Constitutional Law

Panhandler Gets Arrest Tossed

A city court judge in New Rochelle, N.Y., has found the arrest of a panhandler violated his free speech rights. Eric Hoffstead had asked his lawyer to challenge his arrest after reading about a 1992 federal judge’s ruling that struck down a ban on panhandling. The court also tossed a…

May 31, 2007 3:51 PM CDT

Arguments Today in Civil Gideon Case

The Washington Supreme Court will hear an appeal today that contends an indigent divorce litigant who lost custody of her children was entitled to a free attorney. Brenda Leone King said she could not afford an attorney to represent her during the divorce trial in 2004. Her husband, Michael King,…

May 31, 2007 3:20 PM CDT

Ginsburg Removes the White Gloves

Justices read dissents from the bench in only a handful of cases each year. But Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has done it twice this term, reading forceful dissents in decisions on abortion and pay discrimination. The collegial Ginsburg has gone years without delivering an oral dissent, the New York Times…

May 31, 2007 2:37 PM CDT

Panhandler Challenges Begging Ban

A homeless man in New Rochelle, N.Y., claims his arrest for begging violates the First Amendment. A federal judge struck down a begging ban in a 1992 ruling that applied to New York City, but since then more than 2,300 people have been arrested through New York state for the…

May 30, 2007 3:36 PM CDT

Court Orders Review of Rollover Award

The U.S. Supreme Court today ordered California courts to re-evaluate a multi-million dollar award in a Ford rollover case. Benetta Buell-Wilson was paralyzed when she swerved to avoid hitting a metal object and her Ford Explorer rolled over. A jury originally awarded her $369 million, but appeals courts cut the…

May 14, 2007 5:40 PM CDT

Today in Legal History: Jamestown Settlement, Constitutional Convention, Israel Reborn

On this day in 1607, the first permanent British settlement in North America was established as men landed by the Virginia Charter Company on Jamestown Island, in what is now Virginia, began building a fort. More details are provided by the Library of Congress. On this day in 1787, a…

May 14, 2007 11:00 AM CDT

The Court’s New Swing Vote

A USA Today story about Anthony M. Kennedy’s swing vote on the Supreme Court describes the justice as “a bespectacled 70-year-old Everyman.” Of 11 rulings this term decided by 5-4 votes on the key issue, Kennedy was the only justice in the majority in every case, the newspaper reports. The…

May 11, 2007 5:09 PM CDT

Police Class-Action Ruse Doesn’t Bar DNA

The Washington Supreme Court has affirmed the second-degree murder conviction of a man who provided DNA by licking and mailing an envelope to police posing as plaintiffs lawyers. In a decision (PDF) issued today, the court said there is no inherent privacy interest in saliva used for identification purposes, and…

May 10, 2007 7:01 PM CDT

High Court: Irish Teen has Right to UK Abortion

An Irish court has ruled that a pregnant 17-year-old who is in the care of the government has the right to travel to England for a legal abortion, as some 7,000 of Irish women do annually. Abortion is illegal in Ireland, except to save the life of the mother. Social…

May 10, 2007 12:16 AM CDT

No Rehearing in Gun Rights Case

A federal appeals court has refused to rehear a decision holding that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms. The March decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit struck down parts of a D.C. gun control law. Other…

May 9, 2007 4:09 PM CDT

NC Court Battle Over Taking Oath on Quran

Putting one’s hand on the Bible to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is a relic of history in most American courtrooms today. But not in North Carolina, where the Christian holy book is still routinely handed to witnesses as they are about…

May 9, 2007 2:29 AM CDT

No Right to Bear Cell Phones

A New York judge has upheld a ban on cell phones at public schools. Judge Lewis Bart Stone said the ban was reasonable and did not violate the Constitution, according to the New York Times. “Neither the state nor federal constitutions include any express constitutional right to bear cell phones,”…

May 8, 2007 2:17 PM CDT

Liberal Law Profs Back Right to Own Guns

Several liberal law professors are concluding that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms. Scholarship by Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe and others has changed the debate over gun rights, according to an article by Adam Liptak in the New York Times. Their work culminated in a…

May 7, 2007 1:21 PM CDT

House Passes Hate Crimes Bill

The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would expand the definition of hate crimes to cover wrongdoing motivated by a victim’s “gender, sexual orientation, gender identity” or disability. President Bush has threatened a veto if the measure passes the Senate, calling expansion of the law “unnecessary and constitutionally…

May 4, 2007 1:11 PM CDT

Inmate May Pursue Smoking Claim

A federal appeals court is allowing a prisoner to pursue a claim that he was exposed to excessive tobacco smoke that caused so much discomfort it violated the ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Prisons cannot expose inmates to smoke that endangers their health or becomes excessive, said the opinion…

May 3, 2007 7:49 PM CDT