Articles Posted in Criminal Law

In what will potentially become a landmark decision, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California gave the order as a part of a denial of a search warrant for a property in Oakland.


Posted in: Criminal Law, Privacy

Two Florida district courts have reached clashing conclusions on whether a suspect in a criminal case can invoke the Fifth Amendment to withhold their iPhone passcode from law enforcement. In the older case, State of Florida v. Stahl, the court ruled that a criminal suspect does not have this right under the Constitution. (This case involved…


On Friday, October 19, 2018, U.S. District Court Judge Andrew L. Carter of the Southern District of New York sentenced the CEO Of Natural Sapphire Company, Michael Arnstein, to nine months in prison for conspiring to forge a federal judge's signature on fake court orders compelling Google to remove negative reviews from Google search results related to Natural Sapphire Company. Arnstein previously plead guilty on September 15, 2017.


Posted in: Criminal Law

In a ruling that affects all drug cases tested at the state lab between 2009 and 2013, the Massachusetts Supreme Court concluded that former state chemist Sonja Farak's "widespread evidence tampering" had compromised thousands of criminal drug convictions.


Posted in: Criminal Law

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently decided a case allowing the government to produce evidence from the Internet Archive (often referred to as the “Wayback Machine”). The July 2018 ruling supports a similar holding from the Third Circuit in 2011.


From August 21 to September 9, inmates across at least 17 states plan to refuse to work to draw attention to poor prison conditions and exploitative labor practices in American correctional facilities.


Tagged: prison, protests

In October, Canada is set to legalize the recreational use of marijuana nationwide. Legalization theoretically could mean that American consumers could cross the border to consume marijuana in Canada and possibly bring it back to the U.S., but in reality this is unlikely to happen, at least for now. While some states…


California’s felony murder rule may soon be curtailed, if a bill in the state legislature gets approved.


On Friday Special Counsel Robert Mueller issued an indictment of 12 Russian military officers for conspiring to hack into the computers of U.S. persons and entities involved in the 2016 presidential election. The 11-count indictment goes into great detail and specificity, charging that the hacking began at least in March of 2016 and continued through November 2016.


Posted in: Criminal Law

The law in Tennessee stated that failure to pay court fines and other fees associated with an arrest or imprisonment that lasted more than a year is grounds for taking away a person's driver’s license. The consequences of the law for such individuals means that they will have a more difficult time to earn income, as many employment opportunities require a valid driver’s license. Additionally, driving to and from work without a valid driver’s license runs the risk of getting fined or arrested if caught.