Criminal Law › Constitutional Law › Civil Remedies

Prison Inmate ‘Forgotten’ for 2 Years Wins $15.5M

An inmate in a New Mexico county jail who was put in solitary confinement for nearly two years without being charged has won a $15.5 million settlement. A jury awarded Stephen Slevin $22 million in his suit against...more

Short Wins - It's A Relatively Good Week For The Constitution

It's a good week in the federal circuits for folks accused of a crime. Instead of the all-too-common diet of sentencing remands, there are some nice wins on our rights against unreasonable searches and seizures and...more

Jury Finds Milwaukee County Not Liable For Sexual Assault Committed By Jail Guard

Back in 2009, Milwaukee County jail guard James Howard sexually assaulted an inmate. A state court convicted Mr. Howard of two counts of sexually assaulting an inmate. The inmate then sued Mr. Howard in federal court,...more

Audio Recording of Police in Action Found to Be Protected Right under 1st Ammendment

Audio Recordings of Police Are Protected By First Amendment According to Two Different Courts Of Appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday delivered a blow to Illinois’ 50-year-old anti-eavesdropping law according to trial...more

Lowering the Bar for Standing in Public Interest Cases

On September 21, 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in Canada (AG) v Downtown Eastside Sex Workers United Against Violence Society, a case dealing with the law of public interest standing in...more

Visiting NYC? Prepare to be Frisked

If you’re planning to visit New York in the near future, be prepared to be patted down by a cop for no reason whatsoever. That’s the message being sent to the general public by the Bloomberg administration in the form of...more

Wrongful Death Suit Filed in Huguely Case

The mother of slain University of Virginia student Yeardley Love has filed a Wrongful Death lawsuit against her murderer, George Huguely, in the Circuit Court for Charlottesville, VA, according to multiple news outlets. I...more

Woman Alleges Police Illegally Strip Searched Her

A California woman is filing suit against Imperial County and a sheriff’s sergeant for what she alleges was an improper strip search. Earlier this year, plaintiff Ana Hicks alleged in court documents that she was falsely...more

CARTER VS. BIGELOW

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER GRANTING MOTIONS TO STRIKE AND DENYING MOTION TO AMEND AND RENEWED MOTION TO STAY

In a case of first impression, the United States District Court considered a crime victim's representative's right under federal law to proceeding free from unreasonable delay. The court granted (1) both the victim's...more

ACLU Wins FOIA Appeal on Prosecutors’ Use of Cell Phone Location Data

For some time now, the American Civil Liberties Union has been concerned about some federal prosecutors’ practice of seeking court orders to track the location of people’s cell phones without probable cause, arguing that this...more

Kanios v. Marlow and State

VICTIM'S PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI

Case is a petition for certiorari to the Maryland Court of Appeals which raises issues of first impression. The District Court of Maryland denied a crime victim the ability to obtain her property right to restitution. Victim...more

Corporatize Corruption

Corporatize Corruption: Its a win win situation for all concerned, our government stands to gain by way of taxes from the government officials which opens up the largest segment for earning tax, the officials stand to gain by...more

Court Slaps Down Section 25400 Market Manipulation Claim Against Convicted Felon

Corporations Code Section 25400 is California’s anti-market manipulation statute. The statute copied clauses (1) through (5) of Section 9(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and declares unlawful specified actions...more

Preliminary Injunction Granted for Parts of New Indiana Immigration Law

As predicted in our prior Legal Alert on this topic on May 13, 2011, Indiana’s recently enacted immigration law has been challenged in court. On June 24, 2011, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana...more

Pleas, come home for Christmas

The snow came early this year. Just as the 25 days of the Christmas season had begun Kentucky got a blanket of white. More than usual I'm in the Christmas spirit this year. However, too many of us will sit in jail this...more

Arbelaez v. United States

Order granting the government's motion to dismiss

Both plaintiffs and government attorneys seem to love to argue that the seizure of property in the context of a criminal arrest, or in the context of civil asset forfeiture, violate the Just Compensation Clause of the Fifth...more

Connick, et al., v. Thompson

Brief of Amici Curiae Alliance Defense Fund and CATO Institute In Support of Respondent

If a man is wrongfully convicted and held on death row for 18 years — 14 in solitary confinement — because prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence in his case, is there any reason that courts should keep him from recovering...more

Class Actions

In its noteworthy 2004 decision in Klay v. Humana, Inc.,1 the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit appeared to veer from its own precedents in affirming certification of a nationwide class asserting a claim...more

In Re National Security Agency Telecommunications Records Litigation (this document relates only to Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation v. Obama)

Order

This case alleges targeting of the leaders of an Islamic charity and their lawyers by the admitted, targeted warrantless wiretapping by the NSA. It is based on a document that was accidentally disclosed to the plaintiffs by...more

In Re National Security Agency Telecommunications Records Litigation (this document relates only to Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation v. Obama)

Stipulation and Request For Extension of Schedule For Briefing Attorney Fees

This case alleges targeting of the leaders of an Islamic charity and their lawyers by the admitted, targeted warrantless wiretapping by the NSA. It is based on a document that was accidentally disclosed to the plaintiffs by...more

Free Speech Coalition, et al., v. The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr.

Plaintiffs' Memorandum in Opposition to Defendant's Motion To Dismiss & Reply To Defendant's Memorandum in Opposition To...

EFF has filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging a federal court judge to block two criminal statutes that unconstitutionally limit the free expression of millions of adults who use the Internet and other electronic forms of...more

Correctional excellence: Accreditation and the American Correctional Association

In the United States there are more than 1,800 state and federal correctional facilities and more than 420 privately operated facilities. Of these, about 83%, some 1,500, are accredited by the American Correctional...more

Free Speech Coalition, et al., v. The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr.

Memorandum in Support of Plaintiffs' Motion For Preliminary Injunction

EFF has filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging a federal court judge to block two criminal statutes that unconstitutionally limit the free expression of millions of adults who use the Internet and other electronic forms of...more

Safford Unified School District #1, et al. v. Redding

Opinion

Supreme Court: Strip-Search of Teenager Violated Constitutional Rights The Supreme Court delivered a 8-1 opinion ruling that a strip-search of a thirteen-year-old girl by school officials looking for an ibuprofen tablet...more

Savage v. Council on American-Islamic Relations, Inc., et al.

Reply in Support of Defendants' Motion For Reconsideration of the Denial of an Award of Attorneys' Fees and Costs

In December of 2007, radio talk show host Michael Savage filed suit in federal district court against the Council on American-Islamic Relations, alleging copyright infringement and a violation of federal racketeering laws for...more