"Last September, when my friend Brenda Heinicke interviewed me, I said that I wanted to focus on finding ways to better understand and communicate with each other, both as members of the legal profession and as members of society. Throughout the past year, I have tried to do that. I have eagerly relayed what I learned from David Eagleman's books about why we all see, feel and experience something…"

"Last month, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization was announced one business-day before my monthly submission was due to be delivered into Editor Dailey's hands. Reeling from the gut-punch of the decision and reacting emotionally, I made arguments that appeal to common sense, but which may not align with the analysis of experts who study substantive due process law on a regular basis. The…"

"Last Friday, June 24, 2022, I was elbows-deep into my message about how memories are stored and retrieved in our brains when I felt the first reverberations from the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision released by the Supreme Court of the United States. The Court overruled Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), determined that a woman's right to terminate her own pregnancy is not a…"

"I went to law school in Austin, Texas, and a reasonable person might expect that you would never have to venture beyond Sixth Street to obtain a tasty cocktail. Nevertheless, every so often we would find ourselves in Dallas sitting at the bar in the Hard Rock Café drinking Hard Rock Hurricanes. The restaurant (consistent with the Big Texas habit of trying to dictate what other people do with their…"

"Last month I shared the profound recognition that "some people are better than others at making decisions." A sentence intended to innocuously state something universally understood as true. However, my annoying need to challenge every contention expressed by myself or others has led me to conclude that this statement is probably incorrect. There are certainly people who are more adept at weighing…"

"Some people are better than others at making decisions. One of the critical skills a judge must possess is the ability to make decisions on a daily basis. Additionally, in order to keep the wheels of justice turning, we require most citizens to appear for jury service if they are summoned, and to serve on a jury if they are ultimately selected. In Colorado, if you are (i) a citizen and resident of…"

"If an action is taken and there are no legal sanctions associated with that action, then the action is not a crime. If sanctions are attached, it is a crime. It sounds simplistic, but seems to hold true, and if the existence of a sanction is such an essential and relevant factor, then why aren't juries informed about sentencing ramifications in every criminal action? In a 2019 opinion, the United…"

"When 2021 came to an end, so did my term on the Fourth Judicial Nominating Commission. In 2016, I arrived at my first interview bald from recent chemotherapy treatments and concerned about whether cancer cells still lurked within my body. Six years later, I think less about cancer and more about the possibility that we are all marching like zombies toward either a civil war or an autocratic regime…"

"Imagine you were provided a team of twelve people and told that a vehicle would soon speed down the street, without stopping, and, afterward, your team would be asked to agree on, and report, as many details as possible about the vehicle, its driver, and any passengers. Would you position all twelve of your team members on the same street corner to watch, from the same vantage point, as the…"

"In October and November, I wrote about the fact that we each create, then operate within, our own constantly-changing but unique realities. We each construct these independent realities by subjectively interpreting the electrochemical signals used by our data receptors to describe the world around us. In an effort to conserve energy, we also utilize "internal models," which are predictive…"

"Last month I wrote about how the "reality" which we think of as existing universally around all of us, is actually a reality created in each of our minds independently. Because there is enough overlap between our respective realities, most of us are able to interact with others and function within our shared society in a way that makes us forget that our realities are not identical. Our brains…"

"I have recently read two books that have changed my life. The Brain and Livewired were written, in 2015 and 2020, by David Eagleman, a neuroscientist who teaches brain plasticity at Stanford University. These books helped me formulate the theme of this column, and my future contributions to the Pikes Peak Lawyer – recognizing the subjective nature of reality, and the importance of acknowledging…"