Archive for category: Courts

• 

  [Update] First Circuit Says Feds Can Pursue Capital Prosecution Over Governor’s Objection

  By Noah Kaplan, Courts, Criminal Justice, Human Rights, Issue Areas May 8, 2012 3:24 pm no comments

  United States v. Pleau raises legal questions that deserve more attention than the case is likely to receive. The case can actually be seen as being about the location of the primary police power in the American system of constitutional federalism, and it exposes the increasing strain that the modern conception of federal power is placing on the founding era experiment in dual sovereignty. Pleau should challenge progressives to think critically about the desirable scope of the federal government’s power under the Commerce Clause.

   
• 

  CR-CL Podcast – Episode 11 – Identity-Affirming School Speech and the Crack-Cocaine Sentencing Disparity

  Courts, Criminal Justice, Education, First Amendment, LGBTQ Rights, Podcast, Poverty and Economic Justice April 21, 2012 3:20 pm no comments

  Noah interviews Professor Ari Ezra Waldman about students’ right to speak affirmingly about sexual orientation, same-sex marriage, and gay identity in schools. Noah and Matt discuss the retroactivity of the Fair Sentencing Act, passed to address the disparity between federal sentences for crack and powder cocaine possession, how that disparity came about, and whether even the lessened disparity is justified.

   
• 

  CR-CL Podcast – Episode 10 – Cigarette Warning Labels, the First Amendment, and Competing Federal Budgets

  Consumers and Corporations, Courts, Labor and Employment, Podcast, Poverty and Economic Justice, Sex Equality April 17, 2012 12:44 pm no comments

  Matt follows up on a post he wrote for HarvardCRCL.org looking at the First Amendment implications of requiring cigarette companies to include new graphic warning labels on their packages. Noah and Matt discuss the competing budget plans presented by the Republican and Democratic leaders in Washington.

   
• 

  CR-CL Podcast – Episode 9 – Jail Strip Searches, Online Privacy, and the Right to Be Forgotten

  Consumers and Corporations, Courts, Criminal Justice, Podcast, Privacy and National Security April 9, 2012 8:41 am no comments

  Noah and Matt are joined in the studio this week by HarvardCRCL.org Technology and Privacy blogger Andrew Mamo. Matt fills us in on the recent Supreme Court decision in Florence v. Board of Freeholders and the potential impact of a blanket rule allowing strip searches for jail intake even for minor offenses. Andrew discusses the recent concern over Google’s unified privacy policy, the Consumer Online Privacy Bill of Rights, and efforts in Europe to establish a right to be forgotten.

   

• CR-CL Podcast – Episode 8 – The Individual Mandate and Juvenile Constitutional Rights

  Courts, Criminal Justice, Podcast April 2, 2012 2:44 pm 2 comments

  Noah and Matt jump on the media bandwagon and provide their take on the week’s arguments on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, particularly the individual mandate to purchase health insurance. Next, they take a look at the issues discussed in CR-CL’s latest colloquium, Roper, Graham, and J.D.B.: Re-Defining Juvenile’s Constitutional Rights.

   

• CR-CL Podcast – Episode 7 – Stand Your Ground and Hate Crimes Law

  Courts, Criminal Justice, Podcast March 23, 2012 8:37 am no comments

  CR-CL’s Executive Editors for Online Content Noah Kaplan and Matt Giffin discuss the two big criminal law developments in the last week. First, Matt breaks down the Florida Stand Your Ground self-defense law at the heart of the tragic case of Trayvon Martin. Next, Noah explains the history and doctrine behind hate crimes statutes, and Noah and Matt discuss the guilty verdict against Dharun Ravi for spying on his gay roommate.

   

• Supreme Court Narrows Miranda

  By Minal Caron, Courts, Criminal Justice February 27, 2012 9:41 am 1 comment

  Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court held that police officers do not need to read prison inmates their Miranda rights when questioning them about events unrelated to their current incarceration. The prisoner in this case was questioned without being read his Miranda rights, and during questioning confessed to actions that formed the basis of a criminal sexual conduct conviction. Justice Alito’s opinion concludes that the prison inmate in this case was not “in custody for Miranda purposes” at the time of his questioning, and therefore that Fields was not constitutionally entitled to receive the warnings set out under Miranda.

   

• Health Care: Should Justice Kagan Recuse Herself?

  By Alex Groden, Courts, Issue Areas February 27, 2012 9:34 am no comments

  If it is true that Kagan expressed an opinion on the merits, the dilemma she faces pits the integrity of the Court against what she (and many others) may see as a greater purpose: to fight for and protect a law she apparently believes in passionately. She likely also feels loyalty to the man who put her on the court; after all, if this law is overturned, it might do serious damage to his reelection chances. But should these considerations matter? What about the public’s confidence in an independent and objective judiciary?

   

• [Update3] SCOTUS Fails to Intervene to Prevent Execution of Mentally Ill Defendant

  By Noah Kaplan, Courts, Criminal Justice, Human Rights February 8, 2012 10:29 pm no comments

  [Update3 - 10PM February 8] Edwin Hart Turner was executed at 7:21PM EST after receiving a lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary. Turner, represented by attorneys from the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center, had filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court arguing that the execution would violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments because at the time of his offense Mr. Turner suffered from a serious mental illness.

   

• North Carolina Responds to its History of Forced Sterilizations

  Courts, Criminal Justice, Human Rights, LGBTQ Rights, Poverty and Economic Justice, Race and Immigration, Reproductive Rights, Sex Equality January 29, 2012 6:55 pm no comments

  In the upcoming weeks, the legislators of my home state of North Carolina will be faced with a dilemma: how does a government compensate victims of a historical atrocity that was deemed legal at the time?  At the national level, this question is often asked in the context of slavery [...]