Jon’s news & views
Mourning a friend – Criminal Defense Lawyer Brian Bregman
Mourning friends remains infrequent for me. Today, I learned that my criminal defense lawyer friend Brian Bregman died yesterday at the untimely age of 43. The police are investigating this as a homicide. Yes, every moment and day we spend on this sacred earth is...
Joseph Katz passes- Taught me never to give up nor give in
My dad Joseph Jacob Katz passed away May 18, 2020. I could say he had a long illness, and that I am happy I got a chance to visit with him for many nice hours at my parents' home in New York City this past...
Trump needs to be a one-term president says Fairfax criminal lawyer
Trump is a polarizing president, which I predicted he would be during the 2016 presidential campaign season. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer and individual, I recognize the importance of not repeatedly reacting to Trump in his desire to set the discussion agenda, and instead to...
Benjamin Pang-jeng Lo – My greatest martial arts teacher passes
Benjamin Pang-jeng Lo was my greatest martial arts teacher. Recently, I learned that Ben passed away on October 12, 2018. He was ninety-one. Benjamin Pang-jeng lo- A giant of a human being Ben (here teaching t’ai chi ch’uan in the only YouTube video I have...
September 11 sixteen years later – Terrorists win if terror erodes civil liberties
The September 11, 2001, murders, happened sixteen years ago. Terrorists win of terror is allowed to erode civil liberties. Sadly, that erosion continues.
Jordan Edwards – Where do the unjustified police shootings end?
One 2014 day when I entered a nearby courthouse, a sheriff's deputy lamented the backlash of public opinion against police after police shot dead Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The unjustified police killings continued, including Eric Garner's death on Staten Island following a police chokehold,...
Time to mobilize against Trump’s onslaught against immigrants and search for a Scalia clone
A refrain by many people is that it is important to support the office of the presidency and our nationhood by getting behind every new United States president as s/he begins the heavy lifting of the job. That idea, though, is countered by the fact...
September 11 fifteen years later
We cannot wait any longer to reverse all the civil liberties and human rights violations that have been perpetrated by the United States government post-September 11 in the name of fighting terrorism.
Judges benefit all by giving litigants compassion and sufficient time for their cases
Whether or not their colleagues or administrative judges pressure them to do so, many judges in very busy courthouses place a disproportionately high premium on moving dockets along even if at the expense of delivering true justice,
Labor Day- Employees must be treated as full humans, and not as production units
In my role as a lawyer, I remember that judges and the courthouse staff are workers, jurors have their work as jurors and their regular jobs, and prosecutors and police are workers.