Personal Responsibility Lawyer

You've got to lock up the bad guys in order to keep us all safe. Right? It seems right, but it's not so simple. NYU Law Professor Rachel Barkow (@RachelBarkow) discusses her book Prisoners of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration. Prof. Barkow is an expert in criminal justice reform. This conversation is full of surprising information about how our collective zeal to punish has ended up making us less safe, and has actually made crime worse, not better. Listen to this conversation and then go get the book. It's worth your time, and these issues affect all of us, even if only indirectly.  

What we have learned is that some of our attempts to keep the community safe have backfired. In our efforts to punish terrible things, we have swept up a lot of people who have done less-terrible things, even if they aren't perfectly innocent. 

Criminal justice is a tough issue, filled with nuance. This discussion embraces the difficulty and nuance, and explores ways that we can make things better.

The Anti-Federalists played a huge role in shaping the Constitution that we have today, even though they were opposed to ratification. But we have largely forgotten that there were Anti-Federalists, and that they wrote some very interesting articles in opposition to ratifying the Constitution, called (predictably) the Anti-Federalist Papers.

If you're serious about understanding the Constitution, you need to know more about the Anti-Federalist Papers.

Conservatives hate class actions, right? It's just greedy liberal trial lawyers who like class actions, and that's just because they get all the money and nothing goes to the victims, right? Not so fast, according to Prof. Brian Fitzpatrick. Prof. Fitzpatrick, a conservative former Scalia law clerk, explains the "ironic" history of class actions, and why conservatives should be more in favor of the class action than they are. 

Prof. Fitzpatrick and I discuss the history of class actions, why class actions are better than government regulation, and dispel some of the myths about class actions.

Get more info about the book at https://www.briantfitzpatrick.com/. 

See the show notes at https://www.michaellovins.com/the-conservative-case-for-class-actions/.

If you enjoy this podcast, please leave a review!

At some time, most of us will have someone we love living in a nursing home or assisted living facility. Sometimes, these places are a wonderful and safe place for the elderly. Unfortunately, though, that's not always the case. One way to make sure these facilities are safe is to hold them accountable when they fail to take care of our elderly the way that they should.

My guest today is David Hoey, a personal injury trial lawyer who specializes in protecting our elders, making their lives safer and more pleasant.

Elder law is a growing field of law as life spans increase and medical care becomes more vital. Consequently, elder care is a booming industry. We need those in elder care business to keep their promises to our elderly people and protect them as if they were family.

You can find more about David's practice at www.hoeylaw.com, or on Twitter @HoeyLaw, or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/hoeylawfirm/. 

In a culture of shallow learning, shallow work, and shallow relationships, the Waterloo School of Austin is fostering deep learning, deep work, and deep relationships. The way we run schools was designed by 10 people back in the 1890s. Why should we be surprised that today's education system is not producing people ready to thrive in a dramatically changed world? The Waterloo School of Austin is a new high school that is changing how education is done. 

In this episode, I talk to Craig Doerksen and Carol Blosser, two of the co-founders of the Waterloo School. If you are interested in developing young people into well-educated deep thinkers, this episode will be right up your alley!

If you're arrested and indicted for a crime you didn't commit, no need to worry, right? The criminal justice system will give you a fair shake. Right? Well, not so fast, according to Clark Neily. Clark is the Vice President for Criminal Justice at the Cato Institute. In this interview, Clark and I discuss plea bargaining. Criminal cases almost never go to a jury trial. The default assumption is that a defendant will plead guilty and accept a sentence. If he or she refuses to plead guilty, prosecutors often add a pile of other supposed crimes, often referred to as a "trial penalty." 

In this interview, Clark and I discuss the problems with the plea bargaining system, and how to fix them.

If you don’t know a lot about Frederick Douglass, well, join the club. But then get out of the club. You want to know about this man’s life. Trust me on that one.

My guest in this episode of the Personal Responsibility Lawyer podcast is Tim Sandefur. Tim is the Vice President of Litigation at the Goldwater Institute. We could have spent a full episode talking about the fascinating lawsuits he oversees involving constitutional rights. But this episode is about one of his many books, Frederick Douglass: Self-Made Man.

Prior to hearing Tim speak about this book, I was generally aware of a guy named Frederick Douglass who was pretty important in the abolitionist movement. I’m embarrassed to admit that’s pretty much where my knowledge stopped. But my curiosity was piqued by Tim’s talk, so I read the book. It’s not long, and it’s a really easy read, so I strongly recommend it.

8th Degree Taekwondo black belt and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu brown belt Richard Johnson talks to me about his martial arts journey, and how martial arts teaches basic principles about life and personal responsibility.

Richard started in martial arts when he was in high school and was tired of being bullied. His idea was that he was going to start winning the fights with the ones who had picked on him. Instead, he hasn't been in a fight since. 

Well, he's been in a lot of fights, but they were all in competitions. Within a few years of starting Taekwondo, he was a national champion black belt. Now he owns a Taekwondo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu school in Austin, Texas (www.southaustintkd.com).

I had a great time interviewing Twitter's Senator, Shoshana Weissmann! If you haven't already, you can find her on Twitter, @SenatorShoshana. If you're a Twitter kind of person, I highly recommend you follow her. She is also the digital media guru for the R Street Institute (@RSI or rstreet.org), a free market think tank in Washington, DC.

Shoshana and I talk about occupational licensing reform, and how the federal, state, and local governments have gotten into the business of protecting their friends by raising barriers to entry. We even talk about a complete law-nerd term, "regulatory capture."

The government requires a license to work about 500 different jobs. How arbitrary and unreasonable can those licensing requirements be before they violate your constitutional (state or US) rights to earn an honest living? Can the government pass laws just to protect established businesses with good lobbyists? If the regulations violate your rights, what can you do? 

My guest today is Arif Panju (@arifpanju) of the Institute for Justice (@IJ). Arif and IJ have sued the government in state and local courts to protect the rights of regular folks to earn a living without unreasonable government interference. We talk about several important cases that they have litigated, including Patel v. Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation and St. Joseph Abbey v. Castille.

What do these cases (and similar cases) mean for economic freedom? What do they mean for you?