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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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I guess executing those who disagree with you is one way to be “absolutist” about free speech.
2 replies 0 reposts 15 likes
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Stephen Hardwick@nonfinality.bsky.social |
1019 followers 1161 following 3903 posts
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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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I guess executing those who disagree with you is one way to be “absolutist” about free speech.
2 replies 0 reposts 15 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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Prison rape jokes are still rape jokes. Don't. Just don't.
0 replies 2 reposts 11 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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Too many people still think rape is good if it's done to a bad person.
1 replies 2 reposts 31 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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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 ⚖️
0 replies 2 reposts 5 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
[ View ] |
posting a photo of a depression-curing fountain pen.
#JustOneMoreFountainPen
2 replies 0 reposts 26 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
[ View ] |
This ruling is horrible, so we need people who will explain just how horrible it is, and we also need people to think through how to navigate the decision to make it less horrible in practice.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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Judge Glanville is wrong about a lot of things, but at least he’s only screw-up-this-case wrong, not undermine-the-republic wrong.
0 replies 1 reposts 3 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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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.
0 replies 1 reposts 3 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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Note: Even if the accessible designation isn’t legally enforceable, it’s socially enforceable. So if you park there and aren’t eligible, you’re still a jerk.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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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.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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Another little example: When the line started to get long when we were in a church sanctuary, I took the chair, which were stacked against the wall, and made Disney-style turnaround. With parental permission, every kid in line got their “Ohio Votes” sticker early—because bored kids love stickers.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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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.)
2 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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Arranging the line so people can wait inside instead of out in the cold. Patiently working with the board of elections when you don’t have e something you need. Saying, “Yes, you can use your unexpired drivers license with your old address.”
2 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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Helping people who use assistance to vote is particularly satisfying—making it clear that it’s an honor to help them cast whatever vote they want at the pace they feel comfortable with. Making sure the attitude is customer service, especially when there’s an issue that requires time to resolve.
1 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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Yes. And I didn’t want to say that working the polls is the only way to serve. The system needs people doing what you’re doing, as well as much more. Some people can’t do more, but for the rest, there’s an election-related niche to Get Important Stuff Done.
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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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.
1 replies 25 reposts 30 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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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.
2 replies 0 reposts 6 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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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.
1 replies 1 reposts 8 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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“Great dissent” means the right side lost, and lost big. I hate those words.
0 replies 1 reposts 2 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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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.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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Nice promise, but I don’t see how it could be binding. If a former president made that promise, and if they’re being criminally prosecuted for in-office crimes, any criminal defense lawyer who represented that ex-president would likely advise them to claim immunity anyway.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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As of 12:01 this morning, for the first time in (I think) ten years, I am not on any PTA/PTO board.
0 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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I remember Eddie Murphy’s self-deprecating explanation of the awfulness of “Party All the Time”: When you reach a certain level of fame, too many people around you start telling you, “You can do anything.”
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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Fountain pens are useful tools to fight all sorts of writer's block.
0 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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I think that's it. A window screen lit up with evening sun is behind it, making the lighting weird. But still, the effect seems more noticeable with this lighter ink. This would be a bad ink if you wanted what you wrote to pop, but it might be perfect for taking notes with nosey people nearby.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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There must be some unspecified combination of keys that triggers Word’s This-Line-Shall-Look-Weird function. Then, as you figured out, you must ask friends and then search Google for the magic manual fix.
1 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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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
1 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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FWIW, I don’t think that’s the memo. It looks like the press release announcing that there is or will be a memo.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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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.⚖️
0 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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You can only win judicial Calvinball when you have a majority. The only tool dissenting justices have is persuasion. It’s more effective for the liberals to show the inconsistencies in the majority’s approach (including procedure) than to respond to making stuff up by making more stuff up.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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SCOTUS justices are especially not prohibited from getting people to pay them for doing the job they already get paid for.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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(That was a gift link.) The headline also shows that sometimes, a double negative can’t accurately be converted into single positive.
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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(They usually decide far faster than that, but cases have dragged for more than a year between argument and decision. Not very often. But it’s happened.)
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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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.
2 replies 4 reposts 17 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Four to nine months from argument to decision is pretty normal here for appellate courts, although there’s now some pressure to work more quickly.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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Example: The only hard deadline that the Ohio Supreme Court imposes on itself is that it decides every argued case by December 31 of a *bi-annual* election year (because new justices often start in January).
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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SCOTUS’s policy of getting everything done by the end of June each year is better than a lot of “real” appellate courts.
2 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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I’ll leave constitutional questions for another time. There, the ideologies of judges have more impact. I’ve just argued many times in court, “Yes, action A is bad. But statute X bans actions B C D & E, not A.”
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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Yes. “Gratuities” are bad and can function like bribery. But if you want people to be punished criminally for it, the legislative branch has to pass a statute saying that.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Taps sign.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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It’s only piracy if the lawyer tries to do it themselves—because we know the lawyer would screw it up.
0 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
[ View ] |
When I saw how my new-to-me dentist was training his assistant. Asking for her opinion, explaining decisions, trusting her where she was already excellent. I guess treating a subordinate with respect isn’t minor, but I rarely see that part of my medical professionals’ work.
0 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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I don’t know how in- or out-of-character the Elephants of Posnan is for Card, but it seemed awfully creepy. I haven’t read a ton of his work, but it seems he does better when his faith informs his stories than when his faith dominates his stories. Rowling’s obsession is weird & creepy.
1 replies 1 reposts 5 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I had a moment of panic when I thought they might be closing the library—pretty much all the shelves were empty, & librarians were removing books from seemingly the rest. But thankfully no. It turns out that the tall shelves had become unstable, & they’re replacing them with shorter, safer shelves.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
[ View ] |
One critical oral argument skill—finding that quiet cubby you can prep in while waiting. This one is in Dayton.
1 replies 0 reposts 6 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Isn’t there a federal law keeping a lot of domestic relations stuff off the net? Maybe 20 years ago, a retired Cincinnati Reds player’s soon-to-be ex-wife dumped a lot of his tax records onto the clerk’s public system. DR stuff quickly was required to go offline here.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
[ View ] |
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.
1 replies 9 reposts 21 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
[ View ] |
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..
1 replies 0 reposts 6 likes
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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And that’s fine for stuff that isn’t critical, but not when precision matters.
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Stephen Hardwick
@nonfinality.bsky.social
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If privacy issues could be addressed, I could *theoretically* see AI as a useful tool to digest a large transcript—but only after I’ve done it myself first. With careful human verification, an AI chronology might help me catch stuff I missed, but to rely on AI as a starting point is madness.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes