Burt Likko

Pseudonymous Portlander. Homebrewer. Atheist. Recovering litigator. Recovering Republican. Recovering Catholic. Recovering divorcé. Recovering Former Editor-in-Chief of Ordinary Times. House Likko's Words: Scite Verum. Colite Iusticia. Vivere Con Gaudium.

62 Comments

  1. What’s your go-to dish to cook when trying to impress someone?

  2. Is it important if there are differences between airspeed velocities of various types of swallow?

  3. Do you agree with Petrus Aureoli that to say that the intellect apprehends an object “by means of a universal concept” does not mean that there is a species intelligibilis in the Thomist sense which acts as a medium quo of knowledge?

      • You’ve got to be kidding me!

        The answer is obviously blue 7 ostrich applied to the Mandelbrot interpretations of Gödel, Escher, Bach’s reasoning of Archimedes principle which delineates the number of cattle in the Herd of the Sun very clearly. As a sum over histories, of course.

        C’mon Eratosthenes! You don’t need to walk around the Earth to learn this stuff! Your mind is like a sieve. Or, should I call you Beta?

        (/tongueincheeck)

    • (Just in case Burt doesn’t answer)

      No.

      But it is unethical to speed.

      • Is it unethical to speed or is it unethical to pilot an automobile under conditions where you cannot control it properly?

    • Randy doesn’t just win with answers, he wins with questions. Damn…

  4. It’s starting to look like San Onofre might not be coming back online; LADWP is committed to getting off of coal-fired electricity by 2020, only seven years away; things aren’t looking real good for Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam generators. Where does Southern California think it’s going to get the electricity to keep the lights on and air conditioners humming in a few years?

    • I was going to ask, “You’re willing to put up an open invitation like that for Schilling?”, but he asked his question before I submitted, so I decided on something of personal interest to me.

  5. How about this. How many serious questions did you expect to get from this post?

      • Have you voided your own stipulation by answering a clearly extra-legal question?

  6. If the over/under for new US Constitutional amendments ratified by 2050 is 1.5, do you take the over or the under?

  7. What is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything?

    And from my husband How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?

  8. I’m asking Burt the Lawyer…

    Why does pretty much everything I think I know about the legal system go out the window in traffic court? No jury of peers, no lawyers, no evidence, burden of proof shifted to the accused, etc.

    To be specific, absent video evidence, if a cop says I ran a red light and I say I didn’t, how can I possibly be found guilty?

      • The Seventh Amendment is only applicable to the federal system.

        Also, a traffic court is a different type of court (in some states anyway). Some states designate traffic courts by statute, while other states create magistrates (or something similar) to hear those cases.

        On federal land (e.g. a national park), traffic tickets are heard in the federal courts before a magistrate. In that case, the first appeal goes to a district court judge.

        • Thanks, Will, that’s pretty much my understanding, although I didn’t know anything about traffic tickets for violations on federal land.

          • Young folks who work in the national parks usually don’t grasp that smoking pot in their dorm rooms really is a federal crime. Fortunately the Park Service usually settles for telling them to clear out within 24 hours and don’t come back.

  9. Tell us your thoughts on Taft, briefly; as a president and as a justice.
    (I kinda get the impression that Taft is a good argument for why a Supreme Court Justice should never be president.)

  10. Which Supreme Court Justices do you expect to retire during Obama’s second term or will Thomas and Scalia turn themselves into necromancers before retiring during a Democratic administration?

    • Thomas is only 64. He just seems old because he was appointed at 43.

    • There is no point in turning themselves into necromancers and being able to raise the dead. The goal is to become a lich.

  11. What is your (general/specific) advice to a person-of-color who finds themselves enmeshed in the U.S. legal system (on either/both sides), in regards to choosing counsel? Specifically, advice on choosing counsel; how do you get the best, considering your (less than perfect) circumstances.

    And, a follow up:

    Is your advice different, in regards to civil v. criminal? Are there any differences for different states (assuming a State case)?

    • hmm… I wonder what Field Negro would have to say about this, bein’ that he’s a lawyer and all that…

  12. Why do people not observe the “left interstate lane is for overtaking traffic, AKA slower traffic keep right” rule?

  13. Why has the nations; second-largest market been without an NFL team for almost two decades?

      • California: the true bastion against the rent-seeking-enablers.

        • “Hey. No Credit. Pay Up Front” is a prayer direct to the ears of The Gods of the Copybook Headings. Gods who, may I point out, answer prayers gleefully.

  14. My question: To what extent do you think that working with people who need a lawyer has changed your opinion on any given hot button political topic from, say, what it was when you first passed the bar?

      • The thing I don’t like about it is that Burt passed the bar when he was… what? 25? 28?

        He’s not supposed to have the same opinions today as he did then.

  15. Considering the endless creeping increases to the authority of the U.S. federal government, and the presidency in particular, which do you think will occur first, and (briefly) why:

    1) The impeachment, conviction and incarceration of a U.S. president for violations of the Constitution? Or…

    2) A for all purpose cease to the existence of the U.S. government, whether due to rebellion or disillusion for other reason?

  16. We’ve sort of been here, but it was in the context of a discussion you didn’t necessarily frame yourself, so if you want I’d be interested to hear your thoughts from scratch on it:

    Legal realism or legal positivism, or what?

      • “Many years later, as he faced the Supreme Court, Burt Likko, Esquire was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover the Napoleonic Code.”

  17. What’s the best prank you’ve ever seen a lawyer pull in the courtroom?

  18. What is your position on the legal positivism vs realism vs natural Law (i.e. Hart vs Dworkin vs Fuller) debate?

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