The US Trustee filed a complaint against Countrywide on February 28, 2008 alleging various abusive and improper conduct in a particular chapter 13 case in Atlanta. The complaint alleges that Countrywide filed two motions for relief that it ultimately withdrew because the debtor was not in fact late, it added unsubstantiated charges to its claim, […]
READ MOREInside Traders Beware: Sentencing Commission Pushing for Much Harsher Penalties
In the wake of recent Wall Street scandals and the growing perception of corruption within the financial industry, the federal government is taking dead aim at insider trading. Within the last few years, we have seen the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act and a series of highly publicized insider trading prosecutions, including the one resulting […]
READ MOREPredicting Dangerousness and Flipping Coins
On April 20, NPR’s Morning Edition broadcast an interview with Phillip Merideth, “a forensic psychiatrist and the chief medical office for Brentwood Behavioral Healthcare in Mississippi [and] a lawyer who teaches about mental health and the law.” According to Dr. Merideth, “[p]sychiatric literature in the past has shown that efforts to predict — and I’m […]
READ MOREArrests Rise, Prisons Empty?
The biggest observation over the last few years is that the crime rate in New York City has fallen. Unbelievably, the New York Post reports that aggressive policing can also lower prison population. This certainly does not seem obvious, but studies have shown that New York State’s prison population has fallen and yet we’ve all […]
READ MOREPeople v. Ward: Due Process and Equal Protection Challenge to California Crack
The disparity between the treatment of powder and crack cocaine under California criminal law does not violate principles of due process or equal protection, the Second District Court of Appeal held 10/1/08 in People v. Ward, B200354. The defendant in Ward argued that the sentencing disparity violated substantive due process and equal protection principles because […]
READ MORELA Times on the SSDP Lawsuit
The LA Times ran a rather frustrating editorial this weekend on the ACLU and Students for Sensible Drug Policy’s lawsuit challenging the denial of federal financial aid to individuals with drug convictions. The last three graphs, in particular, left me scratching my head The ACLU is going down the wrong path with a lawsuit against […]
READ MOREFollow-up on 911 calls as “non-testimonial”
I spoke to Louis Turchirelli, who was the lawyer on Pitts v. State, which I wrote a post on recently. I asked him if he was going to take the case up on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. He advised me that there was a similar case pending already. I went to the Supreme Court […]
READ MOREPhoto of trained child with gun prompts police visit to N.J. home
Facebook Image Prompts NJ Raid by Cops and Child Services Take an overreaching child and family services agency add in an overly aggressive police department, and you have the ingredients for a disaster. When Shawn Moore took a photo of his 11-year old son holding his birthday present, a .22 caliber tactical rifle, he never […]
READ MORENE Georgia Men Accused Ricin Plot Convicted
We had previously cited the trial of Samuel Crump and Ray Adams in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Gainesville on charges relating to a plot to attack government facilities and officials with the toxin ricin. As reported in the Gwinnett Daily Post and elsewhere, on Friday Crump and Adams were convicted […]
READ MOREChicago police chief: Law-abiding gun owners corrupt, endanger public safety
Do Stricter Gun Laws Help In March 2013, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said, “Law abiding gun owners to lobby elected officials through the NRA and the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) are corrupt and endanger people’s security.” McCarthy continued and said justices and lawmakers need to lean on public sentiment surveys when rendering the […]
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