NPR
1,000 people have been charged for the Capitol riot. Here’s where their cases stand
More than two years after rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, prosecutors have now charged more than 1,000 people in relation to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
These hundreds of people encompass “the most wide-ranging investigation” in the history of the Justice Department. NPR has been tracking every case related to the attack as they move through the court system, from the initial arrest to sentencing.
The Courier Journal
Nine boys expelled from St. Xavier High School after THC and weapon found
Nine students have been expelled from Louisville’s St. Xavier High School after an internal investigation found THC, a compound produced by marijuana plants, and a weapon in a car belonging to one of the students parked off campus.
In a message to parents, school president Paul Colistra and Principal Amy Sample said they reported the incident to police and are cooperating with law enforcement to ensure the safety of students and faculty.
New York Times
Shortly after a prop gun Alec Baldwin was holding fired a bullet that killed a cinematographer and wounded a director on the set of the movie “Rust,” in October 2021, he told the police in New Mexico that he’d be willing to do whatever they requested, including sitting for an interview at the station.
In an interrogation room later that afternoon, detectives began by informing Baldwin of his rights: He had the right to remain silent. Anything he said could be used against him in court. He was free to consult with an attorney; if he could not afford an attorney, one would be appointed for him. And he could stop the interrogation at any point he wished.
“My only question is, am I being charged with something?” Baldwin asked.
Not at all, the police said. Reading his rights, one detective told him, was “just a formality.”
And so, without his attorney present, while the police recorded him, Baldwin talked. And talked. And talked.
BBC News
FBI arrests two members of extremist ‘Boogaloo’ group
The FBI has arrested two alleged members of extremist anti-government group the Boogaloo Boys.
Timothy Teagan, 24, of Michigan, is accused of lying about drug use while purchasing a gun.
Aron McKillips, 29, of Ohio, is accused of illegal possession of a machine gun and interstate communication of threats.
US authorities have warned of the potential for violence ahead of next week’s midterm elections.
Mr Teagan appeared in federal court in Detroit, Michigan, on Wednesday, wearing a colourful Hawaiian-style shirt, an item of clothing often seen on supporters of the so-called Boogaloo movement.
The New York Times
Justice Dept. Charges 48 in Brazen Pandemic Aid Fraud in Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS — The Justice Department said on Tuesday that it had charged 48 people with running a brazen fraud against anti-hunger programs in the coronavirus pandemic, stealing $240 million by billing the government for meals they did not serve to children who did not exist.
The case, in Minnesota, is the largest fraud uncovered in any pandemic-relief program, prosecutors said, standing out even in a period when heavy federal spending and lax oversight allowed a spree of scams with few recent parallels.
The New York Times
Trump Aide Is Subpoenaed for Jan. 6 Grand Jury
Federal prosecutors issued a subpoena to William Russell, who served as a special assistant to the former president, and went to his home in Florida.
Federal prosecutors issued a subpoena to a personal aide to former President Donald J. Trump as part of the investigation into the events leading up to the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, people familiar with the matter said.
Scotus Blog
Two petitions probe permissible evidence in convictions and sentencing
In criminal trials, the Constitution places various limits on what information judges and juries may consider. This week, we highlight cert petitions that ask the court to decide, among other things, whether a jury may take into account a defendant’s courtroom demeanor and whether a judge may partially base a defendant’s sentence on alleged conduct for which the defendant was acquitted.
The New York Times
The Key to a $4 Billion Fraud Case: A Banker Who Says He ‘Lied a Lot’
Only one person is likely to ever face trial in the United States over the looted billions from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund. The case hangs on his former boss at Goldman Sachs. It seemed a facetious question, one intended to provoke the star witness: “Do you think you are good at lying?” But it is the crucial issue at the center of what is likely to be the only trial on U.S. soil in one of the largest international kleptocracy cases in history, the looting of billions of dollars from the people of Malaysia.
The New York Times
A Small Group of Militants’ Outsize Role in the Capitol Attack
As federal prosecutors unveil charges in the assault on the Capitol last month, they have repeatedly highlighted two militant groups — the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys — as being the most organized, accusing them of planning their strategy ahead of time and in some cases helping escalate a rally into an attack.
The two organizations stand in contrast to a majority of the mob. Of the more than 230 people charged so far, only 31 are known to have ties to a militant extremist group. And at least 26 of those are affiliated with the Oath Keepers or the Proud Boys
The Wall Street Journal
How to Protect Seniors From Online Fraud and Phone Scans
Scams targeting older adults take many forms, ranging from callers posing as grandchildren in need of financial assistance to emails directing people to fake bank websites where cons collect login credentials. The techniques evolve every year but the outcome is always the same: Many seniors end up losing money.
The Wall Street Journal
Fake Covid-19 Vaccines: What to Know About Counterfeit Shots Sold Online
The Wall Street Journal
Military, Police Investigate Members Charged in Capitol Riot
Jacob Fracker is a member of the Virginia National Guard and a police officer in the small town of Rocky Mount, Va. On Jan. 6, he joined the mob that broke into the U.S. Capitol and posted a photo of himself next to a fellow off-duty officer with his middle finger raised in front of a statue of a Revolutionary War commander, according to court documents.
The New York Times
Homeland Security’s Latest Target: Vaccine Scams
ARLINGTON, Va. — A team of agents from the Department of Homeland Security was combing thousands of websites scouting for evidence of the next phase of fraud schemes: offers of treatments or vaccines for the coronavirus.
BBC
The New Nigerian princes’ of hacking?
BEC or Business Email Compromise hacking is one of the most common types of cyber-attack, which the FBI says costs more than £6 billion a year – and experts say Nigeria is its epicentre.
Cyber reporter Joe Tidy speaks with one BEC hacker in Nigeria to find out how they work, and how he feels about his victims.
The New York Times
Splitting 5 to 4, Supreme Court Backs Religious Challenge to Cuomo’s Virus Shutdown Order
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court late Wednesday night barred restrictions on religious services in New York that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had imposed to combat the coronavirus.
The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and the court’s three liberal members in dissent. The order was the first in which the court’s newest member, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, played a decisive role.
The Washington Post
Nursing home companies accused of misusing federal money received hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic relief
For-profit nursing home providers that have faced accusations of Medicare fraud and kickbacks, labor violations and widespread failures in patient care received hundreds of millions of dollars in “no strings attached” coronavirus relief aid meant to cover shortfalls and expenses during the pandemic, a Washington Post analysis of federal spending found.
More than a dozen companies that received federal funding have settled civil lawsuits in recent years with the Justice Department, which alleged improper Medicare billing, forged documents, substandard care and other abuses
The New York Times
In a Term Full of Major Cases, the Supreme Court Tacked to the Center
WASHINGTON — In an era of stark partisan polarization, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. steered the Supreme Court toward the middle, doling out victories to both left and right in the most consequential term in recent memory.
The term, which ended Thursday, included rulings that will be taught to law students for generations — on presidential power and on the rights of gay and transgender workers. The court turned back an effort to narrow abortion rights, and it protected young immigrants known as Dreamers.
The Hill
Supreme Court declines challenge to DOJ execution method
Four inmates, most of whom are scheduled to be killed next month, argued that a lethal injection protocol that the Department of Justice adopted last year violates federal law.
WDRB
“Dreamer” relieved he can remain in Kentucky after U.S. Supreme Court ruling
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s attempt to end legal protections for young immigrants, but the ruling may give the immigrants, known as “Dreamers,” only a temporary reprieve.
“This was extremely lucky,” said Omar Salinas-Chacón, one of the estimated 650,000 young immigrants covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The New York Times
Court Seems Open to Allowing Judge to Scrutinize Bid to Drop Flynn Case
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court panel appeared inclined on Friday to permit a trial judge to complete his review of the Justice Department’s attempt to drop a criminal case against President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, as all three judges asked skeptical questions about a request that they intervene and order the case dismissed.
The Wall Street Journal
Chicken Industry Executives, Including Pilgrim’s Pride CEO, Indicted on Price-Fixing Charges
The CEO of one of the country’s biggest chicken producers and three other industry executives were indicted Wednesday for allegedly conspiring to fix prices on chickens sold to restaurants and grocery stores, the Justice Department’s first charges in a continuing criminal antitrust probe.
The one-count indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Colorado, allege current and former senior executives at Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. and Claxton Poultry Farms fixed prices and rigged bids from 2012 to 2017.
CNBC
FTC Warns About Contact Tracing Scams
Scammers are pretending to be contact tracers working for public health departments to steal private information, the Federal Trade Commission warned on Tuesday.
The emergence of contact tracing scams raises questions about whether the public will trust contact tracers when they call or text unexpectedly as the practice becomes a key part of the U.S. strategy to stop the transmission of Covid-19.
The New York Times
Fed Suspect Vast Fraud Network Is Targeting U.S. Unemployment Systems
SEATTLE — A group of international fraudsters appears to have mounted an immense, sophisticated attack on U.S. unemployment systems, creating a network that has already siphoned millions of dollars in payments that were intended to avert an economic collapse, according to federal authorities.
The attackers have used detailed information about U.S. citizens, such as social security numbers that may have been obtained from cyber hacks of years past, to file claims on behalf of people who have not been laid off, officials said. The attack has exploited state unemployment systems at a time when they are straining to process a crush of claims from an employment crisis unmatched since the Great Depression.
The New York Times
Doctor Charged With Fraud After U.S. Says He Sold Treatment as “100 Percent” Cure for Covid-19
Federal prosecutors this week charged a Southern California doctor with selling coronavirus treatments online — including a drug repeatedly promoted by President Trump — as a “100 percent” cure, officials said.
The doctor, Jennings Ryan Staley, 44, a licensed physician and the owner of Skinny Beach Med Spa in San Diego, was charged with mail fraud on Thursday for his role in selling “Covid-19 treatment packs” that included the medications hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California said in a statement. Mr. Trump has promoted hydroxychloroquine as a “what have you got to lose” remedy.
The New York Times
Trump Has Emergency Powers We Aren’t Allowed to Know About
The past few weeks have given Americans a crash course in the powers that federal, state and local governments wield during emergencies. We’ve seen businesses closed down, citizens quarantined and travel restricted. When President Trump declared emergencies on March 13 under both the Stafford Act and the National Emergencies Act, he boasted, “I have the right to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about.”
The president is right. Some of the most potent emergency powers at his disposal are likely ones we can’t know about, because they are not contained in any publicly available laws. Instead, they are set forth in classified documents known as “presidential emergency action documents.”
The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that police officers may stop vehicles registered to people whose driver’s licenses had been suspended on the assumption that the driver was the owner, rather than, say, a family member. The court also ruled that federal workers can win age discrimination suits under a more relaxed standard than employees in the private sector. And it turned down an appeal challenging a transit system’s ban on religious advertising.
USA Today
Controversial Coronavirus Testing Sites Under Investigation for ‘Scams’ in Kentucky
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Law enforcement is investigating several controversial pop-up coronavirus test sites operating in Louisville, Kentucky, this week that the city’s Metro Council president characterized as “scams.”
City and state officials are advising residents to avoid the sites for testing, and Kentucky Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack said Wednesday all testing sites must work with the state.
The Hill
Supreme Court Rules States Can Eliminate Insanity Defense
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that states can effectively eliminate the insanity defense for criminal defendants who suffer from mental illness.
The 6-3 ruling holds that a Kansas law preventing the exoneration of defendants who claim a diminished mental state is not unconstitutional.
Courier Journal
Disqualified Derby Winner Maximum Security’s Trainer Indicted for Racing Drug Scheme
Trainer Jason Servis, whose Maximum Security finished first in the 2019 Kentucky Derby, only to be disqualified, is alleged to have orchestrated a far-reaching scheme involving the surreptitious administering of performance-enhancing drugs to racehorses.
Federal charges have been filed against 27 people connected to thoroughbred and standardbred racing, including trainers and veterinarians, for what was described in four indictments as “drug adulteration and misbranding.”
89.3 WFPL
Kentucky House Passes Voter I.D. Bill Ahead of 202 Elections
The Kentucky House of Representatives has passed a bill that would require voters to show a photo ID in order to cast ballots in this year’s General Election, a top legislative priority for Republican leaders in the legislature.
After significant revisions, the measure provides several ways for those without photo IDs to vote, but opponents of the legislation say it will suppress voter turnout and create confusion for voters and election officials. Because of those revisions, the bill will go back to the Senate for final approval before heading to Gov. Andy Beshear.
89.3 WFPL
LMPD Announces Training, Procedure Changes in Wake of KyCIR Investigation
The Louisville Metro Police Department will add new training for patrol officers responding to victims of sexual assault and change some aspects of how they close rape cases, an LMPD official said Wednesday.
Lt. Shannon Lauder, who runs the special victims unit, testified about the changes at Metro Council’s public safety committee. Lauder was asked to testify in response to a Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting story that found LMPD cleared three times as many 2017 rape cases “by exception” than they did by arrest.
The New York Times
Who Will Be Left Standing in the Supreme Court?
The Trump administration is doing its best to kick plaintiffs out of lawsuits it opposes.
Pop quiz No. 1: What do the following have in common: an abortion clinic in Louisiana; the county of El Paso, Tex.; and two individuals who don’t want to buy health insurance?
Answer: All are plaintiffs in federal court.
89.3 WFPL
Police Must Detail Seizures Or Lose Training Money Under Proposed Bill
A bill filed this week in the General Assembly would require law enforcement agencies to disclose more details about cash and property seized through asset forfeiture or be subjected to financial penalties.
Rep. Reginald Meeks, a Louisville Democrat, is sponsoring the measure, which would beef up existing reporting requirements. Agencies that don’t comply would lose $4,000 reimbursements from a state fund for individual officers who complete continued training.
CNN
Ikea to pay $46 million to family of toddler crushed by dresser
London (CNN Business)Swedish furniture maker Ikea will pay $46 million to the family of a California toddler who died after being crushed by one of its dressers.
Jozef Dudek was two years old when he died in May 2017 after an Ikea Malm dresser toppled onto his neck, resulting in injuries that caused him to suffocate, according to the family’s lawyers.
89.3 WFPL
Attorney General Daniel Cameron Asks FBI to Investigate Bevin Pardons
Kentucky’s new Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron has asked the FBI to investigate controversial pardons issued by former Gov. Matt Bevin at the end of his term.
Bevin issued pardons and commutations to more than 650 people during his final weeks in office. Most of those actions were fairly routine — low-level drug offenders who had turned their lives around or cases widely thought to be miscarriages of justice.
But some of the pardons drew controversy, especially the pardon of a Kenton County man convicted of child rape and that of a Knox County man convicted of murder whose family later held a fundraiser for Bevin.
The New York Times
Clinton Portis and other Ex-N.F.L. Players Face Health Care Fraus Charges
Prosecutors said the players were paid $3.4 million in phony claims for things like medical equipment that was never purchased. Portis played seven seasons with the Washington Redskins.
The Washington Post
The Supreme Court majority should resist the temptation to expand the Second Amendment
The Supreme Court’s newly reinforced conservative majority is facing a test. It could use a case before the court as an opportunity to expand the scope of Second Amendment protections. Or it could pursue the correct conservative approach: decline the temptation to intervene.
The New York Times
After Long Gap, Supreme Court Poised to Break Silence on Gun Rights
WASHINGTON — It has been almost 10 years since the Supreme Court last heard a Second Amendment case. On Monday, a transformed court will return to the subject and take stock of what has happened in the meantime.
WDRB
Partly Sunny: Public agencies exploit loophole in new Kentucky open records law
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Open government advocates rejoiced when Kentucky lawmakers passed Senate Bill 230 earlier this year.
At long last, it appeared that public agencies would start accepting open records requests by email – a change from the state’s longstanding practice of requiring them to be mailed, faxed or delivered in person.
The New York Times
As the Supreme Court Gets Back to Work, Five Big Cases to Watch
89.3 WFPL
Issue: Conviction or Not, Seized Cash is “Cost of Doing Business” in Louisville
Theron Carson and his friends were smoking weed and playing video games when the police showed up at his door.
It was 1 a.m., and the officers told Carson someone complained about the smell. The quickest resolution of the problem, they told Carson, was to allow them to search his Newburg apartment.
The New York Times
Issue: Arizona Files Novel Lawsuit in Supreme Court Over Opioid Crisis
WASHINGTON — Saying the opioid crisis requires bold measures, the state of Arizona filed an audacious lawsuit in the Supreme Court on Wednesday asking the justices to order members of the Sackler family, which owns Purdue Pharma, to return what the state said were billions of dollars looted from the company.
The Washington Post
Issue: Arizona asks for US Supreme Court involvement in opioid case
The New York Times
Issue: Why the ‘Bridgegate’ Scandal Could Backfire on Prosecutors
Federal prosecutors have often relied on a powerful criminal statute to bring high-profile corruption cases, including the college admissions scandal that ensnared Hollywood celebrities and a string of bribery investigations that targeted college basketball programs.
The Courier Journal
Issue: Judge strikes down Kentucky law banning abortion procedure
A federal judge has struck down a 2018 Kentucky law banning a type of abortion generally performed after the 14th week of pregnancy, a victory for abortion rights activists and a setback for the administration of Gov. Matt Bevin, which defended it….
The Washington Post
Issue: Doctors in Five States Charged with Prescribing Pain Killers for Cash, Sex
Dozens of medical professionals in five states were charged Wednesday with participating in the illegal prescribing of more than 32 million pain pills, including doctors who prosecutors said traded sex for prescriptions and a dentist who unnecessarily pulled teeth from patients to justify giving them opioids.
The New York Times
Issue: A Timeline of Key Supreme Court Cases on Affirmative Action
The United States Supreme Court has weighed in on affirmative action in college admissions several times, helping shape the policy through the decades. Here are some of the key cases:
The New York Times
Issue: $3.4 Million Medicaid Fraud Inquiry Hovers Over Nursing Home where Comatose Woman Was Raped And Had Baby
ARIZONA – State investigators in Arizona are examining $3.4 million in possible Medicaid fraud at the parent company of a Phoenix nursing center where a woman in a vegetative state was raped and gave birth to a boy in December, according to court records.
The New York Times
Issue: Supreme Court Considers a Thorny Question of Free Speech and Police Power
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court considered on Monday whether to allow lawsuits claiming abuse of police power in retaliation for exercising free speech rights. The case concerned a claim for retaliatory arrest at a festival in a remote part of Alaska, but several justices seemed to have an array of controversies in mind.
The New York Times
Issue: Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Proclamation Targeting Some Asylum Seekers
LOS ANGELES — A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to resume accepting asylum claims from migrants no matter where or how they entered the United States, dealing at least a temporary setback to the president’s attempt to clamp down on a huge wave of Central Americans crossing the border.
Reuters
Issue: North Carolina challenges ‘unreasonable’ U.S. subpoenas for voter data
(Reuters) – North Carolina’s elections board voted on Friday to challenge federal subpoenas seeking years’ worth of voter information from state and local officials, saying the timing, scope and unknown nature of the inquiry were cause for concern.
The New York Times Magazine
Issue: When the Supreme Court Lurches Right
In 1957, Robert A. Dahl, a father of modern political science, published a canonical article about the Supreme Court’s “most peculiar position” in American democracy. “Much of the legitimacy of the Court’s decisions rests upon the fiction that it is not a political institution but exclusively a legal one,” Dahl wrote. And yet, “from time to time its members decide cases where legal criteria are not in any realistic sense adequate to the task.” These decisions, among the court’s most momentous, turned on vague or ambiguous words in the Constitution, like “establishment of religion” and “due process of law,” with precedent and expert opinions on both sides. By making these rulings, the court cast itself as a “national policymaker” — and in so doing raised a difficult question: When should the justices, unelected figures in robes, reflect majority will and when should they stand for “Right or Justice” so as to protect minorities from tyranny by the majority?
The Courier Journal
Issue: Mother of murder defendant sues, saying teens bullied her other daughter
A Louisville mom says the teen her 20-year-old daughter is accused of murdering was a bully.
Now, Debra James is suing the dead teen and four of her schoolmates, alleging that they bullied a younger daughter so badly that she attempted suicide.
The Washington Post
Issue: Collusion is not a crime — but colluding can be
President Trump, following the lead set by his legal adviser Rudolph W. Giuliani on Monday, is drawing a tricky line on the Russia investigation. Month after month, Trump’s line has been that there was no collusion between him (or his campaign or between some generally unidentified group) and Russian interference efforts on his behalf in the 2016 election.
Money Watch
Issue: Feds charge 600 in opioid fraud that bilked $2B from government and insurers
The Justice Department on Thursday announced charges against 601 people, including 76 physicians, for allegedly taking part in multi-billion-dollar profit-making schemes involving opioid painkillers.
The arrests come as the result of what the department called the largest health care fraud takedown ever in the U.S., with Attorney General Jeff Sessions calling the crimes “despicable” in a statement.
Constitution Daily
Issue: Supreme Court finds exception in automobile-search precedent
In an 8-1 decision on Tuesday, the Supreme Court said police in Virginia couldn’t use a Facebook photo as cause to examine a motorcycle under a tarp parked next to a house, without a search warrant.
In Collins v. Virginia, the question was about the Fourth Amendment’s “automobile exception,” which that states if “a car is readily mobile and probable cause exists to believe it contains contraband, the Fourth Amendment . . . permits police to search the vehicle” without a warrant.
The New York Times
Issue: Origins of an Epidemic: Purdue Pharma Knew Its Opioids Were Widely Abused
A confidential Justice Department report found the company was aware early on that OxyContin was being crushed and snorted for its powerful narcotic, but continued to promote it as less addictive.
Courier Journal
Issue: Hemp brings jobs and more than $16.7 million in sales to Kentucky
A report card of sorts grading hemp’s impact on Kentucky showed these scores:
Eighty-one new full-time jobs. More than $16.7 million in gross product sales. And $7.5 million for farmers.
Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles included these figures from last year in an April 24 letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul calling hemp’s economic impact “significant.”
Associated Press
Issue: The Supreme Court just handed the Trump administration a loss on immigration — and Gorsuch was the tiebreaking vote
The court’s 5-4 decision — an unusual alignment in which new Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the four liberal justices — concerns a catchall provision of immigration law that defines what makes a crime violent. Conviction for a crime of violence makes deportation “a virtual certainty” for an immigrant, no matter how long he has lived in the United States, Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her opinion for the court.
The New York Times
Issue: 5 Doctors are Charged with Taking Kickbacks for Fentanyl Prescriptions
In March of 2013, Gordon Freedman, a doctor on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, fielded a request from a regional sales manager for the manufacturer of Subsys, a spray form of the highly addictive painkiller fentanyl.
Dr. Freedman was already a top prescriber of Subsys and also one of the company’s paid promotional speakers. Now the sales manager was telling him the company, Insys Therapeutics, would increase the amount of money it was paying him and asked that he increase the number of new patients he was prescribing Subsys.
“Got it,” Dr. Freedman replied, according to authorities. By 2014, they said, Dr. Freedman had become one of the country’s top prescribers of the painkiller drug — and also the company’s highest-paid speaker.
The ABA Journal
Issue: Trump Backs Death Penalty For Drug Dealers; Is It Constitutional?
President Donald Trump backed the death penalty for drug dealers on Saturday at a Pennsylvania rally, while his administration is reportedly studying the issue.
Trump said the United States got the idea of capital punishment for drug dealers from Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Washington Post reports.
The idea needs discussion, although “I don’t know if this country’s ready for it,” Trump said. CNN also has coverage.
The New York Times
Issue: Justices Turn Down Trump’s Appeal in ‘Dreamers’ Case
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an unusual request from the Trump administration to decide whether it was entitled to shut down a program that shields some 700,000 young, undocumented immigrants from deportation.
The court’s decision not to hear the administration’s appeal was expected, as no appeals court has yet ruled on the issue.
The Washington Post
Issue: Trump administration asks Supreme Court to immediately accept DACA case
The Trump administration on Thursday night took the unusual step of asking the Supreme Court to immediately review and overturn a judge’s ruling that said the administration may not dismantle a program that provides work permits to undocumented immigrants raised in the United States.
Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco asked the court to add the case to its docket this term. That would be unusual because the justices usually wait for an appeals court to act before accepting a case, and because it is late in the game for the court to add cases to its oral argument calendar, which ends in April.
The Innocence Project
Issue: Innocence Project Applauds New York’s Presiding Judges for Landmark Statewide Rule Ensuring Comprehensive Brady Disclosure
(New York, NY – November 8, 2017) New York State’s Chief Administrative Judge, Lawrence K. Marks, yesterday issued a landmark administrative order regarding prosecutors’ legal and ethical obligations to disclose all information in law enforcement’s possession that is favorable to criminal defendants. The court’s order, effective January 1, 2018, requires every criminal trial judge in New York State to issue a “Brady” order to all prosecutors who appear before them, in both felony and misdemeanor cases.
The New York Times
Issue: University of Florida Braces for Richard Spencer – First Amendment and Hate Speech
Richard B. Spencer, a prominent white nationalist, is scheduled to speak at the University of Florida on Thursday, prompting an outcry over whether his views are protected speech, dividing the campus and putting law enforcement officials on high alert.
The university denied Mr. Spencer’s original request to speak on Sept. 12, citing the violent clashes in August between far-right demonstrators and counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Va., as well as threats on social media of a “blood bath” if the speech were allowed. But the university has since relented.
The New York Times
Issue: Cake is his ‘Art.” So can he deny one to a gay couple?
LAKEWOOD, Colo. — Jack Phillips bakes beautiful cakes, and it is not a stretch to call him an artist. Five years ago, in a decision that has led to a Supreme Court showdown, he refused to use his skills to make a wedding cake to celebrate a same-sex marriage, saying it would violate his Christian faith and hijack his right to express himself.
“It’s more than just a cake,” he said at his bakery one recent morning. “It’s a piece of art in so many ways.”
The couple he refused to serve, David Mullins and Charlie Craig, filed civil rights charges. They said they had been demeaned and humiliated as they sought to celebrate their union.
The New York Times
Issue: F.D.A. Cracks Down on ‘Unscrupulous’ Stem Cell Clinics
The Food and Drug Administration announced a crackdown on dangerous stem cell clinics on Monday, while at the same time pledging to ease the path to approval for companies and doctors with legitimate treatments in the growing field.
The agency reported actions against two large stem cell clinics and a biotech company, saying that it was critical to shut down “unscrupulous actors” in regenerative medicine, a broad umbrella that includes stem cell and gene therapies and immunotherapies.
The Washington Times
Issue: Tech companies ask Supreme Court to block cellphone data grab
Some of the world’s biggest tech companies pleaded with the Supreme Court this week to update decades-old precedent governing telephones, saying that cell-tracking technology threatens Americans’ most fundamental privacy rights.
Apple, Microsoft, Google, Twitter, Facebook, Verizon and other major players in the modern digital economy asked the justices to rule that the Fourth Amendment should require police to get a warrant before they can demand cell phone location data.
NBC News
Issue: AlphaBay, Hansa Shut, but Drug Dealers Flock to Dark Web DreamMarket
Two of the largest online black-market sites have been shuttered in a law enforcement crackdown, but drug dealers have moved in a hurry to a third “dark net” emporium, where listings of fentanyl and heroin have already spiked, according to analysts.
The New York Times
Issue: U.S. Arrests 412, Including Doctors, in $1.3 Billion Health Fraud
WASHINGTON — Hundreds of people nationwide, including dozens of doctors, have been charged in health care fraud prosecutions, accused of collectively defrauding the government of $1.3 billion, the Justice Department said on Thursday.
Nearly one-third of the 412 charged were accused of opioid-related crimes. The healthcare providers, about 50 of them doctors, billed Medicare and Medicaid for drugs that were never purchased; collected money for false rehabilitation treatments and tests; and gave out prescriptions for cash, according to prosecutors.
The Washington Post
Issue: Travel ban takes effect as State Department defines “close family”
After five months of bitter legal squabbling, the Trump administration’s modified travel ban took effect Thursday night under new guidelines designed to avert the chaos of the original rollout. But the rules will still keep many families split and are likely to spawn a new round of court fights.
ABA Journal
Issue: Trump administration quietly rolls back civil rights efforts across federal government
For decades, the Department of Justice has used court-enforced agreements to protect civil rights, successfully desegregating school systems, reforming police departments, ensuring access for the disabled and defending the religious.
New York Times
Issue: Opioid Dealers Embrace the Dark Web to Send Deadly Drugs by Mail
As the nation’s opioid crisis worsens, the authorities are confronting a resurgent, unruly player in the illicit trade of the deadly drugs, one that threatens to be even more formidable than the cartels.
The internet.
ABA Journal:
Issue: Do police need warrant for cellphone location records? Supreme Court will decide
The New York Times:
Issue: The Legal Battle Over Arkansas’ Execution Plans
A federal judge on Saturday blocked Arkansas’ plan to execute six men in 10 days with a preliminary injunction on a lawsuit arguing that the pace of the executions and the use of the drug midazolam were unconstitutional. The state had scheduled these executions in quick succession because its supply of midazolam, one of three drugs used in its procedure, is set to expire at the end of April.
The New York Times:
Issue: Conflicting Views on a Broader Way for the Police to Use DNA
The question of how widely investigators should be able to examine DNA databases is in the news, as officials in New York deliberate whether to authorize a method that could help find relatives of people charged with crimes.
Scotus Blog:
Issue: Justices Release March Calendar
The Supreme Court released its calendar for its March sitting. The calendar includes some high-profile cases – most notably, Gloucester County School Board v. G.G., the case of a transgender student who identifies as a boy and wants to be able to use the boys’ bathroom at his Virginia high school, which will be argued on March 28. The calendar also includes two cases – Murr v. Wisconsin and Microsoft Corp. v. Baker – that were granted before the death of Justice Antonin Scalia but had not yet been scheduled for oral argument. However, the third case granted before Scalia’s death, Trinity Lutheran Church v. Pauley, still has not yet been slated for oral argument.
The New York Times:
Issue: Criminal Justice Reform – Diversion
Spared from a criminal record, if you’ve got enough cash. The promise of a second chance eludes many defendants who cannot pay.
SCOTUS Blog:
Issue: Searching for a Remedy for Constitutional Violation on Citizenship
The issue before the justices was a U.S. citizenship law that imposes more stringent requirements on a child who is born outside the United States to an unmarried father who is a U.S. citizen than it does on an otherwise identically-situated child whose unmarried mother is a U.S. citizen.
NPR:
Issue: It Ain’t Me, Babe: Researchers Find Flaws in Police Facial Recognition
Nearly half of all American adults have been entered into law enforcement facial recognition databases, according to a recent report from Georgetown University’s law school. But there are many problems with the accuracy of the technology that could have an impact on a lot of innocent people.
NPR:
Issue: Jack Greenberg, Civil Rights Icon who argued Brown v. Board of Education, Dies
Jack Greenberg, one of the lawyers who argued the landmark Supreme Court case that ended federal tolerance of racial segregation in schools, died Wednesday. He was 91.
NPR:
Issue: Supreme Court Hears Case On Racial Bias in Jury Deliberations
It’s only the second week of oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court and already the justices are on their third case involving race and the criminal justice system.
Tuesday’s case tests the constitutionality of widespread rules that bar courts from examining evidence of racial bias in jury deliberations.
The New York Times:
Issue: Court Filing Accuses Texas of Misleading Voters Without IDs
Voting rights advocates accused North Carolina Republicans of mounting a procedural end run around a panel of federal appeals court judges, which had ruled that a 2013 election law targeted African-American voters “with almost surgical precision” and struck it down.
The Washington Post:
Issue: Recidivism
Breaking out of the prison cycle. More than half of the Americans arrested under the age of 25 will be arrested again – disrupting their lives and the communities they live in. Breaking the cycle requires a new approach to employment before and after prison.
SCOTUS Blog:
Issue: Burden of Proof
(1) Whether a district court commits plain error by enhancing a sentence based on a divisible statute without requiring the government to meet its burden of proving that the conviction arose under a qualifying prong of that statute, as five Circuits have held, or whether on plain-error review the burden instead shifts to the defendant to affirmatively show that the alleged predicate offense did not arise under a qualifying prong of the statute, as four Circuits have held; and (2) whether the district court’s additional enhancement of Petitioner’s sentence based on a second predicate offense under the crime of violence residual clause was error in this case because that clause is unconstitutionally vague.
SCOTUS Blog:
Issue: Double Jeopardy
The new Supreme Court term presents an unusual opening focus on criminal cases: All five cases the first week of October, and all but one the next, have their nuclei in criminal prosecutions. First up is a complicated double jeopardy question arising out of a messy political corruption prosecution in Puerto Rico.
WDRB
Issue: KY Innocence Project claims prosecutors destroyed evidence that could exonerate man in 1987 murder.
SCOTUS Blog:
Issue: Whether, when an individual consents to the search of a room he occupies, a law enforcement officer may, consistent with the Fourth Amendment, search a closed container found within that room.
The Washington Post:
Issue: History making Court Appointment
President Obama picks the first Muslim nominee to be a Federal Judge
New York Times:
Issue: Technology firms fear an erosion of trust in their products.
Microsoft’s Challenge to Government Secrecy Wins Dozens of Supporters
New York Times:
Editorial: It’s time to revise police contracts that make it almost impossible to bring officers to justice.
When Police Unions Impede Justice
SCOTUS Blog:
Issue:Whether the jail time restriction contained in 810 Kentucky Administrative Regulation 1:015, Section 1 at Article 6(a)-(b), which prohibits purchasers of thoroughbred race horses at claiming races in Kentucky from racing or transferring their horses out of state for a prescribed time period, violates the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution by impermissibly discriminating against interstate commerce.
Jamgotchian v. Kentucky Horse Racing Comm’n
SCOTUS Blog:
Issue: Whether a No-impeachment rule constitutionally may bar evidence of racial bias offered to prove a violation of the Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury.
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