About half an hour ago I commented on a federal appeals decision in Maryland to one of my friends. (“To be sure, Montgomery County is entitled to believe that pregnancy is first and foremost a medical condition, but it may not compel unwilling speakers to express that view,” Niemeyer wrote.) "Since when is pregnancy not a medical condition? Is ( Read more... )

The other week the Supreme Court threw out a patent on a method of monitoring a drug's effect on patients to determine dosage. The court decided that this was essentially patenting a law of nature, which is illegal. There's the usual scare talk from biotech firms about how this will "stifle innovation," because of course they can see their gravy ( Read more... )

Lawsuit on application of 2nd Amendment to the states:
In a newly filed lawsuit in federal court in Chicago, two gun rights organizations and four individuals asked that the Second Amendment be extended to block strict gun laws at the state and local level. The Second Amendment right,” the complaint contended, “is incorporated as against the ( Read more... )

I'm going to try to keep this brief, cuz I DO have work to do. ;)

The decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana says that you can't impose the death penalty without death AND intent to kill, thus firmly restricting the use of the death penalty to murder cases. The seminal death penalty case over the past few decades has been Coker v. Georgia which ruled ( Read more... )

If any of you were quietly doubting the "30 released Guantanimo detainees have returned to the battlefield" narrative but didn't know how to prove it was bs: Obsidian Wings to the rescue.

From Seton Hall Law Center's research:
"Extending to the Government the benefit of the doubt as to ambiguous cases, the list of possible Guantánamo recidivists ( Read more... )

The Supreme Court has ruled that people held prisoner by the US government have a Constitutional right to habeas corpus, regardless of who they are or where they are held.

A straightforward explanation of the high points from hilzoy at Obsidian Wings. To clarify: no one has actually been freed, but the Court has said that prisoners have the right ( Read more... )

(Thanks to caffeinatedalex for the heads up on this one...I generally only check the news in the morning.)

I have not in fact read the decision in Hamdan, and I know it's not a perfect decision, but what I'm seeing on Scotus looks pretty damn good:
1. That the President's conduct is subject to the limitations of statute and treaty (see, e.g., footnote 23, and ( Read more... )

So now we don't have a knock and announce protection any more. (Brief background: the "knock and announce" rule requires that police who are entering your home pursuant to a warrant are required to knock and announce themselves. It gives you a chance to put some pants on and open the door so the police can kick it down. It also identifies these ( Read more... )

The Supreme Court won't hear the Padilla case again. Nice. So, now the Bush administration can go on claiming that its decisions to hold American citizens without their constitutional rights are justified, in the same way that makers of an unapproved drug that's never had a clinical trial can claim nothing has been proven more effective. But I ( Read more... )

I suppose it was inevitible- South Dakota is very close to passing an abortion ban that they wrote for the express purpose of challenging Roe v. Wade in the new Supreme Court. Yippee. (See also: SCOTUS) On the strategy side, this could easily fizzle out...but only if we assume that Stevens doesn't die (an option SD is openly stating that they ( Read more... )