The Sackville commission: who should be sacked?


Government won't back away from insensitive appointments to the Disability Royal Commission ... Stuart Robert and Ron Sackville in charge ... Two senior counsel assisting the commission have withdrawn ... Undercurrent of unhappiness ... Disabled children and education ... Stand by ... Nathan Twibill reports
The subjunctive mood


Wishing and hoping and praying ... Procrustes looks at the great subjunctive issue of the day - water, and the lack of it ... Morrison's mantras ... "I love a sunburnt country ..." ... On the road from Nyngan to Bourke ... The game is up for much of the rural sector ... Who came up with the idea of buying and selling water?
Pensioner pay-day


Disability pensioner who applied to be admitted to the Tasmanian jam roll ordered to pay costs ... Application for admission withdrawn ... Still, the objectors wanted their costs because they were acting in the "public interest" ... No evidence about how much work they did ... Applicant from out of town
Quick Sandy


Judge Street's findings in favour of Microsoft in an IP case overturned ... Blistering appeal judgment from the Federal Court ... Judgment in complex case given ex tempore by FCC judge ... Speculative inferences ... Liability for claims that were not made ... The missing pathway ... Go back, start again ... Janek Drevikovsky reports
Barr, Barr, black sheep


Impeachment ... Washington's cast of villains ... William Barr joined to Trump at the hip ... The politicisation of the Department of Justice ... The president's taxes ... His claims of immunity ... The odious consigliere Rudolph Giuliani ... 150 judicial appointments to do Republican Party bidding ... SCOTUS rallies to partisan causes ... Roger Fitch reports from a strife-torn nation
Black holes



Senator Feinstein and her torture report starring dogged Daniel Jones ... Huckster psychologists and crook lawyers combine to trash the Geneva Conventions and civilised standards ... The battle to avoid redactions ... No accountability ... The Senate v the CIA ... Miss Lumière reviews The Report
Two Way Street


Sandy Street downs the Commonwealth ... Health report ... Hong Kong knees-up ... Eastman disaster ends in damages ... Painstaking magisterial appointment ... Florid epistle from Rod the God ... Bar election policies ... AG butts into the Palace Letters stand-off ... Winston to schmooze ancient briefs ... QC grief in Adelaide ... Theodora reports
Calamity at the Bureau de Spank


UPDATE ... No jurisdiction ... Lawyer disciplinary actions thrown out by NCAT ... Complaints improperly made ... Procedural mishaps involving the Legal Services Commissioner, the Law Society and the Bar Association ... Mounting costs awarded ... Lawyers continue to trade without birchings ... Remedial patch-up underway ... Alan Zheng reports