The Illustrated Guide to Law

The comic that teaches what the law is, how it really works, and why.

Main menu

Skip to primary content
Skip to secondary content
  • CRIMINAL LAW
    • Crime
      • 1. Introduction: What IS Crime?
      • 2. More than “Don’t”
      • 3. Crime and Punishment
      • 4. Meet the State
    • Punishment
      • Introduction
        • 1. Punishment: “Take That!”
        • 2. One Tool
        • 3. What IS Punishment?
        • 4. A Hell of a Thing
        • 5. Options
      • Rehabilitation
        • 6. For the Love of God, Why?
        • 7. I Can Fix Him
        • 8. Is Rehabilitation Necessary?
        • 9. Does Rehabilitation Work?
        • 10. Tough Love
        • 11. It Ain’t Easy
      • Deterrence
        • 12. Deterrence: Don’t Do That Again!
        • 13. Specific Deterrence
        • 14. General deterrence
        • 15. Measuring Deterrence
        • 16. Does Deterrence Work?
        • 17. When Deterrence Works
        • 18. Perception Is Everything
        • 19. Who Knows?
        • 20. Can’t We Be Civilized
      • The Three 'R's
        • 21. Removal
        • 22. Removal: Off the Streets
        • 23. Removal: Problems
        • 24. Removal: Civilized?
        • 25. Retribution: What’s It Worth?
        • 26: Retribution: Proportional Suffering
        • 27. Retribution: Civilized?
        • 28. Retaliation: Striking Back
        • 29. Retaliation: Civilized?
    • Guilt
      • Introduction
        • 1. Introduction: “I Didn’t Mean To!”
        • 2. Justice
        • 3. Who Deserves Punishment?
        • 4. Culpability
      • Mens Rea
        • 5. Jack and Jill
        • 6. Jan and Dean
        • 7. Bonnie and Clyde
        • 8. Romeo and Juliet
        • 9. Ricky and Lucy
        • 10. Mens Rea = Mental State
        • 11. Guilty mind
        • 12. Accident
        • 13. Negligence
        • 14. Recklessness
        • 15. Knowledge
        • 16. Intent
        • 17. The Mens Rea – O – Meter
      • Axes of Evil
        • 18. Awareness
        • 19. Responsibility
        • 20. Blame
        • 21. Indirect Cause
        • 22. Let’s Play “Pin the Blame on Somebody”
        • 23. Two Axes: Mens Rea, and Responsibility
        • 24. Intent Without Causation
        • 25. The Third Axis: Depravity
        • 26. Punishing Awfulness
        • 27. Deserving It
      • Actus Reus
        • 28. What Have You DONE?
        • 29. An Assault
        • 30. The Elements of Crime: Guilty Mind, and Guilty Act
        • 31. Voodoo
        • 32. Causation
        • 33. A Series of Unfortunate Events
        • 34. Cause In Fact, and Proximate Cause
        • 35. Concurrence
        • 36. He Missed and Maimed Mamie Instead
        • 37. Transferred Intent
      • Attempt
        • 38. Attempt: “At Least You Tried”
        • 39. It’s All About You
        • 40. Schemes
        • 41. Dreams
        • 42. Making Scenes
        • 43. Working
        • 44. Digging
        • 45. And Then There’s Maude
        • 46. She Takes Her Shot
        • 47. Thought Crime?
        • 48. Mere Intent
        • 49. Taking Steps
        • 50. Apply the Purposes of Punishment
        • 51. Different States, Different Laws
        • 52. A Continuum
        • 53. Subjective Mind vs. Objective Action
        • 54. Attempt Is Always On Purpose
        • 55. A Safety Valve
        • 56. Abandoned Attempt
        • 57. Abandonment: Timing Is Everything
        • 58. A Change of Heart
        • 59. Impossibility
        • 60. Frick’s Frustration
        • 61. Frack’s Frustration
        • 62. Attempt: Summing Up
      • Conspiracy & Solicitation
        • 63. Conspiracy: “We’ll All Go Down Together”
        • 64. Assembling the Crew: The Wheels, The Brains
        • 65. Assembling the Crew: The Expert, The Heavy
        • 66. The Plan
        • 67. The Supplies
        • 68. The Job
        • 69. The Line
        • 70. The Signal
        • 71. The Wires
        • 72. The Glitch
        • 73. The Hitch
        • 74. The Getaway
        • 75. The Mess
        • 76. The Rendezvous
        • 77. The Showdown
        • 78. The Cavalry
        • 79. Solicitation
        • 80. Accomplices
        • 81. Accomplice Liability
        • 82. All Kinds of Accomplices
        • 83. Not Every Helper is an Accomplice
        • 84. Criminal Facilitation
        • 85. Conspiracy: Inchoate Crime
        • 86. Conspiracy: Agreement and Action
        • 87. Conspiracy: Agreement and Intent
        • 88. Conspiracy: A Big Net
        • 89. Conspiracy: The Prosecutor’s Favorite Weapon
        • 90. A Separate Crime
        • 91. Withdrawal from a Conspiracy
        • 92. A Conspiracy of One?
        • 93. Felony Murder
        • 94. Foreseeability
        • 95. Fail. Jail.
    • Defenses
      • Mistake and Insanity
        • 1. “Excuse Me!”
        • 2. Ignorance of the Law
        • 3. Forgiveness vs. Nothing to Forgive
        • 4. Excuse vs. Justification
        • 5. Mistaken Facts
        • 6. Not a Defense If Not a Crime
        • 7. Provocation: Temporary Insanity
        • 8. Provocation: Elements of the Defense
        • 9. Provocation: The Rationale
        • 10. The “Reasonable Person”
        • 11. “Reasonable?” It Depends
        • 12. Insanity
        • 13. Insanity: You Wouldn’t Understand
        • 14. Delusion
        • 15. What’s the Point of Punishment?
        • 16. Insanity Has Consequences
        • 17. Diminished Capacity
        • 18. Blackout Drunk
        • 19. Another Transferred Intent
        • 20. Only on T.V.
      • Entrapment
        • 21. “I Was Entrapped!”
        • 22. Cora Gets Advice
        • 23. Cop Costs Extra
        • 24. Outrageous?
        • 25. Grayson Helps Out
        • 26. Sylvester’s Security
        • 27. Solid Saul
        • 28. Jeez
        • 29. Jen Shops Around
        • 30. Federal Assistance
        • 31. Zeke Blocks It
        • 32. Zeke Freaks
        • 33. All Your Myths Are Wrong
        • 34. Myth #1: A Cop Has to Tell You He’s a Cop
        • 35. Think About It
        • 36. Not a Survival Skill
        • 37. Elements of Entrapment
        • 38. Entrapment Explanation
        • 39. You Were Tricked
        • 40. But Were You Willing?
        • 41. Myths #2 & #3: The Police Can’t Get Involved
        • 42. Some Things Undercovers Can Do
        • 43. Myth #4: The Police Can’t Help You Break the Law
        • 44. Myth #5: The Police Can’t Let You Break the Law
        • 45. Opportunity Isn’t Entrapment
        • 46. Entrapment Overcomes Your Free Will
        • 47. Informants
        • 48. The Power of Cops Compels You
        • 49. False Representation
      • Justification Defenses
        • Introduction
          • 50. Excuse vs. Justification (again)
          • 51. Excuse = An Option
          • 52. Justification = No Alternative
          • 53. The 3 Justification Defenses
        • Necessity
          • 54. Meet Dylan the Dimwit
          • 55. Harry the Hero Helps
          • 56. Immediate Danger
          • 57. Lesser of Two Evils
          • 58. Necessity: Elements of the Defense
          • 59. There’s No Chutzpah Defense
          • 60. Becky’s Bentley
          • 61. Weighing Evils
          • 62. Up a Cliff
          • 63. Dire Decision
          • 64. Trolley Problem
          • 65. “As a Matter of Law”: Policy’s Thumb on the Scales
          • 66. The GREATER Good
          • 67. Volition
          • 68. Equivalent Evil
          • 69. No, That Doesn’t Count
          • 70. No, That Doesn’t Count, Either
        • Duress
          • 71. Duress: “Do or Die”
          • 72. Vicky Meets the Golden Horde
          • 73. Did She Decide?
          • 74. Did She Have a Choice?
          • 75. Elements of Duress: Threat & Fear
          • 76. Elements of Duress: Do or Die
          • 77. Why Duress Is a Defense
          • 78. Stu Meets the Horde
          • 79. Stu and the Snitch
          • 80. 3… 2… 1…
          • 81. …
          • 82. Duress vs. Necessity
          • 83. Duress Doesn’t Always Help
          • 84. Millie the Mule
          • 85. Immediate Danger
          • 86. Overcoming Your Free Will
          • 87. Different States, Different Laws (duress edition)
          • 88. Bob at the Bank
          • 89. Another Guy, Another Bank
          • 90. Stranger Things
          • 91. No Duty, No Defense?
          • 92. Nobody Said the Law Was Fair
          • 93. Trog’s Initiation
          • 94. There’s Still No Chutzpah Defense
          • 95. Duress Is Rare
        • Self-Defense
          • 96. Self-Defense: “It Was Either Him or Me”
          • 97. Drop It or You’re Dead
          • 98. Defense of Property
          • 99. Non-Deadly Force
          • 100. Rico’s Ranch Hands
          • 101. Defending What You Stole?
          • 102. SELF Defense
          • 103. OMG, the Saloon
          • 104. Laredo Luke
          • 105. Blam
          • 106. Defense Against Unlawful Violence
          • 107. Only Necessary Force
          • 108. Throwing the First Punch
          • 109. Pre-Emptive Self-Defense
          • 110. When Fighting Back Is Illegal
          • 111. Same Night, Another Fight
          • 112. So Far, So Good
          • 113. Escalation
          • 114. Defender Becomes Aggressor
          • 115. DEADLY Force Has Different Rules
          • 116. Caleb Crawls In
          • 117. Home Intrusion
          • 118. Deadly Force: Last Resort
          • 119. Deadly Force: Elements of the Defense
          • 120. Your Own Home: No Duty to Retreat
          • 121. Your Own Home: Necessity Still Necessary
          • 122. “Imperfect” Self-Defense
          • 123. Two Gunslingers
          • 124. He Shot First
          • 125. Stand Your Ground
          • 126. Making a Getaway
          • 127. An Accident?
          • 128. Reckless?
          • 129. To the Rescue
          • 130. Defense of Others
          • 131. “Transferred” Duty to Retreat
          • 132. Lillie Wants to Stay
          • 133. Hank Had a Drink
          • 134. Hank Hurts
          • 135. Two Years
          • 136. He Will
          • 137. Lillie Says Goodbye
          • 138. …
          • 139. What Have You Done?
          • 140. Battered Woman Defense
          • 141. There’s No “He Needed Killin'” Defense
          • 142. You Did the Right Thing?
    • Guilt Without Fault
      • Introduction
        • 1. A Feather
        • 2. Memories
        • 3. MBTA
        • 4. You Did Nothing Wrong? Go to Jail.
        • 5. Soup
        • 6. Impossible
        • 7. Nobody Could Have Guessed It Was Illegal? Go to Jail.
      • Overcriminalization
        • 8. Countless Crimes: Literally Uncountable
        • 9. Unknown Crimes: Literally Unknowable
        • 10. Criminal Law: Vague, Arbitrary, and Capricious
        • 11. Regulatory Agencies
        • 12. Enacting Without Understanding
        • 13. Do It My Way
        • 14. Progressive Idealism
        • 15. A Man of Principles
        • 16. Prescribing, Not Describing
        • 17. Overbroad
        • 18. Zero Tolerance
        • 19. The Law Means What I Say It Means
        • 20. You’ll Just Have to Trust Me
        • 21. Unfair, Unjust
      • History of Overcriminalization and Strict Liability
        • 22. Custom and Tradition
        • 23. Law Is Good
        • 24. Law Goes Bad
        • 25. Ancient Rome: Popularity Over Principle
        • 26. Ancient Rome: Countless, Contradictory
        • 27. Ancient Rome: Bad Government? More Laws!
        • 28. Old England: Common Sense
        • 29. Old England: Common Understanding
        • 30. Old England: Straightforward Law
        • 31. Old England: Mens Rea, Justification, Incapacity
        • 32. Old England: Simple Punishment
        • 33. Old England: Might Makes Right?
        • 34. Old England: Corruption?
        • 35. Old England: The State Gets Involved
        • 36. Old England: The Rule of Law
        • 37. Old England: Proliferation of Laws
        • 38. Old England: Overcriminalization
        • 39. Old England: The Need for Reform
        • 40. Old England: A Snare for the Unwary
        • 41. Old England: Blackstone Suggests Reforms
        • 42. America: Listening to Blackstone
        • 43. America: A New Conception of Crime
        • 44. America: Enlightened Thought
        • 45. America: Prison to Progress
        • 46. America: Rehabilitation, a New Idea
        • 47. Self-Help
        • 48. America: The State Takes Charge
        • 49. Strict Liability: Origins
        • 50. Strict Liability: Principled
        • 51. Strict Liability: Statutory Rape Makes Sense
        • 52. Strict Liability: Changing the Rules
        • 53. Strict Liability: Statutory Rape Law Stops Making Sense
        • 54. Strict Liability: Regulators Love It
        • 55. Strict Liability: Forgetting the Principle
      • Concluding Thoughts
        • 56. Getting Tough on Crime
        • 57. Choking on Our Institutions
        • 58. Sucks to Be You: Crime Becomes a Lottery
        • 59. Video: No Mens Rea? No Problem!
        • 60. Keep Your Head Down
        • 61. Progress?
    • Examples
      • Theft
        • 1. A Violin
        • 2. A Crime?
        • 3. Burglary Means Breaking In
        • 4. Robbery Means Violence
        • 5. Larceny Means Theft
        • 6. Petty Larceny, Grand Larceny
        • 7. Mistake About Value?
      • Assault and Hate Crime
        • 8. Pow! Right in the Kisser
        • 9. Battery Means Bodily Harm
        • 10. Dealing with Defenses
        • 11. Simple? Aggravated?
        • 12. Hate Crime: Born This Way
        • 13. Hate Crime: An Extra Level of Mens Rea
      • Rape
        • 14. Nope.
        • 15. A Rape Law
        • 16. What “Consent” Means
        • 17. First Degree Rape
        • 18. Force? No Consent.
        • 19. Sooo Drunk
        • 20. But She Said Yes
        • 21. Doesn’t Matter
        • 22. If You Knew, That’s Rape 2
        • 23. You Couldn’t Have Known? Not Rape.
        • 24. Regret
        • 25. He Said, She Said
        • 26. Relevant Facts
        • 27. Rape Shield Laws
        • 28. False Accusations
        • 29. Other Considerations
      • Homicide
        • 30. Murder and Manslaughter
        • 31. Manslaughter and Negligent Homicide
        • 32. Another Fight
        • 33. Another Accident?
        • 34. Causation
        • 35. Misdemeanor Manslaughter
        • 36. Predictability
        • 37. Mens Rea
        • 38. Awareness of Risk
        • 39. Provocation
        • 40. Alcohol
        • 41. An Idea
        • 42. A Plan
        • 43. A Gun
        • 44. A Felony
        • 45. Deaths
        • 46. Homicide?
        • 47. Felony Murder
        • 48. Homicide vs. Accident
        • 49. A Terrorist
        • 50. A Bomb
        • 51. An Explosion
        • 52. Depravity vs. Mens Rea
        • 53. Violence for Political Goals = Terrorism
        • 54. Breaking the Mens Rea – O – Meter
        • 55. An Injection
      • Criminal Law: Conclusion
  • CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
    • Introduction: So What?
      • 1. Crim Pro: So What?
      • 2. Hammer Time
      • 3. With Great Power Comes Great… Abuse
      • 4. Out of Control
      • 5. Enter Justice
      • 6. Procedure Is Our Protection
      • 7. Criminal Procedure
    • Meet the Players
      • Player One
      • 1. Life Isn’t Pretty
      • 2. All You’ve Got
      • 3. Meet the Cop
      • 4. A Hard Job
      • 5. No, Not Pretty
      • Player Two
      • 6. Not My Job
      • 7. Still Not My Job
      • 8. Meet the Prosecutor
      • 9. Great Power
      • 10. Great Responsibility
      • Player Three
      • 11. Why? How?
      • 12. All You’ve Got
      • 13. Meet the Defense Counsel
      • 14. Disservice?
      • 15. Greasing the Wheels
      • Player Four
      • 16. Got to Be Fair
      • 17. Fair Enough
      • 18. Enter the Judge
      • 19. Fair Question
      • 20. Trying to Be…
      • Player Five
      • 21. Nope, Not You
    • Search and Seizure
      • Introduction: Police vs. Privacy
        • 1. Police vs. Privacy
        • 2. An Officer Finds Evidence
        • 3. Getting Off on a Technicality?
        • 4. Privacy
        • 5. The Fourth Amendment
        • 6. 4th Amendment: Why?
        • 7. 4th Amendment: Prohibition
        • 8. 4th Amendment: Probable Cause
        • 9. 4th Amendment: The Warrant Requirement
        • 10. A Balancing Act
        • 11. Excluding Evidence
        • 12. Why Exclude Evidence?
        • 13. The Beauty of the Exclusionary Rule
        • 14. The Shield of Justice
        • 15. Bad Understanding = Weird Outcomes
      • Search Warrants and Standing
        • 16. Charlie Gets Arrested
        • 17. Checking Charlie’s Story
        • 18. A Rude Awakening
        • 19. Is It Enough?
        • 20. Get a Warrant
        • 21. Probable Cosplay
        • 22. Something Smells
        • 23. Oh No! Anyway…
        • 24. Standing
        • 25. What If a Warrant is Based on a Lie?
        • 26. No-Knock Warrant, Protective Sweep
        • 27. Can Police Rely on a Bad Warrant?
      • Wiretaps: Electronic Eavesdropping
        • 28. A Tragedy
        • 29. A Suspect
        • 30. Many More Hoops to Jump Through
        • 31. Necessity
        • 32. No Other Way
        • 33. Connect the Dots: Building Probable Cause
        • 34. The Easy Part
        • 35. Minimization
        • 36. Lots of Work to Do
        • 37. Listening Isn’t Everything
        • 38. A Call
        • 39. A Code?
        • 40. Surveillance
        • 41. Wham
        • 42. An Arrest
      • Stop / Frisk / Arrest
        • 43. You’re Being Detained: Seizing the Person
        • 44. Reasonable Suspicion, Probable Cause
        • 45. When Seizure Was Straightforward
        • 46. Search Without Probable Cause?
        • 47. Stop and Frisk
        • 48. Limited Scope
        • 49. Pat-Down
        • 50. Secret Page! Don’t Tell!
        • 51. What IS an Arrest?
        • 52. Sliding Scales of Justice
        • 53. Are You Free to Leave?
        • 54. Example: First Contact
        • 55. Example: Stop
        • 56. Example: Frisk, Arrest
        • 57. It Was Lawful!
        • 58. It Was Unlawful!
      • Automobiles
        • 59. A Traffic Stop
        • 60. A Stop is a Stop
        • 61. Get Out of the Car!
        • 62. Some Right Balderdash
        • 63. Can You Frisk a Car?
        • 64. Plain View
        • 65. What About the Trunk?
        • 66. Asking Permission
        • 67. Consent to Search
        • 68. Don’t Consent
        • 69. Police: Deception is OK. Coercion is Not.
        • 70. The Scope of Consent
        • 71. What’s In the Trunk?
        • 72. A Checkpoint
        • 73. Detention Without Suspicion
        • 74. Checkpoints: About Cars, Not Crime
        • 75. Lawful Checkpoint Purposes
        • 76. Strangely Lawful Checkpoint Purposes
        • 77. Roll Down the Window, Please
        • 78. Not Suspicious at All
        • 79. This Can’t Be Happening
        • 80. Search Incident to Arrest
        • 81. Searching the Car and Closed Containers
        • 82. Searching the Trunk?
        • 83. Dog Sniff vs. Privacy
        • 84. Dog Sniff vs. Search
        • 85. The Automobile Exception
        • 86. An Outcome
      • Emergency Exceptions
        • 87. A Quiet Mountain Town
        • 88. A Chase of Life or Death
        • 89. A Pursuit
        • 90. An Unexpected Arrest
        • 91. A Choice
        • 92. A Break
        • 93. A Noise
        • 94. A Seizure
        • 95. Hot Pursuit
        • 96. Hot Pursuit vs. Warrant Requirement
        • 97. Plain View
        • 98. Plain View vs. Warrant Requirement
        • 99. Plain Perception
        • 100. When Police Outweigh Privacy
        • 101. Deadly Force as Seizure
        • 102. Standing vs. Abandonment
        • 103. Standing vs. Concealment
        • 104. Hot Pursuit, Cold Trail
        • 105. To Freeze or Seize
        • 106. Public Safety, Rescue
        • 107. Urgent Need for Assistance
        • 108. Protective Sweep?
        • 109. A New Emergency
        • 110. A Peaceful Mountain Town
      • THE FOURTH AMENDMENT FLOWCHART
    • Self-Incrimination
      • Introduction: Convict Yourself!
        • 1. Introduction: Convict Yourself!
        • 2. Keep an Open Mind
        • 3. Minds Slam Shut
        • 4. Forced to Confess
        • 5. Manipulated Confessions
        • 6. Fraudulent Confessions
        • 7. Punishing the Innocent
        • 8. Innocence Isn’t Everything
        • 9. The Big Concern: Overpowering Your Free Will
        • 10. The Ultimate Abuse of Power
      • History of Self-Incrimination Law
        • 11. It’s Not What You Think
        • 12. England Was Different
        • 13. England’s Proud Principle
        • 14. Torture
        • 15. England’s Bizarre Notion
        • 16. Who Cares if it Works? It’s Wrong.
        • 17. Common Sense and Common Law
        • 18. Star Chamber: Inquisitorial, Not Adversarial
        • 19. Inquisition: Results, Not Rights
        • 20. Inquisitorial Courts: Parliament Fights Back
        • 21. The Accident of Fundamental Rights
        • 22. Deadly Detour: Church and State Become Buddies
        • 23. Deadly Detour: Religious Persecution, the Police State
        • 24. Deadly Detour: Torture & Coercion
        • 25. Deadly Detour: Abuse & Opposition
        • 26. Deadly Detour: An Innocent Person Has Nothing to Fear
        • 27. Deadly Detour: Coercion Is Un-English
        • 28. England Picks Up Where It Left Off
        • 29. Duress is the Colonial Way
        • 30. Enlightenment Ideas
        • 31. A Bill of Rights
        • 32. The Fifth Amendment
        • 33. Bedrock Principle: A Confession Must Be Voluntary
        • 34. The Crime Wave
        • 35. Results, Not Rights: The American Inquisition
        • 36. Nobody Expected the American Inquisition
        • 37. Torture, American Style
        • 38. Outrage and Confusion
        • 39. OMG Science!
        • 40. What Polygraphs are Really For
        • 41. Scientifically Coerced Confessions
        • 42. Interrogation that Gets Results
        • 43. The Right to Counsel?
        • 44. The Reid Technique: Opening Moves
        • 45. The Reid Technique: Sealing the Deal
        • 46. Maybe Use the Fifth Amendment?
        • 47. Miranda v. Arizona
        • 48. Miranda’s Magic Words
        • 49. Miranda’s Fundamental Disconnect
      • Taking the Fifth
        • 50. Jane Has a Webcomic
        • 51. Think of the Children!
        • 52. Senate Hearings
        • 53. Jane Respectfully Declines to Answer
        • 54. INNOCENT People Take the Fifth
        • 55. Contempt is Coercion
        • 56. The Elements of the Privilege
        • 57. Neutralizing the Privilege
        • 58. Can Corporations Take the Fifth?
        • 59. Documents vs. Testimony
        • 60. Samples vs. Self-Incrimination
        • 61. Taking the Fifth to Protect Another?
        • 62. Coercion, But Not State Coercion
        • 63. Talking vs. Taking the Fifth
        • 64. Waiving Your Rights
        • 65. Silence vs. Taking the Fifth
        • 66. How to Take the Fifth
      • Miranda: Custodial Interrogation
        • 67. Miranda’s Magic Words: A Refresher
        • 68. It Begins with an Arrest
        • 69. Speaking of Crime
        • 70. Questions for the Doctor
        • 71. Grill, Interrupted
        • 72. Executing a Search Warrant
        • 73. Another Arrest
        • 74. No Further Questions
        • 75. Guns Drawn
        • 76. Split Them Up
        • 77. What Do You Have to Say For Yourself?
        • 78. There Are No Words
        • 79. I Know My Rights
        • 80. Let’s Change the Subject
        • 81. Choice Words
        • 82. Nice Car
        • 83. A Strange Question
        • 84. A Rough Scene
        • Recap: We’ll All Go Down Together
        • 85. What Can We Use?
        • 86. No Custody, No Miranda
        • 87. Custody Equals Coercion. Unless…
        • 88. Fifth Amendment Custody
        • 89. Custody Examples
        • 90. The First Step: Was It Voluntary?
        • 91. Voluntariness: This Specific Person’s Free Will
        • 92. Traffic Stop vs. Fifth Amendment Custody
        • 93. Custody vs. Stop
        • 94. Stop Becomes Custody
        • 95. This Is What It Sounds Like, When Cops Lie
        • 96. Police Deception and Coercion
        • 97. Is It Interrogation?
        • 98. Consequences
        • 99. Public Safety Exception
        • 100. Custody + Interrogation = Miranda
        • 101. ANYTHING You Say…
        • 102. Custody is Custody
        • 103. Deep Breaths
        • 104. Interrogation Isn’t Just Questions
        • 105. Cops Get a Do-Over
        • 106. Waiver: A Free Pass
        • 107. How Courts Really Decide
        • 108. It’s So Easy (to Waive Your Rights)
        • 109. Does Miranda Make Everything Worse?
        • 110. INVOKING Your Rights: Silence
        • 111. Miranda: A Second Interrogation?
        • 112. Police Safety Exceptions
        • 113. Rights Waived… or Rights Invoked?
        • 114. INVOKING Your Rights: Counsel
        • 115. Rights… Rights… Who’s Left?
        • 116. The Psylent One…
        • 117. Exercising- I Mean, INVOKING Your Rights
        • 118. ALL YOU NEED TO SAY. (But You Need to Say It.)
        • 119. Knowing and Voluntary Waiver
        • 120. Serious Danger
        • 121. A Long Way Away
        • 122. The Different Story
        • 123. Who’s Playing Who?
        • 124. Self-Incrimination Finale: SHUT UP!
      • THE FIFTH AMENDMENT FLOWCHART
    • Eyewitness Identification
      • Introduction: It Was You!
        • 1. Introduction: It Was You!
        • 2. Did You Get a Good Look at Him?
        • 3. Is That Him?
        • 4. That’s the Guy.
        • 5. Minds Snap Shut
        • 6. Life Passes…
        • 7. …And Then
        • 8. So Many Wrongful Convictions
        • 9. Identification is Memory
      • A Memory for Faces
        • 10. Memory Isn’t a Movie
        • 11. Connect the Neurons
        • 12. Proustian
        • 13. Sensation vs. Perception
        • 14. Did You Notice?
        • 15. Working Memory
        • 16. Hold That Thought
        • 17. “Chunking”
        • 18. Make It Last
        • 19. Unlimited Capacity
        • 20. Meet Your Hippocampus
        • 21. Use It or Lose It
        • 22. Making Connections
        • 23. The More Ways You Use It…
        • 24. Learning is a Social Skill
        • 25. You Know More Than You Saw
        • 26. Remember This for Me
        • 27. I Remembered It for You
        • 28. A Feature—Not a Bug
        • 29. That Never Happened? Yeah, I Remember It.
        • 30. Filling In the Blanks
        • 31. You Saw Nothing
        • 32. What Have You Seen?
        • 33. Expectations
        • 34. Context Equals Recollection
        • 35. Thank God for Stereotypes
        • 36. Jumping to Conclusions
        • 37. When Stereotypes Fail
        • 38. Paying Attention Ain’t Free
        • 39. PANIC!
        • 40. No, Seriously. Panic.
        • 41. More Memory Malleability
      • Facial Recognition
        • 42. Wired for Faces
        • 43. Prototypes
        • 44. Diagnosis
        • 45. What’s Different?
        • 46. Different People Have Different Parts That Are Different
        • 47. Cross-Race Identification
        • 48. Faces and Working Memory
        • 49. Cross-Race Identification: Worse Than You Think
      • Identification Procedures
        • 50. Let’s Be Scientific
        • 51. Scientific Experiment
        • 52. Control Group
        • 53. Witness Problems
        • 54. Experimental Error: Influencing the Outcome
        • 55. Suggestibility
        • 56. So Much Suggestibility
        • 57. Confirmation Bias
        • 58. No! Don’t Reinforce THAT Memory!
        • 59. Misleading Questions
        • 60. Who’s There? Interrupting Cow. InterrupMOOOOOO!
        • 61. Let Your Witness Do the Talking
        • 62. Easy Fix
        • 63. Double-Blind
        • 64. Sequential, or Simultaneous?
        • 65. Faulty Fillers
        • 66. Fine Fillers
        • 67. Showups
        • 68. Showup Problems
        • 69. More Showup Problems
        • 70. Serious Showup Problems
        • 71. Police Sketch
        • 72. Sketches Be Sketchy
        • 73. Best Practices
      • Identification Law
        • 74. Law?
        • 75. I.D. Issues
        • 76. A Crime
        • 77. An Eyewitness
        • 78. An I.D.
        • 79. Another I.D.
        • 80. A Hearing
        • 81. A Deal?
        • 82. Identification vs. Self-Incrimination
        • 83. Identification and the Right to Counsel
        • 84. Right to Counsel: Timing
        • 85. Right to Counsel: Limitations
        • 86. A Photo Array
        • 87. A Brady Violation?
        • 88. Coaching the Witness?
        • 89. Reliability?
        • 90. Law: It’s About Police, Not Precision
        • 91. So What? Who Cares?
        • 92. Fourth Amendment Issues
        • 93. Fifth Amendment Due Process
        • 94. Are Eyewitness Identifications Inherently Unfair?
        • 95. Urgency vs. Suggestivity
        • 96. Is Memory Legit? 5 Questions
        • 97. Is the Law Stupid?
        • 98. The Judge Rules: The Showup
        • 99. What the Law Wants
        • 100. Tainted Law
        • 101. Fair Suggestions
        • 102. The Judge Rules: In-Court I.D.
        • 103. Taco Time
        • 104. Photo Array Issues
        • 105. Photo Array Concerns
        • 106. Photo Array Arguments
        • 107. More Photo Array Arguments
        • 108. Photo Array Reliability
        • 109. The Judge Rules: Photo Array
        • 110. Is THIS the Eyewitness I.D. Flowchart?
        • 111. THE EYEWITNESS IDENTIFICATION FLOWCHART
        • 112. A Verdict
        • 113. Enough
        • 114. Saying Goodbye
      • THE EYEWITNESS IDENTIFICATION FLOWCHART
  • CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
    • Introduction
      • What Is Con Law?
        • 1. Con Law Is Divisive Social Issues
        • 2. Con Law Is Powerful Ideas
        • 3. Con Law is Quite a Ride
      • What Is a Constitution?
        • 4. A Constitution Isn’t Legislation
        • 5. A Constitution… Constitutes
        • 6. A Constitution Creates a Government, and Defines Its Powers
        • 7. A Constitution Is Principles, Not Details
        • 8. The U.S. Constitution Is Brief
      • THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION (Annotated)
    • What Were They Thinking?
      • Why A Constitution?
        • 1. What Were They Thinking?
        • 2. Annapolis
        • 3. The Articles of Confederation
        • 4. A Country in Crisis
        • 5. Even More Crises
        • 6. Hell in a Handbasket
        • 7. Can We Tweak the Confederation?
        • 8. We the People: Popular Sovereignty
        • 9. The Preamble: The Hinge of History
      • The Constitutional Convention
        • 10. Coming to Philadelphia
        • 11. Madison Has a Plan
        • 12. Amend the Constitution?
        • 13. Should Amendments Be Allowed?
        • 14. Do We WANT a Living Constitution?
        • 15. Hamilton Has a Plan
        • 16. April Fools!
        • 17. In the Room Where It Happened? Nope.
        • 18. Hammering Out the Details
        • 19. The Will of the People? Okay, How?
        • 20. Why Two-Thirds?
        • 21. Why Not More? Why Not Less?
        • 22. Who Says? The States or the People?
        • 23. Guvneer Has a Point
        • 24. Does Anybody Have an Answer?
        • 25. They Skipped A Step.
        • 26. The South Brings Up Slavery
        • 27. The Great Compromise, the Three-Fifths Compromise, and the Seeds of Secession (long)
        • 28. Protecting the Slave Trade
        • 29. They Skipped Another Step
        • 30. Styling a Final Draft
        • 31. Guvneer Makes Some Changes
        • 32. Really? Really.
        • 33. The Final Day: Mason Makes a Prediction
        • 34. The Final Day: All in Favor?
        • 35. The Final Day: Debates and Disagreement
        • 36. The Final Day: Shut Up, Sherman!
        • 37. The Final Day: Um…
        • 38. The Final Day: The Brink of Disaster
        • 39. The Final Day: A Peculiar Solemnity
        • 40. The Final Day: The Final Vote
        • 41. Franklin Has Something to Say
        • 42. A Nice Speech, But…
        • 43. A Compromise, But…
        • 44. Washington Speaks.
      • What Does It Mean?
        • 45. What Did It Even Mean?
        • 46. Ideas About Interpretation
        • 47. Moving On
    • A History of Government, in Six Revolutions
      • Introduction
        • 48. Ideas: Ponet, Grotius, Hobbes, and Locke
        • 49. The American Mind
        • A Brief History of Government
      • The Cognitive Revolution
        • 50. The State of Nature
        • 51. Cooperation and Trust
        • 52. Loyalty, Intimacy, and Bonding
        • 53. Language, Narrative, and Culture
        • 54. Bands: Family, Equality, and Liberty
        • 55. Natural Regulation: No Hierarchy, No Religion
        • 56. Natural Regulation: Worth, Social Hormones, Conscience
        • 57. Natural Regulation: Peer Pressure, Gossip, Accountability
        • 58. Natural Regulation: Norms and Justice
        • 59. Violence and War in the State of Nature
      • The Junk Food Revolution
        • 60. Agriculture: New Norms, New Permanence
        • 61. Kinship: The Narrative of Lineage
        • 62. Kinship: Tribe and Clan
        • 63. Leaders: Dignity, Virtue, Reverence
        • 64. Ancestors and Marriage, Sacrifice and Piety
        • 65. Regulation: Villages and Chiefs
        • 66. Tribal Justice: Self-Help, Group Identity, and Balance
        • 67. Tribal Justice: Judgment and Enforcement
        • 68. Population Problems: Social Breakdown, War, Crime, and Disease
      • The Institution Revolution
        • Inventing Religion
          • 69. The Institution Revolution: Gods and Government
          • 70. Ritual
          • 71. Sacrifice: Social Bonding
          • 72. Sacrifice: Team Effort and Prestige
          • 73. Sacrifice: Loyalty and Bonding through Belief
          • 74. Sacrifice: Rent-Seeking and Freeloading
          • 75. Foundations: Hierarchy and Patriarchy
          • 76. Inventing the Gods
          • 77. Inventing Religion: Priests, Feasts, and Sacrifice
          • 78. Inventing Religion: Divination and Administration
          • 79. Inventing Religion: From Shrines to Temples
          • 80. Religion = Government. Government = Religion
        • Inventing the State
          • 81. Inventing the State
          • 82. What IS a State?
          • 83. Prerequisites for State Formation
          • 84. Why States?
          • 85. “Law” Codes
          • 86. Institutions of Justice
          • 87. Inequality: Power Stays in the Family
          • 88. Inequality: Hierarchy Becomes Class
          • 89. Inequality: Elites and Wealth
          • 90. Honoring Elites: Chinayë’s Story
          • 91. Civilizations Without Borders
          • 92. The Trouble with Territory
          • 93. What Ruling a Territory Requires
          • 94. Prerequisites for Territorial State Formation
          • 95. The Land of Egypt
          • 96. Egypt Needs Leaders, Gods, and Cities… FAST!
          • 97. Ex Pluribus Unum: Egypt Unites
          • 98. Hor-Aha: Establishing a Territorial Monarchy
          • 99. Justice and Taxes: Legitimizing a Territorial Monarchy
          • 100. Delegation and Dynasties: Ensuring the State’s Survival
          • 101. Egypt: The First Territorial State
        • Inventing the Law
          • 102. What Next?
          • 103. Ancient Law Codes Weren’t Really Laws
          • 104. What Law Codes Were For
          • 105. Hammurabi Ruins Everything
          • 106. Learning from the Law Codes: Jews in Exile
          • 107. Inventing God and Law: Yahweh in the Bronze Age
          • 108. Inventing God and Law: Yahweh Takes Over
          • 109. Inventing God and Law: Yahweh Is.
          • 110. Inventing God and Law: That Old-Time Religion
          • 111. Inventing God and Law: Israel Destroyed. Now What?
          • 112. Inventing God and Law: Religious Reform
          • 113. Inventing God and Law: Josiah
          • 114. Inventing God and Law: Pious Frauds
          • 115. Inventing God and Law: Yahweh. Only Yahweh.
          • 116. Inventing God and Law: God Is Dead
          • 117. Inventing God and Law: Humility Is Hard
          • 118. Inventing God and Law: A New Identity
          • 119. Inventing God and Law: Theocracy
          • 120. Inventing God and Law: Inventing Scripture
          • 121. Inventing God and Law: Deadly Monolatry
          • 122. Inventing God and Law: The Rhetoric of Monotheism
          • 123. Inventing God and Law: You Gotta Have Faith
          • 124. Inventing God and Law: A Funny Thing About Faith
          • 125. Inventing God and Law: The Flip Side of Faith
          • 126. Inventing God and Law: Get It in Writing
          • 127. Inventing God and Law: Another Accident
          • 128. Inventing God and Law: Law’s Complications
          • 129. Complications Continue
          • 130. It Gets Worse
        • Greece & Rome
          • 131. Athenian Segue
          • 132. Bronze Age Athens
          • 133. Fight the Patriarchy
          • 134. The High Life
          • 135. Social Order
          • 136. The State’s Story
          • 137. Death of a Civilization
          • 138. A Dark Age
  • MORE
    • Blog
    • Terrorism
    • Explainers
      • Jurors Have It Hard
        • Jury pg 1
        • Jury pg 2
        • Jury pg 3
        • Jury pg 4
        • Jury pg 5
        • Jury pg 6
        • Jury pg 7
        • Jury pg 8
        • Jury pg 9
        • Jury pg 10
        • Jury pg 11
        • Jury pg 12
        • Jury pg 13
      • Your Miranda Rights in a Nutshell
      • Qualified Immunity
    • Odds and Ends
      • Happy Birthday!
      • Patreon Announcement
      • Pure silliness, completely unrelated to anything
      • Something New
      • (Spoiler) Roe v. Wade: How We Got to This Point
      • Let’s Have a Seder!
      • James Wilson: Foundations of a Founder
    • About (FAQ)
  • |
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Patreon

Post navigation

← Older posts
Newer posts →
Posted on October 15, 2013 by Nathan
20

The plain view doctrine permits seizure of evidence when (1) the officer can see it without violating the Fourth Amendment, (2) he can get it without any new invasion of privacy, and (3) it's obvious that the stuff is evidence of a crime. If an officer sees evidence through a window, he'd need a warrant to go in and seize it. Akin to plain view are doctrines of plain feel and plain hear and plain smell.

NY Comic Con was a blast, again. Thanks to everyone who stopped by the booth!
All y’all are awesome.

Posted in Criminal Procedure, Search and Seizure, Uncategorized | 20 Replies

Post navigation

← Older posts
Newer posts →

Main menu

Skip to primary content
Skip to secondary content
  • CRIMINAL LAW
    • Crime
      • 1. Introduction: What IS Crime?
      • 2. More than “Don’t”
      • 3. Crime and Punishment
      • 4. Meet the State
    • Punishment
      • Introduction
        • 1. Punishment: “Take That!”
        • 2. One Tool
        • 3. What IS Punishment?
        • 4. A Hell of a Thing
        • 5. Options
      • Rehabilitation
        • 6. For the Love of God, Why?
        • 7. I Can Fix Him
        • 8. Is Rehabilitation Necessary?
        • 9. Does Rehabilitation Work?
        • 10. Tough Love
        • 11. It Ain’t Easy
      • Deterrence
        • 12. Deterrence: Don’t Do That Again!
        • 13. Specific Deterrence
        • 14. General deterrence
        • 15. Measuring Deterrence
        • 16. Does Deterrence Work?
        • 17. When Deterrence Works
        • 18. Perception Is Everything
        • 19. Who Knows?
        • 20. Can’t We Be Civilized
      • The Three 'R's
        • 21. Removal
        • 22. Removal: Off the Streets
        • 23. Removal: Problems
        • 24. Removal: Civilized?
        • 25. Retribution: What’s It Worth?
        • 26: Retribution: Proportional Suffering
        • 27. Retribution: Civilized?
        • 28. Retaliation: Striking Back
        • 29. Retaliation: Civilized?
    • Guilt
      • Introduction
        • 1. Introduction: “I Didn’t Mean To!”
        • 2. Justice
        • 3. Who Deserves Punishment?
        • 4. Culpability
      • Mens Rea
        • 5. Jack and Jill
        • 6. Jan and Dean
        • 7. Bonnie and Clyde
        • 8. Romeo and Juliet
        • 9. Ricky and Lucy
        • 10. Mens Rea = Mental State
        • 11. Guilty mind
        • 12. Accident
        • 13. Negligence
        • 14. Recklessness
        • 15. Knowledge
        • 16. Intent
        • 17. The Mens Rea – O – Meter
      • Axes of Evil
        • 18. Awareness
        • 19. Responsibility
        • 20. Blame
        • 21. Indirect Cause
        • 22. Let’s Play “Pin the Blame on Somebody”
        • 23. Two Axes: Mens Rea, and Responsibility
        • 24. Intent Without Causation
        • 25. The Third Axis: Depravity
        • 26. Punishing Awfulness
        • 27. Deserving It
      • Actus Reus
        • 28. What Have You DONE?
        • 29. An Assault
        • 30. The Elements of Crime: Guilty Mind, and Guilty Act
        • 31. Voodoo
        • 32. Causation
        • 33. A Series of Unfortunate Events
        • 34. Cause In Fact, and Proximate Cause
        • 35. Concurrence
        • 36. He Missed and Maimed Mamie Instead
        • 37. Transferred Intent
      • Attempt
        • 38. Attempt: “At Least You Tried”
        • 39. It’s All About You
        • 40. Schemes
        • 41. Dreams
        • 42. Making Scenes
        • 43. Working
        • 44. Digging
        • 45. And Then There’s Maude
        • 46. She Takes Her Shot
        • 47. Thought Crime?
        • 48. Mere Intent
        • 49. Taking Steps
        • 50. Apply the Purposes of Punishment
        • 51. Different States, Different Laws
        • 52. A Continuum
        • 53. Subjective Mind vs. Objective Action
        • 54. Attempt Is Always On Purpose
        • 55. A Safety Valve
        • 56. Abandoned Attempt
        • 57. Abandonment: Timing Is Everything
        • 58. A Change of Heart
        • 59. Impossibility
        • 60. Frick’s Frustration
        • 61. Frack’s Frustration
        • 62. Attempt: Summing Up
      • Conspiracy & Solicitation
        • 63. Conspiracy: “We’ll All Go Down Together”
        • 64. Assembling the Crew: The Wheels, The Brains
        • 65. Assembling the Crew: The Expert, The Heavy
        • 66. The Plan
        • 67. The Supplies
        • 68. The Job
        • 69. The Line
        • 70. The Signal
        • 71. The Wires
        • 72. The Glitch
        • 73. The Hitch
        • 74. The Getaway
        • 75. The Mess
        • 76. The Rendezvous
        • 77. The Showdown
        • 78. The Cavalry
        • 79. Solicitation
        • 80. Accomplices
        • 81. Accomplice Liability
        • 82. All Kinds of Accomplices
        • 83. Not Every Helper is an Accomplice
        • 84. Criminal Facilitation
        • 85. Conspiracy: Inchoate Crime
        • 86. Conspiracy: Agreement and Action
        • 87. Conspiracy: Agreement and Intent
        • 88. Conspiracy: A Big Net
        • 89. Conspiracy: The Prosecutor’s Favorite Weapon
        • 90. A Separate Crime
        • 91. Withdrawal from a Conspiracy
        • 92. A Conspiracy of One?
        • 93. Felony Murder
        • 94. Foreseeability
        • 95. Fail. Jail.
    • Defenses
      • Mistake and Insanity
        • 1. “Excuse Me!”
        • 2. Ignorance of the Law
        • 3. Forgiveness vs. Nothing to Forgive
        • 4. Excuse vs. Justification
        • 5. Mistaken Facts
        • 6. Not a Defense If Not a Crime
        • 7. Provocation: Temporary Insanity
        • 8. Provocation: Elements of the Defense
        • 9. Provocation: The Rationale
        • 10. The “Reasonable Person”
        • 11. “Reasonable?” It Depends
        • 12. Insanity
        • 13. Insanity: You Wouldn’t Understand
        • 14. Delusion
        • 15. What’s the Point of Punishment?
        • 16. Insanity Has Consequences
        • 17. Diminished Capacity
        • 18. Blackout Drunk
        • 19. Another Transferred Intent
        • 20. Only on T.V.
      • Entrapment
        • 21. “I Was Entrapped!”
        • 22. Cora Gets Advice
        • 23. Cop Costs Extra
        • 24. Outrageous?
        • 25. Grayson Helps Out
        • 26. Sylvester’s Security
        • 27. Solid Saul
        • 28. Jeez
        • 29. Jen Shops Around
        • 30. Federal Assistance
        • 31. Zeke Blocks It
        • 32. Zeke Freaks
        • 33. All Your Myths Are Wrong
        • 34. Myth #1: A Cop Has to Tell You He’s a Cop
        • 35. Think About It
        • 36. Not a Survival Skill
        • 37. Elements of Entrapment
        • 38. Entrapment Explanation
        • 39. You Were Tricked
        • 40. But Were You Willing?
        • 41. Myths #2 & #3: The Police Can’t Get Involved
        • 42. Some Things Undercovers Can Do
        • 43. Myth #4: The Police Can’t Help You Break the Law
        • 44. Myth #5: The Police Can’t Let You Break the Law
        • 45. Opportunity Isn’t Entrapment
        • 46. Entrapment Overcomes Your Free Will
        • 47. Informants
        • 48. The Power of Cops Compels You
        • 49. False Representation
      • Justification Defenses
        • Introduction
          • 50. Excuse vs. Justification (again)
          • 51. Excuse = An Option
          • 52. Justification = No Alternative
          • 53. The 3 Justification Defenses
        • Necessity
          • 54. Meet Dylan the Dimwit
          • 55. Harry the Hero Helps
          • 56. Immediate Danger
          • 57. Lesser of Two Evils
          • 58. Necessity: Elements of the Defense
          • 59. There’s No Chutzpah Defense
          • 60. Becky’s Bentley
          • 61. Weighing Evils
          • 62. Up a Cliff
          • 63. Dire Decision
          • 64. Trolley Problem
          • 65. “As a Matter of Law”: Policy’s Thumb on the Scales
          • 66. The GREATER Good
          • 67. Volition
          • 68. Equivalent Evil
          • 69. No, That Doesn’t Count
          • 70. No, That Doesn’t Count, Either
        • Duress
          • 71. Duress: “Do or Die”
          • 72. Vicky Meets the Golden Horde
          • 73. Did She Decide?
          • 74. Did She Have a Choice?
          • 75. Elements of Duress: Threat & Fear
          • 76. Elements of Duress: Do or Die
          • 77. Why Duress Is a Defense
          • 78. Stu Meets the Horde
          • 79. Stu and the Snitch
          • 80. 3… 2… 1…
          • 81. …
          • 82. Duress vs. Necessity
          • 83. Duress Doesn’t Always Help
          • 84. Millie the Mule
          • 85. Immediate Danger
          • 86. Overcoming Your Free Will
          • 87. Different States, Different Laws (duress edition)
          • 88. Bob at the Bank
          • 89. Another Guy, Another Bank
          • 90. Stranger Things
          • 91. No Duty, No Defense?
          • 92. Nobody Said the Law Was Fair
          • 93. Trog’s Initiation
          • 94. There’s Still No Chutzpah Defense
          • 95. Duress Is Rare
        • Self-Defense
          • 96. Self-Defense: “It Was Either Him or Me”
          • 97. Drop It or You’re Dead
          • 98. Defense of Property
          • 99. Non-Deadly Force
          • 100. Rico’s Ranch Hands
          • 101. Defending What You Stole?
          • 102. SELF Defense
          • 103. OMG, the Saloon
          • 104. Laredo Luke
          • 105. Blam
          • 106. Defense Against Unlawful Violence
          • 107. Only Necessary Force
          • 108. Throwing the First Punch
          • 109. Pre-Emptive Self-Defense
          • 110. When Fighting Back Is Illegal
          • 111. Same Night, Another Fight
          • 112. So Far, So Good
          • 113. Escalation
          • 114. Defender Becomes Aggressor
          • 115. DEADLY Force Has Different Rules
          • 116. Caleb Crawls In
          • 117. Home Intrusion
          • 118. Deadly Force: Last Resort
          • 119. Deadly Force: Elements of the Defense
          • 120. Your Own Home: No Duty to Retreat
          • 121. Your Own Home: Necessity Still Necessary
          • 122. “Imperfect” Self-Defense
          • 123. Two Gunslingers
          • 124. He Shot First
          • 125. Stand Your Ground
          • 126. Making a Getaway
          • 127. An Accident?
          • 128. Reckless?
          • 129. To the Rescue
          • 130. Defense of Others
          • 131. “Transferred” Duty to Retreat
          • 132. Lillie Wants to Stay
          • 133. Hank Had a Drink
          • 134. Hank Hurts
          • 135. Two Years
          • 136. He Will
          • 137. Lillie Says Goodbye
          • 138. …
          • 139. What Have You Done?
          • 140. Battered Woman Defense
          • 141. There’s No “He Needed Killin'” Defense
          • 142. You Did the Right Thing?
    • Guilt Without Fault
      • Introduction
        • 1. A Feather
        • 2. Memories
        • 3. MBTA
        • 4. You Did Nothing Wrong? Go to Jail.
        • 5. Soup
        • 6. Impossible
        • 7. Nobody Could Have Guessed It Was Illegal? Go to Jail.
      • Overcriminalization
        • 8. Countless Crimes: Literally Uncountable
        • 9. Unknown Crimes: Literally Unknowable
        • 10. Criminal Law: Vague, Arbitrary, and Capricious
        • 11. Regulatory Agencies
        • 12. Enacting Without Understanding
        • 13. Do It My Way
        • 14. Progressive Idealism
        • 15. A Man of Principles
        • 16. Prescribing, Not Describing
        • 17. Overbroad
        • 18. Zero Tolerance
        • 19. The Law Means What I Say It Means
        • 20. You’ll Just Have to Trust Me
        • 21. Unfair, Unjust
      • History of Overcriminalization and Strict Liability
        • 22. Custom and Tradition
        • 23. Law Is Good
        • 24. Law Goes Bad
        • 25. Ancient Rome: Popularity Over Principle
        • 26. Ancient Rome: Countless, Contradictory
        • 27. Ancient Rome: Bad Government? More Laws!
        • 28. Old England: Common Sense
        • 29. Old England: Common Understanding
        • 30. Old England: Straightforward Law
        • 31. Old England: Mens Rea, Justification, Incapacity
        • 32. Old England: Simple Punishment
        • 33. Old England: Might Makes Right?
        • 34. Old England: Corruption?
        • 35. Old England: The State Gets Involved
        • 36. Old England: The Rule of Law
        • 37. Old England: Proliferation of Laws
        • 38. Old England: Overcriminalization
        • 39. Old England: The Need for Reform
        • 40. Old England: A Snare for the Unwary
        • 41. Old England: Blackstone Suggests Reforms
        • 42. America: Listening to Blackstone
        • 43. America: A New Conception of Crime
        • 44. America: Enlightened Thought
        • 45. America: Prison to Progress
        • 46. America: Rehabilitation, a New Idea
        • 47. Self-Help
        • 48. America: The State Takes Charge
        • 49. Strict Liability: Origins
        • 50. Strict Liability: Principled
        • 51. Strict Liability: Statutory Rape Makes Sense
        • 52. Strict Liability: Changing the Rules
        • 53. Strict Liability: Statutory Rape Law Stops Making Sense
        • 54. Strict Liability: Regulators Love It
        • 55. Strict Liability: Forgetting the Principle
      • Concluding Thoughts
        • 56. Getting Tough on Crime
        • 57. Choking on Our Institutions
        • 58. Sucks to Be You: Crime Becomes a Lottery
        • 59. Video: No Mens Rea? No Problem!
        • 60. Keep Your Head Down
        • 61. Progress?
    • Examples
      • Theft
        • 1. A Violin
        • 2. A Crime?
        • 3. Burglary Means Breaking In
        • 4. Robbery Means Violence
        • 5. Larceny Means Theft
        • 6. Petty Larceny, Grand Larceny
        • 7. Mistake About Value?
      • Assault and Hate Crime
        • 8. Pow! Right in the Kisser
        • 9. Battery Means Bodily Harm
        • 10. Dealing with Defenses
        • 11. Simple? Aggravated?
        • 12. Hate Crime: Born This Way
        • 13. Hate Crime: An Extra Level of Mens Rea
      • Rape
        • 14. Nope.
        • 15. A Rape Law
        • 16. What “Consent” Means
        • 17. First Degree Rape
        • 18. Force? No Consent.
        • 19. Sooo Drunk
        • 20. But She Said Yes
        • 21. Doesn’t Matter
        • 22. If You Knew, That’s Rape 2
        • 23. You Couldn’t Have Known? Not Rape.
        • 24. Regret
        • 25. He Said, She Said
        • 26. Relevant Facts
        • 27. Rape Shield Laws
        • 28. False Accusations
        • 29. Other Considerations
      • Homicide
        • 30. Murder and Manslaughter
        • 31. Manslaughter and Negligent Homicide
        • 32. Another Fight
        • 33. Another Accident?
        • 34. Causation
        • 35. Misdemeanor Manslaughter
        • 36. Predictability
        • 37. Mens Rea
        • 38. Awareness of Risk
        • 39. Provocation
        • 40. Alcohol
        • 41. An Idea
        • 42. A Plan
        • 43. A Gun
        • 44. A Felony
        • 45. Deaths
        • 46. Homicide?
        • 47. Felony Murder
        • 48. Homicide vs. Accident
        • 49. A Terrorist
        • 50. A Bomb
        • 51. An Explosion
        • 52. Depravity vs. Mens Rea
        • 53. Violence for Political Goals = Terrorism
        • 54. Breaking the Mens Rea – O – Meter
        • 55. An Injection
      • Criminal Law: Conclusion
  • CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
    • Introduction: So What?
      • 1. Crim Pro: So What?
      • 2. Hammer Time
      • 3. With Great Power Comes Great… Abuse
      • 4. Out of Control
      • 5. Enter Justice
      • 6. Procedure Is Our Protection
      • 7. Criminal Procedure
    • Meet the Players
      • Player One
      • 1. Life Isn’t Pretty
      • 2. All You’ve Got
      • 3. Meet the Cop
      • 4. A Hard Job
      • 5. No, Not Pretty
      • Player Two
      • 6. Not My Job
      • 7. Still Not My Job
      • 8. Meet the Prosecutor
      • 9. Great Power
      • 10. Great Responsibility
      • Player Three
      • 11. Why? How?
      • 12. All You’ve Got
      • 13. Meet the Defense Counsel
      • 14. Disservice?
      • 15. Greasing the Wheels
      • Player Four
      • 16. Got to Be Fair
      • 17. Fair Enough
      • 18. Enter the Judge
      • 19. Fair Question
      • 20. Trying to Be…
      • Player Five
      • 21. Nope, Not You
    • Search and Seizure
      • Introduction: Police vs. Privacy
        • 1. Police vs. Privacy
        • 2. An Officer Finds Evidence
        • 3. Getting Off on a Technicality?
        • 4. Privacy
        • 5. The Fourth Amendment
        • 6. 4th Amendment: Why?
        • 7. 4th Amendment: Prohibition
        • 8. 4th Amendment: Probable Cause
        • 9. 4th Amendment: The Warrant Requirement
        • 10. A Balancing Act
        • 11. Excluding Evidence
        • 12. Why Exclude Evidence?
        • 13. The Beauty of the Exclusionary Rule
        • 14. The Shield of Justice
        • 15. Bad Understanding = Weird Outcomes
      • Search Warrants and Standing
        • 16. Charlie Gets Arrested
        • 17. Checking Charlie’s Story
        • 18. A Rude Awakening
        • 19. Is It Enough?
        • 20. Get a Warrant
        • 21. Probable Cosplay
        • 22. Something Smells
        • 23. Oh No! Anyway…
        • 24. Standing
        • 25. What If a Warrant is Based on a Lie?
        • 26. No-Knock Warrant, Protective Sweep
        • 27. Can Police Rely on a Bad Warrant?
      • Wiretaps: Electronic Eavesdropping
        • 28. A Tragedy
        • 29. A Suspect
        • 30. Many More Hoops to Jump Through
        • 31. Necessity
        • 32. No Other Way
        • 33. Connect the Dots: Building Probable Cause
        • 34. The Easy Part
        • 35. Minimization
        • 36. Lots of Work to Do
        • 37. Listening Isn’t Everything
        • 38. A Call
        • 39. A Code?
        • 40. Surveillance
        • 41. Wham
        • 42. An Arrest
      • Stop / Frisk / Arrest
        • 43. You’re Being Detained: Seizing the Person
        • 44. Reasonable Suspicion, Probable Cause
        • 45. When Seizure Was Straightforward
        • 46. Search Without Probable Cause?
        • 47. Stop and Frisk
        • 48. Limited Scope
        • 49. Pat-Down
        • 50. Secret Page! Don’t Tell!
        • 51. What IS an Arrest?
        • 52. Sliding Scales of Justice
        • 53. Are You Free to Leave?
        • 54. Example: First Contact
        • 55. Example: Stop
        • 56. Example: Frisk, Arrest
        • 57. It Was Lawful!
        • 58. It Was Unlawful!
      • Automobiles
        • 59. A Traffic Stop
        • 60. A Stop is a Stop
        • 61. Get Out of the Car!
        • 62. Some Right Balderdash
        • 63. Can You Frisk a Car?
        • 64. Plain View
        • 65. What About the Trunk?
        • 66. Asking Permission
        • 67. Consent to Search
        • 68. Don’t Consent
        • 69. Police: Deception is OK. Coercion is Not.
        • 70. The Scope of Consent
        • 71. What’s In the Trunk?
        • 72. A Checkpoint
        • 73. Detention Without Suspicion
        • 74. Checkpoints: About Cars, Not Crime
        • 75. Lawful Checkpoint Purposes
        • 76. Strangely Lawful Checkpoint Purposes
        • 77. Roll Down the Window, Please
        • 78. Not Suspicious at All
        • 79. This Can’t Be Happening
        • 80. Search Incident to Arrest
        • 81. Searching the Car and Closed Containers
        • 82. Searching the Trunk?
        • 83. Dog Sniff vs. Privacy
        • 84. Dog Sniff vs. Search
        • 85. The Automobile Exception
        • 86. An Outcome
      • Emergency Exceptions
        • 87. A Quiet Mountain Town
        • 88. A Chase of Life or Death
        • 89. A Pursuit
        • 90. An Unexpected Arrest
        • 91. A Choice
        • 92. A Break
        • 93. A Noise
        • 94. A Seizure
        • 95. Hot Pursuit
        • 96. Hot Pursuit vs. Warrant Requirement
        • 97. Plain View
        • 98. Plain View vs. Warrant Requirement
        • 99. Plain Perception
        • 100. When Police Outweigh Privacy
        • 101. Deadly Force as Seizure
        • 102. Standing vs. Abandonment
        • 103. Standing vs. Concealment
        • 104. Hot Pursuit, Cold Trail
        • 105. To Freeze or Seize
        • 106. Public Safety, Rescue
        • 107. Urgent Need for Assistance
        • 108. Protective Sweep?
        • 109. A New Emergency
        • 110. A Peaceful Mountain Town
      • THE FOURTH AMENDMENT FLOWCHART
    • Self-Incrimination
      • Introduction: Convict Yourself!
        • 1. Introduction: Convict Yourself!
        • 2. Keep an Open Mind
        • 3. Minds Slam Shut
        • 4. Forced to Confess
        • 5. Manipulated Confessions
        • 6. Fraudulent Confessions
        • 7. Punishing the Innocent
        • 8. Innocence Isn’t Everything
        • 9. The Big Concern: Overpowering Your Free Will
        • 10. The Ultimate Abuse of Power
      • History of Self-Incrimination Law
        • 11. It’s Not What You Think
        • 12. England Was Different
        • 13. England’s Proud Principle
        • 14. Torture
        • 15. England’s Bizarre Notion
        • 16. Who Cares if it Works? It’s Wrong.
        • 17. Common Sense and Common Law
        • 18. Star Chamber: Inquisitorial, Not Adversarial
        • 19. Inquisition: Results, Not Rights
        • 20. Inquisitorial Courts: Parliament Fights Back
        • 21. The Accident of Fundamental Rights
        • 22. Deadly Detour: Church and State Become Buddies
        • 23. Deadly Detour: Religious Persecution, the Police State
        • 24. Deadly Detour: Torture & Coercion
        • 25. Deadly Detour: Abuse & Opposition
        • 26. Deadly Detour: An Innocent Person Has Nothing to Fear
        • 27. Deadly Detour: Coercion Is Un-English
        • 28. England Picks Up Where It Left Off
        • 29. Duress is the Colonial Way
        • 30. Enlightenment Ideas
        • 31. A Bill of Rights
        • 32. The Fifth Amendment
        • 33. Bedrock Principle: A Confession Must Be Voluntary
        • 34. The Crime Wave
        • 35. Results, Not Rights: The American Inquisition
        • 36. Nobody Expected the American Inquisition
        • 37. Torture, American Style
        • 38. Outrage and Confusion
        • 39. OMG Science!
        • 40. What Polygraphs are Really For
        • 41. Scientifically Coerced Confessions
        • 42. Interrogation that Gets Results
        • 43. The Right to Counsel?
        • 44. The Reid Technique: Opening Moves
        • 45. The Reid Technique: Sealing the Deal
        • 46. Maybe Use the Fifth Amendment?
        • 47. Miranda v. Arizona
        • 48. Miranda’s Magic Words
        • 49. Miranda’s Fundamental Disconnect
      • Taking the Fifth
        • 50. Jane Has a Webcomic
        • 51. Think of the Children!
        • 52. Senate Hearings
        • 53. Jane Respectfully Declines to Answer
        • 54. INNOCENT People Take the Fifth
        • 55. Contempt is Coercion
        • 56. The Elements of the Privilege
        • 57. Neutralizing the Privilege
        • 58. Can Corporations Take the Fifth?
        • 59. Documents vs. Testimony
        • 60. Samples vs. Self-Incrimination
        • 61. Taking the Fifth to Protect Another?
        • 62. Coercion, But Not State Coercion
        • 63. Talking vs. Taking the Fifth
        • 64. Waiving Your Rights
        • 65. Silence vs. Taking the Fifth
        • 66. How to Take the Fifth
      • Miranda: Custodial Interrogation
        • 67. Miranda’s Magic Words: A Refresher
        • 68. It Begins with an Arrest
        • 69. Speaking of Crime
        • 70. Questions for the Doctor
        • 71. Grill, Interrupted
        • 72. Executing a Search Warrant
        • 73. Another Arrest
        • 74. No Further Questions
        • 75. Guns Drawn
        • 76. Split Them Up
        • 77. What Do You Have to Say For Yourself?
        • 78. There Are No Words
        • 79. I Know My Rights
        • 80. Let’s Change the Subject
        • 81. Choice Words
        • 82. Nice Car
        • 83. A Strange Question
        • 84. A Rough Scene
        • Recap: We’ll All Go Down Together
        • 85. What Can We Use?
        • 86. No Custody, No Miranda
        • 87. Custody Equals Coercion. Unless…
        • 88. Fifth Amendment Custody
        • 89. Custody Examples
        • 90. The First Step: Was It Voluntary?
        • 91. Voluntariness: This Specific Person’s Free Will
        • 92. Traffic Stop vs. Fifth Amendment Custody
        • 93. Custody vs. Stop
        • 94. Stop Becomes Custody
        • 95. This Is What It Sounds Like, When Cops Lie
        • 96. Police Deception and Coercion
        • 97. Is It Interrogation?
        • 98. Consequences
        • 99. Public Safety Exception
        • 100. Custody + Interrogation = Miranda
        • 101. ANYTHING You Say…
        • 102. Custody is Custody
        • 103. Deep Breaths
        • 104. Interrogation Isn’t Just Questions
        • 105. Cops Get a Do-Over
        • 106. Waiver: A Free Pass
        • 107. How Courts Really Decide
        • 108. It’s So Easy (to Waive Your Rights)
        • 109. Does Miranda Make Everything Worse?
        • 110. INVOKING Your Rights: Silence
        • 111. Miranda: A Second Interrogation?
        • 112. Police Safety Exceptions
        • 113. Rights Waived… or Rights Invoked?
        • 114. INVOKING Your Rights: Counsel
        • 115. Rights… Rights… Who’s Left?
        • 116. The Psylent One…
        • 117. Exercising- I Mean, INVOKING Your Rights
        • 118. ALL YOU NEED TO SAY. (But You Need to Say It.)
        • 119. Knowing and Voluntary Waiver
        • 120. Serious Danger
        • 121. A Long Way Away
        • 122. The Different Story
        • 123. Who’s Playing Who?
        • 124. Self-Incrimination Finale: SHUT UP!
      • THE FIFTH AMENDMENT FLOWCHART
    • Eyewitness Identification
      • Introduction: It Was You!
        • 1. Introduction: It Was You!
        • 2. Did You Get a Good Look at Him?
        • 3. Is That Him?
        • 4. That’s the Guy.
        • 5. Minds Snap Shut
        • 6. Life Passes…
        • 7. …And Then
        • 8. So Many Wrongful Convictions
        • 9. Identification is Memory
      • A Memory for Faces
        • 10. Memory Isn’t a Movie
        • 11. Connect the Neurons
        • 12. Proustian
        • 13. Sensation vs. Perception
        • 14. Did You Notice?
        • 15. Working Memory
        • 16. Hold That Thought
        • 17. “Chunking”
        • 18. Make It Last
        • 19. Unlimited Capacity
        • 20. Meet Your Hippocampus
        • 21. Use It or Lose It
        • 22. Making Connections
        • 23. The More Ways You Use It…
        • 24. Learning is a Social Skill
        • 25. You Know More Than You Saw
        • 26. Remember This for Me
        • 27. I Remembered It for You
        • 28. A Feature—Not a Bug
        • 29. That Never Happened? Yeah, I Remember It.
        • 30. Filling In the Blanks
        • 31. You Saw Nothing
        • 32. What Have You Seen?
        • 33. Expectations
        • 34. Context Equals Recollection
        • 35. Thank God for Stereotypes
        • 36. Jumping to Conclusions
        • 37. When Stereotypes Fail
        • 38. Paying Attention Ain’t Free
        • 39. PANIC!
        • 40. No, Seriously. Panic.
        • 41. More Memory Malleability
      • Facial Recognition
        • 42. Wired for Faces
        • 43. Prototypes
        • 44. Diagnosis
        • 45. What’s Different?
        • 46. Different People Have Different Parts That Are Different
        • 47. Cross-Race Identification
        • 48. Faces and Working Memory
        • 49. Cross-Race Identification: Worse Than You Think
      • Identification Procedures
        • 50. Let’s Be Scientific
        • 51. Scientific Experiment
        • 52. Control Group
        • 53. Witness Problems
        • 54. Experimental Error: Influencing the Outcome
        • 55. Suggestibility
        • 56. So Much Suggestibility
        • 57. Confirmation Bias
        • 58. No! Don’t Reinforce THAT Memory!
        • 59. Misleading Questions
        • 60. Who’s There? Interrupting Cow. InterrupMOOOOOO!
        • 61. Let Your Witness Do the Talking
        • 62. Easy Fix
        • 63. Double-Blind
        • 64. Sequential, or Simultaneous?
        • 65. Faulty Fillers
        • 66. Fine Fillers
        • 67. Showups
        • 68. Showup Problems
        • 69. More Showup Problems
        • 70. Serious Showup Problems
        • 71. Police Sketch
        • 72. Sketches Be Sketchy
        • 73. Best Practices
      • Identification Law
        • 74. Law?
        • 75. I.D. Issues
        • 76. A Crime
        • 77. An Eyewitness
        • 78. An I.D.
        • 79. Another I.D.
        • 80. A Hearing
        • 81. A Deal?
        • 82. Identification vs. Self-Incrimination
        • 83. Identification and the Right to Counsel
        • 84. Right to Counsel: Timing
        • 85. Right to Counsel: Limitations
        • 86. A Photo Array
        • 87. A Brady Violation?
        • 88. Coaching the Witness?
        • 89. Reliability?
        • 90. Law: It’s About Police, Not Precision
        • 91. So What? Who Cares?
        • 92. Fourth Amendment Issues
        • 93. Fifth Amendment Due Process
        • 94. Are Eyewitness Identifications Inherently Unfair?
        • 95. Urgency vs. Suggestivity
        • 96. Is Memory Legit? 5 Questions
        • 97. Is the Law Stupid?
        • 98. The Judge Rules: The Showup
        • 99. What the Law Wants
        • 100. Tainted Law
        • 101. Fair Suggestions
        • 102. The Judge Rules: In-Court I.D.
        • 103. Taco Time
        • 104. Photo Array Issues
        • 105. Photo Array Concerns
        • 106. Photo Array Arguments
        • 107. More Photo Array Arguments
        • 108. Photo Array Reliability
        • 109. The Judge Rules: Photo Array
        • 110. Is THIS the Eyewitness I.D. Flowchart?
        • 111. THE EYEWITNESS IDENTIFICATION FLOWCHART
        • 112. A Verdict
        • 113. Enough
        • 114. Saying Goodbye
      • THE EYEWITNESS IDENTIFICATION FLOWCHART
  • CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
    • Introduction
      • What Is Con Law?
        • 1. Con Law Is Divisive Social Issues
        • 2. Con Law Is Powerful Ideas
        • 3. Con Law is Quite a Ride
      • What Is a Constitution?
        • 4. A Constitution Isn’t Legislation
        • 5. A Constitution… Constitutes
        • 6. A Constitution Creates a Government, and Defines Its Powers
        • 7. A Constitution Is Principles, Not Details
        • 8. The U.S. Constitution Is Brief
      • THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION (Annotated)
    • What Were They Thinking?
      • Why A Constitution?
        • 1. What Were They Thinking?
        • 2. Annapolis
        • 3. The Articles of Confederation
        • 4. A Country in Crisis
        • 5. Even More Crises
        • 6. Hell in a Handbasket
        • 7. Can We Tweak the Confederation?
        • 8. We the People: Popular Sovereignty
        • 9. The Preamble: The Hinge of History
      • The Constitutional Convention
        • 10. Coming to Philadelphia
        • 11. Madison Has a Plan
        • 12. Amend the Constitution?
        • 13. Should Amendments Be Allowed?
        • 14. Do We WANT a Living Constitution?
        • 15. Hamilton Has a Plan
        • 16. April Fools!
        • 17. In the Room Where It Happened? Nope.
        • 18. Hammering Out the Details
        • 19. The Will of the People? Okay, How?
        • 20. Why Two-Thirds?
        • 21. Why Not More? Why Not Less?
        • 22. Who Says? The States or the People?
        • 23. Guvneer Has a Point
        • 24. Does Anybody Have an Answer?
        • 25. They Skipped A Step.
        • 26. The South Brings Up Slavery
        • 27. The Great Compromise, the Three-Fifths Compromise, and the Seeds of Secession (long)
        • 28. Protecting the Slave Trade
        • 29. They Skipped Another Step
        • 30. Styling a Final Draft
        • 31. Guvneer Makes Some Changes
        • 32. Really? Really.
        • 33. The Final Day: Mason Makes a Prediction
        • 34. The Final Day: All in Favor?
        • 35. The Final Day: Debates and Disagreement
        • 36. The Final Day: Shut Up, Sherman!
        • 37. The Final Day: Um…
        • 38. The Final Day: The Brink of Disaster
        • 39. The Final Day: A Peculiar Solemnity
        • 40. The Final Day: The Final Vote
        • 41. Franklin Has Something to Say
        • 42. A Nice Speech, But…
        • 43. A Compromise, But…
        • 44. Washington Speaks.
      • What Does It Mean?
        • 45. What Did It Even Mean?
        • 46. Ideas About Interpretation
        • 47. Moving On
    • A History of Government, in Six Revolutions
      • Introduction
        • 48. Ideas: Ponet, Grotius, Hobbes, and Locke
        • 49. The American Mind
        • A Brief History of Government
      • The Cognitive Revolution
        • 50. The State of Nature
        • 51. Cooperation and Trust
        • 52. Loyalty, Intimacy, and Bonding
        • 53. Language, Narrative, and Culture
        • 54. Bands: Family, Equality, and Liberty
        • 55. Natural Regulation: No Hierarchy, No Religion
        • 56. Natural Regulation: Worth, Social Hormones, Conscience
        • 57. Natural Regulation: Peer Pressure, Gossip, Accountability
        • 58. Natural Regulation: Norms and Justice
        • 59. Violence and War in the State of Nature
      • The Junk Food Revolution
        • 60. Agriculture: New Norms, New Permanence
        • 61. Kinship: The Narrative of Lineage
        • 62. Kinship: Tribe and Clan
        • 63. Leaders: Dignity, Virtue, Reverence
        • 64. Ancestors and Marriage, Sacrifice and Piety
        • 65. Regulation: Villages and Chiefs
        • 66. Tribal Justice: Self-Help, Group Identity, and Balance
        • 67. Tribal Justice: Judgment and Enforcement
        • 68. Population Problems: Social Breakdown, War, Crime, and Disease
      • The Institution Revolution
        • Inventing Religion
          • 69. The Institution Revolution: Gods and Government
          • 70. Ritual
          • 71. Sacrifice: Social Bonding
          • 72. Sacrifice: Team Effort and Prestige
          • 73. Sacrifice: Loyalty and Bonding through Belief
          • 74. Sacrifice: Rent-Seeking and Freeloading
          • 75. Foundations: Hierarchy and Patriarchy
          • 76. Inventing the Gods
          • 77. Inventing Religion: Priests, Feasts, and Sacrifice
          • 78. Inventing Religion: Divination and Administration
          • 79. Inventing Religion: From Shrines to Temples
          • 80. Religion = Government. Government = Religion
        • Inventing the State
          • 81. Inventing the State
          • 82. What IS a State?
          • 83. Prerequisites for State Formation
          • 84. Why States?
          • 85. “Law” Codes
          • 86. Institutions of Justice
          • 87. Inequality: Power Stays in the Family
          • 88. Inequality: Hierarchy Becomes Class
          • 89. Inequality: Elites and Wealth
          • 90. Honoring Elites: Chinayë’s Story
          • 91. Civilizations Without Borders
          • 92. The Trouble with Territory
          • 93. What Ruling a Territory Requires
          • 94. Prerequisites for Territorial State Formation
          • 95. The Land of Egypt
          • 96. Egypt Needs Leaders, Gods, and Cities… FAST!
          • 97. Ex Pluribus Unum: Egypt Unites
          • 98. Hor-Aha: Establishing a Territorial Monarchy
          • 99. Justice and Taxes: Legitimizing a Territorial Monarchy
          • 100. Delegation and Dynasties: Ensuring the State’s Survival
          • 101. Egypt: The First Territorial State
        • Inventing the Law
          • 102. What Next?
          • 103. Ancient Law Codes Weren’t Really Laws
          • 104. What Law Codes Were For
          • 105. Hammurabi Ruins Everything
          • 106. Learning from the Law Codes: Jews in Exile
          • 107. Inventing God and Law: Yahweh in the Bronze Age
          • 108. Inventing God and Law: Yahweh Takes Over
          • 109. Inventing God and Law: Yahweh Is.
          • 110. Inventing God and Law: That Old-Time Religion
          • 111. Inventing God and Law: Israel Destroyed. Now What?
          • 112. Inventing God and Law: Religious Reform
          • 113. Inventing God and Law: Josiah
          • 114. Inventing God and Law: Pious Frauds
          • 115. Inventing God and Law: Yahweh. Only Yahweh.
          • 116. Inventing God and Law: God Is Dead
          • 117. Inventing God and Law: Humility Is Hard
          • 118. Inventing God and Law: A New Identity
          • 119. Inventing God and Law: Theocracy
          • 120. Inventing God and Law: Inventing Scripture
          • 121. Inventing God and Law: Deadly Monolatry
          • 122. Inventing God and Law: The Rhetoric of Monotheism
          • 123. Inventing God and Law: You Gotta Have Faith
          • 124. Inventing God and Law: A Funny Thing About Faith
          • 125. Inventing God and Law: The Flip Side of Faith
          • 126. Inventing God and Law: Get It in Writing
          • 127. Inventing God and Law: Another Accident
          • 128. Inventing God and Law: Law’s Complications
          • 129. Complications Continue
          • 130. It Gets Worse
        • Greece & Rome
          • 131. Athenian Segue
          • 132. Bronze Age Athens
          • 133. Fight the Patriarchy
          • 134. The High Life
          • 135. Social Order
          • 136. The State’s Story
          • 137. Death of a Civilization
          • 138. A Dark Age
  • MORE
    • Blog
    • Terrorism
    • Explainers
      • Jurors Have It Hard
        • Jury pg 1
        • Jury pg 2
        • Jury pg 3
        • Jury pg 4
        • Jury pg 5
        • Jury pg 6
        • Jury pg 7
        • Jury pg 8
        • Jury pg 9
        • Jury pg 10
        • Jury pg 11
        • Jury pg 12
        • Jury pg 13
      • Your Miranda Rights in a Nutshell
      • Qualified Immunity
    • Odds and Ends
      • Happy Birthday!
      • Patreon Announcement
      • Pure silliness, completely unrelated to anything
      • Something New
      • (Spoiler) Roe v. Wade: How We Got to This Point
      • Let’s Have a Seder!
      • James Wilson: Foundations of a Founder
    • About (FAQ)
  • |
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Patreon
This is a purely educational website. Nothing here is legal advice or creates or implies an attorney-client relationship. If you have a specific legal issue, PLEASE talk to a lawyer who practices where you live—laws vary from place to place, and how they're applied varies from courthouse to courthouse. Your local county bar association can probably refer someone who handles matters like yours.

By using this site, you agree that you are awesome. Use of this site also constitutes acceptance of its Terms of Service and Privacy Policies, which are known to medical science as a cure for insomnia.

It's best to keep all discussions in the comments. But if you really need to reach Nathan privately, go ahead and email him at n.e.burney@gmail.com. He won't mind.

THE ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO LAW and the PEEKING JUSTICE logo are pretty damn cool trademarks and should probably be registered one of these days.

© Nathaniel Burney. All rights reserved, though they really open up once you get to know them.