“With the leak of a draft opinion suggesting the U.S. Supreme Court will soon overturn the landmark abortion decision of Roe v. Wade, a new ABA Legal Fact Check released today examines the legal principle of stare decisis, or legal precedent, and how it came to be. In a rare breach of court security, a… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Courts
A Supreme Court speech showdown is coming, and nobody knows what to expect
The Verge: “The US Supreme Court is poised to consider a question with seismic consequences for online speech. Over the past year, laws in Texas and Florida have set up a legal battle over whether the First Amendment protects social networks’ right to curate user-generated content or whether these sites should be treated more like… Continue Reading
The linguistics search engine that overturned the federal mask mandate
The Verge: “The COVID-19 pandemic was still raging when a federal judge in Florida made the fateful decision to type “sanitation” into the search bar of the Corpus of Historical American English. Many parts of the country had already dropped mask requirements, but a federal mask mandate on planes and other public transportation was still… Continue Reading
The Supreme Court Is Building Its Own Surveillance State
Wired – Searching clerks’ phones to find out who leaked the Dobbs opinion sets a dangerous precedent of exploiting digital rights. “Following the leak of a draft opinion striking down abortion rights, the Supreme Court’s police force (the Marshal’s Office) launched an unprecedented probe to uncover who leaked the decision. Already, authorities have demanded phone… Continue Reading
13 Ways Overturning Roe v. Wade Affects You (even if you think it doesn’t)
Via LLRX – 13 Ways Overturning Roe v. Wade Affects You (even if you think it doesn’t) – Kathy Biehl is a lawyer licensed in two states, as well as a prolific multidisciplinary author and writer. Roe v. Wade has been settled law during her entire career. In this article Biehl succinctly and expertly identifies… Continue Reading
California’s unprecedented reparations report details 150 years of anti-Black harm
NBCNews: “A new report from California’s first-in-the-country statewide reparations task force details how slavery touched nearly every aspect of Black life in America, producing “innumerable harms” that are still felt today. California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans INTERIM REPORT [June 2022], offers a comprehensive look at the impacts of… Continue Reading
We Clerked for Justices Scalia and Stevens. America Is Getting Heller Wrong.
The New York Times: “…Justices Scalia and Stevens clashed over the meaning of the Second Amendment. Justice Scalia’s majority opinion held that the amendment protected an individual right to keep a usable handgun at home, which meant the District of Columbia law prohibiting such possession was unconstitutional. Justice Stevens argued that those protections extended only… Continue Reading
Abortion Surveillance After Roe
Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Report, May 24, 2022: “Abortion rights will soon be a thing of the past for millions of Americans. At the time of publication, a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion shows a majority of justices are poised to strike down Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, and any federal constitutional right… Continue Reading
The Future of Abortions in America – An access map
The Cut and New York have removed their paywall for articles about finding abortion care. Find abortion services near you. How to have a medication abortion. How to protect yourself when seeking an abortion. Don’t trust DIY abortion advice on Tiktok. How to get help for your abortion via mutual aid networks. The crisis pregnancy… Continue Reading
A wild new court decision would blow up much of the government’s ability to operate
Vox: “The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued yet another astonishing decision on Wednesday. Jarkesy v. SEC seeks to dismantle much of the system the federal government uses to enforce longstanding laws and to determine who is eligible for federal benefits. And it does so in defiance of numerous Supreme Court… Continue Reading
Understanding Federal Legislation: A Section-by-Section Guide to Key Legal Considerations
CRS Report – Understanding Federal Legislation: A Section-by-Section Guide to Key Legal Considerations, Updated May 19, 2022 [97 pages]: “Federal bills are increasingly complex, making them difficult to understand for the average reader and the seasoned practitioner alike. What a congressional drafter understands to be the import of a given provision could later be discussed… Continue Reading
US Gun Production Triples Since 2000, Fueled by Handgun Purchases
The New York Times: “The United States is in the middle of a great gun-buying boom that shows no sign of letting up as the annual number of firearms manufactured has nearly tripled since 2000 and spiked sharply in the past three years, according to the first comprehensive federal tally of gun commerce in two… Continue Reading
