My occasional take on important, cutting-edge or interesting legal news:
Legal News
Legal News
December 1st, 2014
There have been a flood of misdemeanor cases in American courts because of tough-on-crime legislation and tough policing, The Wall Street Journal's John R. Emshwiller and Gary Fields report. The result has been assembly lines in court. Just minutes are spent adjudicating the cases and defendants, who have a constitutional right to legal counsel, often are not provided lawyers. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that... Continue Reading
December 1st, 2014
The Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin and Jerry Markon report that the reason parents of "dreamer" children, who had been brought into the country illegally and had been granted temporary relief under the president’s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, weren't included in President Obama's executive action protecting many immigrants from deportation is because " ... Continue Reading
December 1st, 2014
The Los Angeles Times' David G. Savage reports that President Obama's use of executive action to shield immigrants from deportation won't just raise the ire of Congressional Republicans: "By claiming the power to forge ahead based on his executive authority, the president may well lose the one conservative he still really needs: Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr." Savage wonders if Obama's immigration action could... Continue Reading
November 30th, 2014
FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said today on CNN that his agency is planning the integration of drones into American airspace in stages, "starting with lower-risk uses and then moving on to other applications," Politico's Jennifer Shutt reports. Continue Reading
November 30th, 2014
Journalism professor Will Nevin writes about the U.S. Supreme Court case, United States v. Elonis, that'll be heard in oral argument this week. At issue is whether a conviction for making "true threats" on-line requires that the speaker subjectively intended the threat or if a reasonable person would objectively view their speech as a threat. Anthony Elonis says he was writing rap songs and satire instead of wanting to make... Continue Reading
November 26th, 2014
Two bans on same-sex marriage were struck down yesterday in Mississippi and Arkansas. According to the Associated Press' Emily Wagster Pettus, U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves granted a preliminary injunction against Mississippi's statutory and constitutional bans on same-sex marriage. According to SCOTUSBlog's Lyle Denniston, U.S. District Judge Kristine G. Baker struck down Arkansas' ban even though the state officials said... Continue Reading
November 26th, 2014
A sharply divided New York Court of Appeals ruled that a golf course owned by the Seneca Indian Nation doesn't have sovereign immunity shielding it from lawsuits, according to an AP report. The builder of the golf course, which is close to Niagara Falls, has sued over money it says it is owed on the course's construction contract. The majority held that the corporate entity, a wholly owned subsidiary that owns the golf course, is not... Continue Reading
November 25th, 2014
The Wall Street Journal's Jack Nicas and Andy Pasztor report that the Federal Aviation Administration is contemplating regulations for commercial drones that industry folks say will "essentially prohibit" industrial applications in pipeline inspections and crop monitoring. While the FAA has not released the proposed federal rules for integrating drones into American airspace, WSJ reports the rules "are expected to require... Continue Reading
November 25th, 2014
A New York judge has ruled that the confession of the defendant in the Etan Patz case is admissible, ProPublica's Naveena Sadasivam reports. The defendant's lawyers argued that his confession to the murder of a little boy whose face was famously plastered on milk cartons is false. New York Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley ruled that "Hernandez did have the mental capacity to waive his rights to have an attorney present and... Continue Reading
November 24th, 2014
The Washington Post's Robert Barnes has a preview of arguments next week in the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of United States v. Elonis. Anthony Elonis made several threats on Facebook in rap-style lyrics toward his estranged wife, law enforcement, schoolchildren and co-workers, and he was convicted in federal court of making "true threats" toward most of those people. At issue in the Supreme Court is whether the test for... Continue Reading
November 23rd, 2014
The Tulsa World's Ziva Branstetter reports that few Oklahomans receive compensation after their convictions are overturned because of evidence they are innocent: "Like most other states, Oklahoma’s wrongful conviction law requires a legal finding of 'actual innocence' after convictions are overturned. In practice, the process often requires exonerated people to prove their innocence again in court." Branstetter... Continue Reading
November 23rd, 2014
The New York Times reports on the "Civil Gideon" movement, which is pushing to guarantee low-income Americans lawyers in civil cases involving basic needs like housing and employment. The problem is "free legal assistance in noncriminal cases is rare and growing rarer. A recent study in Massachusetts found that two-thirds of low-income residents who seek legal help are turned away." Several projects around the country are... Continue Reading
November 23rd, 2014
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe's efforts to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act was thwarted because former Senator Phillip P. Puckett quit the state Senate, The Washington Post's Laura Vozzella reports. McAuliffe had hoped to sneak budget language past the Republicans to expand Medicaid on his own: "Then McAuliffe’s camp found an obscure bit of language in the previous year’s budget that appropriated... Continue Reading
November 22nd, 2014
KYW's Cherri Gregg reports that sheriff's deputies strip-searched juveniles appearing in criminal and custody cases in Philadelphia family court this week after the new courthouse officially opened. The juveniles were made to take off all their clothes, squat and cough. The practice was stopped by court administrators, Gregg reports. "Sources said the main concern of adults who complained about the procedures was ongoing... Continue Reading
November 21st, 2014
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has decided it will not follow the Restatement (Third) of Torts, which "would have allowed defendants to introduce elements regarding the foreseeability of a product's risks, and whether alternative, safer designs were available when the product was manufactured," The Legal Intelligencer's Max Mitchell reports. The Second Restatement does not consider the feasibility of an alternative design or... Continue Reading
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