Perhaps you’ve been wondering what goes on inside the grand white building in Winsted, Conn., that’s called the American Museum of Tort Law. If you have questions or concerns about the presidential election and about pardons that Pres. Donald Trump has been giving, this is a good time to visit the website of the museum, which was founded by Winsted native Ralph Nader and which is run by Richard Newman.
Chances are that you have not and maybe never will visit the museum and tour the exhibits on the history of famous trial law cases (including of course the 1970 legal battle between Nader and General Motors over the Corvair, which Nader deemed “unsafe at any speed”).
The museum’s physical plant might not change much, but its online offerings are constantly updated and always interesting. Newman has done short interviews with dozens of attorneys on topics of interest, from Gerald Posner talking about his new book on Big Pharma; to Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center talking about a 1981 lynching in Mobile, Ala.; to Mike Chase talking about his book, “How To Become a Federal Criminal,” a list of absurd federal crimes that are still on the law books.
Newman has also interviewed Salisbury resident and retired attorney Tom Morrison about his new book, which makes fun of lawyers who take themselves too seriously, called “Torts ‘R’ Us.”
The newest conversation on YouTube and the museum website is with constitutional law expert Bruce Fein, who has worked in government and has worked for the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Foundation. He’s appeared on CNN as well as Fox, on NPR and MSNBC. He is an equal opportunity critic of government officials and presidents in both parties. In the first of what will eventually be two videos on the last days of the Trump Administration, Newman interviews Fein about questions of the legitimacy of the November election. In short, Fein says, “Joe Biden is probably the most legitimate president in history” because the election has been so heavily scrutinized.
He then launches into an attack on what appears to be a failure of law schools (Fein himself earned his JD at Harvard) to teach ethics.
He and Newman will post another conversation in the next few weeks about Trump’s presidential pardons.
To find the full list of video conversations hosted by the American Museum of Tort Law, go to YouTube, search for the museum by name and click on “videos.”
