Legal news coverage was dominated this week by the Supreme Court Shuette decision, which upheld Michigan's affirmative action ban for college admissions. Read a summary below of the Court's decision along with a few other interesting opinions picked out by our writers this week. Schuette v. Coal. Defend Affirmative Action,…
Articles Posted in Legal News
State v. DeMarco, Connecticut Supreme Court (4/22/14) Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law Upon following up on complaints from Defendant’s neighbor relating to Defendant’s keeping of animals in his residence, a police officer concluded that a “welfare check” was necessary and made a warrantless entry into Defendant’s home. Defendant subsequently…
McCutcheon v. Fed. Election Comm’n, United States Supreme Court (4/2/14) Civil Rights, Communications Law, Constitutional Law, Election Law The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, impose base limits, restricting how much money a donor may contribute to a particular candidate or committee,…
United States v. Bergman, US 10th Cir. (3/28/14) Constitutional Law, Criminal Law Defendant-appellant Gwen Bergman was arrested when the hit-man she thought she hired to kill her husband was in fact an undercover police officer. After trial, it emerged that defendant’s lawyer was not a lawyer-in-fact, but a con man.…
Bray v. Planned Parenthood Columbia-Willamette, Inc., US 6th Cir. (3/21/14) Civil Procedure, Communications Law, Constitutional Law Bray is an antiabortion activist and wrote a book, A Time to Kill. In 1985, Bray was convicted for a felony relating to physical damage to abortion centers. He spent four years in prison.…
This morning, Governor Jerry Brown and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stopped at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA to sign a business agreement. As expected, some people came to exercise their First Amendment right to free speech and peaceable assembly. But, the crowds were no where close…
Jordan v. Jewel Food, US 7th Cir. (2/19/14) Communications Law, Constitutional Law, Entertainment & Sports Law When basketball legend Michael Jordan was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009, Sports Illustrated produced a special commemorative issue devoted exclusively to Jordan’s remarkable career. Jewel Foods was offered…
T.S. v. Doe, US 6th Cir. (2/5/14) Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Juvenile Law Responding to a report of underage drinking in a home, officers found a group celebrating eighth grade graduation. Police asked the teens to step outside individually for breathalyzer testing. Seven tested positive for alcohol. Police…
Burrage v. United States, US Supreme Court (1/27/14) Criminal Law Long-time drug user Banka died after a binge that included use of heroin purchased from Burrage. Burrage pleaded not guilty to charges that he had unlawfully distributed heroin and that “death … resulted from the use of th[at] substance,” which…
Kosilek v. Spencer, US 1st Cir. (1/17/14) Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law Sixty-four-year-old Plaintiff was born anatomically male but suffered from severe gender identity disorder. In 1992, Plaintiff was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2000, Plaintiff filed a complaint against the Massachusetts Department of Correction…