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Post Tagged with: "Law"
The Story of Josh Matthews: A Case Study in Immorality
His shackles clinked across the courtroom floor as he paced anxiously in front of the jury. He spoke passionately. Desperately. Loudly. Josh Matthews was on trial for murder. In that opening statement he told how his mother had hit him over the head with a soup ladle when he was in 4th grade. He told of being locked in his [...]
The DISCLOSE Act and NRA Exemption
Politico reports that House Democrats have agreed to a compromise with the National Rifle Association that may enable passage of a modest campaign-finance bill, the DISCLOSE Act. The bill would require groups to disclose their top donors if they want to run ads or send out mailers during election season. Why wouldn’t the NRA oppose that? Well, because they’d be [...]
Racial discrimination in jury selection still widespread
Thinking about my post from last night, I realized how strange you might think me for assuming that there’s greater risk to liberty from police and prosecutors misbehaving than there is from letting a certain number of criminals get off on “technicalities.” Thankfully, with impeccable timing, we got this report today from the New York Times, summarizing a study by [...]
The New Miranda Decision and Souter’s Harvard Speech
With the predictable 5-4 lineup, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that, in order to exclude from evidence incriminating statements to the police, criminal suspects must have unambiguously invoked their right to remain silent. The case essentially asked, what constitutes a waiver of one’s Miranda rights? Does sitting silent, unresponsive, for nearly three hours, as did the suspect, Van Chester Thompkins, [...]
The Folly of Perry v. Schwarzenegger
In my latest Harvard Independent column, I argue that the legal challenge to Proposition 8 in a California federal court may end up backfiring if it reaches the Supreme Court, because there almost certainly are not five votes for judicially-imposed gay marriage on the current court. Furthermore, I said, an anti-marriage equality ruling would suck the air out of the [...]
