Making Law

This unique memoir tells the stories of six of the author's dramatic cases, highlighting lawyers and judges who faithfully honored our legal traditions and precedents, but did not hesitate to "make law" if necessary, to do justice.
The "good times" of the title starkly contrasts with the present era, in which disdain for the rule of law by a significant number of judges, lawyers and prominent elected officials has caused public respect for the courts to plummet. The book's epilogue is a clarion call to restore trust in the judicial branch of government, among other things by selecting judges purely on a nonpartisan basis, particularly necessary in a time when both major political parties are demanding that the courts decide issues that have become political hot potatoes.
The stories themselves deal with the unusual: West Point tries to expel a male cadet literally for "walking" with a newly admitted female cadet. Three horrifying murders are committed on another secure military base, but the Justice Department refuses to prosecute the probable murderer. The victims' family brings an unprecedented legal procedure to force the government to do the right thing. New York's highest court declines to issue a simple ruling that could have prevented the 2007-2008 worldwide financial crisis. Political zealots attempt to seize custody of "Baby Jane Doe"-a newborn with life-threatening medical conditions because they disagree with the medical decisions the child's parents have made for her. The author goes to Washington to argue the nation's first local reapportionment case before a sharply divided Supreme Court. A local suburban community is forced to defend its long-accepted zoning laws in a racially charged lawsuit, which results in a decision that benefits no one.
In reading these stories, the reader experiences events that changed American history.