Fear is the tool of a tyrant, Maurene Comey
We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn’t either. James Comey
Foundational Ratio of American Justice
The law holds that it is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer. William Blackstone (1769)
It was better to let the crime of a guilty person go unpunished than to condemn the innocent. Coffin, et al. v. United States, 156 U.S. 432 (1895)
Kenny Malone Tree Service
This is one of Kenny Malone’s employees working in Sept 2025. This street is the only way in or out. No flagman and no signs warning of work ahead. So when this came into my field of view, it appeared to me that the skid steer operator was nosing in so that I could pass. That’s when he slammed it into reverse. He began shouting profanity, waiving his arms, and then completely blocked the street and crossed his arms. He only moved when I alerted him to the white car. I wonder if that homeowner knew that Kenny Malone would treat the neighbors this way.
Respect our rights
Our rights don’t end where your fear begins. Freedom is scary. Deal with it. John Bryan
Not a Lawyer
You think that I have no strategy because I’m not a lawyer, but it’s because I’m not a lawyer that you don’t perceive my strategy—I am not limited by the way lawyers think. Self
Optics are secondary
Who cares about the cussing? Who cares about the optics? I care about the Constitution. I care about the fact that no one bothered to point out the real problem here. […] Even if it wasn’t an autistic kid, if it was an unsympathetic criminal, it is just as serious. John H. Bryan, Esq.
American Flag Laws
Congress enacted very precise standards for the American flag (see 4 U.S.C. §§1-10). I want to point out particulatly that the flag must never be sewn as clothing!!! Under §8(d) and §8(j), “[t]he flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery” and “[n]o part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform.” American flag bikinis? Illegal. American flag boxers? Illegal. more ›
Fake Doctorates (feat. Christopher Hylton)
Christopher Hylton claims to have a “Doctorate of Theology [from] Piedmont Bible College of Theology,” but Piedmont does not confer theology doctorates (Th.D.). Piedmont also does not confer divinity doctorates (D.Div.). Piedmont narrowly offers a “Doctor of Ministry” in “biblical preaching, church revitalization, and ministry.” It is a non-academic, thirty-six credit online program “designed for those who aspire to excel at the highest level in the practice of ministry.” No dissertation is required for Piedmont’s D.Min. Whether a “Piedmont Bible College of Theology” ever existed is doubtful. There was once a Piedmont Bible College that merged with other schools. It now exists as Piedmont Divinity School within Carolina University (a college with a flimsy accreditation claim and a troubling percentage of adjunct faculty). All this reminds me of another blogger’s post on televangelists buying fake doctorates. This shit bothers me.more ›
Mobile Devices while Driving in Alabama
Birmingham has always had incompetent broadcast journalism. For the last year, television and radio outlets claim “Alabama prohibits holding a mobile device while driving.” That is flatly untrue. Journalists should verify facts, not parrot words.more ›
Certificates of Service
Certificates of services are required for almost every court filings. Attorneys generally copy-paste some perfunctory prose for decades without ever revising the text for ongoing changes to state and federal rules of procedure. I offer these suggestions for modernizing certificates of service. Here is my omnibus modernization.more ›
Woodruff v. City of Pelham
Woodruff v. City of Pelham (1 So. 3d 157) began with a petty traffic citation and reached courthouse shenanigans that I just could not tolerate. I won this appeal and the appellate decision has been cited more than two dozen times in state and federal courts. Most significantly, it laid the foundation for vacating Deangelo Thomas’s conviction and three life sentences. But Alabama never lets anyone skate and true to form, Greg Shaw wrote a separate concurring opinion in which he unleashed a vitriolic ad hominem attack. Following the opinion, I will explain the ways that Shaw twisted his pen.more ›
Alabama’s Misdemeanor Trial System
I was once obliged to deep-dive Alabama’s insane misdemeanor trial system, the explanation of which requires some 2,000 words. I choose to make the research available as a public service so that idiot legislators and lazy attorneys get the facts right. more ›
Mickey Johnson (attorney)
Attorney Larry Michael “Mickey” Johnson (Nashville, Ga) is an unmotivated piece of shit (which leads me to suspect the same of his legal assistant/wife for as it is said, birds of a feather flock together).more ›
Marty Bruce
Marty Aaron Bruce was once a canine deputy sheriff in Valdosta/Lowndes County, Georgia. He was forced to resign after repeated abusive conduct culminating in a civil rights lawsuit for assaulting an airman stationed at Moody Air Force Base.more ›
Private Citizens, Public Servants
I’m a private citizen with rights, but you’re a public servant with duties. Self
Iliana Rivera Sutton & Aha! Solutions
I endured the experience of dealing with Iliana Rivera Sutton in 2019 and I caution every person, every businesses, and every agency against contracting or employing her or her “company” Aha! Solutions. My personal experience was that she had serious financial mismanagement and zero credibility. Iliana is as truthful as Pinocchio and as successful as poor Geppetto.more ›
Xenophobia (feat. Joshua McKoon)
Georgia Senator Joshua McKoon proposed a state constitutional amendment to require that all government business be conducted in English and it makes no good sense. As a citizen with one foot still in Georgia (and the other foot looking for better soil to tread), this moronic initiative bothered me when I first heard of it, but it has really stuck in my craw and I must now speak out.more ›
Alabama Gender Recognition, Equity, and Enforcement (A.G.R.E.E.)
This is a bill that I authored and endeavored to present to the Alabama legislature. No senators or representatives were willing to take the risk. TO BE VERY CLEAR, THIS PROPOSED BILL NEVER BECAME LAW. In 2023 I decided to make it available online in hopes that the right eyes might find it and effect the change that I could not. more ›
The Birmingham News: “Bill to expunge records stalled in House panel”
I am asking for your help in raisíng public awareness of Senate Bill 178 and House Bill 81. I and many others need these bills to pass so we wiIl have a fair standing.
Unlike our neighboring states, Alabama has no provision for expunging the proceedings against a person once he is exonerated of a criminal charge. This might not have mattered 10 years ago, but the digital age puts information on the desktops of anyone who wants it.more ›
The Crimson White: “Response to evangelist should affirm truth in minds, hearts”
About a year before I came to UA, I had an interesting encounter with a man who called himself “Brother Jim.” Brother Jim upset a lot of people on the University of Montevallo campus. A few students cried; some vociferated rebuttals; still others did nothing.
What I had trouble understanding that day was why my intelligent peers continued to congregate around that man when few, if any, supported his assertions. My pal Kristin tried to explain her compulsion to me this way: “I need to be here so that others will know that what he’s saying isn’t the truth.”more ›
The Crimson White: “Social Security numbers should not be student ID”
The University of Alabama student paper (The Crimson White) April 19, 2002
The last SGA, like so many of us around test time, got a lot of its best work done at the last minute. The 2001-02 Senate passed one of its most important bills just weeks before leaving office.
Resolution 53-01, authored by former graduate school senator John Woodruff and sponsored by 2001-02 Sens. Aubrey Collins and Mario Bailey, asks the University to stop the practice of assigning student identification numbers identical to students’ Social Security numbers.more ›