Kids say the darnedest things I remember watching Art Linkletter, RIP,  as a little kid. I was too young to understand what the adults were talking about, but enjoyed the segment where he talked to children. The segment was dubbed, “Kids say the darrndest things.” As a child myself, I took competitive joy in watching little kids say crazy, embarrassing things. “Boy if I was sitting on one of those stools,” I thought, “I’d never say anything that stupid.” Michelle…

An interesting phenomenon in appellate decisions is that a court decision, often a higher court, establishes a certain principle of law of general application and then the lower courts are “stuck” applying this principle despite the apparent illogic of absurdity of its application. Because lower courts must adhere to the rulings of the higher court, unless the lower court can cleverly distinguish its situation from the decision of the higher court, the lower court is compelled to issue a decision…

  I am often amazed how diligent the judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals are in handling immigration cases. Though I often lament about how they got it wrong, failing to understand the bigger immigration context of their decision (like in the advance parole and visa waiver decisions discussed in the past), still this is a rather arcane and unsexy area of law for an appellate judge to have to be spending so much mental energy.

Merle Haggard Merle Haggard, country music star (“Okie from Muskogee”), was convicted of holding up a bar in Bakersfield, California, in 1957. He served three years in state prison. A person who commits a theft offense and is sentenced to a year or more of confinement is an aggravated felon. If he committed the crime nowadays, he would be deportable and ineligible for relief.  If he got deported and came back, he could be sent to prison for 20 years….