I ran across a rather strange case in the Seventh Circuit involving several defendants on trial for various tax, mail and wire fraud counts. This was far from a routine tax case. To say the case was complex is kind of an understatement—there were over 1 million documents related to the trial. During the middle [...]
I just finished reading Randy Barnett’s book Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty. While the book has received its share of criticism (see here), including by one of the CockleBur contributors (see here), I found the book very interesting. I cannot say that I agree with all of it or [...]
Update: Orin Kerr has this post about oral arguments this morning. Judge Motz told the attorneys challenging the ACA that they could argue for as long as they wanted but with the caveat that the government would be able to argue for the same amount of time. I just read over the ACA Litigation Blog [...]
I was in a Barnes and Nobles about six months ago, and the store had a rack of five-dollar books. I am like a junkie when it comes to discounted books. So I read a few jacket covers before stumbling upon a book called The Tender Bar—a memoir written by J.R. Moehringer, [...]
For the next month I will be focusing on prisoners’ issues, because I know that many prisoners’ families come to the CockleBur to keep up-to-date on legal developments affecting prisoners. So here is a roundup of the latest prisoner stories in the news. Last week, the New York Times published an editorial entitled, [...]
Last term, Justice Kennedy said in Salazar v. Buono, that a “cross by the side of a public highway,” marking “where a state trooper perished,” was not a statement of “governmental support for sectarian beliefs,” and therefore, would not violate the Establishment Clause. As Lee Corso would say: Not so fast Justice [...]
Last week, I claimed that, in terms of cases with broad importance that will be decided this term, American Electric would be “unmatched.” I am not alone. Yesterday, Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal started his argument off with what is at stake: “In the 222 years that this court has been sitting, [...]
If any of you follow the Supreme Court you will have undoubtedly come across a Josh Blackman post about some SCOTUS development. The man is simply a writing machine. He blogs daily. He publishes law reviews like some publish blog posts. He teaches at Penn State Law School. He is the President and [...]
There doesn’t seem to be a blockbuster case this term. Sure Snyder v. Phelps presented our worst forms of speech, captured our attention momentarily, and even led to a thought-provoking dissent by Justice Alito. But the narrow 8 to 1 ruling effectively made that case a non-issue going forward. Then there is [...]
John Thompson was wrongfully convicted, sentenced to death, and on the verge of being executed, when his lawyers learned that the prosecution had withheld exculpatory evidence. He was exonerated and then he sued the prosecutor's office. He was awarded a 14 million dollar judgment--one year for each one he spent on death row. But last [...]