Charlie and the Angels: The Outlaws, the Hells Angels and the Sixty Years War, by Alex Caine, Random House Canada, 2012, pp. 272.

A one-percenter is the one of a hundred of us who has given up on society and the politician’s one-way laws.
This is why we look repulsive.
We are saying we don’t want to be like you or look like you.
So stay out of our face.
[...]
God forgives, Outlaws don’t
- The “Outlaws’ Creed”

A Cruel Arithmetic: Inside the Case Against Polygamy, by Craig Jones, Irwin Law, 2012, pp. 384.

When s. 293 of the Criminal Code of Canada was referred to the British Columbia Supreme Court, I wrote that I believed the law was clearly unconstitutional in its current form:

Sarah Peterson Herr, a research lawyer with the Kansas Court of Appeals, recently learned the hard way that putting your opinions out on Twitter can get a lawyer in trouble. After calling a former state attorney general now facing ethics charges a “douche bag,” Herr found herself out of a job.

In 1957, a prominent American group denounced homosexuality as “socially heretical or deviant,” and determined that laws against it posed no constitutional problems. That organization: the American Civil Liberties Union. For years thereafter, “sodomy” was a criminal offence in every state.

A Separation (2011); 123 min; Drama (Iran)

I went into the Iranian film A Separation expecting a film about, well, a separation. And on its surface, the movie is about the breakdown of a marriage between two upper-middle-class professionals in Tehran, and the effect upon their preteen daughter.

Laughing at the Gods: Great Judges and How They Made the Common Law, by Allan C. Hutchinson, Cambridge University Press, 2012, pp. 328, Cdn$30.95

Most judges are competent, thoughtful, and professional. A few, who shall remain nameless, arguably have no business sweeping up the courtroom, much less presiding over it. And an even smaller number achieve true greatness on the bench.

You Can’t Read This Book: Censorship in an Age of Freedom by Nick Cohen, Fourth Estate, 2012, pp. 330, $19.99 in Canada

Britain’s plaintiff-friendly libel laws are so infamous, they’ve even inspired a gag on South Park. In the notorious “Trapped in the closet” episode, young Stan Marsh — thought to be the reincarnation of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard — announces that the “religion” is a giant scam. Scientologist Tom Cruise, furious at this gross insult to his faith, declares, “I’ll sue you — in England!”

Proof that you really can find anything on YouTube: some kind soul has posted Exposing Satan’s Underground, Geraldo Rivera’s infamous 1987 NBC special about the Satanism epidemic we all thought was sweeping America.

Daughter of the Empire State: The Life of Judge Jane Bolin by Jacqueline A. McLeod University of Illinois Press, 2011

We all get nostalgic for the good old days, but every once in a while you learn something that shows you just how far we’ve come. Until reading Daughter of the Empire State: The Life of Judge Jane Bolin, I didn’t know the American Red Cross kept blood donated by white and black donors segregated until the 1940s.

The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion by Hugh B. Urban, pp. 268, Princeton University Press, 2011

An academic history of the Church of Scientology might not seem relevant to Canadian Lawyer magazine, unless you’re familiar with the controversial movement’s use of the justice system against its many detractors. Founder L. Ron Hubbard explained his legal philosophy in 1955: “The purpose of the [lawsuit] is to harass and discourage rather than to win. The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway . . . will generally be sufficient to cause his professional decease. If possible, of course, ruin him utterly.”