The New York Times – Five takeaways from an examination by The New York Times reveal how President Trump has reshaped the federal judiciary. “President Trump made overhauling the federal judiciary one of his top priorities, moving with particular speed to infuse the highly influential appeals courts with reliably conservative judges. Working with his Republican… Continue Reading
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Category Archives: Courts
Federal judge calls Chief Justice Roberts ‘masterpiece of disingenuousness’ in law review article
ABA Journal: “A federal judge appointed by President Bill Clinton is criticizing the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority for “undermining American democracy” by weakening the Voting Rights Act, failing to rein in partisan gerrymandering, and increasing the economic and political power of corporations. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman of Milwaukee airs his dissatisfaction in an… Continue Reading
Federal courts are canceling proceedings and restricting visitors amid coronavirus concerns
ABA Journal: “Some federal courts are changing or suspending some operations as a result of concerns about the coronavirus. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington has suspended all civil and criminal matters that require in-court appearances. Courthouses remain open for filings, according to a press release and coverage by Law360 and… Continue Reading
Georgetown Prof Explains The Rise Of Nonlawyer Navigators
Law360: “Each year, 30 million people lack legal representation in high-stakes civil court cases involving evictions, restraining orders, child custody and more. They do not have the statutory right to an attorney. If they cannot afford one, none is provided to them. Lawyers cannot close this so-called justice gap by themselves: Even if every licensed… Continue Reading
Corporate and White-Collar Prosecutions At All-Time Lows Inbox
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse – “The latest available case-by-case records from the Department of Justice show that the prosecution of white-collar offenders in January 2020 reached an all-time low since tracking began during the Reagan Administration. Only 359 defendants were prosecuted. Almost all of these were individuals rather than businesses. January 2020’s prosecutions continued… Continue Reading
Use Amazon, Uber or Walmart.com? You’ve probably signed away your right to sue them
CNN Business: “Tucked into the sign-up process for many popular e-commerce sites and apps are dense terms-of-service agreements that legal experts say are changing the nature of consumer transactions, creating a veil of secrecy around how these companies function. The small print in these documents requires all signatories to agree to binding arbitration and to… Continue Reading
Forest Service says Appalachian Trail isn’t “land” in pipeline fight at SCOTUS
Quartz: “It’s not every Supreme Court brief that goes off the beaten legal path, supplementing jurisprudence with humor and spicing up statutory interpretation with devastating wit. But the filing from environmentalists fighting the US Forest Service (USFS) over its grant of a license for a gas pipeline through the Appalachian Trail is one such gem. … Continue Reading
Classaction.gov
Rose, Amanda M., Classaction.gov (February 10, 2020). Vanderbilt Law Research Paper No. 20-05. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3534317 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3534317 “This Essay proposes the creation of a federally-run class action website and supporting administration (collectively, Classaction.gov) that would both operate a comprehensive research database on class actions and assume many of the notice and claims processing… Continue Reading
Life Sentenced Population Exceeds Entire Prison Population in 1970
The Sentencing Project: “Nationwide there are more people serving life sentences today (206,000) than the entire prison population in 1970 (196,000), according to a new fact sheet released by The Sentencing Project’s Campaign to End Life Imprisonment. Starting in the 1970s, the United States’s prison population began its steady upward climb to the vastly overcrowded… Continue Reading
The Hardest Thing About Being a Judge? What Courts Say About Sentencing
Law.com: “It is just not a natural or everyday thing to do—to pass judgment on people, to send them to prison or not,” one federal appeals judge once remarked. Here’s a look at how judges across courts have described the challenge of sentencing, as Roger Stone prepares to learn his fate…” Continue Reading
Report on Artificial Intelligence in Federal Agencies
Washington, D.C., Stanford, Calif., and New York, February 18, 2020 — The Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), Stanford Law School, and New York University School of Law are pleased to announce the release of a major report exploring federal agencies’ use of artificial intelligence (AI) to carry out administrative law functions. This is the most comprehensive study of… Continue Reading
ABA President Martinez defends judiciary, prosecutors at Midyear Meeting
AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 18, 2020 – “American Bar Association President Judy Perry Martinez delivered a strong defense Monday of the judiciary and prosecutors in remarks to the ABA House of Delegates, the association’s policy-making body, on the final day of the ABA Midyear Meeting. “The personal attacks on our judges and prosecutors must cease,” she… Continue Reading
