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ANTONIN SCALIA DEAD AT 79

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It has been confirmed the Justice Antonin Scalia is dead at age 79.  He apparently died of natural accuses while attending a function in Texas.  He was last seen at dinner and when he did not appear for breakfast organizers looked in his room and found him deceased.Although many of us disagree with his views, one must honor his service to his country.Site Feed

Justice Antonin Scalia Will Be Remembered

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My old pal Mike from the train used to tell me stories of Nino Scalia, cadet captain, from high school where he was a year behind. It was a Catholic military school, and Mike was Irish. The Irish kids and the Italian kids were always trying to show each other who was “better.” Kids are like that. They hold their identities dear. Too dear. Some of the stories were funny. Some were about how Nino Scalia was a very tough kid, unyielding in his power over other cadets. All were about a person, a human being. It’s hard to hate a person when they become real rather than a cartoon character, a one-dimensional cutout that can be characterized simply as good or evil. I had the benefit of hearing Mike’s stories. Nino Scalia became a person to me, even though I never met him nor had much chance of hanging out with him to find out for myself. Justice Scalia wrote decisions that I consider horrible. He also wrote opinions like Crawford, Johnson, Jones,…

The Fetish of 149

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The number for 2015 was 149. If that was out of 150, it would be a hugely significant number. But it’s out of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands. Suddenly, 149 doesn’t seem like that big a deal. In 2015, 149 people convicted of crimes large and small — from capital murder to burglary — were exonerated. It is the highest yearly total since this grim form of record-keeping began, in 1989. In that time, there have been at least 1,733 exonerations across the country, and the pace keeps picking up. On average, about three convicted people are now exonerated of their crimes every week, according to the annual report of the National Registry of Exonerations. The registry defines an exoneration as a case in which someone convicted of a crime is cleared of all charges based on new evidence of innocence. If there was someone with any gravitas asserting that our legal system was perfect, this would be significant.  But no one does. Even…

My Body, My Rights, My Call for Respect

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By Katie Bellamy Mitchell, Identity and Discrimination Unit Intern This February 14th, I’ll spend Valentine’s Day with people I love. And when I say I love them — my friends and family ­— I mean I value them. I mean I have decided my life is better when they are a part of it. It’s easy to take for granted, yet people around the world are denied the right to decide the people they share their lives with—even denied the right to make decisions over their own bodies. They are forced to accept others’ decisions about their healthcare, their sexual orientation, and whether they get married or have children. To live, love, and make decisions free from coercion and threat of violence is a human right. Love is a decision that always means respect: for my body, for my rights, and for the bodies and rights of others. Love means being free to choose my partner. I have the right to choose whom I love. This means deciding who I want to spend…

Did any real chance of federal statutory sentencing reform in 2016 die along with Justice Scalia?

Lanes Blocked on I-15

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IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE - generated by our News Release ListServer DO NOT REPLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Idaho State Police District 5 5205 South 5th Ave. Pocatello, Idaho 83204-2299 (208) 236-6466 FAX: (208) 236-6068 For Immediate Release: 02/14/16 10:23 a.m. Please direct questions to the District Office Idaho State Police is currently investigating a property damage crash southbound I-15 at the 62 mile marker. Both lanes are blocked at this time. Updates will be sent out as soon they become available. NG /SA -------------

The Next Justice and the Great Question

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Bill noted yesterday the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia.  His passing is a great loss to the country and the Constitution.The Great Question of constitutional law is not hard to state.  Is the Constitution a contract between the people and their government, with the power to change its terms reserved to the people, or is it an empty vessel for five unelected, unaccountable justices to pour their policy preferences into?Legitimate judicial review is to prevent the legislature from crossing a line that the people wrote into the Constitution.  Illegitimate judicial review is creating lines that the people did not write into the Constitution, striking down laws enacted by the people's representatives or by the people themselves on a pretense that they violate the Constitution but actually just because the judges disagree with the people -- "substitute their own pleasure to the constitutional intentions of the legislature," as Hamilton put it in…

***Update*** Lane Blockage on I-15

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IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE - generated by our News Release ListServer DO NOT REPLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Idaho State Police District 5 5205 South 5th Ave. Pocatello, Idaho 83204-2299 (208) 236-6466 FAX: (208) 236-6068 For Immediate Release: 02/14/16 11:36 a.m. Please direct questions to the District Office *****UPDATE************ Both lanes of travel are now open. *****END OF UPDATE***** Idaho State Police is currently investigating a property damage crash southbound I-15 at the 62 mile marker. Both lanes are blocked at this time. Updates will be sent out as soon they become available. NG /SA -------------

A First-Hand Appreciation of Justice Scalia

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CNN broadcast an appreciation of Justice Scalia by the first clerk he selected to go with him to the Supreme Court, my wife, the Hon. Lee Liberman Otis.  The broadcast of the telephone interview is here.As Lee notes, Scalia did not mince words, with colleagues on the Court or with clerks.  He was a New Yorker through and through.  But he was a warm and gracious man, and unfailingly friendly to me, although I had never worked at the Court or presented an argument there.  His death is a loss to the country and to law itself.I have started to see debates about whether Scalia was "pro-defendant" or "anti-defendant."  Such debates miss the point of his jurisprudence.  It was not about the litigant; it was, as Lee says, about the law, and getting it right under the law.  That was the lodestar for him.  Indeed, I don't think it's an exaggeration to say it was the only thing he cared about. I will share one…

Watch What You Say Online or Be Sued

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A  divorce  lawyer in Florida was awarded $350,000 in punitive damages for false statements made by a former client who was unhappy with the services she received from her lawyer. Both the client and her ex-husband  posted comments on multiple websites which read: “This lawyer represented me in my divorce. She was combative and explosive and took my divorce to a level of anger which caused major suffering of my minor children. She insisted I was an emotionally abused wife who couldn’t make rational decisions which caused my case to drag on in the system for a year and a half so her FEES would continue to multiply!! She misrepresented her fees with regards to the contract I initially signed. The contract she submitted to the courts for her fees were 4 times her original quote and pages of the original had been exchanged to support her claims, only the signature page was the same. Shame on me that I did not have an original copy, but like an idiot . . .…

***Final Update*** Lane Blockage on I-15

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IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE - generated by our News Release ListServer DO NOT REPLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Idaho State Police District 5 5205 South 5th Ave. Pocatello, Idaho 83204-2299 (208) 236-6466 FAX: (208) 236-6068 For Immediate Release: 02/14/16 12:24 p.m. Please direct questions to the District Office *****FINAL UPDATE************ On Sunday, February 14, 2016, at approximately 10:00 a.m. Idaho State Police investigated a jackknifed semi-truck south of Pocatello on Interstate 15. Driver Sean Mullins, 48, of Magna, Utah was travelling southbound in a 2013 Freightliner pulling an empty trailer, when he lost control of the vehicle near milepost 63. The semi-truck jackknifed, coming to a stop on the median side of the interstate, blocking the left southbound lane of travel. Both lanes were blocked for approximately one and a half hours while the crash site was cleared. Mullins was wearing a seatbelt. This crash is…

In (sentencing) memorium: why I am already missing Justice Scalia

Sharon Runner Introduces Legislation Requiring Department of Corrections to Obey Jessica's Law

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2-14-16 California: SACRAMENTO – Senator Sharon Runner (R-Antelope Valley) announced today she is authoring legislation that will stop the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) from allowing convicted sex offenders to live near parks and grade schools. Senate Bill 1021 will require CDCR to enforce the voter approved sex offender residency restriction under Jessica’s Law

Crash on SH-39

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IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE - generated by our News Release ListServer DO NOT REPLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Idaho State Police District 5 5205 South 5th Ave. Pocatello, Idaho 83204-2299 (208) 236-6466 FAX: (208) 236-6068 For Immediate Release: 02/14/16 12:42 p.m. Please direct questions to the District Office The Idaho State Police is currently investigating an unknown injury crash southbound SH-39 at mile marker 17. There is blockage, unknown to what extent. Updates will be given as they become available. NG /SA -------------

Clarity on Statute of Limitations Issue

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There are several common themes we defense attorneys hear all the time.  First, everyone thinks that their case should be dismissed because “the cops didn’t read me my rights”.  I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but cops are not required to read everyone Miranda warnings.   The second favorite reason for dismissal is the statute of limitations.  Every time the police don’t arrest someone immediately, citizens assume the case must be thrown out under the statute of limitations.  Now, for those of you who aren’t familiar with this concept, the Florida law imposes a statutory deadline on prosecutors, forcing them to begin their prosecutions within a certain amount of time.  [The statute of limitations is found in Florida Statute Section 775.15] As a general rule, all second and third degree felony cases must begin within three years.  The period begins when the offense is committed, and…

Prognosticating SCOTUS possibilities in light of existing politics

SOME LONG HELD THOUGHTS ON JUSTICE SCALIA AND THE APPOINTMENT OF A NEW JUSTICE

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Two borrow a quote from  Justice Scalia, many judges come to the court as a wolf in sheep's clothing. Judge Scalia came to the court as a Wolf in Wolf's clothing. Our main fault with Justice Scalia is his long held philosophy that he is (using his own description)  a "weak originalist." In explaining this definition he gave himself, Scalia said he was an originalist in interpreting the Constitution right up to the point where following his philosophy would make him look "like a nut." As he then explained, "I am not a nut." One cannot have a philosophy only when it is convenient. It either works and its adherents are consistent, or it does not. No he was not a nut. But more troubling, he was not intellectually consistent. Scalia championed the originalist philosophy of interpreting the constitution so that there would be an intellectual basis for decisions now, and decades from now. Scalia, properly so, didn't want…

*FINAL UPDATE* Crash on SH-39

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IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE - generated by our News Release ListServer DO NOT REPLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Idaho State Police District 5 5205 South 5th Ave. Pocatello, Idaho 83204-2299 (208) 236-6466 FAX: (208) 236-6068 For Immediate Release: 02/14/16 02:30 p.m. Please direct questions to the District Office ****UPDATE************ All lanes of travel are now open. This crash is now being investigated by Bingham County Sheriff's Office. NG/SA ****END OF UPDATE***** The Idaho State Police is currently investigating an unknown injury crash southbound SH-39 at mile marker 17. There is blockage, unknown to what extent. Updates will be given as they become available. NG /SA -------------

Do I Need A Lawyer For A DUI In New Jersey?

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Whether you need a lawyer depends on your goals for your case. Defeating a DUI charge in New Jersey isn’t easy, and while you won’t walk away with a criminal record if convicted, you will lose your driver’s license, pay substantial fees and fines, and possibly face incarceration. If these are acceptable risks to you, you do not need an attorney for your DUI case. If you would like to try to defeat the charges against you, or minimize the penalties you’ll face if convicted, then working with an experienced DUI attorney can make a big difference. You may be able to leave the courthouse with a clean driving record and face no penalties at all. Prosecutors may be persuaded to drop the case against you before you even get to court. When you work with an experienced lawyer, your odds of finding a solution that protects your interests goes up considerably. Matthew Reisig has helped more than 1,000 New Jersey drivers avoid conviction on DUI charges. Call…

How Can I Stay Out Of Jail After An Arrest For DUI In New Jersey?

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While jail time isn’t a given in a DUI prosecution in New Jersey, it is possible. This is especially true if you’ve had previous convictions or other problems with the law. The best way to minimize your exposure to penalties like a jail sentence is to work with an experienced New Jersey DUI attorney to defend yourself against the charges. The good news is that every DUI case has defenses available, and that your situation might be resolved without the case even going forward. The specific facts of your case and the charges against you will determine the best approach to your defense. Matthew Reisig has been protecting drivers against DUI charges for almost 20 years, and has helped more than 1,000 avoid conviction. If you’ve been charged with DUI in New Jersey, call 732-625-9660 today for a free consultation with an experienced New Jersey DUI lawyer.
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