Constitutional Law

Banned in Boston: Prisoner Legal Self-Help Books

A nonprofit publisher of legal self-help volumes intended for incarcerated criminals has sued Massachusetts over a claimed state ban on distribution of its books throughout the prison system. Prison Legal News contends in the suit that state Department of Correction officials refuse to add the publisher to the list of…

Apr 23, 2008 9:47 PM CDT

Autobiography of an Enemy Combatant

Murat Kurnaz is a German man who spent five years in the custody of the U.S. and its allies and is still considered an enemy combatant even now that he has been released and sent home. Allegedly tortured and held for years even after U.S. and German authorities determined he…

Apr 23, 2008 9:24 PM CDT

9-0 Court Allows Search & Seizure in Va. Case

The U.S. Supreme Court held Wednesday that police have the power to search and seize evidence, even when the arrest turns out to have violated state law. The high court’s decision stems from the Virginia case of David Lee Moore. City police seized crack cocaine from Moore’s vehicle after he…

Apr 23, 2008 3:44 PM CDT

$7.4 M Legal Bill Stuns Officials in Mich. Girls Sports Season Case

Officials at the Michigan High School Athletic Association are still reeling, weeks after a federal judge awarded $7.4 million in legal fees to the prevailing plaintiff in a 10-year-old case contending that Michigan’s sports seasons discriminated against girls. Now, saying that an award of prejudgment interest, in particular, came as…

Apr 22, 2008 7:53 PM CDT

Child Protection v. the Constitution: Did Removal of 437 Kids Violate Parents’ Rights?

Updated: As the state of Texas proceeds with DNA tests this week to try to determine exactly who parents and siblings are in a controversial custody case that, at last count, involved 437 children, lawyers for the families—as well as some observers—are expressing concern about possible violations of parents’ constitutional…

Apr 22, 2008 6:28 PM CDT

Are Senators Too Soft on Would-Be Justices?

A new study published in the journal Constitutional Commentary examines how closely the answers that U.S. Supreme Court nominees give senators during confirmation hearings track with how they vote in actual cases on the high court. The study’s co-author, University of Kentucky College of Law professor Lori Ringhand, told National…

Apr 22, 2008 12:17 PM CDT

‘No Deal’ For Ga. Couple in NBC Illegal Gambling Suit

In a victory for NBC Universal, the Georgia Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a couple cannot recover the cost of text messages they sent in order to play along on the game show Deal or No Deal. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the ruling is a godsend to NBC,…

Apr 22, 2008 10:33 AM CDT

N.J. High Court Protects e-Privacy With Landmark Ruling

Even police in New Jersey will need a subpoena to access personal information about users from Internet service providers, New Jersey’s Supreme Court ruled Monday. The court held that the Garden State’s constitution gives residents greater protection against unreasonable searches and seizures than the U.S. Constitution, the Newark Star-Ledger reports.…

Apr 22, 2008 10:12 AM CDT

9th Circuit Upholds Border Agent’s Laptop Search

A federal appeals court panel ruled Monday that border agents didn’t violate a traveler’s rights when they searched his laptop, finding child porn in the process. “We are satisfied that reasonable suspicion is not needed for customs officials to search a laptop or other personal electronic storage devices at the…

Apr 22, 2008 10:08 AM CDT

Florida Businesses Sue Over New Guns-at-Work Law

Two Florida business coalitions have filed suit over a new law that will allow workers and other citizens to bring guns onto private property in their individual vehicles, starting July 1. The law is unconstitutional because it interferes with private property rights, the Florida Retail Federation and the Florida Chamber…

Apr 21, 2008 10:38 PM CDT

Sacked Pakistan Appellate Judges Could Be Restored to Office Soon

Updated: Dozens of Pakistan appellate judges removed from office in November by the country’s president could now be restored to their former seats by the end of April. Leaders of a new coalition government that has come to the fore after recent parliamentary elections say they plan to put the…

Apr 21, 2008 8:13 PM CDT

Meet Barbara Walther, Judge in Texas Ranch Raid Case

A Texas state court judge had perhaps the toughest case in the nation last week as she presided over a record-breaking 416-child custody hearing. But Barbara Walther is a seasoned, authoritative jurist with a sense of humor who handled the challenging hearing as well as anyone could have, according to…

Apr 21, 2008 7:14 PM CDT

Lawyer Throws Open Secretive Sect’s Gates to Media

Before authorities raided their western Texas compound, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was a closed, secretive community. All inquiries from the media were uniformly rejected. But, as the Associated Press reports, when hundreds of children from the polygamous sect were rounded up and removed from…

Apr 21, 2008 6:44 PM CDT

Judge Orders DNA Testing of 416 Kids; Sect Reconsiders Sex With Minors

More than 400 children removed from a polygamous sect on suspicions that they are being subjected to abuse or are at risk will undergo DNA testing this week so their complicated family connections can be sorted out. Judge Barbara Walther, who is presiding over what is considered the largest, most…

Apr 21, 2008 3:26 PM CDT

Supreme Court Lifts Execution Stays

The U.S. Supreme Court this morning cleared the way for three states to reset execution dates for death row inmates who were granted last-minute stays while the court reviewed the constitutionality of Kentucky’s lethal injection procedures. The court last week upheld Kentucky’s use of the deadly cocktail, which means Alabama,…

Apr 21, 2008 3:07 PM CDT