Call me old-fashioned but I still believe the primary role of government is to protect our liberty. The Framers believed this was the government’s role and it was for quite some time. But if protecting liberty is the primary goal of government then with passage of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, government has become [...]
The dreaded or longer for holiday season is upon us and many of you are looking for that $25 gift for someone because your family drew names over Thanksgiving. So here are some suggestions for those who enjoy the law and for those that don't. I've separated these into subject areas, since if you are giving [...]
This article in Mother Jones suggests that the answer is approximately 1 percent. That doesn't seem like a lot until you remember that there are over 2 million prisoners in the U.S. So that is roughly 20,000 people who were erroneously convicted. I wonder how many tax dollars are spent to house those 20,000.
Given the state of our economy and the rising costs of legal representation, it should come as no surprise that pro se litigation is increasing--rapidly. It should also come as no surprise that the legal system struggles to cope with pro se litigants. In his forward, entitled "Root Causes of the Pro Se Prisoner Litigation [...]
Stanford Law Professor Jeffrey L. Fisher had a particularly compelling argument yesterday in the New York Times against the assertion that if applying federal constitutional rights costs too much than the right should not apply. This efficiency versus rights argument is a commonly employed by prosecutors offices across the country. And it is incredibly false. Tax [...]
I never thought that an American Senate would pass a bill that allows the military to lock up American citizens, indefinitely, without due process of law. I just never saw that one coming. Especially after the excessive abuse of power from the last Presidential Administration. And its not as if the Executive is clamoring for [...]
David Segal’s piece in the New York Times yesterday raised serious questions about whether law schools are really teaching students to become practicing attorneys rather than, say, just good law students. The piece also addressed such things as clinical work, legal scholarship, and the cost of law school. My perspective on these [...]
SCOTUS news was dominated this week by the oral arguments United States v. Jones, No. 10-1259. In that case, the Court must decide whether law enforcement can conduct GPS monitoring sans warrant without violating the Fourth Amendment’s prescription of unreasonable searches and seizures. A lot was written about the oral arguments, but [...]
Tomorrow the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Kurns v. Railroad Friction Products Corp., No. 10-879, on whether the Locomotive Inspection Act preempts state-law tort claims relating to locomotive repairs. I had the honor of previewing the case at SCOTUS Blog today, which you can find here. Attorney David C. Frederick of Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, [...]
Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether Government can monitor people through GPS devices without warrants. The case has been covered extensively. Perhaps the most thorough treatment is that from SCOTUS Blog's Lyle Denniston, which can be found here. Orin Kerr over The Volokh Conspiracy also covers both questions: whether the use of a GPS [...]