Dr. Ronald B. Standler Attorney in Massachusetts
Miscellaneous Essays on Law
This webpage lists my essays on U.S. Constitutional law (e.g., freedom of speech and other rights),
employment law for professionals, and
family law.
About Dr. Standler
By way of introduction, I:
programmed computers since 1968
earned a Ph.D. in physics in 1977,
was a professor of electrical engineering for ten years,
wrote more than 30 archival technical papers and one book, and
am an attorney in Massachusetts since December 1998.
I am licensed to practice law in Massachusetts and
admitted to practice in all state and federal courts in Massachusetts,
as well as the U.S. Supreme Court.
I can easily travel to towns in northeastern Massachusetts,
or to the Boston area, including Cambridge, MA.
My homepage at www.rbs2.com/
contains links to documents with my credentials,
my current fees, how to contact me, and
links to my essays on other topics in law.
Miscellaneous Essays on Law
Essays on this website are provided only to provide general information
and to communicate my personal comments on interesting topics in
law, technology, and society. Essays on this website are neither
legal advice nor legal opinion. Accessing this website or reading
documents on this website does not create an attorney-client
relationship. See my disclaimer
for details.
All essays at this website are protected by copyright.
I have posted my Terms Of Service
for printing, copying, and distributing my essays
at this website.
I am an attorney only in Massachusetts, so I can not provide
legal advice to people in other states of the USA, unless they have been
injured or sued in Massachusetts, or unless your local attorney hires me as a consultant.
However, I have posted the following hints for
how to find an attorney.
People often confuse criminal law with civil law (e.g., torts and contracts),
which leads to misunderstandings about legal rights. I have prepared a
brief essay that compares and contrasts
criminal and civil law.
My essay on the effect of inflation
on fixed amounts of dollars specified in statutes and long-term contracts,
and how to automatically adjust such amounts.
U.S. Constitutional Law
My essay on heckler's veto,
a detail in the interpretation of the First Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution that prevents the government from silencing
speakers because of the threat of violent reaction. This essay
ends with a discussion of the metaphor "marketplace of ideas",
a justification for freedom of speech.
As an attorney interested in First Amendment law, I am concerned about
the possible poisoning of the jury pool by legal commentary programs
on television, which could interfere with a fair trial.
My essay, Pretrial Publicity Prevents a Fair Trial in the USA,
examines the conflict between a free press and the right of accused
to a fair trial by impartial jurors,
and how trial judges should avoid biased jurors.
This essay also explains why admonitions to the jury are ineffective,
and discusses gag orders, professional responsibility rules for attorneys,
and Bar-Press guidelines.
I have posted a separate document that contains
long quotations from opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court and
the U.S. Courts of Appeals about pretrial publicity.
My essay, Doctrine of Unconstitutional Conditions,
explains when a government in the USA can demand the waiver
of a constitutional right as a condition of receiving some benefit
(e.g., employment, contract, right, privilege, etc.) from the government.
My essay, Freedom from the Majority in the USA,
explains constitutional limits on the power of governments in the USA
to impose orthodoxy on everyone.
I also have a collection of essays on privacy law,
which includes constitutional limits on government intrusion into personal life.
For example:
My main essay on privacy law in the USA
includes a review of federal statutes, constitutional law,
and the common law of torts, and also discusses searches of
people's garbage and invasions of privacy by journalists.
My annotated list of U.S. Supreme Court cases
on fundamental rights under privacy shows the thin scope of constitutional
privacy rights in the USA.
The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the confidentiality or privacy of information
is destroyed by disclosure to a third party. In practice, this rule of law means
that there is no privacy interest in bank account records (e.g., checks, deposit slips,
monthly statements), no privacy interest in a list of telephone numbers dialled from
a home telephone, and no privacy for letters or e-mail after they have been read by the recipient.
I explain the origin of this rule of law about
third-party disclosure
and criticize this rule of law.
This topic has implications for anonymity of screen names and
privacy of search queries on the Internet, freedom from electronic surveillance, and
privacy of library or bookshop records.
My essay, Legal Aspects of Searches of Airline Passengers in the USA,
cites and discusses federal cases on searches of passengers at airports,
legal justification for border searches,
importance of the Fourth Amendment, intrusion, legal right to travel,
and, finally, argues that choosing to travel by air does not
automatically give the traveler's consent to a search.
I have posted essays on the history of the nomination and confirmation of
Justices Alito and
Sotomayor
to the U.S. Supreme Court. These essays are at my personal website,
because they contain some of my personal political opinions.
Employment Law for Professionals
My essay on professional ethics & wrongful discharge
discusses cases in the USA in which a learned professional
(e.g., attorney, physician, nurse, engineer, or scientist)
upheld principles of professional ethics, despite
his/her manager's desires, and the professional's employment was terminated.
With the conventional doctrine of at-will employment in the USA,
the employer has the absolute right to dismiss an employee for
any reason, including a "morally repugnant" reason.
I have a separate essay on the
history of at-will employment
that includes criticism of the doctrine of at-will employment
and a brief sketch of the history of attempts to modify this doctrine.
I have written nine essays on topics in family law
in the USA, especially including prenuptial and postnuptial contracts,
distribution of marital assets at divorce, and alimony. I do not personally practice
family law, but I do accept legal research projects from licensed attorneys who represent clients
undergoing divorce or other areas of family law.
Copyright 2009 by Ronald B. Standler
This document at http://www.rbs2.com/imisc.htm
first posted 14 Jan 2009, revised 5 November 2009