LIVE WIRE

MARKETSEquities mixed as traders assess Fed rate trajectory and bond yields•MARKETSCommodities markets show volatility amid shifting global demand signals•MARKETSDollar index steady as currency traders monitor central bank commentary•TOP CASEDobbs v. Jackson redraws reproductive-rights landscape across state courts•TOP CASE303 Creative ruling expands First Amendment protections for service providers•TOP CASESFFA v. Harvard ends race-conscious admissions; litigation ripples continue•USAFederal courts see rising caseloads as judicial vacancy debates persist•USACongress debates reform of the Administrative Procedure Act's scope•USAState legislatures increasingly pass laws later challenged on preemption grounds•WORLDInternational arbitration filings rise as cross-border disputes increase•WORLDEU AI Act compliance deadlines drive legal review across tech sectors•WORLDICC jurisdiction debates continue as nations weigh treaty obligations•MARKETSEquities mixed as traders assess Fed rate trajectory and bond yields•MARKETSCommodities markets show volatility amid shifting global demand signals•MARKETSDollar index steady as currency traders monitor central bank commentary•TOP CASEDobbs v. Jackson redraws reproductive-rights landscape across state courts•TOP CASE303 Creative ruling expands First Amendment protections for service providers•TOP CASESFFA v. Harvard ends race-conscious admissions; litigation ripples continue•USAFederal courts see rising caseloads as judicial vacancy debates persist•USACongress debates reform of the Administrative Procedure Act's scope•USAState legislatures increasingly pass laws later challenged on preemption grounds•WORLDInternational arbitration filings rise as cross-border disputes increase•WORLDEU AI Act compliance deadlines drive legal review across tech sectors•WORLDICC jurisdiction debates continue as nations weigh treaty obligations•

Judge McSkunk's Moot Court New Document I Am The Law Skunk Friend of the Court Second Look · Hunter The Quadruple Check McDermott AI The Skunk Docket Skunk Store

The McDermott Chronicles · June 2026

Hell on Wheels: The Pencil Lawsuit That Walked a Man Out of Jail

There is a species of litigant the system never sees coming: the one who looks beaten. The one writing in pencil. The one you assume is stupid because his filings come from a jail cell instead of a law firm. David Bruce McDermott II has spent thirty years being underestimated exactly that way — and laying the cut the entire time.

The pencil lawsuit

Locked in custody with no lawyer and no typewriter, McDermott had a civil-rights lawsuit written out in pencil with the help of fellow inmates. Crude paper. Perfect aim. That handwritten instrument moved a district attorney's office to summon him personally — and put a release offer on the table the same day: walk out now on a seven-year deferred. A man says what he must to get free when he knows the offer itself is the misconduct; he also remembers everything, and he documents everything. The pencil draft became a permanent record. The offer became evidence. That is how hell on wheels operates: what looks like surrender is discovery.

The lesson for anyone on the other side of the v.

Understand what involvement with this man means, because it is not a threat — it is a documented pattern with a thirty-year history: everything goes on the record, and the record is permanent. Suppress evidence, ignore a stay, trade liberty for a lawsuit's dismissal — and the conduct gets printed, perfectly dotted, filed on a federal docket, referred to the FBI, the DOJ Civil Rights Division, the Public Integrity Section, and the Inspector General, and published where the public can read it forever. Names attached. Dockets don't forget, and neither does he. The stain isn't something McDermott puts on anyone. It's what officials put on themselves — he just makes sure the ink is archival.

Today the pencil is a platform. Every tool this man had to invent in a cell — court-perfect formatting, verified citations, referral letters that get read — now sits on this site, free, for the next person the system underestimates. The scent remains.

Hear it on The Legal Stinker Podcast