Four years ago I decided on a whim that I would try to put a year's worth of legal news to the music that sometimes plays in my head. The result was this column for the Huffington Post in December 2006 entitled "This Land is Your Land," in homage to Woody Guthrie. The following year, in December 2007, I aimed a little lower and offered up this column, again for Huff-Po, entitled "A Tale of Christmas Law." In 2008, I did not write a piece (and I don't remember why). But I was back last year, this time for Vanity Fair, with this piece. "Blowin' in the Wind," yet another ode to Bob Dylan. This year, grace of a new host, there was but one choice. In memory of John Lennon, on the thirtieth anniversary of his death, I offered my version of his classic, "Instant Karma." Forgive me in advance, Yoko.
Instant
karma's gonna get you
Gonna knock you right on the head
You
better get yourself together
Pretty soon you're gonna be dead
What
in the world you thinking of
Laughing in the face of love
What on
earth you tryin' to do
It's up to you, yeah you
Opponents of same-sex marriage, who support California's Proposition 8's ballot measure, accused U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker of bias because he is gay. After the respected Republican appointee declared the marriage ban unconstitutional on due process and equal protection grounds, he promptly announced his retirement... Charles Cooper, the hapless lead attorney for Proposition 8, told Judge Walker during closing aguments in the case: "Your honor, you don't have to have evidence" to declare the measure valid... In Iowa, vengeful voters removed from office three of the state's supreme court justices who ruled last year in favor of same-sex marriage... an unusually zealous state attorney in Michigan, Andrew Shirvell, went off the deep end in monitoring the activities of the openly-gay president of the University of Michigan's Student Council... and a Virginia lawmaker promptly introduced legislation in the wake of the repeal of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that would preclude gays or lesbians from openly serving in the state national guard.