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A good friend is often better than a brother.
One old friend is better than two new ones.
- old Yiddish proverbs
My good and old friend Yale Kamisar is said to be "retiring"1 after a remarkable life in academe spanning almost half a century. I deem it my extraordinary good fortune to have been able to count Yale as a friend for thirty-seven of those years (not that we were enemies the rest of the time2), and to have been able to serve as a collaborator of his, working together in the vineyards of the law, for virtually the entirety of our acquaintance. And thus I am especially delighted to have this opportunity to offer up a "fair and balanced"3 appraisal and assessment of Yale as he settles into his new-found status of alter kocker.
I. THE QUESTION
One fool can ask more questions than ten wise men can answer.
- old Yiddish proverb
The concern here is with a single question (the interrogatory serving as the caption for this Pantagruelian panegyric) which in itself might provide a shtlkel of shtuk for the aforementioned wise men. I believe it first entered my psyche many moons ago - most likely, as best I can recall, in the early 1970s, not long after Yale and I and Jerry Israel first coauthored the Modern Criminal Procedure casebook now in its tenth edition. It was one of my first efforts at teaching from the book, and we were just starting the chapter on confessions, which began with excerpts from commentators of various stripes (including Kamisar) about police interrogation. In class, I commenced quizzing my students about their own preliminary views on this subject, and after one student of a liberal bent set out his thoughts, I tried to tie it in with the assigned readings by commenting that the position we had just heard could well be labeled "the Kamisar perspective." No one challenged or questioned that characterization, and the discussion continued until the hour ended, after which a few students approached the podium with a variety of questions. One student held back until the others had left, and then he somewhat hesitantly stepped forward and said, "I didn't understand one comment you made during the class....