A week ago today, I sat in the gallery of the United States Supreme Court with twenty North Carolina district court judges listening to Chief Justice John Roberts announce the court’s opinion in Endrow v. Douglas County School District. The unanimous opinion, in which the court reversed the Tenth Circuit’s holding that a child’s Individual Education Plan (IEP) satisfies federal law as long as it is calculated to confer an educational benefit that is “merely more than de minimis” quickly became the topic of questioning later that morning in the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee and current Tenth Circuit Judge Neil Gorsuch. Listening to the Chief Justice explain the court’s reasoning was fascinating, and it was thrilling to have a bird’s eye view as the news traveled through the city and the nation. This experience was just one part of the North Carolina Judicial College’s inaugural Supreme Court Seminar for district…
District Court Judges Go to Washington
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"Too Stoned to Drive? The question is trickier than you’d think for police and the courts to answer."
The title of this post is the headline of this ABA Journal article appearing in the April 2017 issue. Here are excerpts: Massachusetts is one of eight states, plus the District of Columbia, where recreational marijuana use is now legal. Twenty more states have legalized medical marijuana. But science and...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/qePt57XtyUQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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An Homage To The Dead and Dying
Judge Richard Kopf does his listicle of observations of criminal defense lawyers based on his 25 years on the bench. Spoiler alert: he likes us, with some caveats. So if you heed his admonitions, will you achieve success, world hegemony maybe, or at least the probability of a comfortable middle-class existence as a successful and highly-competent criminal defense lawyer. Yeah, well, maybe, but maybe not. In a guest post that will bring a cringe to your face, Carolyn Elefant posts a marketeer’s brutally insipid crap which, per the blind squirrel theory, includes this paragraph. The numbers don’t lie in terms of what’s going on in the legal profession. In December of 2006 the U.S. legal services sector employed 1,161,400 people[i]. By December of 2016 that number was down to 1,126,100[ii]. So in ten years the profession lost 35,300 jobs. Guess what else the profession did during that time? It added 198,594 attorneys[iii]. Laws get changed all the time but those…
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Yet another serious study find link between medical marijuana reforms and reduced opioid problems
Regular readers might be getting a bit bored by regular posts here highlighting research showing reductions in opioid use and problems in states that have legalized medical marijuana. But, especially with the Trump Administration reportedly about to create a new commission to tackle opioid problems, I do not think the...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/19_cZFxrBD0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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Notable review of recent ups and downs in federal prosecutions
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President Trump, Gov. Abbott and the 'Disposables'
Might a Trump Administration pivot on the opiod crisis spur Gov. Greg Abbott to change his position on Texas' Good Samaritan legislation, which he vetoed in 2015? NBC-News reported this morning that:President Donald Trump is expected to launch a commission Wednesday to address the nation's growing opioid epidemic, according to sources familiar with the planning. Trump will sign an executive order setting up the commission, which will be tasked with outlining recommendations and federal resources to tackle the drug addiction that kills an estimated 78 people a day. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will serve as chairman of the commission at the president's request. "The opioid initiative is one that's incredibly important to every family in every corner of this country," Christie said Wednesday on TODAY from outside the White House. He said his state is grappling with a rise in the rate of drug overdose deaths, which have…
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Schock Team Alleges Massive DOJ Trashing of Speech and Debate Clause and Attorney-Client Privilege
Former Illinois Congressman Aaron Shock's attorneys filed two motions in federal court yesterday, alleging massive government misconduct in the investigation that led to their client's indictment on multiple misconduct and fraud related charges. The allegations center around the government's alleged...
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Girl Sexually Assaulted While at Least 40 People Watch Live on Facebook
On Tuesday, Chicago police reported that they were looking for five to six men who allegedly sexually assaulted a 15 year old girl, while it was being streamed live on Facebook. The teen had been missing since Sunday night. The girl’s mother had gone to the police on Monday and approached Sgt. Eddie Johnson as he was leaving a news conference, with a screenshot from the live video of the assault. The girl was then found by Chicago detectives on Tuesday. It is reported that dozens of people had watched the assault live on Facebook’s live feed but none reported the incident to police. The video has since been removed from the site. Continue reading →
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Self Defense and Stand Your Ground In Minnesota
When it comes to defending a person charged with a crime, there are a number of different avenues we choose to pursue. Sometimes we challenge aspects of due process, other times we challenge the officer’s version of events, and sometimes we state that our client was only acting in self-defense. An argument of self defense suggests that our client only committed their actions because the feared for their safety, the safety of others, or the safety of their property. However, as we learned with the Little Falls case, there are some limits to self defense. Just because a person commits a crime to you or your property does not mean you can use unreasonable force. In the Little Falls case, a man who had regularly had his house broken into laid in wait in his basement with a shotgun when he heard two teens enter his home. He killed the first teen when he descended the stairs, and he wounded the second when she did the same. Instead of calling the police, the homeowner…
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Arrested for Price Switching in Michigan is Retail Fraud
Retail fraud can be prosecuted under either State law or ordinances that are enacted by cities, townships, or villages. Under either State law or ordinances switching the price tag to obtain a cheaper price is prosecuted as retail fraud. How do people get caught committing this offense? Loss prevention sometimes observes an individual changing the price tag. Continue reading
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Utah Lowers Legal Limit for Drunk Driving
The state of Utah is plowing ahead with a huge change to their law dealing with operating under the influence (OUI). While all of the other states in the U.S. make it illegal to drive with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08% or above, Utah's new law would make it illegal to drive with a BAC of 0.05% or higher. Not only is it unlikely that the new law will prevent drunk driving crashes and save lives on the road, it will also infringe on many people's ability to enjoy themselves in a safe and responsible way. It may also have a net negative effect on the restaurant industry. Utah Adopts New OUI Law The bill managed to pass through Utah's state house and get signed by Governor Gary Herbert on March 23, 2017. The effect of Utah's new law on drunk driving is simple – it lowers the legal BAC limit for drivers in the state down to 0.05%, down from the 0.08% legal limit used by all the other states in the country. Safety Advocates Support the New Law The…
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California DUI Laws Are Strict For Those Holding A Commercial Driver’s License
DUI LAWS ARE STRICT FOR THOSE HOLDING A COMMERCIAL DRIVER’S LICENSE A big rig carrying a load of steel beams and a crane flipped over on the 101 near San Rafael this past week. The accident, which blocked three of the four lanes, happened at 8 a.m. during the height of rush hour on a Monday morning. Yes, big rigs flip over, our freeways get blocked, sometimes even during rush hour. But there was something striking about this accident: the driver of the big rig had a blood alcohol level at five times the legal limit for commercial drivers. At 8:00 in the morning! Now, that is frightening. Miraculously, no one was seriously injured or killed. The driver was booked on felony DUI charges and. If convicted, he will probably be searching for a new line of work once he serves his sentence. Although we normally think of the DUI blood alcohol content (BAC) threshold as .08%, for commercial-licensed drivers the limit is lower. Anyone who holds a commercial driver’s license is…
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Will Victims of Pulse Nightclub Shootings Prevail With Lawsuit?
THE ALLEGED FACTS The victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida are suing both the wife of the shooter and the shooter’s former employer. They accuse them of failing to prevent the abhorrent massacre. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in South Florida. The 57 victims, consisting of survivors and representatives of the deceased, allege that the security company that the shooter worked for knew of the comments Omar Mateen had made prior to the shootings that resulted in the tragic death of 49 club patrons and the injury of dozens more. Mateen allegedly bragged to a co-worker that he had ties to terrorists and a mass shooter. The law suit alleges that his employer, G4S Secure Solutions, should have immediately taken away his weapons and recommended that his firearms license be revoked. When investigated by both his employer and the FBI in 2013, he claimed that he only said those outrageous things so that his co-worker would stop teasing him about being…
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Can a Prior Drug Crime Conviction Be Used as Impeachment in an Illinois Domestic Battery Case?
A recent Illinois appeal involved a Domestic Battery. The defendant was acquitted of Aggravated Domestic Battery and unlawfully interfering with a report of Domestic Violence, but he was convicted of Domestic Battery under 720 ILCS 5/12-3.2(a)(1). The trial court denied his post-trial motion, and he was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He appealed on the grounds that the court had made a mistake in permitting the prosecution to impeach him with his felony Cannabis conviction. The case arose from allegations that the defendant knowingly caused harm to a woman by choking her after previously being convicted of a Domestic Battery. In addition to applying pressure to her throat, it was alleged that he stopped her normal breathing or blood circulation, and he knowingly stopped her from calling the police by taking her phone. Before trial, the defendant tried to stop the State from impeaching him by showing he had a prior Domestic Battery conviction and a felony Marijuana…
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In California it is Actually Illegal to Drive While Addicted
Most people know that in California, a person cannot drive with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent or more. Some know that, additionally, a person can be charged separately with “driving under the influence” if the officer observed facts that would lead a prosecutor to believe that the person couldn’t drive like a sober person regardless of their blood alcohol content. But few people, however, are aware of California’s least known DUI law. It is actually illegal in California to drive a vehicle while addicted to a drug. Under California Vehicle Code section 23152(c), “[i]t is unlawful for any person who is addicted to the use of any drug to drive a vehicle.” When I first learned that this law existed, I asked myself the same questions that you’re probably asking yourself right now: If an addict is not under the influence at the time of driving, how can still be prosecuted for a DUI? Shouldn’t the law only punish those who…
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¡VENEZUELA!
Estoy a favor del proyecto de las alimañas de FP y he expuesto mis razones. Acabo de ver y oir al Presidente de la Asamblea venezolana llamando a la insurgencia y al golpe sin tapujo ni ceremonia alguna, la prensa peruana que ha protestado contra la iniciativa de los robogresistas, desde hace muchísimo tiempo propala noticias de la República bolivariana sólo del interés de los que han perdido el poder, de la escasez de todo (producida y profundizada por los ricos representantes del poder), "el pueblo tiene hambre de alimentos" a viva voz el señor Jorge Borges declaraba en su discurso y muchos hambres más que no voy a detallar. El señor Borges estaba acompañado por menos de veinte personas todas de muy buen aspecto, bien gorditos incluso el barbón que estaba a su lado que levantaba las cejas muy seguido (un tic seguramente) al que he visto cuando reclamaba Corina Machado y el hoy…
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Lying By Cherry-Picking
There are many ways to misuse numbers to intentionally create a false impression in the mind of the reader. Such deception is morally no different than lying, in my view, even if one carefully avoids saying anything false. Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution has pointed out an exceptionally egregious example from the New York Times.The headline of the Times article is "Amid 'Trump Effect' Fear, 40% of Colleges See Dip in Foreign Applicants." The article states:Nearly 40 percent of colleges are reporting overall declines in applications from international students, according to a survey of 250 college and universities, released this week by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.The actual finding of the survey is "39% of responding institutions reported a decline in international applications, 35% reported an increase, and 26% reported no change in applicant numbers." That is a complete…
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Should anyone get excited about the new "Path to Marijuana Reform" bills just introduced in Congress?
The question in the title of this post was my first reaction to this big new Cannabist story headlined "Bipartisan 'Path to Marijuana Reform' bills introduced to decriminalize, protect, regulate cannabis industry." The piece has the subheadline "Three marijuana-related bills address issues such as taxation, banking, civil forfeiture, de-scheduling, decriminalization,...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/qByv4tIap6Q" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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Three good bills in CrimJur committee Monday
Looking at the agenda for Monday's Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, here are three items which merit Grits readers attention. (Not that there aren't other important bills up that day, these just jumped out at me as particularly noteworthy.)First, the big innocence-related bill of the year:HB 34 (Smithee) Relating to measures to prevent wrongful convictions. This bill came out of the Timothy Cole Exoneration Review Commission recommendations and is being carried by that group's chair. It requires tracking and disclosure of confidential informant arrangements, recording of custodial interrogations, and requires law enforcement agencies to adopt the model eyewitness ID policy created by Sam Houston State's Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT) instead of each coming up with their own. These are modest but important reforms, the most obvious next steps in the Legislature's decade-long, bipartisan effort to prevent false…
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Democracy Returns to the Senate
The New York Times has this editorial, with the above title. The NYT blasts the filibuster as an "undemocratic procedure" and the Senate's "most infuriating rule." It is "unthinkable," says the Times, that federal judges should be subject to supermajority requirements for confirmation.But the Constitution gives presidents the right to nominate top officials in their administration and name judges, and it says nothing about the ability of a Senate minority to stop them. (The practice barely existed before the 1970s.) From now on, voters will have to understand that presidents are likely to get their way on nominations if their party controls the Senate.Wait a minute ... This editorial is from 2013.Never mind.
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