JURIST - US Legal News

[JURIST] Rights groups filed a federal lawsuit [complaint, PDF] on Tuesday accused the New York Police Department (NYPD) [official website] of unlawfully targeting Muslims for surveillance. The rights group allege that the NYPD has been sending spies into mosques, student associations and other places to gather information based solely on the fact that the targets are Muslim. The New York Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (Clear) [advocacy websites]...... [full story]

[JURIST] The US government on Monday released [text, PDF] the names and nationalities of 46 men who are classified for "continued detention" at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST backgrounder] detention center, ineligible for release, transfer or prosecution. The names were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act [official website] request submitted by the Miami Herald [report] and the New York Times. In the 2010 Guantanamo Review Task Force [PDF] the US government explained continued detention:48 detainees were unanimously approved for...... [full story]

[JURIST] Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn [official website] on Tuesday signed the most restrictive fracking legislation [SB 1715] in the country into law. The bill was a joint effort between government and industry specialists and is receiving high praise [press release] from the state's environmental and manufacturing communities. It requires all drillers to acquire a permit from the legislature and provide frackwater samples before, after and during drilling. It also requires drillers to store used frackwater in above-ground tanks. Frackwater is...... [full story]

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania [official website] on Monday upheld [opinion, PDF] the mandatory retirement provision for judicial officers. The complaint [JURIST report], originally filed by six Pennsylvania judges, alleged that the mandatory retirement provision in the Pennsylvania Constitution [text] was in violation of the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment [text] to the US Constitution. The court, although sympathetic, held that because of the people's indefeasible right to alter their government by amending the...... [full story]

[JURIST] The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) [advocacy websites] on Monday released summary findings [press release] concluding that the use of the death penalty in California and Louisiana violates human rights. The report [text, PDF] concludes that the way the death penalty is used in California and Louisiana is arbitrary and discriminatory and that conditions on death row constitute torture. Although the CCR and FIDH found that the use of the death...... [full story]

[JURIST] An anonymous source inside the US State Department said Monday that President Barack Obama [official websites] is appointing attorney Clifford Sloan [professional profile] to be the new envoy in charge of closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST backgrounder]. Clifford, who has served in all three federal branches, is now a privately practicing attorney and an informal adviser to Secretary of State John Kerry [official website] and has served under both Democrat and Republican leadership. The American Civil...... [full story]

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] 7-2 Monday in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council [SCOTUSblog backgrounder] that Arizona's law requiring that proof of citizenship be provided in order to register to vote is preempted by federal law. The court found that Proposition 200 [text] is preempted by the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) [official website], which requires states to use the federal voter registration form. The NVRA was passed in 1993 with the purpose of increasing...... [full story]

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] 5-4 Monday in Maracich v. Spears [SCOTUSblog backgrounder] that an attorney's solicitation of clients is not a permissible purpose covered by the litigation exception to the Driver's Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) [text]. Under the DPPA, disclosure of personal information contained in the records of state motor vehicle departments (DMVs) is prohibited except for a purpose permitted by an exception listed in 1 of 14 statutory subsections. Subsection (b)(4) permits obtaining...... [full story]

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] 5-4 Monday in Alleyne v. United States [SCOTUSblog backgrounder] that any fact that increases the mandatory minimum sentence is an "element" that must be submitted to the jury, overruling its 2002 decision in Harris v. United States [opinion]. Harris was a 5-4 splintered opinion that allowed a judge to be the fact-finder when increasing mandatory minimum sentences, as opposed to requiring the question to go to the jury. Monday's decision...... [full story]

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] 5-3 Monday in Federal Trade Commission v. Actavis [SCOTUSblog backgrounder] that reverse payment settlements can sometimes violate antitrust laws. A reverse payment settlement, better known as a "pay to delay" settlement, is an agreement in which a patent holder pays a competitor to delay them from entering the market. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) [official website] challenged one such agreement as a violation of antitrust laws, but the US Court...... [full story]

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