“In the last five years, there has been a gradual but steady decline in the number of civil lawsuits filed each month in federal courts for the drug-related seizure of property, according to case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). Such suits are filed as part of the Department of Justice Asset… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Courts
Federal Judge rules NY police use of stop-and-frisk tactics unconsitutional
ABA Journal, Debra Cassens Weiss “A federal judge in Manhattan has ruled that New York police violated the Constitution when they targeted “the right people” with stop-and-frisk tactics. Minorities were disproportionately targeted under policies that encouraged more police stops to combat crime, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin wrote in a 195-page decision (PDF). “A police… Continue Reading
Intergenerational Justice in Aging Societies
Vanhuysse, Pieter, Intergenerational Justice in Aging Societies: A Cross-National Comparison of 29 OECD Countries (April 20, 2013). Available at SSRN “I present the Intergenerational Justice Index (IJI) – a simple four-dimensional indicator developed with the Bertelsmann Stiftung in order to compare intergenerational justice in practice across 29 OECD member states. The unit of analysis is… Continue Reading
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Natural Resource Damage Assessment Under the Oil Pollution Act
CRS – The 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Natural Resource Damage Assessment Under the Oil Pollution Act. Adam Vann, Legislative Attorney; Robert Meltz, Legislative Attorney. July 24, 2013 “The estimated 4.1 million barrels of oil released during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill is considered to be the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry… Continue Reading
Overview of Federal Criminal Cases Fiscal Year 2012
United States Sentencing Commission – Glenn R. Schmitt, Jennifer Dukes – Office of Research and Data. “This publication presents a broad overview of federal sentencing data for fiscal year 2012. It provides a brief, easy-to-use reference on the types of criminal cases handled by federal courts and the punishments imposed on offenders convicted in those cases. (July 2013)” “The… Continue Reading
AG Holder Calls for Major Criminal Law Reform
Attorney General Eric Holder Delivers Remarks at the Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates, August 12, 2013: “Even as most crime rates decline, we need to examine new law enforcement strategies – and better allocate resources – to keep pace with today’s continuing threats as violence spikes in some of our… Continue Reading
Prosecutorial Discretion Closed 1 in 4 Cases in Several Immigration Courts
“During the month of July 2013, ICE exercised prosecutorial discretion (PD) and agreed to close a total of 1,382 deportation cases that were pending before the Immigration Courts. This brings the total to 23,063 court closures over the past 19 months since the PD initiative began. The Seattle, San Diego, and Charlotte Immigration Courts had… Continue Reading
Brookings Examines John Roberts Appointments to FISA Court
Russell Wheeler: “Among his non-judicial duties, the Chief Justice of the United States selects sitting federal judges to serve on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in addition to their regular judicial duties. A recent New York Times article reported that ten of the court’s 11 current judges, all selected by Chief Justice John G. Roberts,… Continue Reading
TRAC – New Information on FISA Judges
“Central to the growing dispute about the legality and value of the very extensive electronic surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA) is the secret federal court that approves the search warrants authorizing the NSA’s world-wide efforts. While the operations of both the NSA and the decisions of what is now incorrectly called the Federal… Continue Reading
Pre- and Post-Judgment Review of Summary Judgment Denials After Ortiz v. Jordan
Pre- and Post-Judgment Review of Summary Judgment Denials After Ortiz v. Jordan — A Wider and Deeper Look, Joan E. Steinman, Illinois Institute of Technology – Chicago-Kent College of Law, August 2, 2013 Chicago-Kent Legal Studies Research Paper, Forthcoming. “In Ortiz v. Jordan, 131 S.Ct. 884 (2011), the Supreme Court purported to resolve a split… Continue Reading
Court opinion upholds warrants for historical cellphone location data
Via ABA: “The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of a provision of the Stored Communications Act that allows the government to obtain court orders for telecommunications records. The law says the government must offer “specific and articulable facts” showing reason to believe the material sought is relevant and material… Continue Reading
Constitutional Personae
Constitutional Personae, Cass R. Sunstein, Harvard Law School, July 25, 2013 “American constitutional law is dominated by four Constitutional Personae, who can be identified by their inclinations, their temperaments, their sensibilities, and their self-presentations. Indeed, many constitutional debates consist of stylized disagreements among the leading Personae: Heroes, Soldiers, Burkeans, and Mutes. Earl Warren is the… Continue Reading
