Give 16 year old Jessica Ahlquist an “A” for “chutzpa” for being the successful lead plaintiff in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU against a Cranston Rhode Island school district that forced the district to cover up an eight foot high prayer in the school auditorium. The prayer had been there for 49 years and …
Monthly Archive: January 2012
Jan 23 2012
Supreme Court Rules Police Attachment of GPS to Car Requires Warrant
Today the Supreme Court in United States v. Jones decided that the District of Columbia’s Police Department’s attachment of GPS device to a suspected drug dealer’s car without a proper warrant violated the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable search and seizures. In overturning the conviction of Antoine Jones, who had received a life sentence for …
Jan 13 2012
Battle over a Banana as the Velvet Underground Sues over Iconic Album Cover
The record that launched 10,000 rock bands is at the heart of a new lawsuit filed Wednesday by legendary rock band the Velvet Underground.The band, which emerged from the late ’60s avant garde New York scene, released their debut album “The Velvet Underground and Nico” in 1967 (the greatest year in rock history, BTW). The …
Jan 12 2012
Prosecutorial Misconduct Causes US Supreme Court to Overturn Murder Conviction -But Justice Thomas Just Doesn’t Get It.
In another blow to New Orleans DA Harry Connick (Father of the singer Harry Connick Jr) the US Supreme Court once again found that his office withheld exculpatory evidence from a defendant in a capital murder trial. There is a long history of problems in Connick’s office. In 1995, Esquire photographed him, for a piece …
Jan 10 2012
Georgia School Shows Zero Tolerance But Plenty of Idiocy
Congratulations to Gwinnett County School System for winning the coveted Courtroom Strategy Bonehead Legal Move of the Year Award for 2012. I know what your thinking – Oscar its only January How can you possibly award this now? Because I am confident that no application of a governmental rule or law will stop this one …