Chris Powell

May 28, 2007 | Connecticut Law Tribune

What was argued before Connecticut Supreme Court this month was not whether same-sex marriage is right or wrong, good policy or bad policy, but whether the state's constitution emrequires/em it as a matter of equal protection of the law or whether it should be decided through ordinary legislation.

By CHRIS POWELL

3 minute read

October 01, 2007 | Connecticut Law Tribune

A year ago Connecticut's judiciary was by far the least open and accountable part of state government.

By CHRIS POWELL

4 minute read

March 15, 2013 | Connecticut Law Tribune

Connecticut law authorizes abortions for minors with no questions asked, yet it forbids the mere tattooing of minors without parental consent. This irony is an argument that abortion should be at most a means to a properly scrutinized end, not an end in itself even when it facilitates child rape.

By Chris Powell

4 minute read

March 27, 2006 | Connecticut Law Tribune

Ordering former Gov. John G. Rowland to appear at a hearing on legislation to regulate lobbying by former state officials isn't likely to elicit any information.

By CHRIS POWELL

2 minute read

April 02, 2007 | Connecticut Law Tribune

For years now some state legislators and other elected officials have been calling for legislation to cancel the pensions of public officials and public employees convicted of corruption. The general idea has wide support, especially because former Gov. John G. Rowland, having served a year in federal prison for taking kickbacks, will receive $50,000 per year plus lifetime medical insurance in a few years; because pensions already are being paid to two of his convicted henchmen, Peter Ellef, now in federal prison, and Lawrence Alibozek, now serving home confinement; and because a pension will be due to former Bridgeport state Sen. Ernest Newton, a bribe taker now in federal prison.

By CHRIS POWELL

3 minute read

April 23, 2007 | Connecticut Law Tribune

Maybe in spite of its several recent scandals, Connecticut's court system is wonderful on the whole, at least better than the court systems of many other states, which, critics of Connecticut's courts may not always realize, have their own scandals too. (For example, while the discovery that an innocent man has been convicted of rape and has wrongly served 18 years in prison is one of Connecticut's recent court scandals, in Texas that sort of thing is common and a matter of indifference.)

By CHRIS POWELL

3 minute read

January 04, 2013 | Connecticut Law Tribune

Blame the National Rifle Association if you want, as many politicians do, for the wide distribution of guns in the United States. At least blaming the NRA is safer politically than blaming the tens of millions of Americans who own guns legally and responsibly.

By Chris Powell

4 minute read

May 12, 2008 | Connecticut Law Tribune

Apparently it was to be considered just another weekend in Hartford mdash; two carjackings, a bank robbed by two men with handguns, a stabbing that apparently involved drugs, and two shooting incidents, one on the street and the other in a bar, in which nine people were wounded.

By CHRIS POWELL

4 minute read

February 08, 2010 | Connecticut Law Tribune

While the U.S. Supreme Court's decision recognizing the First Amendment right of corporations to spend money on political speech may swamp politics with more special-interest money, it's hard to argue with it as a matter of constitutional law. For news media corporations long have had that right and couldn't exist without it; otherwise there would be no free press, just pamphleteers and bloggers. How can some corporations have the right and not others?

By CHRIS POWELL

3 minute read

July 23, 2007 | Connecticut Law Tribune

Hartford State's Attorney James E. Thomas is furious that the state Criminal Justice Commission passed over seven veteran members of his staff in selecting a relatively junior prosecutor from Waterbury, Gail Petteway Hardy, 44, as his successor. Hardy is the first black woman to be appointed a state's attorney in Connecticut, and because of her lesser experience, Thomas doubts that she was selected on merit.

By CHRIS POWELL

4 minute read