A stable society depends on the rule of law, which involves, among other things, legal certainty. This is a simple principle that means people should have a reasonable sense of what is lawful and what is not. It also depends on the general public having confidence that the law enjoys some relationship — not necessarily…

Advocates of desegregation should take heart, and planners should take notice, because at last it’s official: Land-use policies that perpetuate residential segregation are illegal.  A new rule from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) clearly spells out that the Fair Housing Act prohibits practices that have a discriminatory effect (disparate impact), even if…

Some aspects of intellectual property law are inherently complex. But other areas could be — and should be — much simpler. For example, you would think the law would have a crystal clear answer to this question: When a retailer is selling something produced by a famous manufacturer and wants to advertise the fact, is…

Before we say goodbye to 2012, the year in which we re-elected our first African-American President, I would like to mention an important centenary in civil rights law. One hundred years ago William H. Lewis, a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School, completed his service as the first African-American Assistant Attorney General…

Sometimes judges give helpful hints. I think Judge Kenneth Neiman provided one recently when he denied a motion to dismiss in a case about a photograph, Peckham v. New England Newspapers, Inc., 40 Media L.Rep. 1849 (June 4, 2012). The thumbnail sketch is this:A newspaper photographer took a photo of a motor-vehicle collision showing…

“You never want to see my name and your name in the same newspaper story,” is how Mike Sullivan, director of the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) opened his seminar in Westfield recently. He pointed out that to date there has never been a Herald or Globe headline lauding a…