- Supreme Court disbars Bill Lerach [Richard Samp, WLF] And check out the byline of the former class-action king’s recent contribution to The Nation; do you think it omits anything material? [h/t Bob Lenzner]
- Ted Frank guessed right on outcome of Wal-Mart case but still lost big betting on it [PoL]
- After feds seize online bettors’ money, Anne Arundel County, Maryland police department crows over windfall [CEI] And c’mon Maryland, surely we in the home state of H.L. Mencken and Frederick Douglass can do better in the liberty rankings than this;
- “Wrongful-Death Lawsuit Filed After Man Killed by Rooster” [Lowering the Bar]
- Hotel union behind California bill mandating fitted sheets [Daily Caller, earlier]
- Fifth Circuit upholds constitutionality of Texas law banning barratry (stirring up litigation) [Christian Southwick, Legal Ethics Forum]
- A Linda Greenhouse column I agree with? One of us must be slipping [vagueness in criminal statutes, see related Harvey Silverglate]
Posts Tagged ‘crime and punishment’
Consequences of school pranks
According to his lawyer, Indiana high school senior Tyell Morton would have faced a maximum of three years had he brought a gun to school. Unfortunately for young Morton, he brought a blow-up doll instead. [Nsenga Burton/The Root, WTHR, Alkon]
Conrad Black “supercilious” in the slammer?
Watch out for sentencing spin, warns Scott Greenfield.
Dershowitz on DSK case
Cynical? Even more so than usual? The Harvard lawprof lays out a theory that ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his accuser share an interest in cooperating to foil prosecutor Cy Vance [Newsweek]
Worst New Jersey lawyer ever?
If prosecutors are to be believed, Paul Bergrin not only defrauded lenders on a grand scale but “set up witnesses to be murdered before they could testify against his clients”. “I can’t have some [expletive] lawyer in suspenders and I’m supposed say thanks because he got my sentence down to twenty years,” said one murder-rap defendant client. “I’m paying top dollar, and I demand legal brilliance. Someone who will consider all the options.” [New York magazine]
Another problem with victim impact statements
Defendants may be presented at a very late stage with new allegations which they’ve never heard before and are precluded from challenging [Scott Greenfield]
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
Congress is once again considering expanding an “anti-hacking” law that’s already disturbingly broad. Will users someday risk a felony rap for flouting websites’ Terms of Use? [Orin Kerr, Volokh]
“Due Process Stops at the Campus Gates?”
My Cato colleague Ilya Shapiro on the Obama Education Department’s unsettling insistence that colleges and universities, on pain of losing federal dollars, pare back the due process accorded to those accused of sexual misconduct. [Cato at Liberty]
Plus: earlier on Yale’s submissive reaction to Title IX complaint and suspension of a fraternity. More: “hostile environment” Title IX complaints leveled against other schools as well; Cathy Young on campus sexual assault numbers.
A case of overcriminalization
Race car great Bobby Unser discusses his legal ordeal — after his snowmobile got lost in a blizzard, he was charged with having entered protected federal wilderness land — in this Heritage Foundation video [more]
Canada: Drunkenness as defense in sex assault?
Ontario: “A judge has reopened a major legal controversy by ruling that accused people can claim they were too drunk to be found culpable of committing crimes.” [Globe & Mail]