Norm Pattis

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No Easy Fixes In Our Rent-A-Gun World

Friday, January 18, 2013 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune

Laws banning assault weapons, prohibiting clips capable of carrying dozens of rounds of ammunition and requiring background checks of all gun purchasers will be about as effective in stopping gun violence as selling chastity belts in red-light districts.

• Criminal Law/
• Legislature

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Top Prosecutor Shouldn't Be Placed On Federal Bench

Friday, January 11, 2013 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune

I write today to block any effort to nominate Connecticut United States Attorney David Fein for appointment to the federal bench. In his four-year tenure as top federal prosecutor in Connecticut, he has not shown the requisite commitment to fair play and respect for the rule of law necessary to inspire confidence as a federal judge.

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CTLA Attack Reeks Of Hypocrisy

Friday, January 4, 2013 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune

I'm not sure why the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association turned on Irving Pinsky the other day. Pinsky filed a claim before the state's Claim Commissioner seeking permission to sue the state for $100 million on behalf of a survivor of the Newtown shooting. After the world erupted against Pinsky in outrage, CTLA jumped on the bandwagon, issuing a press release suggesting that Pinsky's timing was all wrong.

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Blown Away By Tale Of Katrina And The Law

Friday, December 28, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune

I spent the other day reading a book my wife gave me for Christmas, Dave Eggers' Zeitoun. It's the report of one family's ordeal in the wake of Katrina, the hurricane that devastated New Orleans in 2005. Although the book was written in 2009, and won awards, it escaped my radar.

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Defense Lawyers Get Belted By New Policy

Friday, December 14, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune

There's a new security regime in the Connecticut federal courts, so let me gripe about it a bit: You see, lawyers are now required not just to pass through metal detectors, place their briefcases on conveyor belts scanning for bombs and some such, remove their computers from briefcases, and empty their pockets. All that was standard fare. Now lawyers are required to take off their belts as well.

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People Of Color Absent From Jury Pools

Friday, November 30, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune

Call me a racist, but Connecticut does not do enough to assure that criminal defendants face a jury of their peers.

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Prostitution Prosecution Based On DA's Fantasy

Wednesday, November 21, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. might be one of those understated legal geniuses who see things in life's tawdry fact patterns the rest of us miss. Or maybe he's just the son of a famous man, former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who rode his daddy's coattails all the way into a job that's just too big for his meager talents. Gauging by his office's performance in the Anna Gristina case, I am not checking the genius box when it comes time to cast a ballot for Vance.

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'You Can't Govern Us, We Quit'

Friday, November 16, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune

Secession anyone? The last time there was a groundswell of support for the states to secede from the union, we ended up fighting a bloody Civil War. One hundred and fifty years later, there are new calls for secession. Just how serious is the new secession movement?