Constitutional Law

ABA President Asks Attorneys to Sign Pakistan Petition

The president of the American Bar Association is calling on fellow attorneys to sign an online petition seeking the restoration of the rule of law in Pakistan. “I urge you not to look aside, as if standing up for the rule of law is somebody else’s job. Add your name,…

Dec 4, 2007 10:22 PM CST

State-Funded Prisoner Religion Program Tossed

A federal appeals court has ruled that a state-financed program that seeks to rehabilitate prisoners through Christian ideals violates the establishment clause. Americans United for Separation of Church and State had challenged the program run by InnerChange, a group affiliated with Charles Colson’s Prison Fellowship that operates in six states,…

Dec 4, 2007 5:55 PM CST

Bell Gets 18 Months in Jena 6 Plea Deal

One of the Jena 6 defendants has agreed to a plea deal in juvenile court that apparently will require him to serve little additional time, after spending much of 2007 in jail. A conspiracy charge has been dropped and Mychal Bell, 17, will plead guilty to a second-degree battery count,…

Dec 3, 2007 11:58 PM CST

Motor Voter Law a Fast Track to Crime

Proudly proceeding on a fast track toward legal residency and eventual U.S. citizenship, Beth Keathley was so excited about having had a chance to vote in her first American election that she mentioned the milestone to her immigration officer. The next thing she knew, she had been charged with a…

Dec 3, 2007 9:45 PM CST

Judge Axes Verdict Due to Racist Remarks

A federal judge in Utah has thrown out a guilty verdict in an assault case against an American Indian defendant because of jurors’ racist remarks during deliberations. Rather than focusing on the allegations against defendant Kerry Dean Benally, who was accused of assaulting a federal officer investigating a report that…

Dec 3, 2007 8:37 PM CST

U.S. to Judge: We Can Kidnap Suspects

Extradition is only one way for the U.S. government to get suspected criminals in foreign countries back to American soil for trial. Another legitimate option is to kidnap them, a lawyer representing the United States reportedly told an appellate judge in a United Kingdom case, causing an uproar there once…

Dec 3, 2007 5:15 PM CST

Plea Deal for Jena 6 Teen?

A 17-year-old who has been imprisoned for much of this year in a controversial Louisiana case that has sparked massive civil rights protests may be close to a plea deal. Mychal Bell, who was originally charged with attempted murder in an alleged attack with five other black students about a…

Dec 3, 2007 4:15 PM CST

Supreme Court Accepts Right-to-Counsel Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a suspect taken before a magistrate has the right to a lawyer. The issue in Rothgery v. Gillespie County is whether the right to a lawyer does not attach until a prosecutor prepares a formal charge, SCOTUSblog reports. The magistrate at…

Dec 3, 2007 3:28 PM CST

Detainee Case Reflects ‘Interbranch Drama’

Updated: The latest Guantanamo detainee case before the U.S. Supreme Court, which asks whether federal courts have jurisdiction to hear the enemy combatant cases, “reflects an extraordinary interbranch drama,” the New York Times reports. Last year, the court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld struck down the military commission system because President…

Dec 3, 2007 1:21 PM CST

Teen Ranch Fails to Get Cert in Free Exercise Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down a case that challenges Michigan’s decision to bar placements of troubled youths at a faith-based organization, SCOTUSblog reports. The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled (PDF) in January that Michigan could refuse placements at Teen Ranch Inc. because the group…

Nov 26, 2007 4:01 PM CST

Supreme Court Turns Down Welfare Search Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to accept a case challenging a requirement that welfare recipients allow searches of their homes. The program, adopted in 1997 by the district attorney’s office in San Diego County, required unannounced home visits by the district attorney’s fraud investigators, SCOTUSblog reports. Those who refuse…

Nov 26, 2007 3:24 PM CST

Court OKs Murder Conviction for Killing Fetus Before Viability

The highest criminal court in Texas has held that killing a fetus before viability can be prosecuted as murder. The court ruled in the case of Terence Lawrence, convicted of double murder for shooting and killing his girlfriend, who had been pregnant for six weeks or less, the Austin American-Statesman…

Nov 26, 2007 12:56 PM CST

La. Judge Opens Entire Jena 6 Trial

Responding to a lawsuit filed by multiple media organizations, a Louisiana judge decided today to open to the public all trial proceedings in the case of Mychal Bell. The Jena 6 teen is to be tried beginning Dec. 6 in juvenile court for his role in an alleged group attack…

Nov 21, 2007 9:40 PM CST

Judge: Put Capital Appeals in Lower Calif. Courts; Lawyers: Pay Us More

In an effort to deal with a backlog of death penalty appeals and speed up the appellate process, the chief justice of the California Supreme Court is calling for a constitutional amendment to allow some of the appeals to be shifted to lower state courts. It now reportedly takes more…

Nov 21, 2007 7:57 PM CST

DOJ Says Ruling Stymies Congress Probes

The Justice Department is seeking an emergency stay of an August ruling requiring the FBI to return privileged documents seized in a raid of a congressman’s office, saying the decision represents an “unprecedented expansion” of constitutional protections for legislative acts. The motion says the decision may affect many investigative techniques…

Nov 21, 2007 5:02 PM CST