Firearm-Related Injury and Death in the United States: A Call to Action From 8 Health Professional Organizations and the American Bar Association – Steven E. Weinberger, MD; David B. Hoyt, MD; Hal C. Lawrence III, MD; Saul Levin, MD, MPA; Douglas E. Henley, MD; Errol R. Alden, MD; Dean Wilkerson, JD, MBA; Georges C. Benjamin,… Continue Reading
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Category Archives: Courts
New on LLRX – Shaken Baby Syndrome: A Differential Diagnosis of Justice
Via LLRX.com – Shaken Baby Syndrome: A Differential Diagnosis of Justice – Ken Strutin’s article is a comprehensive examination of how the concept of Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) has become a battleground where medical evidence and legal presumptions clash, testing the limits of judicial wisdom. Strutin presents a collection of recent and select court decisions,… Continue Reading
Harvard, MIT Sued Over Lack of Captioning for Online Courses
FindLaw Courtside: “The National Association of the Deaf filed two federal class actions complaints today. The suits — against Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) — allege that the universities discriminate against the deaf because their online content is not captioned, or is poorly or illegibly captioned. This lack of captioning, according… Continue Reading
The Politics of Selecting the Bench from the Bar: The Legal Profession and Partisan Incentives to Politicize the Judiciary
Bonica, Adam, and Maya Sen. “The Politics of Selecting the Bench from the Bar: The Legal Profession and Partisan Incentives to Politicize the Judiciary.” HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP15-001, January 2015. “The American judiciary has increasingly come under attack as polarized and politicized. Using a newly collected dataset that captures the ideological positioning… Continue Reading
Persons Sentenced: Where Does Your Judge Rank?
“The number of persons sentenced by individual federal judges varies widely, with the top ranking judge in the nation — Robert C. Brack of New Mexico — having sentenced 6,708 defendants in just the last five years. This total is nearly 2,000 more than the next judge on the list. “It tears at my heart,”… Continue Reading
UK Tribunal Rules Secret Surveillance Unlawful
The Intercept: “The United Kingdom’s top surveillance agency has acted unlawfully by keeping details about the scope of its Internet spying operations secret, a British court ruled in an unprecedented judgment issued on Friday. Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, was found to have breached human rights laws by concealing information about how it accesses surveillance… Continue Reading
The National Registry of Exonerations 2014
Report – 2014 was a record breaking year for exonerations in the United States, by a large margin. The National Registry of Exonerations has recorded 125 exonerations in 2014. The previous highest total was 91 in 2012 and again in 2013 , followed by 87 in 2001. All told, the Registry now lists 1,535 exonerations… Continue Reading
Judicial Capacity and Executive Power
Coan, Andrew and Bullard, Nicholas, Judicial Capacity and Executive Power (January 30, 2015). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2558177 “The budget of the United States executive branch is roughly 500 times greater than that of the judicial branch. The executive workforce is more than 50 times greater. How do these enormous disparities affect the practical… Continue Reading
Privacy Board Renews Call for President Obama to End Bulk Collection
EPIC – “The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board released a report on prior recommendations regarding the NSA’s domestic and global surveillance programs. The Board stated that the Obama Administration has failed to end the domestic telephone collection program. The Board stated, “the Administration can end the bulk telephone records program at any time, without… Continue Reading
Implications of a Supreme Court Finding for the Plaintiff in King vs. Burwell
Urban Institute – Linda J. Blumberg, Matthew Buettgens, John Holahan. The Implications of a Supreme Court Finding for the Plaintiff in King vs. Burwell: 8.2 Million More Uninsured and 35% Higher Premiums, January 8, 2015. “The Supreme Court will hear the King v. Burwell case, in which the plaintiff argues that the ACA prohibits payment of premium tax… Continue Reading
Dueling Canons
Krishnakumar, Anita S., Dueling Canons (January 9, 2015). St. John’s Legal Studies Research Paper No. 15-0002. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2549248 “This Article offers the first targeted study of the Supreme Court’s use of the canons and other tools of statutory interpretation in a “dueling” manner — i.e., to support opposing outcomes in both… Continue Reading
The Political Question Doctrine: Justiciability and the Separation of Powers
CRS – The Political Question Doctrine: Justiciability and the Separation of Powers. Jared P. Cole, Legislative Attorney. December 23, 2014. “Article III of the Constitution restricts the jurisdiction of federal courts to deciding actual “Cases” and “Controversies.” The Supreme Court has articulated several “justiciability” doctrines emanating from Article III that restrict when federal courts will adjudicate disputes. One justiciability concept is the political… Continue Reading
