Constitutional Law

Suit to Seek Government Policy on Laptop Border Searches

Two civil liberties groups plan to file a lawsuit today seeking information on government policies regarding border searches of laptops and other electronic devices. The suit will be filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Asian Law Caucus, the Washington Post reports. The groups say the suit was spurred…

Feb 7, 2008 4:39 PM CST

Ky. Judge Bans Prosecutor Objections in Probable Cause Hearings

A Kentucky judge has threatened to hold prosecutors in contempt if they don’t stop making “obnoxious, ridiculous, abundant and useless objections” during probable cause hearings. Jefferson District Judge Sean Delahanty told prosecutors on Tuesday to cool it, saying that their excessive objections were wasting time and disrupting probable cause hearings,…

Feb 7, 2008 12:08 AM CST

White House Defends US Waterboarding; U.N. Official, Rights Groups: It’s Torture

A day after CIA director Michael Hayden admitted in testimony before Congress that the Bush administration had used the so-called waterboarding technique on three al-Qaida suspects, a White House spokesman says it is a legal interrogation technique that can sometimes be appropriately authorized by the president in the future. “Every…

Feb 6, 2008 9:07 PM CST

Russian Lawyer Seeks Political Asylum Over Client Wiretapping Case

A Russian lawyer who is a well-known critic of the government there is seeking political asylum in the U.S. because of his legal work. Boris Kuznetsov, 64, claims he is being criminally prosecuted in his home country because of his efforts to obtain a court ruling that his client, a…

Feb 6, 2008 6:13 PM CST

DOJ Seeks Emergency Supreme Court Appeal in Gitmo Case

The Justice Department plans to file an emergency petition with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of a ruling requiring the government to supply more information about its designation of a Guantanamo detainee as an enemy combatant. The case, Bismullah v. Gates, concerns how much information the government has to…

Feb 6, 2008 3:15 PM CST

Judge Cuts $11M Award to $5M in Funeral Picketing Case

A federal judge has upheld the $2.9 million in compensatory damages awarded to the father of a fallen U.S. Marine whose funeral was picketed by a fringe Kansas church. But he has cut a Baltimore federal jury’s award of $8 million in punitive damages to $2.1 million, reducing the total…

Feb 5, 2008 10:44 PM CST

U.K. Bugged Inmate’s Calls to Lawyer; Is This a Common Practice?

In a discovery that has fanned fears that British inmates’ phone calls to their attorneys are routinely bugged, a lawyer in the U.K. reportedly has received transcripts of secretly recorded phone conversations between himself and an imprisoned client. Simon Creighton, of Bhatt Murphy solicitors in London, says the transcripts show…

Feb 5, 2008 5:38 PM CST

Judge Allows Racketeering Suit Against Protesting Union

A federal judge has refused to dismiss a racketeering lawsuit filed against a union that criticized conditions at a North Carolina slaughterhouse. U.S. District Judge Robert Payne of Richmond, Va., refused last week to dismiss the suit, filed by Smithfield Foods against the United Food and Commercial Workers International, Adam…

Feb 5, 2008 2:29 PM CST

States Seek Unclaimed Property for Themselves, Owners Sue

Once upon a time, legislatures throughout the country enacted unclaimed property laws intended to make sure that banks and other companies holding assets that the owners seemed to have forgotten about made efforts to notify them. But today a growing number of states are making it more difficult for owners…

Feb 4, 2008 11:22 PM CST

Lawyer Defends ‘Fake Bomb’ as Free Speech

The MIT student charged with walking into an airport wearing a device feared to be a bomb is seeking dismissal of the charges on First Amendment grounds. Star Simpson was charged with possessing a hoax device after going to an airport with a blinking circuit board attached to her shirt.…

Feb 1, 2008 7:25 PM CST

N.J. Supremes to Weigh Law Firm Liability for Client’s Improper Suit

The New Jersey Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a law firm can be liable for representing a nightclub that improperly sued neighbors who publicly opposed the business’s expansion. David Bauman represents the law firm sued for malicious use of process, Giordano, Halleran & Ciesla of Middletown, N.J. He…

Jan 31, 2008 2:45 PM CST

Lawyer: Lynne Stewart’s Material Support Conviction Violated First Amend’t

A lawyer for disbarred lawyer Lynne Stewart claimed in appellate arguments yesterday that his client’s release of a statement by an imprisoned sheik was protected by the First Amendment. Stewart was convicted in 2005 of providing material support to terrorists by passing messages from her imprisoned client, Sheik Omar Abdel…

Jan 30, 2008 2:42 PM CST

Disbarred Lawyer Lynne Stewart Argues Limiting Instructions Overwhelmed Jurors

A federal appeals court will hear arguments tomorrow in the case of disbarred lawyer Lynne Stewart, convicted of giving material support to terrorists for helping an imprisoned sheik pass messages to his followers. Stewart is seeking to overturn her sentence, while prosecutors are arguing her 28-month jail term is too…

Jan 28, 2008 4:07 PM CST

Lawsuit Costs Furrier $97K in Attorney Fees for Animal Rights Protesters

A well-known furrier in Portland, Ore., has been ordered by a federal judge to pay nearly $100,000 in legal fees to protesters who demonstrated aggressively outside its downtown store for years, allegedly driving the longtime merchant out of business. Although Schumacher Furs & Outerwear may well have had legitimate complaints…

Jan 25, 2008 11:51 PM CST

N.Y. Judge Lost Election Case, But Won Sympathy for Her Cause

The New York judge who mounted an unsuccessful challenge to the state’s method of selecting judges wasn’t optimistic about its chances. “I wasn’t happy when the U.S. Supreme Court took the case, and after sitting through the oral arguments in October, I didn’t have the feeling that we were going…

Jan 25, 2008 6:47 PM CST