Welcome to Law and Legitimacy, where our theme is the nature and source of public authority. I am a criminal defense and civil rights lawyer. For decades, I've defended unpopular folks aggressively and without apology, and I've made lots of enemies. My law license was suspended in January 2023 for six months for sharing confidential records with other lawyers also representing my client. I've taken an appeal. The suspension has been temporarily stayed. Welcome to the state of nature.