Charles Siegel is a partner at Waters Kraus Paul & Siegel in Dallas. He represents whistleblowers, and plaintiffs in personal injury and commercial fraud cases. He is a jazz pianist with a regular solo gig, and occasional trio gigs.
by Charles Siegel When I was born, in Houston in 1960, my parents named me after my paternal grandfather, who had died at age 32, and gave me the middle name of “Stein,” my mother’s maiden name. At the time, my parents lived in an apartment. In 1963, my younger brother came along, and in…
by Charles Siegel A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to the SiriusXM “Real Jazz” channel while driving. I had just pulled in to a grocery store parking lot, and was about to get out of the car, when the program host mentioned that they were celebrating John Coltrane’s 100th birthday, which was to…
by Charles Siegel In one of my first columns for 3 Quarks Daily, Don’t Deport Protesters, or Defund Universities, in My Name, I lamented the Trump administration’s efforts to, in its own words, “combat antisemitism” and “protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.” The administration purported to be vindicating these goals…
by Charles Siegel Sixty years ago this month, Reprise Records released a Frank Sinatra single, “The Summer Wind.” If there is such a thing as perfection in music, this comes close. Sinatra’s version was not the first recording of the song. In fact, the song he recorded wasn’t even the first version of the piece…
by Charles Siegel As I am writing this, the World Cup is into the quarterfinals. All in all, it’s been a great tournament so far. There have been many exciting, close matches. There was the brain-melting final 15 minutes of Argentina’s victory over Egypt. There have been several elimination matches decided in stoppage time, or…
by Charles Siegel A couple of weeks ago I saw an item in Lit Hub Daily, about how June 4th would be the 86th anniversary of the publication of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers’ debut novel. This item brought back many wonderful memories — of the novel, of the time in my…
by Charles Siegel Last week the Supreme Court temporarily restored access to mifepristone, one of two drugs commonly used in combination to terminate pregnancy. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the most conservative circuit court of appeals in the country, had halted shipments of mifepristone while weighing a suit by the…
by Charles Siegel In my column last month, I described our client Leqaa Kordia’s year spent in ICE detention at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, and the legal effort that eventually resulted in her release by order of an immigration court. In this column, I will sketch out her parallel effort, in federal…
by Charles Siegel In one of my first columns for 3 Quarks Daily, I began by noting that my law firm had just filed, along with other firms, a petition for habeas corpus relief in federal court in Dallas. Our client was Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman living in New Jersey, who was imprisoned in…
by Charles Siegel Last week, on Presidents’ Day, President Trump lost in court. This is hardly news. The administration has already lost hundreds of cases in just a little over a year. And this isn’t the first time it has lost on a day when courts aren’t even open. The ruling came in a case…
by Charles Siegel Sun went down in honey And the moon came up in wine You know the stars were spinning dizzy Lord the band kept us so busy We forgot about the time That is a verse from “The Music Never Stopped,” a song written by Bob Weir and John Barlow, and recorded on…
by Charles Siegel Last week I learned of the recent death of Roberto Chaves Chavarria, of San José, Costa Rica, aged 90. His work benefited thousands upon thousands of his countrymen, and many thousands in other countries as well, who will never know his name. And he had a profound effect on my career as…
by Charles Siegel Last month I attended two conferences a week apart, one in Norway and one in Italy. The first conference was held in Bergen. From there, my law partner and I proceeded down the coast to Stavanger, for a meeting with a lawyer there about some potential cases. Our meeting was late on…
by Charles Siegel There can have been very few musicians who played such key roles, in so many different bands in so many different genres, as Danny Thompson. When he died at 86 in September, music lost one of its great connectors. I first learned of Thompson as a freshman in college, when my roommate…
by Charles Siegel Sixty-five years ago this month, the John Coltrane Quartet entered Atlantic Studios in Manhattan for three days of recording sessions, over the course of a week. It was the first time the band recorded together. The four musicians — Coltrane on tenor and soprano saxophones, McCoy Tyner on piano, Steve Davis on…
by Charles Siegel In the first part of this depressing column, I looked at Congress’ spineless surrender of its power to Trump’s turbocharged executive. In the second part, I tried to set out how that same executive has waged war on the judicial branch, and has rapidly transformed the Department of Justice into its private…
by Charles Siegel In the first part of this column last month, I set out the ways in which the separation of powers among the three branches of American government is rapidly being eroded. The legislative branch isn’t playing its part in the system of “checks and balances;” it isn’t interested in checking Trump at…
by Charles Siegel Americans learn about “checks and balances” from a young age. (Or at least they do to whatever extent civics is taught anymore.) We’re told that this doctrine is a corollary to the bedrock theory of “separation of powers.” Only through the former can the latter be preserved. As John Adams put it…
by Charles Siegel Oh the streets of Rome are filled with rubble Ancient footprints are everywhere You can almost think that you’re seeing double On a cold, dark night on the Spanish Stairs Those are the first lines of “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” a song written by Bob Dylan in 1971. I remember that…
by Charles Siegel On April 30th my firm joined the Texas Civil Rights Project, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Muslim Advocates, and the CLEAR Project to file a habeas corpus petition in federal court, seeking the release of our client Leqaa Kordia, a New Jersey resident who has been held for over two months at…