Constitutional Law

Illicit Beer Bottle Caps Bring Feds Down on Calif. Brewer

A beer brewer in a small California town named after a founding citizen and state senator, Abner Weed, has incurred the wrath of federal regulators by his tongue-in-cheek use of the town’s name on bottle caps to help brand his product. “Try LEGAL weed,” they suggest. Around the rim of…

May 28, 2008 10:42 PM CDT

Our Client: Osama bin Laden’s Ex-Driver—and the Rule of Law

A 2004 telephone call from a law professor and a military lawyer in 2004 led to a startling shift in practice for two Seattle business litigators at Perkins Coie. Soon Harry Schneider, 54, and Joe McMillan, 48, were representing a terrorism suspect in an extremely high-profile case that has already…

May 27, 2008 3:01 PM CDT

Lawyer’s Quest to Marry Results in Nashville Policy Change on Immigrants

A county clerk in Nashville is allowing illegal immigrants to marry after a state attorney general’s opinion last week that sided with a lawyer seeking to marry a man without a Social Security number. The lawyer, Vanessa Saenz, had filed a suit in federal court saying she was denied the…

May 27, 2008 12:53 PM CDT

D.C. Area Law Firm Sues Over Outsourced Legal Work, Alleges Privilege Issue

Updated: Outsourcing legal work to India permits the U.S. government to intercept confidential documents, violating attorney-client privilege and the constitutional rights of those accused of wrongdoing, a Washington, D.C., area law firm contends in a federal lawsuit. The government interception is possible because the National Security Agency is free to…

May 23, 2008 8:38 PM CDT

Texas to Appeal Decision Calling for Return of 468 FLDS Kids to Parents

Told by an appellate court yesterday that government officials illegally removed up to 468 children from the custody of parents living at a ranch run by a fundamentalist religious group, Texas will now appeal that ruling to the state’s highest court. The State Department of Family and Protective Services plans…

May 23, 2008 7:13 PM CDT

Canada Must Give Interrogation Info to Omar Khadr

A Canadian citizen captured by the U.S. in Afghanistan at age 15 and held at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has a constitutional right to materials related to interviews conducted there by Canadian officials in 2003, Canada’s highest court decided today. In what a lawyer for…

May 23, 2008 6:03 PM CDT

Two Theories for Supreme Court Consensus: The Election or Posner Effect

Is Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. finally following through on his pledge in confirmation hearings to seek consensus on the court? Last year at this time, the U.S. Supreme Court had issued 13 rulings decided by a 5-4 vote, but so far this year it has issued only one,…

May 23, 2008 1:31 PM CDT

State Wrongly Removed 400 FLDS Kids, Texas Appeals Court Says

Updated: Texas officials exceeded their authority by taking some 400 children of a religious sect from their parents at the Yearning for Zion ranch last month and putting them in foster care, a state appeals court says. Responding to a mandamus filing by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, the Third Court…

May 22, 2008 5:38 PM CDT

Last Brown v. Board of Ed Plaintiff, Zelma Henderson, Dies

Zelma Henderson, the sole surviving plaintiff in the landmark desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, died of pancreatic cancer Tuesday. She was 88. In a news obituary featuring Henderson, the New York Times notes that the lifelong Topeka, Kan., resident was one of the “et al.” named…

May 22, 2008 3:08 PM CDT

9th Circuit Reinstates Challenge to ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

A federal appeals court is allowing an Air Force nurse to challenge the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy under a standard that makes her case easier to prove. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that the government would have to show its policy on gays in…

May 22, 2008 11:30 AM CDT

‘Torture Team’ Mystery: Who OK’d US Terrorism Interrogation Tactics?

A new book by attorney Philippe Sands is written in the style of a mystery novel. In fact, it is even recommended by John Le Carré, the well-known author of numerous best-selling spy thrillers. But Torture Team is nonfiction. Its topic: Who in the U.S. government was primarily responsible for…

May 21, 2008 7:18 PM CDT

NYC Seeks to Discipline 7 Cops in Bell Police Shooting Case

Officials have filed administrative discipline charges against seven New York City police officers, including several who were not indicted in a separate criminal case, over the death of Sean Bell. Three detectives were acquitted last month in a controversial criminal case over the death of the unarmed Bell in a…

May 20, 2008 9:34 PM CDT

4th Circuit Strikes Down Va.‘s Late-Term Abortion Ban, Again

Despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld a federal ban on late-term abortions, the Richmond, Va.-based 4th Circuit struck down Virginia’s late-term law as unconstitutional. The 2-1 decision comes after the Supreme Court asked the 4th Circuit to reconsider its 2005 ruling striking down the law, reports the Associated…

May 20, 2008 9:08 PM CDT

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Plans Judicial Reforms

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, himself a former corporate lawyer and law professor, called for reform of the country’s judicial system at a Kremlin meeting today of judges and legal officials. He apparently anticipates revising Russia’s criminal and administrative code to deal with the issue of bribes and outside pressure that…

May 20, 2008 8:28 PM CDT

D.C. Circuit Says Paper Money Discriminates Against Blind

The U.S. currency system discriminates against vision-impaired individuals because paper bills of different denominations are the same size, shape and color, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled today. In its 2-1 decision (PDF), the court held that the Treasury Department needs to find a way to…

May 20, 2008 4:01 PM CDT