AltLaw, the newest and one of the more promising internet legal resources to hit the scene, is now up and running and available for free public advanced searches of case law.
It’s a sort of Google for Supreme Court and Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal decisions, and clearly holds promise to democratize the availability of relevant [...]
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The Supreme Court added to its docket United States v. Kimbrough, 06-6330, which involves the application of the United States Sentencing Guidelines (”Guidelines”).
Note - Crack cocaine (hereinafter “crack“ 
is cocaine hydrochloride that is processed with baking soda to form of cocaine capable of [...]
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If any of you use RSS readers or depend on the internet for news related to your profession (or simply for enjoyment), you should be familiar with Netvibes. Netvibes is perhaps one of the more elegant and streamlined RSS readers out there. It’s been my intention to post a full review of the [...]
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Scott v. Harris, 127 S.Ct. 1769 (2007), involves a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action against a state police officer. Harris was involved in a high-speed chase, during which he was being chased by the police. Deputy Scott pulled Harris over by hitting the rear of his car, known [...]
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The Pentagon has freshly updated and made available to the public a cartload of Military Commissions materials. Earlier this month we noted that the site hadn’t been updated for several months. That’s been remedied. On the site are:
Rules of Practice for the Court of Military Commission and Review
After a very quick perusal, [...]
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The President yesterday signed an Executive Order, entitled “Interpretation of the Geneva Conventions Common Article 3 as Applied to a Program of Detention and Interrogation Operated by the Central Intelligence Agency.”
The White House Press release is HERE, and the full text of the Executive Order follows below my brief analysis.
Note that the Military Commissions Act [...]
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We reported earlier that Parker v. District of Columbia, 04-7041 (D.C.Cir, 9 Mar 2007), the D.C. Circuit Court that struck down parts of the 31-year old D.C. gun laws as unconstitutional, was headed to the Supreme Court.
Not surprisingly, today that became a reality. Although the petition was due August 7th, D.C. officials announced today [...]
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Some new developments.
1. First off, the Pentagon on Wednesday (July 4th) filed an appeal to reverse the commission judge’s dismissal and denial of reconsideration in the Khadr case, which we previously discussed HERE. I’m somewhat surprised, as most government offices weren’t open on the 4th. Despite the filing of the appeal, apparently [...]
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SCOTUS Detainee Cases
News on several fronts. Last Friday, June 29th, SCOTUS reversed its denial of cert in both the Boumediene v. Bush (06-1195) and Al Odah v. U.S. (06-1196) cases, saying :
The petitions for rehearing are granted. The orders entered April 2, 2007, denying the petitions for writs of certiorari are vacated. [...]
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Kudos to yojoe for airing his views, but as with my strong disagreement with the conclusions of Michael Moore’s Sicko, there’s often another way to skin a cat. While I find merit in yojoe’s conclusions, I’m not sure he’s taken the most virtuous route to that conclusion (and I ascribe no fault to him–but [...]
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SCOTUS handed down today its decision in the Federal Sentencing Guidelines case, Rita v. United States, No. 06-5754, holding 6-3 (J’s Scalia, Thomas, and Souter dissenting) that appellate courts may presume that sentences are reasonable (and holding 8-1 as to the issue I don’t discuss below, that the District Court properly analyzed the relevant sentencing [...]
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The 4th Circuit today released its opinion in Al-Marri v. Berman, No. 06-7427. Fuller analysis later, but here is the opinion. Until then, it’s the usual suspects–citation of Quirin, Ex Parte Milligan, etc. The opinion limits the habeas-stripping provisions of the Military Commissions Act (MCA), holding that “As an alien captured and [...]
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[UPDATE: On 29 June 2007, COL Brownback denied the government's reconsideration motion on the Khadr case. Story HERE.]
We’ve discussed both the Khadr and Hamdan cases previously here, here, and here, and just yesterday a very significant development has sprung itself on us. On Monday 4 Jun 07, the military judges of both cases (CAPT Keith [...]
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I took the Bar/Bri Bar Review course, as do far too many attorneys-to-be. Simply put, it costs far too much for what amounts to mere force-fed rote memorization of masses of answers to multiple choice questions.
As you likely know, there’s a settlement out there negotiated between the firm representing the class, McGuireWoods, and [...]
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Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal reported on the alarming news about the diabetes drug Avandia, which places users at a 43% increased risk of suffering a heart attack. I have a close relative on the drug, so it’s of immediate concern to me. More about the Avandia news here.
Dr. Steven Nissen of the Cleveland [...]
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