Federal and state courts reported a combined 13 percent decrease in authorized wiretaps in 2023, compared with 2022, according to the Judiciary’s 2023 Wiretap Report. Arrests in cases involving electronic surveillance increased, while convictions decreased.
Judiciary News – United States Courts… Read the rest
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The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that a federal anti-bribery law does not make it a crime for state and local officials to accept a gratuity for acts that they have already taken. Writing for a six-justice majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh explained that state and local governments already regulate gifts to officials, and so the federal law “does not supplement those state and local rules by subjecting 19 million state and local officials to up to 10 years in … Read the rest
After the results of the European elections, where the presidential political party lost a significant number of seats at the European Parliament, the president of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron decided to dissolve the National Assembly. This dissolution was effected by the presidential “Decree of June 9, 2024 dissolving the National Assembly“, which was published in the Official Journal of the French Republic on June 10, 2024.
At the time of the dissolution, several projects and proposals of laws … Read the rest
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Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles, commentary, and other noteworthy links related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Monday morning read:
- Supreme Court to weigh state restrictions on gender-affirming care for youths (Lawrence Hurley, NBC News)
- U.S. Supreme Court blocks the state’s Rio Grande water deal with New Mexico (Alejandra Martinez & Berenice Garcia, The Texas Tribune)
- Is Trump shielded from criminal charges as an ex-president? A nation awaits word from Supreme Court (Mark Sherman,
Rising numbers of women in England are experiencing domestic abuse at Christmas, with Refuge, the leading support service in England, saying that calls and contacts to the national domestic abuse helpline in 2023 were still far higher than pre-pandemic, with 171,490 calls in the year ending March 2023, Rachel Hall reports for The Guardian. The charity is warning that Christmas, when there are always more incidents of domestic abuse, presents specific challenges such as social isolation and increased costs … Read the rest
This may very well be a week with two blog entries for three reasons. First, there is the blog that will be the subject of this blog entry. Second, if I have this figured right, this is the last week that the Supreme Court has for issuing opinions before their summer recess. I am particularly waiting on the Loper Bright case, which we discussed here. Third, the week of July 1, I will be out of town all week.
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The Supreme Court on Friday sent the case of an Arizona man convicted of drug possession back to the state courts. Jason Smith argued that when an expert witness testified for the prosecution about drug analysis performed by another forensic scientist, it violated his right under the Sixth Amendment “to be confronted with the witnesses against him.”
In an opinion by Justice Elena Kagan, the court agreed with Smith that the requirements of the Sixth Amendment’s confrontation clause normally … Read the rest
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The court handed a win to a former-city council member in Texas on Thursday, clearing the way for her federal civil rights claim to move forward. Sylvia Gonzalez contends that her 2019 arrest on charges that she had tampered with government records came in retaliation for her criticism of the city manager in Castle Hills, Tex. In a brief unsigned opinion, the justices reinstated Gonzalez’s claim after a federal appeals court had thrown it out, holding that the lower … Read the rest