For the first time in nearly a decade, the U.S. Supreme Court on December 2 heard arguments on Second Amendment issues. In New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. City of New York, the state affiliate of the National Rifle Association and three New York City residents challenge regulations city police adopted banning licensed […]
Month: March 2020
Article: Google Cellphone Data May Tell Police if You Were by a Crime Scene
You probably regard your cellphone or smartphone as an invaluable communication tool. But, to their regret, some criminal defendants are learning the mobile phones they carry with them can communicate with police searching for suspects and tell them if they happened to have been near the scene of a crime around the time it was […]
Article: Circuit Court Casts Dubious Eye on Campus Speech Police
A federal appeals court stopped short of halting the activities of the University of Michigan’s Bias Response Team (BRT), but suggested such campus organizations might be unlawfully curbing students’ privileges, and instigating free speech rights violations. Last year, Speech First, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., sued the university in federal court, claiming it […]
Article: Blocked by One Court from Resuming Federal Executions, DOJ Tries Again
Last July, the Trump Department of Justice (DOJ) said it planned to end a lengthy hiatus on federal executions (the last occurred in 2003) and carry out death sentences on four convicted murderers of children. Attorney General William Barr also directed the Bureau of Prisons to use a single-drug lethal injection protocol using the sedative […]
Article: Upstate County Criminalizes Behavior to “Annoy” the Police
Being annoying won’t do much to advance your popularity or social life, but in one upstate county, New Yorkers might go to jail for being annoying — if a person they’re annoying is working for the police force or other public safety organization. Jailtime for Individuals Who Annoy Police Officers? In Monroe County, which includes […]