The so-called “insanity defense” has been a staple of crime dramas on television, film, and in real life for decades. The sensationalized version is something like this: A person commits a terrible crime, such as murder. In court, they do not deny that they killed the person. Instead, their attorney... Read More »
The Trump administration has been taking aggressive steps to reduce the number of refugees who are granted asylum in the United States. Besides reducing the availability of asylum generally for refugees, the administration has put restrictions in place intended to make seeking asylum much more difficult. Immigrant rights activists argue... Read More »
In Comcast Corp. v. National Association of African American-Owned Media, an African American-owned media company called Entertainment Studios Network (ESN) is suing Comcast, arguing that the telecom giant violated a federal law prohibiting racial discrimination in contracts when it declined to carry ESN’s television channels. ESN claims that the decision... Read More »
On the morning of November 14, 2019, students of Saugus High School gathered in the quad before the start of classes. Nathan Berhow, a student at the Santa Clarita, California, school, reached into his backpack and removed a .45-caliber handgun. Within sixteen seconds, he shot five classmates, killing two and... Read More »
Los Angeles County and neighboring San Bernardino County have recently been home to massive jury verdicts, often dwarfing verdicts in similar (and even related) cases in other jurisdictions. Some lawyers have claimed that this is a problematic trend specific to southern California juries, arguing they demonstrate a need for the... Read More »
Bail has been a fixture of New York's criminal justice system since before statehood. Starting in January 2020, however, bail as we know it will no longer be practiced in the majority of cases in the state of New York. Instead, most defendants accused of a crime will not be... Read More »
Motorized scooters, such as those placed on street corners by Lime, Jump, and Bird, have sparked controversy everywhere they’ve landed. The scooters arrived long before local government agencies had the opportunity to put safety or traffic regulations in place that would provide limits on how, when, and by whom the... Read More »
The vaping industry is having a bad autumn. Between mysterious lung illnesses and the skyrocketing rate of teen e-cigarette use, e-cigarette makers like Juul are seeing massive losses. Several states and cities are now developing laws to limit the growing popularity of vaping among children and teens, while the federal... Read More »
A tragic crash occurred on Friday, November 15th, when a woman in a Mercedes SUV was struck by a Brightline train and killed. The accident occurred in northeast Miami-Dade County at the intersection of Ives Dairy Road and West Dixie Highway, across from the Aventura Mall and near 200th Street... Read More »
Earlier this year, the California legislature passed Assembly Bill 392, regarding police use of force. The bill passed 68 to 0 in the Assembly and 34 to 3 in the Senate, and Governor Newsom signed it into law on August 18th. The new law sets new standards for when the... Read More »
The Board of Commissioners for Lake County, Florida, unanimously passed a resolution declaring the county a “Second Amendment Sanctuary” in November 2019, making it Florida’s first county to do so. Other Florida counties have expressed interest in following suit. Lake County joins a handful of municipalities in Texas, Arizona, Illinois,... Read More »
The Trump administration is working to end deportation protections for young undocumented immigrants. The administration’s efforts to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program have come to a head in a legal battle before the Supreme Court. The Court heard oral arguments on the related DACA matters on... Read More »
A bill aiming to limit conversion therapy (or “Sexual Orientation Change Efforts”), the practice of trying to change an individual’s sexual orientation, passed the California Assembly on April 19, 2018. Citing reports from the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, and various other medical organizations on the limited effectiveness... Read More »
Governor Cuomo wants to eliminate cash bail for misdemeanors and non-violent feloniesIs it right that the poor should languish in jail while awaiting trial simply because they can't afford bail? Governor Cuomo doesn't think so. His State of the State address earlier this year announced his desire to eliminate cash... Read More »
The Labor Day fire on board a chartered diving boat off the coast of Santa Barbara is considered to be the worst maritime disaster in the history of the State of California. The survivors of the accident and the victims’ family members who choose to seek damages through litigation could... Read More »
