Recent Blog Posts
U.S. Supreme Court Hears & Decides On Crucial Immigration Prosecution & Civil Rights Cases
The Supreme Court has already had a busy month, just in the first few days of March: The Court decided to override federal law and allow the states to take over a certain amount of criminal prosecution of illegal immigrants concerning work authorization issues and, in a potentially historic case, also heard arguments concerning… Read More »
U.S. Supreme Court to Consider Important Fourth Amendment Case Involving Whether Shooting a Suspect Is A “Seizure”
The US Supreme Court is currently considering an important Fourth Amendment issue for the first time in the Torres v. Madrid case: Whether shooting a fleeing suspect counts as seizure, triggering Fourth Amendment requirements, if the suspect still manages to get away. Previously, the Court decided that once police physically touched a suspect, it… Read More »
New Jersey Appellate Division Ruling Finding That Driver Can Be Charged with DWI Even Though He Was Not Driving Is of Serious Concern for Defense
A recent New Jersey Appellate Division ruling regarding charging a driver with drunk driving if they are parked, asleep, with the engine running, but show no intent of driving away has a number of defense attorneys and advocates concerned, as it changes long-standing precedent and contradicts the prevailing state Supreme Court ruling concerning what… Read More »
Although “Legal” At The State Level, Medical Marijuana Still Faces Some Legal Troubles
While state after state, including New York, moves to decriminalize marijuana, the substance unfortunately remains a Schedule I drug under federal law. While this remains an obvious issue for recreational use, it has been less of an issue when it comes to medical marijuana due to a provision passed by Congress called the Rohrabacher-Farr… Read More »
How Online Searches & Texting Has Landed Some Seeking Abortions in Jail
An important article was recently published by Fast Company highlighting how the internet has both helped women obtain access to medical abortion, while also criminalizing and punishing them for the practice at the same time; largely due to how quickly some states are diverging from Roe v. Wade in their criminal abortion laws. While… Read More »
New York City Is On the Verge of Severely Penalizing Red Light and Speeding Camera Violations with Potential Vehicle Impoundment
New York City Council is currently contemplating taking extreme measures in response to what has been described as rampant traffic violations and reckless driving in the city which has led to a number of injuries and deaths. According to a preliminary study by the University of Chicago and New York City Transportation Department, vehicles… Read More »
Fate of Marijuana Decriminalization In New York Remains Unclear, Even as Gov. Cuomo Releases Plan
While last year, New York did decriminalize the possession of certain small amounts of marijuana and launched a process to expunge the records of many who have been convicted of low-level possession crimes, the law still left a number of individuals targeted for arrests. Specifically, Blacks and Latinos continue to be arrested and sent… Read More »
ICE Arrests 115 People in New Jersey Claiming They Are Criminals but Move May Instead Be Punishment for Immigrant Trust Directive
In late January and early February, immigration officials arrested over 100 foreign nationals across the state of New Jersey from 23 different African, European, and South American countries, claiming that they had criminal histories. Specifically, the statement released by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claims that 84 percent had prior criminal convictions that… Read More »
Where Privacy Laws Can Exacerbate Criminal Injustice Issues and Lead to Wrongful Convictions
While there is no question that a significant amount of data gathered and stored by network providers has spurred concern about protecting privacy, at the same time, recently proposed data privacy laws could very well make it more difficult for those who have been wrongly accused to obtain digital records critical to proving that… Read More »
Report Reveals Government Using Foreign Spying Exemptions for Routine Domestic Criminal Investigations & Making Too Many Mistakes Along the Way
Years ago, Congress provided the executive branch with very particular and somewhat unlimited surveillance powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, in order to enable them to track down foreign spies in the United States. FISA allows the government to ask the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for approval to wiretap people to… Read More »
