Protestors at Virginia Capitol arrested
Protestors at the Virginia Capitol were arrested on "unlawful assembly" charges, charges that will almost surely be thrown out.
View ArticleCulpeper murder verdict reversal highlights flaws in system
Michael Hash was falsely imprisoned for 12 years on a capital murder conviction based on prosecutorial and police misconduct. And Virginia's trial procedures need to change so that this doesn't happen...
View ArticleForeign drugs can’t be imported to kill people
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon has ruled that states who want to use sodium pentothal as a part of the mixture of drugs that goes into a lethal injection can't use imported pentothal, because...
View ArticleJustice Scalia approaches the healthcare debate as a political one
In the recent oral arguments over the healthcare debate, Justice Antonin Scalia showed in his questioning that the debate for him was about politics, not about law.
View ArticleWhy did Chief Justice Roberts vote to uphold the Affordable Care Act?
Chief Justice Roberts voted to uphold the Affordable Care Act to keep the Supreme Court from becoming the dominant issue in the Presidential election.
View ArticleFourth Circuit puts meaning to Search and Seizure rules
The Fourth Circuit strikes down a search of a black man, finding that the government's so-called "rule of two" -- where there is one handgun, there will be another -- was not probable cause. This...
View ArticleNo “National Security” exception available in Tsarnaev
News stories dealing with the arrest of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have often referred to some 48-hour “national security” exception to the rules about reading Miranda warnings and questioning suspects. The...
View ArticleNational Security exception to Miranda?
The Department of Justice has been talking about the supposed national security exception to the Fifth and Sixth Amendment. As I discuss at length in my earlier post, this has its roots in the public...
View ArticleMore on the national security exception and Tsarnaev
More on the so-called national security exception to Miranda – I have found no case by any court in the country that finds a “national security exception” to the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. In fact,...
View ArticleMaybe a “terrorist exception” to Miranda?
Oh, gee. I thought I was done. I found another line of cases specific to terrorism cases. It is not called a “national security exception.” The case that I am reading at the moment is the case of the...
View ArticleSoliciting and conspiracy, and murder
Continuing with the discussion — James Alex Fields, Jr., who was in Charlottesville to attend the Unite the Right rally, is charged with driving his car on August 12, 2017, into a crowd of...
View ArticlePolitical Demonstrations and Guns
I was in downtown Charlottesville on Saturday, and the single most disconcerting, disorienting, confusing, troubling thing I saw was the “militia” brought in by Jason Kessler and his friends to...
View ArticleCharlottesville’s argument for moving Rally was weak
I am always reluctant to offer Monday-morning-quarterbacking and second-guessing of what other people put in court filings, because I usually don’t know the facts that the other lawyers know, and it...
View ArticleCharlottesville is not liable for injuries sustained at Rally
The City of Charlottesville, Police Chief Al Thomas, and State Police Superintendent Steven Flaherty have been sued for injuries allegedly suffered by Robert Sanchez Turner when he was hit by water...
View ArticleCan Charlottesville ban guns at a political rally?
On August 12, when the Unite-the-Right rally came to Charlottesville’s Emancipation Park, there were four groups with assault rifle-style weapons: The State Police riot squad; The National Guard; The...
View ArticleVirginia law on burning crosses and tiki torches
The alt-right demonstrators who keep coming to Charlottesville like to march around carrying tiki torches. Vice Mayor Wes Bellamy has called on the Commonwealth's Attorney to prosecute them under...
View ArticleDefending the First Amendment’s principle of content neutrality
The First Amendment's requirement of content neutrality protects even hate speech, and it is not a tool of white supremacists.
View ArticleCan a School System Prohibit Confederate Flag T-shirts?
In Charlottesville and Albemarle County right now, activists are trying to get local school boards to adopt policies that would prohibit Confederate flag T-shirts. Can they, consistent with the First...
View ArticleNo, Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination has nothing to do with the “separate...
About 3 days ago, a meme started floating around the Internet that suggested that the REAL REASON that the Republicans are trying to rush through Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination is because they need him...
View ArticleThe Color of Law and the History of Race Discrimination in Housing
I spent a long plane ride across the country reading Richard Rothstein’s “Color of Law,” at the recommendation of two FaceBook friends and a guy who just happened to overhear a conversation at Cville...
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