John Burdette Pratt remembers being wary. It was spring 1990 and he had just been appointed to fill a newly created judgeship in his hometown of Vale, Oregon. It’s a small town in the extreme eastern pa...

In January 2000, Judge Steven Leifman was trying to hear the case of a man accused of a minor offense. It was not going well. The defendant, long ago a student at Harvard, was covering his ears. He shook ...

All states have a “lemon law” that protects consumers who purchase cars or other goods that are always breaking and can’t seem to be fixed. Louisiana has the Lemmons – two M’s – of law, who mi...