Shane Shifflett and Jennifer Gollan: “The federal government has collected millions from the online Public Access to Court Electronic Records system, or PACER nearly five times what it cost to run the system. Between fiscal years 2006 and 2010, the government collected an average of $77 million a year from PACER fees, according to… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Courts
EPIC – Supreme Court Limits Remedies for Credit Card Privacy Violations
EPIC: In U.S. v. Bormes, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the government could not be sued for violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act under an 1887 law that waived governmental immunity for certain claims “premised on other sources of law.” The case arose after an attorney paid a federal-court filing fee with his credit… Continue Reading
TRAC – Striking Judge-to-Judge Differences in Federal Criminal Caseloads
“An analysis of case-by-case records covering more than 400,000 defendants has found surprising variations in the criminal caseloads of individual federal judges for the nation as a whole and in some instances among the judges serving in the same courthouse. The extent of these differences, disclosed in a study by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access… Continue Reading
TRAC: Consumer Credit Civil Lawsuits Starting to Fall
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse: “The latest available data from the federal courts show that during September 2012 the government reported 723 new consumer credit civil filings, according to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). This number is down 8.8 percent over the previous month, when the number of civil filings… Continue Reading
ICE Requests for Deportation Orders Steady Last Month, Down Overall for Year
TRAC Immigration: “The latest available data from the Immigration Courts show that during September 2012 the government reported 17,276 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) filings seeking deportation orders. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is little changed compared to filings in the previous month. These… Continue Reading
A history of the U.S. Alien Tort Statute
A history of the U.S. Alien Tort Statute, by Rebecca Hamilton – Reuters: “The 33-word Alien Tort Statute, at the center of a case before the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, was enacted by the First Congress in 1789. It reads: “The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien… Continue Reading
Advocacy Groups Request Court to Rehear GPS Cell Phone Case
“[On September 4, 2012, CDT] joined the ACLU, EFF and EPIC in calling on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear U.S. v. Skinner, the GPS cell phone location tracking case. A panel of the 6th Circuit ruled that tracking a cell phone’s location by repeatedly “pinging” the phone over a three-day period… Continue Reading
TRAC – Copyright Suits Trending Upward
Via Jeff Lamicela: “The latest available data from the federal courts show that during July 2012 the government reported 296 new copyright civil filings, according to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). This is the fourth straight month where filings have reached close to 300 or more per month —… Continue Reading
A Guide to the Supreme Court's Decision on the ACA's Medicaid Expansion
“On June 28, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in the case challenging the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Court upheld the constitutionality of the ACA’s individual mandate, which requires most people to maintain a minimum level of health insurance coverage beginning in 2014. A majority of the Court also found the ACA’s… Continue Reading
Proposed Model Jury Instructions – The Use of Electronic Technology to Conduct Research on or Communicate about a Case
Proposed Model Jury Instructions – The Use of Electronic Technology to Conduct Research on or Communicate about a Case. Prepared by the Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management, June 2012 “I know that many of you use cell phones, Blackberries, the internet and other tools of technology. You also must not talk… Continue Reading
U.S. Courts – 2011 Report Details Consumer Bankruptcy Filings
“A 2011 statistical report on debtors with primarily consumer debt filing for bankruptcy shows an 11 percent drop in case filings, a 23 percent drop in filer assets, 25 percent drop in filer liabilities and a 28 percent incidence of repeat filers. The 2011 Report of Statistics Required by the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer… Continue Reading
FindLaw Survey – two-thirds of Americans can't name a single Supreme Court justice
Two-Thirds of Americans Can’t Name Any U.S. Supreme Court Justices, Says New FindLaw.com Survey: “Despite all the recent controversy surrounding U.S. Supreme Court decisions on health care, immigration and other issues, nearly two-thirds of Americans can’t name even a single member of the Supreme Court. That’s according to a new national survey by FindLaw.com, the… Continue Reading
