Stephen Hardwick

@nonfinality.bsky.social

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Appellate public defender. Peace Corps Tunisia. Lowest-level zoning chair. Wolverine in Buckeye land. Election worker. Cyclist. Personal account with personal views only. “On the payroll of the rain garden interests.” he/him

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Prison rape jokes are still rape jokes. Don't. Just don't.

It is not funny. It is not just. It is not an appropriate part of a carceral sentence. We should not view it as an inevitability and we should not speak of it as "deserved". It is one of the many shames of our carceral system and one of the reasons we need radical prison reform.

Want to know the daily grind of a state supreme court? OK, only a few of you care that much, but those people, the Ohio Supreme Court maintains a list of all filings for the previous 5 days—every single one. A few may be sealed, but you'll get the general description. #AppellateSky #LegalWriting ⚖️

Public Docket www.supremecourt.ohio.gov Supreme Court of Ohio Online Docket

posting a photo of a depression-curing fountain pen. #JustOneMoreFountainPen

My favorite fountain pen—an Aikin-Lambert pen my father-in-law gave me that, I believe, came from his grandfather. It has an inscription: “From employees to Harry Jacobs, 12-25-16.” That’s *1916.* It’s an eyedropper pen, and I don’t trust the seals, but it’s the coolest pen I have.

Things couldn’t have seemed much better to Thurgood Marshall when he started in the 1930s, but he managed to show up to fight for clients in place where he would have been murdered if he spent the night. If he could get through his times, we can get through ours.

Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary: Williams, Juan: 9780812932997: Amazon.com: Booksa.co Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary [Williams, Juan] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary

Notice that the accessible parking sign behind the goose has a “$500 Fine” sign rubber-banded on. The BOE gives them to us because the city can’t enforce an accessible space restriction unless the sign includes the correct fine, and many old signs have no fine listed or list the old fine of $250.

One vexing problem I couldn’t entirely fix—angry geese near the polling entrance. I hope to have solution by November, because as funny as the problem is, an angry goose could keep voters away. (Everyone seemed to get by them, at least.)

Want voting to go more smoothly in your area? This site will direct you to your local election professionals so you can sign up to be a poll worker.

This is why I work Election Day as a poll worker—managing a voting location and doing anything I legally can to help eligible voters cast whatever vote they want with as little inconvenience as possible.

Poll Worker Resources for Voters | U.S. Election Assistance CommissionLockwww.eac.gov The EAC encourages those interested in becoming poll workers at the polls on Election Day to learn more about what is required and how to sign up to work with your local election office.

Let me step back from this a bit. This is true short term, but the seeds of today’s right-wing rule were sown in dissents since the Warren Court. Judges and justices on the left need to hone this craft. And people like me shouldn’t throw spit balls from the peanut gallery when they do.

“Great dissent” means the right side lost, and lost big. I hate those words.

Looking for a good book to get your mind off of republic-destroying monsters? How about planet-destroying monsters? After finishing book three, I just went back to listen to the first book of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Shards of Earth series. I also recommend his Children of Time series.

Shards of Earthshare.libbyapp.com The Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author of Children of Time brings us an extraordinary space opera about humanity on the brink of extinction, and how one man’s discovery will save or destroy us all....

As of 12:01 this morning, for the first time in (I think) ten years, I am not on any PTA/PTO board.

Looking at this Sailor Manyo Ayame fountain pen ink with my bare eyes, it seems to look darker & greener from angle than when I look strait down. But I can’t reproduce it with a camera. Am I just imagining it? I do like the soft grayish green. The green comes out much more when shading than writing

Here's something you as an appellate lawyer can do to help others know what's going on in your state. My office maintains a list of criminal & delinquency issues that the Ohio Supreme Court has agreed to decide. It's not that hard to do, but it's often a pain for others to figure out on their own.⚖️

Ohio Supreme Court Cases Accepted For Reviewopd.ohio.gov Accepted for Review and Briefing in the Ohio Supreme Court

This headline is misleading. Federal law doesn’t “allow” gifts to state and local workers. Federal law just doesn’t prohibit it. In Ohio (and my guess, most places), it’s still illegal under state law for state government workers to get paid for doing our job by anyone except our employer.

Corruption Law Allows Gifts to State and Local Officials, Supreme Court Ruleswww.nytimes.com The court, which has limited the sweep of several anti-corruption laws, distinguished after-the-fact rewards from before-the-fact bribes.

Taps sign.

Sometimes, statutes don’t say what we wish they said. The remedy is for the legislative branch to change the statute.

One critical oral argument skill—finding that quiet cubby you can prep in while waiting. This one is in Dayton.

AI scraping is one big reason not to put older briefs & case-support material online. When briefs were submitted by mail and only ready by maybe 8 people total (unless someone went to the courthouse to look at them), privacy wasn’t as big a concern as it should have been. Lots of very personal info.

The privacy concerns are also real. It would be beyond horrible to feed a detailed transcript about a sexual assault (with names!) into a system siphoning off information to turn into other stories..

RIP my Thule panniers. They lasted nearly ten years. If only they had sewn the seams on the bottom, they’d still be working. I loved the simplicity (no pouches or dividers) and the magnet that attached the bottom part to my rack. Let’s see how long these Rhinowalks last.

I will probably forever see: —“LLM” and think “Master of Laws” —“PTO” and think “Parent Teacher Organization”

I knew that an LL.M wasn’t the most useful degree, but I didn’t think LL.Ms were stuck sending out birthday messages for other people.

'LLMs to send birthday messages' is the latest fascinating example of 'a thing that is useful for governments and organisations being weirdly packaged as useful for households'.

When doing oral argument, one fun way to cite your former cases is to use your former client’s first name. No one remembers the first names of the people in the cases they cite. And it reminds everyone that “cases” are really just people. ⚖️

I love it when prosecutors cite one of my former cases against my current client and get it wrong. I really, really hate it when prosecutors cite one of my former cases against a current client and get it right.

Recently, I got to see a couple of women talk about their journey through the criminal legal system. If I got caught sending 🤮 emojis about their talk during their talk, I might not have been fired, but I’d have justifiably been in serious trouble. (To be clear, I had no reason to want to do that.)

Yeah, DMs are working out great.

When listening to people talking about their pain, you’ve got to actually listen and do so respectfully, even when you disagree with what they’re asking for. Probably especially when you disagree. Even more so when you’re one of the people responsible for the speakers’ safety. (gift link)

3 Columbia Deans Placed on Leave Over Conduct at Antisemitism Panelwww.nytimes.com Leaked images showed the trio sharing disparaging text messages during an alumni group discussion last month about Jewish life on campus.

I’m sure that the critics of this court decision have first taken the time to familiarize themselves with the nuances of Nevada’s laws about venue of criminal cases. Because prosecutors would never screw up a case against someone who did really bad stuff. Can’t happen. Ever.

Breaking News: A Nevada judge threw out the state’s case against fake Republican electors who tried to declare Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 election.

Nevada Judge Throws Out State’s Case Against Fake Electorswww.nytimes.com The judge said the state chose the wrong venue to file a case against the Republicans who tried to declare Donald J. Trump the winner of the 2020 election.

I’ve been listening to Wastelands & Wastelands 2–collections of post-apocalyptic short stories. Depressing, but good. One cool thing w/ short stories is that you can move on if one doesn’t resonate. I’ve only done that once so far. share.libbyapp.com/title/1580350 share.libbyapp.com/title/2075036

“Itfadhel” may be my favorite Tunisian* Arabic word. You can use when letting someone go in front of you (“go ahead”), handing someone something (“take it”), and more. And I only heard it spoken politely. *Yes, I know similar words are used elsewhere, but I learned it as part of Tunisian Arabic.

Itfadhel. Spoken politely, of course.

This case appears to show one downside of the “Fair” Report Privilege most reporters get. I intentionally put “fair” in scare quotes because the rule generally immunizes journalists from defamation claims if they parrot what cops tell them, even flat-out lies, but not for anything the reporters add.

This euphemism may be the cops’ fault if they only told reporters that the woman used “racial statements.”

Fair Report Privilegefirstamendment.mtsu.edu The fair report privilege is a state-law defense to defamation claims used by journalists, although the level of protection may vary by state. Under the privilege, a journalist is insulated from a def...

Any labeling system is going to make mistakes. Every human who staffs a labeling system will sometimes act too quickly or too slowly. If we demand too much labeling systems, we won’t have labeling systems. And we should never take a label or lack-of-label as the final word on any person.

I interviewed all over the Midwest for jobs after law school. Columbus was the only city that didn’t have a chip on its shoulder about new professionals moving in. It seemed like most other young professionals had moved here, too. I was welcomed even though I moved here from Ann Freakin’ Arbor.

Columbus OH is a happening place for grads www.nytimes.com/2024/06/20/r...

Most of us have some home-town pride, but one way the Ohio Supreme Court is objectively better than the Georgia Supreme Court is transparency. Georgia wants us to pay to read opinions & downloard arguments, & the dockets don't link to filings. By contrast, the Ohio Supreme Court… www.gasupreme.us

Somehow we missed the this huge legal news: As of this past Monday, the Ohio Supreme Court's Writing Manual no longer prescribes ridiculous parallel cites. #LegalWriting

Reading and Writing Legal Briefs and Opinions Is Getting Easierwww.courtnewsohio.gov