News

The federal Bureau of Prisons is closing the notorious Special Management Unit at Thomson penitentiary in Illinois, after frequent reports of violence and abuse. View full article…

Cindy Chung, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, has been confirmed as a judge on the 3rd Circuit federal Court of Appeals. (…

Florida man: requiring registration and reporting after completing my sentence of probation on a charge of lewd or lascivious conduct constitutes illegal custody. Files habeas. To seek a writ of habeas corpus, one must be "in custody," and that doesn't necessarily mean "physical custody" (per…

St. Charles County, Mo. jail nurse does not provide mentally ill inmate with his medications, which his mother had dropped off, instead putting him on suicide watch where he can be closely observed. And indeed an officer—who is reluctant to enter the inmate's cell without backup because of his…

In Lackawanna County, Penn., if a court finds you can afford to pay child support but you didn't, you get a prison term and won't have access to work-release to earn money unless you spend the first half of the sentence doing "community service" at a private recycling center, for nearly no pay…

A 90-year-old North Carolina law makes it a crime to publish a "derogatory report" about a candidate for office if the speaker knows the report is false or speaks with reckless disregard for its truth or falsity. A campaign threatened with prosecution under the law brings a First Amendment…

Can a neo-nazi fairly represent a Jewish client? Can a Blue Lives Matter believer zealously serve a Black client? (access full article).

Those were some of the hypotheticals Massachusetts’…

Seventeen-and-a-half-year-old girl, a member of the Choctaw nation, allegedly plans the murder of her abusive and neglectful parents by two underage friends. The government charges her with two counts of first-degree murder, crimes for which the mandated punishments—death or life without parole—…

Indigenous man from Guatemala who fled his home city of Sacatepéquez because of frequent beatings and death threats from a local MS13-affiliated gang against him and his family: this qualifies as persecution. Board of Immigration Appeals: Sure, a gang harassed you, threatened you, and repeatedly…

Alleged gang member is convicted of witness retaliation and sentenced to three years in prison after attacking a former member of his gang on the street in the Bronx. At trial, man asks court to explore potential gang bias during jury selection. Trial court: no, it would be “improper,” and will…