Jeffrey Toobin has a lengthy examination of Guantánamo Bay and the detention of people caught in Iraq and Afghanistan. The legal battles over the status of detainees continue, as the Supreme Court is set to release the latest opinion concerning detainee rights in Boumediene v. Bush sometime in the next few months. The real question [...]
A study has found that smoking bans contribute to an increase in drunk driving as smokers either go to bars where smoking is allowed, or go home earlier than they otherwise would. The First Law of Public Policy strikes again—every public policy has a set of unintended negative consequences and the magnitude of those consequences [...]
A group of University of Maine legal clinic students are launching an assault on the RIAA’s demands that universities turn over the names of students accused of filesharing. They’ve filed a Rule 11 motion for sanctions against the RIAA in the case of Arista v. Does 1-27. Rule 11 motions don’t often succeed, but the [...]
The SCOTUSblog has some interesting discussion of the recent Medellin v. Texas decision by the Supreme Court. The Bush Administration sought review of a Texas inmate’s death sentence after the Mexican government demanded that the government follow a decision by the International Court of Justice in the Hague. The popular press is spinning the result [...]
David Bernstein points to a case where a simple drafting error may have consequences in the billions: JPMorgan and Bear were prompted to renegotiate after shareholders began threatening to block the deal and it emerged that several “mistakes” were included in the original, hastily written contract, according to people involved in the talks. One sentence [...]
Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in District of Columbia v. Heller (07-290), a case which may see the Supreme Court determining whether or not the Second Amendment confers an individual right to own firearms. The ScotusWiki has all the briefs and amici on the case. Unsurprisingly for a case of this importance, [...]
Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor, takes a look at some of the possible criminal charges that could result from Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D-NY)’s prostitution scandal. Spitzer, who’s been one of the most crusading state AGs in recent years, is in some very hot water. He’s likely to face several federal racketeering charges, violations of [...]