U.S. Courts News Reporter
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A lawyer’s legal advice is privileged. A court cannot order the lawyer or the client to disclose it. But a lawyer’s nonlegal advice is not privileged. What happens when advice is partly legal and partly nonlegal and the two parts cannot be untangled? In such dual-purpose situations, does the privilege protect all the advice or none of it?
On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear opposing answers to that question in a case known as In re Grand Jury… Read the rest
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This week we highlight cert petitions that ask the Supreme Court to consider, among other things, whether the justices’ decision to prevent non-unanimous convictions in Louisiana also prohibits Puerto Rico from authorizing non-unanimous acquittals, and whether a law firm can protect under attorney-client privilege communications for which legal advice was a significant, but not primary, purpose.
In Ramos v. Louisiana, the Supreme Court ruled … Read the rest
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The FBI called it “Operation Flex”: a counterterrorism investigation in southern California. When three of the Americans targeted by the FBI learned of the investigation, they filed a lawsuit in federal court, alleging that the FBI and its agents had discriminated against them based on their religion and had conducted illegal searches. That lawsuit is now before the Supreme Court, which will hear argument Monday on whether it should be dismissed under the “state secrets” privilege or whether a … Read the rest