The word "law" is ultimately derived from the plural form of the Old Norse word lag which had the sense of laying in order.  The Old Norse word became the Old English word for law, lagu.  Thus, the phrase "laying down the law" essentially means to...

In June, I and many others took note of an opinion issued by the California Court of Appeal that concluded a bumble bee could be designated as a fish as defined by Section 45 of the California Fish & Game Code. Almond All. of California v. Fish &...

Nearly seven years ago, I commented on a California statute defining "fish" to mean "a wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, amphibian, or part, spawn, or ovum of any of those animals".   Cal. Fish & Game Code § 45.  While I don't consider a...

Many legal words include silent letters.  For example, what possible reason could there be for including a "c" in the word "indict" or a "b" in the word "doubt"?  The inclusion of these seemingly useless letters is neither arbitrary nor capricious. ...

“Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past.”

On June 16, 1904, Leopold Bloom started his day at No. 7 Eccles Street in Dublin, Ireland with kidneys on his mind.  Indeed, his first errand of the day was a trip around the...

A year ago, "all changed, changed utterly".  In February 2020, I doubt very few, if anyone, would have anticipated that schools, government offices, houses of worship, museums, offices, theaters, and restaurants would be closed and that people would...

"It was that population that gave to California a name for getting up astounding enterprises and rushing them through with a magnificent dash and daring and a recklessness of cost or consequences, which she bears unto this day — and when she...

On March 4, 2020, California's Governor Gavin Newsom proclaimed a "state of emergency" as a result of the outbreak of a respiratory illness in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China.  The term "state of emergency" is just one of three degrees of...

"Good idea the Latin.  Stupifies them first."