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From the Czech embassy: As many I was deeply shocked by the tragedy that occurred in Boston earlier this month. It was a stark reminder of the fact that any of us could be a victim of senseless violence anywhere at any moment. As more information on the origin of the alleged perpetrators is coming […]

Law enforcement has successfully captured Dzhokar Tsarnaev, and DOJ has announced that Tsarnaev is being interrogated without first being read his Miranda rights because the DOJ thinks that the public safety exception to Miranda applies. Back in 2010, I blogged a lot about Miranda in this setting. Here are a few reminders about the law […]

My Mayer Brown LLP colleagues Andy Pincus and Kevin Ranlett have a very good post on the Class Defense blog about Kiobel (the Alien Tort Statute Case) and how broadly it ought to be read. Much worth checking out, if you’re at all interested in the ATS.

From Bauer v. Marmara (D.D.C. Apr. 18, 2013): This lawsuit arises from the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip …. The plaintiff claims to have identified several ships that violated the blockade in order to provide assistance to terrorist groups in the Palestinian territories. The plaintiff thus brought suit under the Neutrality Act, a […]

  Sources: ACLU on street cameras and CISPA; EFF on street cameras and CISPA

The City of Othello, Washington gives us the Othello Police Department. That must be one of the places that puts on “domestic violence training.” UPDATE: For more on a related topic, see The Trojan Doctrine: Trademarks and the Law of the Horse.

Dear Harvard Law Review executive editors, Are you still enforcing the rule against unmatched “on the other hand”s, which Eugene discusses below? If so, please get rid of it; it’s stupid. I vaguely recall having tried to get rid of it in 2003, and I vaguely recall that I was unsuccessful. Sincerely, An executive editor […]

The US Supreme Court released its long-awaited Kiobel decision this morning, affirming the Second Circuit’s dismissal of the plaintiffs’ Alien Tort Statute claims.  Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinion, joined by Justices Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Kennedy.  Justice Kennedy wrote a separate concurrence; Justice Alito did likewise, joined by Justice Thomas. Justice Breyer concurred in the judgment, […]

I enjoyed the quote from the end of the takings case that Eugene pointed to yesterday: Another judge might find the magistrate judge’s opinion or this opinion inexact in this or that particular of constitutional law. Nonetheless, this Ordinance is an unmistakable, abusive, and coercive misapplication of governmental power, perpetrated to cynically evade the Constitution. […]

This White House sure knows how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The President’s threat to veto CISPA (Download Cyber – S A P ) will likely kill cybersecurity legislation for the year. Here’s the sentence that I believe will eat away at support for the legislation among its last defenders in Silicon […]

That’s the headline of a new article at Slate. Readers of the blog may know that I’m skeptical of the rare and rarely enforced state laws that actually make it a crime to live together in what one characterizes as a polygamous relationship, even when one doesn’t claim any legal benefits based on that relationship […]

Tomorrow evening I’ll be back in my home town to participate in a debate on the regulation of hydraulic fracturing and shale gas development sponsored by the Philadelphia Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society.  I will be debating question “Does the Federal Government Need to Regulate Hydraulic Fracturing?” with Professor Amy Sinden of the Temple […]

Yesterday, President Obama nominated three individuals to serve as commissioners on the U.S. Sentencing Commission: Judge William H. Pryor, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, Judge Charles Breyer of the Northern District of California, and Professor Rachel Barkow of the NYU School of Law.  I agree with Doug Berman that these […]

Human Rights Watch reports, though I’ve also seen this in other sources, such as bdnews24.com, Reporters Without Borders, and Times of India (the latter heavily relying on the Human Rights Watch story): [F]our bloggers and a newspaper editor … are facing criminal charges …. Following the arrests of the bloggers, the government made clear that […]

The case is Genesis Health Care Corp. v. Symczyk, decided today. A brief excerpt: “Feel free to rele­gate the majority’s decision to the furthest reaches of your mind: The situation it addresses should never again arise.”