One year ago, I linked to coverage of the claim by Attorney General Mukasey that making federal crack sentencing reforms retroactive would cause “a sudden influx of cri minals from federal prison into your communities that could lead to a surge in new victims with a tragic but predictable result.” Hillary Clinton, it’s worth remembering, […]
READ MOREFirst Circuit on Innocuous Explanations for Conspiracy
Here is today’s opinion from the First Circuit in U.S. v. Ortiz(No. 05-1718), a case having to do with conspiracy charges filed against a guy who was driving around individuals involved in a drug deal and letting the dealers use his phone. In terms of drug law, I’m not sure that there’s much to it other […]
READ MOREHow To Avoid Facebook Dating Scams
If you want to avoid falling victim to Facebook dating scams, you need to learn how to spot the signs that the man you have met is actually a love rat. Many emotional con men deliberately target women over 40through social networking sites but a few simple precautions can ensure you don’t end up falling […]
READ MOREKentucky Places Tough Restrictions on Out-of-State Pharmacies
Holy commerce clause, Batman! Kentucky has just approved “a beefed-up application for out-of-state prescription drug suppliers that authorities say will help them track and catch companies selling pills to Kentucky’s black market,” according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. Constitutionally problematic? Perhaps not, given that the regulating health and safety is a core state interest. But it […]
READ MOREHarvard Law Review Speech Code Comment Ignites FIRE-storm
At issue, an April 2009 Harvard Law Review comment which argues that DeJohn v. Temple University, 537 F.3d 301 (3d Cir. 2008), the most recent and leading federal court of appeals precedent to strike down a campus speech code, was decided incorrectly. Members of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, take the student author and Harvard […]
READ MOREWhitehouse.gov Expresses Support for Removing Ban on Federal Funding for Needle Exchange, Calls for the Crack-Powder Disparity to Be “Completely Eliminated”
Transform notes an important detail on the just-revamped White House website: a reference on the “Civil Rights” page to the fact that Obama “supports lifting the federal ban on needle exchange, which could dramatically reduce rates of infection among drug users.” Also notable: the page expresses support for drug courts, calls for an end to […]
READ MORETechnology for Lawyers
As the chair of the local bar’s computer and technology committee, I often get questions about computers, software and other things. Here are a few of my recommendations for the trial lawyer. Computer – I would go with a lightweight laptop over about anything. Portability is key. I use a Dell Latitude D400. Although, if you […]
READ MOREUnited States v. Dallman: Ninth Circuit on Drug Quantities and Sentencing
A federal trial court did not err in attributing 142 pounds of marijuana to one man for purposes of sentencing, even though the marijuana was actually carried by three men in the commission of the crime, a Ninth Circuit panel held Monday in United States v. Dallman, No. 05-30349. The defendant in Dallman was convicted of […]
READ MOREReuters: DEA Using NSA Intelligence For Drug Investigations
I’ve stayed away from writing about privacy and the NSA, mostly because I have mixed feelings about the government collecting massive amounts of metadata for terrorism investigations. I can understand the concept of having a haystack in order to find the needle. That doesn’t mean I was comfortable with the idea. Then there were other […]
READ MOREJustice Souter on Criminal Law, Part II
Our summary retrospective of Justice Souter’s contributions to the Supreme Court’s criminal law jurisprudence continues. In addition to writing for the majority in many important criminal decisions, Justice Souter has authored concurring decisions in many cases, including criminal cases. While the Justice’s concurrences in criminal cases have typically been brief, Justice Souter has frequently raised […]
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