Archive for category: Criminal Justice

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  [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.

   
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  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.

   
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  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.

   

• Cell Phone Tracking after U.S. v. Jones

  By Andrew Mamo, Consumers and Corporations, Criminal Justice, Privacy and National Security April 2, 2012 9:26 am 2 comments

  There is something different about privacy rights in a world where we are constantly leaking our own personal information and storing the information of others. While privacy rights are not coterminous with property rights, there remains an important connection between the two.

   

• 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.

   

• Colloquium Video: "Roper, Graham, and J.D.B.: Re-defining Juveniles' Constitutional Rights"

  Criminal Justice, Education, Events March 21, 2012 9:06 am no comments

  Article drafts and video of CR-CL’s recent colloquium. On Monday, March 26, 2012, the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, in conjunction with the Juvenile Law Center and the Milbank Foundation, presented a colloquium: Roper, Graham, and J.D.B.: Redefining Juveniles’ Constitutional Rights. Guests at the event included Martin Guggenheim of NYU Law School, Marsha Levick and Robert Schwartz of the Juvenile Law Center, Michael Dale, of the Nova Southeastern Law Center, and the Hon. Jay Blitzman, chief judge of the Middlesex County Juvenile Court.

   

• 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.

   

• Are Domestic Drones Acceptable?

  By Samuel Weiss, Criminal Justice, Privacy and National Security February 27, 2012 9:38 am 1 comment

  Congress has required the Federal Aviation Administration to integrate military drones into U.S. airspace. Past efforts to militarize police forces should make us wary about the influence drones could have in domestic policing.

   

• Missed Opportunity to Examine Sex Offender Registry Laws

  By Samuel Weiss, Criminal Justice, Poverty and Economic Justice February 8, 2012 11:53 pm 1 comment

  Last month, a federal court in Michigan had the opportunity to confront the constitutional problems that sex offender registries present. The court ducked them by resolving the case on a narrow question of statutory interpretation, missing the chance to examine whether the registrations are constitutionally acceptable.