I think the thing that I fight for, more than this or that law is unconstitutional, is redemption. Not for me, or not just. The principle. We need it as surely as we need air. Otherwise our punishments become little more than poison that diminish us all.