“In an amicus brief filed Monday, the ABA urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reaffirm that counsel representing habeas petitioners should be able to investigate new evidence without first proving that the evidence will provide relief to their clients. “Counsel is obliged to conduct adequate investigations at each stage of Read more…
” “The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear challenges to mandatory state bar associations in Michigan, Oklahoma and Texas. Three federal appeals courts had upheld state bars’ right to collect mandatory bar dues last year, “although the victories for Texas’ and Oklahoma’s bars were not complete,” according to Law360. Read more…
“The New York state court system has fired 103 employees and banned four judges from courthouses for refusing to comply with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. One of the four judges is Judge Jenny Rivera of the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s top court, courts spokesperson Lucian Chalfen confirmed Read more…
“The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday scheduled a Jan. 7 special hearing to consider federal vaccine mandates in larger workplaces and in health care settings that receive federal funds. The high court ordered additional briefing by Dec. 30 and set the oral arguments for the Friday before its next week Read more…
“A Colorado district attorney is seeking reconsideration of a 110-year sentence for a truck driver convicted for a 2019 crash that killed four people after his brakes failed. The driver, 26-year-old Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, was sentenced under a Colorado law that requires sentences for crimes of violence to run consecutively, rather Read more…
“Nearly 60 years after the U.S. Supreme Court established a key First Amendment precedent protecting protesters’ rights, the freedom to assemble and the right to protest have once again been called into question. On March 2, 1961, a young James Clyburn and nearly 200 other young African Americans marched from Read more…
“The New York law firm Siri & Glimstad is fighting mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations with litigation and warning letters dispatched to schools and employers. The Washington Post has a story on Siri & Glimstad’s efforts and arguments—partly funded by the Informed Consent Action Network, a Texas-based nonprofit group fighting mandatory vaccines. Even before Read more…
“ More than 60 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state of Alabama could not require the NAACP to disclose its membership list. In NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson, the court unanimously held that the civil rights organization had shown that disclosure of its members in the Read more…
“A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has set aside a nationwide eviction moratorium that was set to expire June 30. U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich of the District of Columbia ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not have the authority under federal law to impose Read more…
“ In America, the people are sovereign and straightjacketed. Faced with a problem — passing, like a pandemic, or persistent, like poverty — they can call on their government to answer it. But, when they act, courts can tell them they’ve overstepped their Constitution’s grant of powers. Recently, several federal district Read more…