As I sat in a Connecticut courtroom on Friday, the judge came out and issued the usual advisements: every defendant had the right to remain silent, the right to an attorney, the right to a jury trial, and the right to be treated with respect. A few minutes later, however, an additional and unusual advisement was issued from His Honor’s bench. And it wasn’t the first time I’ve heard this particular advisement in a Norwalk, Stamford or Bridgeport Connecticut criminal courtroom. It was the UNDERWEAR ADVISEMENT—that defendants did NOT have the right to appear before the court with their underwear sticking out. That they had to pull up their pants—in front and in back—and that if the judge saw anyone’s underwear sticking out, they would be held in contempt of court. Has it come really come to this? An underwear advisement? Of course it has, and here’s why… Someone Tell the President – Respect for the Judiciary Starts at…
Connecticut’s New Underwear Advisement in Criminal Courtrooms
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Top-Ten Recent SSRN Downloads in Criminal Procedure eJournal
are here. The usual disclaimers apply. Rank Downloads Paper Title 1 476 Judge Gorsuch and Johnson Resentencing (This is Not a Joke) Leah M. Litman University of California, Irvine School of Law Date posted to database: 24 Jan 2017 2...
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Michigan Driver’s License Restoration and Clearance Appeal Hearing Officers
In the context of a Michigan driver’s license restoration or clearance appeal, the most important person, by far, is the hearing officer that will be presiding over your case. In the prior article about the standard of proof in license reinstatement cases, we examined how the evidence must stack up, and the criteria the hearing officer uses to measure it. Since it ultimately is the hearing officer that will decide whether your evidence is “clear and convincing” (or not), it helps to more fully understand his or her function in the whole license appeal process. In this short article, we’ll return to a subject we have not visited for a while – the role of the hearing officer in license restoration and clearance appeal cases. Although this article stands on its own, I suggest first reading the prior article about the standard of proof, as this and the next article are intended as a kind of loose series. Many people who hire me…
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Levmore & Fagan on Semi-Confidential Settlements
Saul Levmore and Frank Fagan (University of Chicago Law School and EDHEC Business School) has posted Semi-Confidential Settlements in Civil, Criminal, and Sexual Assault Cases (103 Cornell Law Review, 2017 Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Settlement is more...
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DIARY OF A BUGGED PRESIDENT
Dear Diary... I'm bugged. No. I mean it. Obama bugged me. He had my phones at Trump Tower tapped. Intelligence services did it. They've been out to get me ever since I didn't give casino credit to that CIA guy in 1990 at Trump Casino in Atlantic City, which by the way, was the best casino in the United States. Fantastic casino. Nobody has ever seen a casino like that casino. Anyway...I know the Oval Office is bugged as well. Obama is doing it. I know it. Here's how: first- the speaker piece was loose when I got to the oval office. And it had a "Aloha from Hawaii" sticker on it. Very suspicious but he didn't fool me. No Kenyan can ever fool a red blooded american. Second, whenever I am on the phone- I sometimes hear someone else say "speak up" in whisper. Like the other day I was reading the riot act to the president of Brussels. "Don't try me" I yelled. "You're in bed with the Chinese on trade. I can…
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Vergnolle on International Legal Cooperation and Data Requests
Suzanne Vergnolle (Georgia Institute of Technology - Scheller College of Business) has posted Understanding the French Criminal Justice System as a Tool for Reforming International Legal Cooperation and Cross-Border Data Requests on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In an increasingly...
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Carrillo on Financial Intimate Partner Violence
Jo J. Carrillo (UC, Hastings College of the Law) has posted Financial Intimate Partner Violence: When Assets and Transactions Become Weapons (22:2 Domestic Violence Report 17 (2017)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Financial Intimate Partner Violence: When Assets and...
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Trump, Russia, Wiretaps and FISA
Donald Trump today (apparently parroting his favorite right wing website) accused President Obama of wiretapping his phones. A spokesman for Obama said the accusation was “simply false”. The unprecedented attack by a president on... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Criminal law & immigration – Keep state & local governments out of enforcing federal immigration law
Every time I visit a client in the Fairfax County, Virginia, jail evening lawyer visiting section, I cringe over the first of three booths, with a sign that it is reserved for ICE (immigration and customs enforcement) interviews. I cringe not because this means that sometimes I have to wait a good amount of time for one of the remaining booths to become free (because the ICE booths are not allowed for attorney-client meetings), but because state and local governments should leave immigration law enforcement in the hands of federal authorities. Of course, we have state and local politicians who salivate to help enforce immigration laws. We also have state and local governments (and hotels, for that matter) that salivate over the revenue from allowing their jails to be used for housing federal immigration detainees. Praised be such cities as Chicago who put their foot down against such nonsense (which for the first time gives has me praising its mayor, Rahm Emanuel).…
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"La cabeza de turco"
http://elcomercio.pe/politica/gobierno/fernando-zavala-plantea-medidas-correctivas-contra-procuradores-noticia-1973422Comenté hace dos meses -07-01-2017- el Decreto Legislativo que crea la Procuraduría General de la República /DL 1326) cuestioné entonces la famosa "independencia" de la que supuestamente gozaría, al crearse por el mismo Decreto Legislativo el Consejo Directivo: Artículo 14.- Consejo Directivo 14.1 El Consejo Directivo es el órgano colegiado de mayor nivel jerárquico de la Procuraduría General del Estado. Está integrado por tres (03) miembros que son designados mediante Resolución Suprema, refrendada por el/la Ministro/a de Justicia y Derechos Humanos. Su composición es la siguiente: a) El/la Procurador/a General del Estado, quien lo preside y además tiene voto dirimente. b) Un/a representante del Ministerio de Justicia y Derechos Humanos. …
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Jailed for Debt: The (Last?) Great Texas Warrant Roundup
If Rep. James White's HB 1125 - which forbids municipal courts and Justices of the Peace from issuing arrest warrants for fine-only offenses - were to become law, this annual foolishness would end:Jailing defendants for Class C misdemeanor fines is about revenue generation, not public safety. E.g., here's a recent story of a woman facing jail time for unpaid library fines in Victoria County. As Harris County DA Kim Ogg said this week in another context, "It makes no sense to spend public funds to house misdemeanor offenders in a high-security penal facility when the crimes themselves may not merit jail time. ... These secure beds and expensive resources should be prioritized for the truly dangerous offenders and 'flight risks' who need to be separated from the community."See a primer on debtors prison practices from the Marshall Project.
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Massachusetts Juvenile Convicted of Assault and Battery
In a recent Massachusetts appellate case, a juvenile was found delinquent on a charge of assault and battery. He appealed, arguing that the judge had made a mistake in denying his motion for a required finding of not guilty and requiring him to pay restitution when there was no causal link between the crime and the loss. The case arose out of an assault and battery. The juvenile claimed there wasn’t enough evidence to show that he’d pushed the victim or that he’d committed a joint venture, and none of the state’s witnesses identified him as a perpetrator. In order to convict him of assault and battery, the prosecutor was supposed to show beyond a reasonable doubt that he’d intentionally touched the victim in a harmful or offensive way without justification or excuse or that he’d wantonly engaged in conduct that resulted in an injury to somebody else. To prove a joint venture, the prosecution had to show beyond a reasonable…
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Ecuador Complains About State Dept. Human Rights and Drugs Reports
Breaking with yet another tradition, Donald Trump's Secretary of State couldn't be bothered to personally appear for the release of the State Department's annual report on human rights. “It’s just signaling a lack of... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Ecuador Takes a Stand Against Trump's Immigration Policy
Ecuador has launched a campaign against U.S. Immigration policies. It is providing consular assistance and wants Ecuadorians to know that they are not alone, no matter where they are. Here are some of the graphics, from the Ministry of Foreign... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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SNL Cold Opem: Jeff Sessions as Forrest Gump
This may be the best SNL cold open of the Trump season yet -- Kate McKinnon as Jeff Sessions -Forrest Gump. Mediaite has the video. "This is my best good friend Kelly Ann, she ain't got no legs....They don't let her talk any more. ... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Utah Bill to Lower Blood Alcohol Limit to 0.05 Moves Through House, Senate
As of February 2017, all U.S. states have a blood alcohol limit of 0.08 – but that could be changing in the near future. After passing the Utah House in a 48-26 vote, HB155, which would bring Utah’s current legal limit from 0.08 down to 0.05, earned a 4-2 vote from the Senate Transportation Committee. It will now be reviewed by the full State Senate. If the bill becomes law, HB155 could have a dramatic effect on the number of people arrested for DUI in Utah each year. Utah criminal defense lawyer, Darwin Overson, explains: Utah Could Become First State to Lower Legal Limit from 0.08 to 0.05 At first glance, lowering the legal limit from 0.08 to 0.05 seems like a bizarre legislative move. After all, no other state in the country has such a low limit, and moreover, the majority of Utah residents – as many as roughly 61% – already abstain from drinking as a tenet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Yet while the bill…
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What Is Bail and How Does It Work?
Many of the people who get arrested for a crime in New Hampshire every day have never been arrested before. Having never been thrown into the criminal justice system, these people do not fully know what to expect, beyond what they may have seen on TV shows or in the movies. Unfortunately, the media does not often portray the criminal justice system correctly, taking huge liberties to make things seem more dramatic than they really are. A common source of confusion for people who have never been arrested before is how bail works, and why it exists. How Bail Works When you get arrested in New Hampshire, you will be taken to the police station for the booking process. This involves the police taking record of your personal information, like your name, address, and details about why you were arrested. You will have your fingerprints taken, your belongings confiscated, and be brought to a holding cell or the local jail, to await your arraignment and trial. To get out of jail before…
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A Quick Rumination On America
Having spent the past week driving from San Francisco to New York, meeting and listening to those deplorables wearing John Deere baseball caps and working in unsavory jobs that are necessary to keeping a nation functioning, I learned some things. They’re just like you. They care about their family, their country, the downtrodden and the marginalized. They care about hard work, honesty and integrity. They want everyone to do well, to be well, to thrive. They are smart and stupid, concerned and confused. They are just like you. They just see different answers to the problems. If we could accept the premise that people can differ as to how best to address problems, rather than pigeonhole everyone as good and evil, we might be able to fix things rather than waste all our energy hating each other. They’re just like you. And me. And us. Copyright © 2007-2017 Simple Justice NY, LLC This feed is for personal, non-commercial and Newstex use only. The use of this feed…
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The Executive Order on WOTUS – A Follow-Up
On February 28, 2017, the White House issued the Executive Order (“EO”) entitled “Restoring the Rule of Law, Federalism, and Economic Growth by reviewing the "Waters of the United States" Rule.” The EO took aim at the 2015 Army Corps of Engineers' rule (80 Fed. Reg. 37054 (June 29, 2015)) that published the “Waters of the United States” (“WOTUS”) rule that is the subject of the EO. First, a little bit of history and context. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act was enacted in 1948 and has been amended several times since and in 1972 was amended again and became known as the Clean Water Act. The CWA regulates discharges to “navigable waters.” The navigable waters are defined as the “waters of the United States” (“WOTUS”). The first definition of WOTUS (regulations promulgated in 1975) defined WOTUS to include “navigable waters” as…
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An Uphill Battle for Money to Battle Human Trafficking
Have you seen the recent video of Ashton Kutcher speaking at a Senate hearing? For many who only know him as the star of That’s 70s Show or Punk’d, seeing him speaking in a serious tone before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee may seem a little strange. However, it only takes a few minutes watching the video to know Kutcher is dedicated to a real life issue that tragically impacts hundreds of thousands of lives each year. That issue is human sex trafficking. Why was Kutcher testifying before that Senate hearing? Because he’s the co-founder of Thorn, a task force of companies that use technology to fight human trafficking, and Thorn needs more money to continue its work. In other words, he was testifying at the Senate hearing to ask lawmakers to fund the work Thorn and similar companies are doing to end slavery around the world. The Kutcher video was shared on Facebook and through other forms of social media, partially due to…
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