Ken White
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Articles by Ken White
Don't Use the Public Chatbot Lawyer
Dear listeners, We have a lot of really stupid litigation to cover this week, starting with the JP Morgan lawsuit so many of you asked us about. This is the case of Chirayu Rana, an ex-banker who has made salacious allegations against a former JP Morgan colleague, saying she forced him into a sexual relationship, spiked his drink with Viagra, threatened his career, and racially belittled his wife. It’s great tabloid fodder, but the emerging consensus is that Rana is making it up.
The Fashionable Notion of 'Free Speech Culture' Is Justifying State Censorship, Ironically
Eames Bot, Shutterstock, The UnPopulist illustration I’m a long-time critic of the modern concept of “free speech culture”—the culturally pervasive notion that supporting freedom of speech requires me not just to refrain from official censorship, but to avoid a wide array of expression that might chill, deter, or punish other people’s speech.
A Letter On Justice And Open Debate About Raping Children
Our cultural institutions are facing a moment of trial. Powerful protests against raping children are leading to overdue demands that people not rape children, along with wider calls for greater avoidance of raping children across our society, not least in higher education, journalism, philanthropy, and the arts.
We Should Talk About The Morality of Political Violence
Advocating the moral propriety or even moral necessity of a resort to force and violence is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Noto v. United States, 367 U.S. 290, 298 (1961). You know, for whatever that’s worth these days. With that in mind: what are the best moral arguments against political violence in America?
How "Free Speech Culture" Is Killing Free Speech: Part One
I’m a long-time critic of the modern concept of “free speech culture” — the notion that support of freedom of speech requires me not just to refrain from official censorship, but to avoid a wide array of expression that might chill, deter, or punish other people’s speech.
Only Criminals Don’t Want To Be Gassed By The Government
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, my former employer, has filed a criminal complaint against Alejandro Orellana, a local immigration activist in Los Angeles. They’ve charged him for distributing face masks to protestors. They specify that the masks are supposed to protect protestors from “chemical splashes and flying debris,” a goal they claim is self-evidently criminal. The complaint is shameful, a propagandistic paean to authoritarianism.
The Fourth Of July, Rethought
For years, I have retold the story reprinted below every Fourth of July. It describes a formative experience in my life and in my identity as an American. I still feel powerfully many of its sentiments: my fondness and appreciation for the late Judge Lew, my admiration for the courage and fortitude of the Filipino soldiers and their families, my belief in America as a set of aspirational values worth pursuing. But things change. The brave and patient men who were naturalized that day are dead.
Itty Bitty Diddy Committee
Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -14:56 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Dear listeners, Our free show this week is pretty brief: We have a look at the federal indictment of Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan, and her move to dismiss the indictment on immunity grounds, which probably won’t work, Ken thinks.
Voir Diddy
Dear listeners, Sean Combs was indicted in September and a jury is now being selected for his eight-week RICO trial — lightning-fast pacing for a complex federal criminal case. As Ken notes, Combs has been held in custody, which is a reason his legal team would be inclined to hurry.
The Decibel Podcast: What you need to know about U.S. travel as detentions rise
The Decibel Staff Menaka Raman-Wilms Vanmala Subramaniam April 2, 2025 Since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, immigration lawyers have reported seeing a rise in non-U.S. citizens being denied entry. At the beginning of March, Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian who had previously been able to obtain a U.S. work visa, was detained for nearly two weeks when she tried to renew her visa.
America Desperately Needs a National Anti-SLAPP Law to Stop Censorship by Bad Political Actors
Dear Readers: If there’s one lesson the Trumpian era has taught us, it’s that the threats to free speech rights do not come solely from laws, but from abusive litigation in civil courts. If President Donald Trump convinced Congress to send him a bill that prohibited media companies from criticizing him, the constitutional violation would be as clear as the light of day.
Williams focuses lens on Orangeburg Massacre
Renowned photographer Cecil Williams, a Claflin University graduate, has dedicated his career to documenting civil rights history in South Carolina. His work, spanning decades, includes capturing pivotal moments such as the Orangeburg Massacre, which happened in Orangeburg in 1968 when law enforcement officers opened fire on students protesting segregation at a local bowling alley. Three were killed and 28 were wounded.
Refuge In Kakistocracy
H.G. Wells published War of the Worlds in 1897. He depicted humanity beingsaved from the malevolent and technologically superior Martians not by armed might or ingenuity or the indomitable spirit of man, but by a head cold: A mighty space it was, with gigantic machines here and there within it, huge mounds of material and strange shelter places.
Should you do options trading?
Options trading has found its place in the do-it-yourself world of young investors, opening possibilities of cashing in on high returns in short order. But it can be a risky game, experts say. Wider access to options trading on DIY platforms has democratized an area of the market once cornered by finance professionals. An option is a contract to buy or sell a security for a specific price, called the strike price, on or before the option’s expiration date.
And Yet It Moves
During COVID, I walked a lot. As a consequence, I started listening to more podcasts. Since then the walking has dropped off dramatically, as my wife would tell you. The habit of listening to history podcasts has stuck. I’ve been binge-listening to two of my favorites recently, The Rest is History and Fall of Civilizations, and I couldn’t help but notice that for most of history everything usually sucked.
Serious Trouble | Substack
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Hacks on Apple Podcasts
Elon Musk has produced some new legal issues for us this week. He has sued a coalition of advertisers for colluding to boycott the Twitter platform, saying this is an antitrust violation, and Musk is also the subject, along with Donald Trump, of a labor law complaint before the National Labor Relations Board, filed by the United Auto Workers.
Things are changing in cottage country: Nine Canadians share the financial pros and cons of ownership
Irene Galea Salmaan Farooqui May 29, 2024 For many Canadians, the Victoria Day long weekend was the first one of the year when they drive to the cottage. It was time to flip on the utilities, drag out the kayaks and clean off the dock. But the state of Canadian cottage ownership is changing. For people already financially stretched on their primary properties, buying or maintaining a cottage is further out of reach than ever before.
A newcomers’ guide to getting your Canadian financial house in order
By Srivindhya Kolluru | Contributing Columnist May 27, 2024 Immigrating to a new country comes with many challenges, including setting up your finances. Experts agree that establishing good money habits and becoming more financially literate — reading up on financial products, asking questions to trusted people in your network — can make this process less challenging.
'They Have Established the Backbone of the Case': Three Writers Dissect the Trump Trial Original
David French, a Times columnist, hosted a written online conversation with Rebecca Roiphe, a former assistant district attorney in the Manhattan district attorney's office, and Ken White, a former federal prosecutor, to discuss Donald Trump's Manhattan trial and Michael Cohen's testimony. David French: Let's start with a big-picture question.
Who Can Be Trusted for Retirement Advice? New Rules Strengthen Protections.
Tara Siegel Bernard April 24, 2024 When you walk into a financial adviser’s office, you expect them to put your best interests above all else — in the same way a doctor would, rather than, say, a car salesperson. But many people don’t realize that the rules financial professionals must follow vary, depending on where they work and what products they’re selling.
'It's a Very Winnable Case': Three Writers Dissect the Trump Trial Original
David French, a Times columnist, hosted a written online conversation with the former federal prosecutors Mary McCord and Ken White to discuss and debate the Trump criminal trial in Manhattan and how, or if, the outcome will matter to voters. David French: Before we start, just a quick refresher on the case.
An Incomplete Primer of Caselaw Appertaining To Bigfoot, AKA Sasquatch, LNU
I was preparing to revive an ancient Popehat post concerning a defamation lawsuit among Bigfoot hunters when I was quite transfixed by a thought: is litigation concerning Bigfoot common? By not only posting about a Bigfoot-related defamation case, but re-running it, am I giving my readers a false impression of the frequency of such cases? Or, to the contrary, am I giving a false impression by not posting enough about Bigfoot? Am I a willful suppressor of legal Bigfoot news?
Columbia Law Student Senate Censors To Prevent Censorship
University students are not the greatest threat to American liberty. That sounds obvious, but you might not know if you listened to popular discourse about universities. Universities, we’re told, are hotbeds of ruthless woke kulturkampf, indoctrinating students into far-left ideology and giving them an unslakable thirst for censorship that will be unleashed on America upon their graduation.
Injustice Can Make You Crazy As A Bedbug
Years ago I worked on the indigent defense panel serving federal courts here in Los Angeles. For very little money, I represented federal defendants who could not afford a lawyer. They were accused of immigration crimes, drug crimes, violent crimes — the whole family of blue-collar federal criminality. Their attitude about their circumstances was very different than the attitude of my paying clients.
Guest Opinion: Let's create more indie bookstores
When I worked at A Different Light Bookstore on Castro Street in the 1990s, it was the cultural hub of the LGBTQ neighborhood. You could feel the energy. Whether you were meeting someone before dinner or visiting from out of town to experience the gay mecca, everyone (even Cher!) came through those doors.
Unfortunately, This Episode Is RICO
Dear listeners, Okay, now it’s RICO. Donald Trump and 18 alleged co-conspirators have been indicted on 41 counts in Fulton County, Georgia. The headline count is RICO: District Attorney Fani Willis alleged this group constituted an enterprise trying to steal Georgia’s electoral votes (and those of other states) in violation of Georgia’s version the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
This Episode Is Not RICO
Dear listeners, Yes, yes, we know: the Georgia indictment came out late Monday night, conveniently released around 11pm eastern, with many counts and many defendants, including Donald Trump. And yes, Ken has seen your emails, DMs, toots and skeets about the specific nature of the indictment. Here is what he has to say: We will soon have an episode for you about the long, sprawling and — dare we say — somewhat legally creative Georgia indictment. Imminently. But not right this second.
The National Review Is Still Lying To You About The Fraud Charge Against Trump
There are two ways to be a public legal commentator. One is to describe, to the best of your ability, what you believe the state of the law is, how and where courts might agree or disagree with you, and how your view of what the law should be differs from how courts currently interpret it. That’s what I aspire to. I fall short all the time, I’m sure.
Beware The Flood Of Trump Sentencing Disinformation
I just turned 54 and I’ve grown used to things hurting — lots of things hurting — first thing in the morning. However, I am unaccustomed to awakening only to be kicked right in the junk by the Washington Post before my morning coffee. I refer to an appallingly bad Washington Post column about the hypothetical sentence Donald Trump faces based on his (to date) three pending criminal cases.
People Are Lying To You About The Trump Indictment
I expected nothing less than high-quality discourse in response to this post, and I've gotten nothing less. From an email: "So you are saying that everyone is lying except you? But then how do I know you aren't lying too? Oh, I should believe you but not those others. If everyone lies that everyone includes you. Wait! I should trust your judgement but not those others, because well....why? Oh, because you say so.... Well that makes sense. You left out the line: On my word as a White.
People Are Lying To You About The Trump Indictment
In peace there's nothing so becomes an opinion writer as charity and humility. But this isn’t peacetime. It’s a time of political, cultural, and legal war. Candor is all. So, in that spirit: the editors of National Review are absolutely lying to you about the most recent indictment of former President Donald Trump, and they are merely the vanguard of a host of lies. Brace yourself. Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted Donald Trump yesterday. The indictment is here and all over the internet.
Is Following An Extradition Treaty An Elaborate Political Conspiracy?
Glenn Greenwald, compulsive Fox guest and professional agitee, has written many smart and important things over the course of his career about abuses of power by the United States government. This is not one of those times. Glenn is agitated because the , the answer to the question “how bad could it be, being raised by two Stanford professors?” Glenn views this as a conspiracy to protect SBF, Democrats, and presumably Hunter Biden: Glenn’s point is dumb.
Hunter Biden And The Fog Of War
The urge to comment on events immediately, as they are happening, before we have the information necessary to evaluate them, is corrosive. It’s also overpowering and pervasive in the era of social media. Nobody wants to wait for tomorrow’s morning paper, or even tonight’s newscast. We want answers and we want them now. Many of us also want to be the ones providing those answers — the first ones providing those answers — for those sweet clicks, comments, likes, and attention.
Modern Monetary Theory: Elixir or Illusion - GLOBE-Net
By: Ken White Free Money? In the dismal science of economics, money is scarce, and we live on a budget. A new school of economics is emerging where money is only scarce for households and businesses but not for governments as they can print as much as they need. This school is called the Modern Economic Theory. On the surface, it seems wacky. But it is being taken very seriously in some circles.
Inflation – Is the Bank of Canada fixing it or making it worse - GLOBE-Net
By: Ken White Inflation affects everything, making it harder to feed our families, pay rent, or even afford a home. The Bank of Canada is trying to cool inflation by slowing down the economy. It does this by hiking interest rates, but this increases the cost of everything, causing pain for households and small businesses. The Bank of Canada’s sledgehammer is increasing prices, especially for groceries and housing. Food prices have risen almost 10 percent, and mortgage costs are up 30 percent.
Supreme Court Clarifies "True Threats" First Amendment Exception
The term “true threats” refers to a subcategory of threats outside the protection of the First Amendment. Not all threats are “true,” and therefore not all threats fall outside of the First Amendment. For more than half a century, courts have used a (purportedly) objective standard to determine whether a threat is true, asking whether a reasonable person, familiar with the context, would interpret the threat as a sincere expression of intent to do harm.
That's Not How Recusal Works, That's Not How Any Of This Works!
As I wrote this weekend, the apparent assignment of the criminal case against Donald Trump to United States District Judge Aileen Cannon bodes very ill for the prosecution. Judge Cannon’s favorable handling of Trump’s hare-brained attack on the federal investigation of his conduct was seen widely as far outside judicial norms, an observation supported by the blunt language and harsh terms of the 11th Circuit ruling overturning her.
Jack Smith, Donald Trump, and the Kobayashi Maru
Every now and then I get to give the Kobayashi Maru speech to a young associate. There are two types of young associates: those who immediately know what I am talking about when I mention the Kobayashi Maru speech, and those who stand there, deeply concerned, wearing a tolerant-of-this-Boomer expression but completely mystified by the reference. The Kobayashi Maru speech is about no-win scenarios. The life of the law is full of them.
Deserve’s Got Nothing To Do With It
In the wake of the killing of Jordan Neely, several people reminded me of this old post from 2012. I wrote it for Radley Balko’s great and regrettably departed web site The Agitator. I had to fish it out of the Internet Archive. Fortunately Radley’s tearing it up doing great work at his new site The Watch, which you should read.
Goat's Dominion
Dear listeners, We’re back with another episode of Serious Trouble! We start by looking at developments in Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against Fox News, which will imminently go to trial in Delaware. Dominion partially prevailed in its motion for summary judgment — Judge Eric Davis ruled various statements made on Fox News were false, were of and concerning Dominion, and were defamation per se.
The Indictment
Apr 6 • 12M After all these years, Donald Trump has been charged. But it's going to be tough to make the charges stick. Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. An irreverent podcast about the law from Josh Barro and Ken White. Dear listeners, Well, this one’s a doozy. There’s a reason this week’s episode for paid subscribers is more than an hour long.
Alvin Bragg's Case Against Trump Is Still a Mystery Original
If you wrote a list of American political virtues, “patient” would not figure prominently. So when we learned last week that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had secured a grand jury indictment of former President and prominent Truth Social poster Donald Trump, nobody wanted to wait before jumping to conclusions. Speculation on the contents, strategy, and strengths of the unseen indictment was rife. Some legal commentators urged patience. Wait, we said. Wait to read the indictment.
Berating The Bumptious: Whittier College’s Extraordinary Threat Letters
Since absolutely nothing is happening this week, I’ve decided to write about a rather meta-topic: dumb defamation threat letters.
Wayne State Professor Steven Shaviro Volunteers As First Amendment Tribute
Since academia is a great consumer of silly First Amendment hypotheticals, it’s only fair that it’s also a muscular producer of them. American universities churn out First Amendment test cases by the dozen. Today, though, prepare for disappointment: our hypothetical is banal in every way, from the fatuity of its characters to the obviousness of its answer.
Stanford Law Responds Appropriately, If Belatedly, To Judge Duncan Fiasco
Last time I indulged myself in some spleen-venting over Fifth Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan’s visit to Stanford Law School and the ensuing tumult. I was unkind and uncharitable to everyone, as was suggested to be by friends, colleagues, students, and a federal appellate judge. Look, I am what it says on the label. I retract nothing, but I will admit to being pleasantly surprised by a mature, forceful, principled response to the events from Stanford Law School Dean Jenny Martinez.
The Week Of Unintended Consequences
Dear listeners, It appears that E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump might actually go to trial pretty soon. It’s scheduled for trial next month, and while these things often get delayed, the court is behaving like it does when a trial is about to begin. This week, we talked about evidence of Trump’s prior behavior — two other accusations from women who say he committed sexual crimes against them, decades apart — that Judge Lewis Kaplan has decided may be admitted in court.
Hating Everyone Everywhere All At Once At Stanford
When it comes to rights, deserve’s got nothing to do with it. When accused murderers and rapists get jury trials, we don’t — at least, outside of Facebook — say they don’t deserve one because they wouldn’t give a trial to their victims. When people’s First Amendment rights are on the line, we don’t ask whether they sincerely support free speech before protecting them.
The Anti-Privilege of Being Donald Trump's Attorney
Dear listeners, Welcome to another week of Serious Trouble! This week’s episode is free to all listeners (though if you want last week’s deep-dive on developments in the Fox-Dominion litigation, we encourage you to sign up as a paid subscriber to hear it). We start out by talking about Sam Bankman-Fried.
Jury Questions
Dear listeners, We’re back with a subscribers-only episode of Serious Trouble focused on new developments in the litigation between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems. Both sides have filed additional briefs. Fox lays out its argument: That it was merely reporting on a set of allegations advanced by the president of the United States — a subject that was obviously newsworthy and that was, indeed, covered widely by outlets across the political spectrum. Why didn’t Dominion sue MSNBC?, Fox wonders.
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