News

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday decided - for now - not to weigh in on the legality of judges increasing prison sentences for criminal defendants based on charges for which they were acquitted - a practice that critics have said violates basic constitutional rights (article available…

In McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020), the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the 1997 conviction of Jimcy McGirt for sexual abuse on the grounds that, as an enrolled member of the Seminole…

Lansing, Mich. cop sees man passed out at the wheel of a running car early in the morning after a blizzard. Without knocking opens the driver's door to check. Man wakes up. Cop asks for ID. Things escalate quickly and cop finds a whole lot of bags of drugs and a gun. Man: Unreasonable search and…

Mother of minor children named as victims in an indictment testified that she believed her children and that her children wouldn’t “lie about anything like this.” You don't see many plain-error rulings that invalidate triple life sentences, but the Tenth Circuit takes the opportunity to remind…

"Basic grammar tells us what the sentence means." When a court starts an analysis like that, you can bet not everyone will agree on the basic grammar. Just like in this…

The United States Sentencing Commission has scheduled a public hearing for Wednesday, July 19, 2023, from 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. (EDT). The hearing will be held at the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building, One Columbus Circle, N.E., in the Commissioners' Conference Room of Suite 2-500 (…

he Justice Department’s watchdog said Tuesday that a “combination of negligence and misconduct” enabled financier Jeffrey Epstein to take his own life at a federal jail in New York City while he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges (…

This morning, a 7-2 divided Supreme Court decided Counterman v. Colorado, No. 22-138 (June 27, 2023), holding that the government must prove in true-threats cases that the defendant had some subjective understanding of his…

In state court news, the Supreme Court of Maryland rifles through the evidence and shoots down firearm experts' striking claims that they can link a certain bullet to a particular gun. Henceforth, such claims will…

On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court decided Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (5-4). The Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment requires states to license and recognize same-sex marriage.

The majority opinion by Justice Kennedy was joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and…