In 2018, President Trump signed the First Step Act. This bipartisan criminal justice legislation reduced mandatory sentences formerly required by federal firearms law 18 U.S.C. Section 924(c). The First Step Act also prevented the sentences issued under 924(c) from being mandatorily “stacked” to run consecutively. Prior to The First Step... Read More »
About a year ago in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, George Russell Kayer was taken off of death row where he had been sent for killing his friend over a gambling debt. He had argued that he did not receive effective counsel, in violation of his 6th Amendment rights.... Read More »
Alaskan environmental groups have filed a request with the federal courts to block the Interior Department from moving forward with an auction of oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR or Refuge). The environmental groups who have filed the request include the National Audubon Society, the... Read More »
On Wednesday, December 2, 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) engaged in a teleconference hearing to untangle the aftermath of a ruling they made last April in Ramos v. Louisiana. In that ruling, SCOTUS determined that federal and state court juries are required to be unanimous to... Read More »
The federal court system is inching one step closer to the digital age as the federal judiciary has just announced the start of a pilot program that will live-stream cases of high public interest. The pilot program will run for the next two years. During this time, listeners can tune... Read More »
On December 10, 2020, a U.S. Department of State employee and his spouse pleaded guilty to trafficking counterfeit Vera Bradley goods into the United States through e-commerce third-party sites on computers owned and operated by the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea. According to the indictment dated December 11, 2019,... Read More »
On May 3, 2018, President Trump issued an executive order “to assist faith-based and other organizations in their efforts to strengthen the institutions of civil society and American families and communities.” The order continued: Faith-based and community organizations have tremendous ability to serve individuals, families, and communities through means that... Read More »
Serial killers and their tantalizing mysteries are the things of nightmares and cautionary children tales. But the reality is, documented cases of serial killers in the United States are decreasing, and it's unclear why that is. Serial Killer Statistics Over the Decades Virginia’s Radford University and the Florida Gulf Coast... Read More »
The Department of Labor's (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has issued a final rule entitled Fiduciary Duties Regarding Proxy Voting and Shareholder Rights. This ruling establishes a regulatory framework for fiduciaries of private employee benefits plans and helps clear up prior misunderstandings regarding proxy voting. This new ruling will... Read More »
On December 11, 2020, the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against J. Randolph Parry Architects and eight owners of multifamily properties that were designed by the architectural firm. The lawsuit alleges that both the architectural firm and the property owners violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). And in... Read More »
Louisiana State University (LSU) made $92 million in football revenue last year, netting a $56 million profit. Joe Burrow, its Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, received an athletic scholarship to LSU, worth approximately $40,000, the cost of attending college as an out-of-state student. This week, the Supreme Court granted an appeal, and... Read More »
A joint finalized rule by the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security will go into effect mid-January 2021 which will “streamline and enhance procedures for the adjudication of claims for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) regulations.” The two Departments claim this... Read More »
Known for relatively stringent pandemic safety measures (along with protests and governor-kidnapping plots in response), Michigan remains in a partial shutdown amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Though the state of the pandemic now surpasses the initial early-spring surges, restrictions are far less universally imposing than the lockdowns enacted at the... Read More »
In a unanimous decision by the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, justices rejected a lawsuit filed by fifteen survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. The survivors sued local officials for not protecting them during the mass shooting that claimed the lives of seventeen victims... Read More »
Muskingum County Judge Mark C. Fleegle has been disqualified from two cases scheduled for this month after complaints that Fleegle has not followed COVID-19 safety protocols in his courtroom. The complaints came from a Columbus, Ohio lawyer, Harry Reinhart. Reinhart, who is 69, was dissatisfied with the lack of safety... Read More »
