On SeriousTrouble.Show, the Substack for the podcast I co-host with Josh Barro I’m voting with my feet, exactly the way I’ve been telling people to do for years. But I’d never ask the government to stop it. I’m repulsed by the flood of triumphant bigotry and trolling, and by Musk’s sad-lonely-boy leaning into the arms of freaks who embrace him in his fruitless quest for love. That, not government regulation, is the way to do it. ![]() If one of us disagrees with the other’s exercise of rights, we can part company. Twitter - or whoever runs it - has rights. This is exactly how it’s supposed to work, as I’ve been arguing for years. I’ll probably delete the past tweets because I can’t stomach them being available to promote this enterprise. So I’m exercising my free speech and free association and leaving, and shuttering the account. The last straw was Elon Musk sending lunatics and bigots against former employees and leaning into conspiracy theories. That new branding is ugly and despicable and I don’t want to contribute content to it. Just as Twitter’s former leaders exercised their free speech and free association rights to brand Twitter one way, Twitter’s new boss is exercising his rights to brand it another way. I’m not just talking about the increasing tech glitches. ![]() The other reason is that I think it’s fundamentally changed, at least for now. I miss him, and his perspective and wit and humanity, keenly. Gradually I used it more and he used it less, until he split off to his own account. I only started using it around 2014 or so. ![]() My late friend and co-writer Patrick started Twitter account and built it. I still interact with many of the people I knew there, having connected with them at a series of successor locations, but many are lost to the decades - people I felt I knew, now only vaguely remembered. Usually whatever content I posted there - primitive lawsplainers, snark, banter, arguments - is gone as well. I’m a writer, but the platforms that publish me are not affiliated in any way with this newsletter.Many of those forums are gone now, like the proverbial tears in rain. I’m a podcaster, but this newsletter is not affiliated with KCRW or Legal Talk Network and those entities do not manage, approve, or support its content. I’m a lawyer, but this newsletter is not sponsored, funded, endorsed, or affiliated with my law firm, which has no role in its content or management. Please feel free to write me at Disclaimer Popehat is a reference to that attitude of infallibility that seems to be a prerequisite to writing online.ĭo You Have Suggestions, Questions, Threats, Or Abuse? A friend make origami miters and wore them playing poker. But the name “Popehat” is an inside joke among online friends and not an actual reference to religion. Īs for social media, I am on Mastodon, Post.news, and Facebook. I also do speeches and debates on free speech and criminal justice issues. I’m the host of the First Amendment podcast Make No Law, and I was the cohost of KCRW’s All the President’s Lawyers, a podcast about the Trump Administration’s legal travails, also with Josh Barro. I co-host the podcast Serious Trouble with Josh Barro - it’s about the legal travails of famous and infamous people. I’ve been published in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Reason Magazine, and I’ve been a Contributing Writer at The Atlantic. For years I wrote a lot on Twitter until I left it. Since 2004, I wrote at the blog Popehat, which is now mostly defunct. I’ve written a lot about federal criminal law, the criminal investigations surrounding the Trump Administration, First Amendment disputes and adjacent cultural disputes, and the intersection of free speech law and the internet. I also like to talk about the gulf between what the law is supposed to do and what it actually does. I enjoy writing “lawsplainers” - attempts to make somewhat esoteric legal issues clear and entertaining to non-lawyers (and to reasonably tolerant lawyers). I mostly write about criminal justice and free speech issues. ![]() I’m also a husband of 25 years and a father to three children, all adopted internationally. I began my career as a federal prosecutor, and for the last twenty years have defended people in state and federal criminal proceedings and represented them as both plaintiffs and defendants in a wide range of civil matters, with a growing focus on First Amendment issues. I’m an attorney in Los Angeles, California, where I’m a partner in a small firm practicing criminal defense and civil litigation.
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