Posts Tagged ‘humor’

More highlights from “How To Become a Federal Criminal”

We posted last month about Mike Chase’s new book “How to Become a Federal Criminal: An Illustrated Handbook for the Aspiring Offender” (Atria Books). For a deeper dive, check out Shoshana Weissmann’s lengthy running thread with many more highlights from the book. And of course since A Crime a Day is itself a Twitter-based project, you should be sure to follow it while there (see also).

Ways to violate federal law

  • Leave the country with too many nickels, absent a special license from the U.S. Mint;
  • Label as “macaroni” pasta that is the wrong size or shape, or as “Swiss cheese” a cheese that is solid rather than having holes;
  • Circulate a private currency;
  • Engage in weather modification without notifying the Secretary of Commerce;

“An amusing guide to some of the more bizarre statutes can be found in the new book ‘How to Become a Federal Criminal: An Illustrated Handbook for the Aspiring Offender‘ (Atria Books) by criminal defense lawyer Mike Chase, who also runs the Crime A Day Twitter account.” [Reed Tucker, New York Post] “‘Almost anyone can be arrested for something,’ Justice Neil Gorsuch observed in a case the Supreme Court decided last month.” [Jacob Sullum]

Property law roundup

  • Playlist: songs about eminent domain and takings, property law and the road [Robert H. Thomas, Inverse Condemnation]
  • In-depth look into problems that develop when title to land is held as “heirs’ property,” leaving a dangerous collective tangle in place of individual right and duty [David Slade and Angie Jackson, Post and Courier (Charleston, S.C.)]
  • Dispute over remains of two dinosaurs locked in combat 66 million years ago, lately unearthed in Garfield County, Mont. and extremely valuable, hinges on whether their fossils are “minerals”; Ninth Circuit says they are under Montana law [AP via Molly Brady (“property professor dream hypo”), Murray v. BEJ Minerals]
  • “Government Should Compensate Property Owners for Flood Damage It Facilitated” [Ilya Shapiro and Patrick Moran on Cato amicus petition for certiorari in St. Bernard Parish v. United States] “Texas Court Rules Deliberate Flooding of Private Property by State Government in Wake of Hurricane Harvey can be a Taking” [Ilya Somin]
  • Constituent-group politics continues to shape use of federal lands, to the detriment of its economic value [Gary Libecap, Regulation and related working paper]
  • Caution, satire: Facebook parody of super-intrusive, restrictive, and meddlesome HOA [East Mountain West View Home Owners Association]

In the mail: Supreme Court Haiku

Now out: Supreme Court Haiku paperback makes a perfect fun gift for your literary or contemplative lawyer friend.

“Law’s Picture Books”

vintage illustration of steamroller run by lawyersWe’ve linked an item from this series previously, but it deserves a post in itself: “Law’s Picture Books,” an exhibition at NYC’s Grolier Club, displayed more than 140 items from the Yale Law Library’s collection of images and writings on legal themes. In a series of ten posts at Concurring Opinions (link is to the series tag), Mark S. Weiner explores many of the highlights. They include images of courtrooms and of lawyers at work; books using mathematical and quantitative methods to address legal issues arising from water and land; images used in law teaching; tree-and-branch and other diagrams; and a 1554 treatise on criminal law whose breakthrough innovation was its inclusion of 60 woodcuts depicting specific crimes.

More in videos at Weiner’s Worlds of Law and in pictures at Mike Widener’s Flickr account. More on the steamroller cartoon in the series entry “Laughing at the Law.”