Law and Legitimacy

If you found yourself in a position of supreme authority to make and enforce laws in the United States, what would you do to mitigate and curb gun violence?

Should we ban handguns altogether? Norm has a proposed rule.

No one should be able to own or possess a handgun in America except for Norm.

Has the firearm become an instrument of political power? Isn't that what we see right now in Chicago? With these nutty shooters, like Crimo?

Can we legislate fear away? Norm recalls the great quote from Franklin Roosevelt, "we have nothing to fear but fear itself." Norm is open to the possibility that the Constitution has outlived its usefulness, but not persuaded that any of the existing regulatory paradigms or gun control advoacy are adequately aimed to address a primarily cultural problem.

Norm takes calls from listeners to discuss the hypo.

Like, share, and subscribe! Norm is live every weekday from 12pm ET to 2pm ET on WICC 600AM/107.3FM. Stream Norm live at https://www.wicc600.com/. Follow @PattisPodcast on Twitter.

Norm opens the show discussing the function of the Supreme Court of the United States—to say what the law is—by examining the history of the Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren, who served on the Court from 1953 to 1969.

The Constitution certainly is not written in granite, but certainly the outrage we are seeing—"the crisis in the air"—illustrates the true cultural polarity in the modern American scene.

Norm also discusses the next major inflection point in American politics: the administrative state. That is, the Court's opinion in the EPA case reflects what many Americans have been saying for the last several years; that we are not a nation governed by experts. Why, then, is the Court's direction to Congress to step in and provide guidance to the EPA so important right now?

Norm then points out to the listener a fascinating book written in 1971, "Critical Elections and the Mainsprings of American Politics" by Walter Dean Burnham.

Burnham asked what it was that defines how our political parties attach themselves to our cultural issues.

Norm has had an ambivalent relationship with the Federalist Society for as long as it has existed. Why? And what is the future of the Federalist Society?

In the second hour, Norm focuses on the Randy Cox case making headlines. He is then joined by LAL regular, Kevin Alan, who is running for Lt. Governor of Connecticut on the Libertarian ticket. And Norm is also joined by the Libertarian candidate for Governor, Aaron Lewis. Why would a Connecticut resident give a Libertarian candidate his or her vote?

Like, share, and subscribe! Norm is live every weekday from 12pm ET to 2pm ET on WICC 600AM/107.3FM. Stream Norm live at https://www.wicc600.com/. Follow @PattisPodcast on Twitter.

Norm is joined at the beginning of the short week as he always is by W. Michael Boyer, the producer of Law and Legitimacy and North Carolina-based attorney. Norm and Mike discuss a myriad topics centered on the high profile happenings at the Supreme Court.

What does Michael Moore's status and influence mean for the greater population of American citizens that share some or all of his views? And what of the call for Justice Clarence Thomas's impeachment?

In the second half of the show, Norm is joined by George Colli. George is the founder of G. Colli, a local news startup aimed at redirecting the news business from an advertiser-centered model to a viewer-and-truth-focused model.

George Colli is a veteran journalist with experience covering some of the biggest stories in the world for broadcast television, radio, print and digital organizations.

Like, share, and subscribe! Norm is live every weekday from 12pm ET to 2pm ET on WICC 600AM/107.3FM. Stream Norm live at https://www.wicc600.com/. Follow @PattisPodcast on Twitter.

Ahead of the 3-day weekend, Norm thanks listeners for keeping him around through 9 weeks of the Norm Pattis Show. For all of you loyal LAL listeners, our gratitude knows no bounds. Thank you for setting out on this journey with us.

Norm opens the show talking about his disappointment with the USA Today article naming the Top 50 Pizzerias in the United States—where is the New Haven representation?! Incredible.

A local listener calls in to tell Norm about her favorite local spots and toppings, which sets off a tidal wave of pizza talk. Another listener calls in to share his favorite local pizza shop and toppings and then asks Norm to explain a legal perspective on the Cassidy Hutchinson congressional testimony that apparently conflicts with the position of the Secret Service.

The main event for this episode is our guest, John Deaton, founder of Deaton Law Firm and Crypto-Law.us. Norm has John on talk about a letter that John wrote to a Senator just recently detailing the alleged Securities and Exchange Commission's unfair and abusive treatment of Ripple and holders of XRP.

The key question, as we have addressed before, is whether digital assets like Etherium and XRP are considered securities for purposes of investment and regulation. John details how absurd the treatment of XRP is—could every holder of XRP in the world today be guilty of transacting unlawfully in unregistered securities?

This is a serious question, given the SEC's public position against Ripple, its founders, and the token XRP itself. Are crypto/digital assets better regarded as commodities or securities?

Norm and John discuss the concept of agency capture and what it means the in context of the SEC, its commissioners, former commissioners, and the entities for whom the SEC apparently has acted almost exclusively to protect.

Like, share, and subscribe! Norm is live every weekday from 12pm ET to 2pm ET on WICC 600AM/107.3FM. Stream Norm live at https://www.wicc600.com/. Follow @PattisPodcast on Twitter.

Norm opens the show discussing the news surrounding the sentencing of long-time girlfriend and counterpart to the late Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, for her role in facilitating the sex trafficking of underage minors.

What the hell is Governor Ned Lamont doing by extending the state's Public Health Emergency? We get the government we deserve, sure. But there has been an absolute failure of will in this state to produce candidates that have a vision for what ordinary people want in their everyday lives.

Norm details the facts surrounding a lawsuit a student has brought against the Hopkins School in New Haven for his expulsion behind his use of the one word for which society has yet to determine the rules of its use.

Leading up to the esteemed guest, Norm spends some time discussing the January 6 Commission Hearings and how short it has fallen in achieiving what America truly needs in this moment of obvious polarization and dysfunction.

Then, Udo Middelmann calls in from Switzerland. Friends of Law and Legitimacy will remember Norm's interview of Udo several months ago. Udo was Norm's tutor in the 1970's when Norm was on an existential search for spiritual meaning and guidance. Norm asked Udo to join him for this radio segment in response to yesterday's caller who lamented the problems of the Holy Bible.

What is the nature of biblical authority? Udo is a scholar in law and theology. You may find his life's work here.

Like, share, and subscribe! Norm is live every weekday from 12pm ET to 2pm ET on WICC 600AM/107.3FM. Stream Norm live at https://www.wicc600.com/. Follow @PattisPodcast on Twitter.

Norm opens the show talking about the frenzy that has become criminal court in a post COVID judicial system, and offers an anecdote or two to shed some light on why the public's often low regard for attorneys is sometimes justified.

Norm then transitions to a discussion of one SCOTUS decision from this term that did not get much press during recent days, what he calls a "sleep decision", Vega v. Tekoh, which deals with Miranda Warnings.

You know "Miranda Warnings" from TV shows, "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford an attorney . . ."

SCOTUS held that Section 1983 claims may perhaps not be sustained simply because a law enforcement official neglects to read an arrestee his or her Miranda rights at the point of arrenst.

Norm offers some general advice about how to handle inquiries from law enforcement. Pay attention!

The Fifth Amendment protects us from being compelled to make statements against our interests. So what now? Well, Miranda Warnings are only required when a person is in custody. But that is a very tenuous place during an encounter with law enforcement. Norm breaks down why this is chilling—that Miranda rights are merely prophylatic measures serving the "greater good" rather than constitutional rights.

Norm then comments on his contempt for Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont's overt and shameless willingness to make the Dobbs decision a tone deaf campaign issue.

The J6 Committee is hearing new evidence about Trump's activities on January 6. Are we even to take them seriously? Norm spends most of the balance of the show discussing the concept of authoritarianism and suggesting authoritarian dystopian literary classics for loyal listeners to discover or rediscover.

Like, share, and subscribe. Norm is live every weekday from 12pm ET to 2pm ET on WICC 600AM/107.3FM. Stream Norm live at https://www.wicc600.com/. Follow @PattisPodcast on Twitter.

Norm is joined in the first hour as he is at the start of every workweek by the co-host and producer of Law and Legitimacy and North Carolina-based attorney at Carolina Craft Legal, W. Michael Boyer.

Last week, Norm and Mike capped off the end of a rapidly crescendoing news week by analyzing the mechanisms and likely impacts of SCOTUS's decisions in New York Pistol and Rifle Association and Dobbs (Second Amendment and Abortion cases respectively).

With so much cultural and political fallout from the latter, the two decide to "wade" back into the waters of the Dobbs decision in today's episode, this time focusing on the relationship between abortion and the right to privacy. Why?

Norm focuses on an opinion piece penned to the New York Times and which appeared in the Saturday edition, written by none other than Senator Elizabeth Warren. While Senator Warren makes calls for abortion to be recognized as a federal constitutional right, Norm reminds listeners of Senator Warren's parallel preoccupation and support of the emerging public health state.

On the heels of nearly two years of top-down pressure from both state and private corporations coercing individuals to receive coronavirus innoculations, Norm queries whether our current concept of the individual right to privacy is under existential threat.

Mike illustrates his working mental model for the politics of abortion, privacy, capital punishment, and the emerging public health state (which both Norm and Mike understand as functionally the same as an emerging federal police power).

The two receive a glowing review from a caller thanking Norm for speaking plainly and with substantive merit to the public every day.

The two end the hour by unpacking Lanier v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, a case originating in Massachusetts in March 2019, dealing with Tamara Lanier's claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress. Specifically, Ms. Lanier claims—and the Supreme Judicial Court apparently agrees—that Harvard breached its duty of care to her in its treatment of her claims that she is the direct lineal descendant of one of the salves depicted in certain daguerreotypes dating to 1850.

With the limited time remaining Norm expresses his relief that this SCOTUS term has come to an end, and analyzes a view of the lesser regarded decisions that have been handed down.

Norm is joined by Brian Festa in the second hour. Listeners may recall Brian Festa from previous Law and Legitimacy and LAL Live episodes. Brian is the face of We The Patriots USA and a great friend to the LAL family. Norm asks Brian to give his opinion on the public reaction to Dobbs and to extrapolate those opinions to a larger criticism of American society.

Like, share, and subscribe! Norm is live every weekday from 12pm ET to 2pm ET on WICC 600AM/107.3FM. Stream Norm live at https://www.wicc600.com/. Follow @PattisPodcast on Twitter.

Norm opens the show questioning whether the United States Constitution fits the demands of our society anymore. He begins with a monologue framing the issues of both New York Rifle and Pistol and Dobbs decisions.

Norm clarifies his solemnity by saying simply that he cannot say that SCOTUS got it wrong in either ruling. The question, though, is whether our society can endure in a scenario as politically divisive as the current one in America.

The show begins with an analysis of New York Pistol and Rifle and its impact on the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The lion's share of the show, however, is devoted to an analysis of Dobbs. In particular, Norm and Mike unpack Justice Clarence Thomas's concurrence in Dobbs and what such a concurrence might portend for the jurisprudential future of what legal scholars have come to know as substantive due process.

Like, share, and subscribe! Norm is live every weekday from 12pm ET to 2pm ET on WICC 600AM/107.3FM. Stream Norm live at https://www.wicc600.com/. Follow @PattisPodcast on Twitter.

In a 6-3 majority opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas, The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen that New York's proper cause requirement for obtaining an unrestricted license to carry a concealed firearm violates the Fourteenth Amendment in that it prevents law abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

Before he explores this, Norm follows up on yesterday's analysis of the ethical quandary of giving to panhandlers, and also asks the audience to confirm whether they have actually seen any of the supposed immigrants from the southern US border being dropped off at Westchester Airport. Norm is skeptical, but wants to know whether there any confirmed reports. He has a theory of how Twitter might be an echo chamber or silo that we each fall into individually, usually without any self-awareness.

Today's main course is Norm's interviews of two of Connecticut's candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, Aaron Lewis and Kevin Alan Skulczyck respectively. Listeners may recognize Mr. Skulczyck from his internet show and previous appearance on Law and Legitimacy under the Kevin Alan Show banner.

Dr. Lewis is a Libertarian Party candidate for Governor in Connecticut, and also a prolific author and founder of Hartford, Connecticut, based nonprofit, The Scribe Institute.

Learn more about Dr. Lewis, his platform, and his plans for Connecticut here: https://lewisforgovernor.com/about/.

Like, share, and subscribe! Norm is live every weekday from 12pm ET to 2pm ET on WICC 600AM/107.3FM. Stream Norm live at https://www.wicc600.com/. Follow @PattisPodcast on Twitter.

Norm takes a detour to crowdsource input from listeners on a topic that has been in the back of his mind for a long time: panhandling.

He begins with a story of Troy and how Troy burned his trust.

There appears to be an increasing rise in the homeless population, at least in the New Haven area. Norm explores his feelings of guilt, his aversion to eye contact, the complex feeling of obligation paralleled by a resentment for those who won't pick up their own beds and walk.

What are we to do as citizens? What are our obligations to the homeless who beg that we assist them as we pass?

Housing activists claim that housing in a human right and that we are obligated to provide housing for every citizen. Norm understands the sentiment, but queries why we must be accountable for others' poor decisions or circumstances? It is a complicated question.

Instead of going at the topic alone, Norm solicits callers' opinions to get a better sense of how others approach the topic of the homeless, the mentally ill, the panhandlers.

Like, share, and subscribe! Norm is live every weekday from 12pm ET to 2pm ET on WICC 600AM/107.3FM. Stream Norm live at https://www.wicc600.com/. Follow @PattisPodcast on Twitter.