People 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 […]
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LA 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 […]
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Follow-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 […]
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NE 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 […]
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Chicago 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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Limits on Fiduciary Duties: Wherefore Art Thou?
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting en banc, recently decided a fraud case holding that a person may commit federal fraud and face imprisonment for breaching a broadly-defined fiduciary duty to a contractual business partner. This holding arises under the “honest services” fraud statute, presuming the breaching party also has a specific intent to […]
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California Attorney General Releases Medical Marijuana “Guidelines”
The California Attorney General has issued a strange and interesting set of “guidelines” (pdf) around medical marijuana, a document whose legal significance would seem to be totally unclear. These guidelines are actually required by statute (H& S 11362.81 but they are coming at a time when the medical marijuana law is real, seriously unsettled as […]
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Decriminalization: End of War on Drugs?
An even question might be, have we actually lost the very expensive war on drugs which started way back in 1971 when Nixon was still President. Two states, Washington and Colorado, have made it legal to use recreational marijuana. Not all of the supporters of these laws were stoners and dealers, actually even some in […]
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Cardinal Egan Under Fire
Secret court documents reveal that New York Cardinal Edward Egan, while serving as bishop of the Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocese, allowed several priests facing multiple accusations of sexual abuse to continue working for years. Egan failed to investigate aggressively some abuse allegations, did not refer complaints to criminal authorities and, during closed testimony in 1999, […]
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