US Attorney General Eric Holder urged sentencing reform for crack cocaine Wednesday, calling for a review of disparities between sentencing guidelines for powder and crack. Addressing a symposium on federal sentencing policy hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus and Harvard Law School's Race and Justice Institute , Holder said that a "thorough review" of sentencing [...]
A Sudanese court on Wednesday convicted five men of the January 2008 murder of two US Agency for International Development (USAID) employees, sentencing four to death. Mohamed Makkawi Ibrahim Mohamed and Abdel Basit al-Hajj Hassan were found guilty of firing shots that killed USAID workers John Granville and Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama while they were returning [...]
The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled 5-4 in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts that a forensic analyst's laboratory report is testimonial evidence under the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment, giving criminal defendants a right to cross-examine the analysts. The Massachusetts Appeals Court held that the report was not testimonial in nature and could therefore be [...]
The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in Safford United School District #1 v. Redding that a strip search of a school student violated her Fourth Amendment rights but that school officials who conducted the search are protected from liability via qualified immunity. New Jersey v. T.L.O. sets forth that school searches are permissible "when [...]
The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled 5-4 in Atlantic Sounding v. Townsend that an injured seaman may recover punitive damages for the willful failure of his employer to pay a basic living allowance, wages that he otherwise would have earned, and benefits to cover medical expenses, known as "maintenance and cure." The US Court [...]
The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled 5-4 in Horne v. Flores and Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives v. Flores that the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit erred in declining to modify an injunction requiring Arizona to provide sufficient funding for its English Language Learners (ELL) program in order to [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld a Virginia law Wednesday that bans "partial birth" abortions , reversing previous rulings that found it unconstitutional. The appeals court initially affirmed the district court's ruling that the law was unconstitutional. Then, after the case was remanded by the US Supreme Court following their 2007 [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced indictments Wednesday against 53 health care providers and beneficiaries accused of submitting $50 million in fraudulent Medicare claims. The indictments, returned by a grand jury in Detroit, led to the arrest of suspects in Detroit, Miami, and Denver whom the government alleges billed the federal health care program [...]
Shackling techniques used by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet Security Agency (GSS) against Palestinian detainees are unjustifiably harsh and constitute torture, according to a report issued Wednesday by advocacy group Public Committee Against Torture in Israel . The group said that the IDF and GSS employ harsh shackling techniques regardless of security [...]
JURIST Guest Columnists Renée Landers of Suffolk University School of Law and Lawrence Friedman of New England School of Law say that unless US Presidents embrace a broader view of "diversity" in future Supreme Court nominations, they may deprive the public of justices who may see the world and the legal issues it presents differently [...]
