The Incorporation of the Seventh Amendment [Gerard Magliocca in Concurring Opinions, 8/15/14]: Recently a federal district court held that the Seventh Amendment applies to that territory and to the states.  While I am uncertain if this will stand up on appeal (it’s not clear that the issue need even be reached in this case), I did want to offer two thoughts about the opinion.

http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2014/08/the-incorporation-of-the-seventh-amendment.html

Legislators End Suspense … But Still, Mystery Moves on Bills [KQED, 8/15/14]: The young lobbyist leaning on the railing at the front of the hearing room seemed dumbfounded. Why had the bill he was supporting been killed by the powerful appropriations committee of the Assembly? No one would tell him. And, after this week’s traditional live-or-die hearings for hundreds of bills, he wasn’t alone. 

http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2014/08/15/california-legislators-end-suspense-but-not-mystery-of-picking-bills/

California bill curbing ‘willful defiance’ suspensions opens school discipline debate [Sac Bee, 8/15/14]: The way he sees it, a stolen backpack could have derailed Brian Hernandez’s academic career

http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/16/6632212/california-bill-curbing-willful.html#mi_rss=Latest%20News

Local police involved in 400 killings per year [USA Today, 8/16/14]: Nearly two times a week in the United States, a white police officer killed a black person during a seven-year period ending in 2012, according to the most recent accounts of justifiable homicide reported to the FBI. 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/14/police-killings-data/14060357/

Lawmakers scrutinize militarizing local police [Politico, 8/16/14]: The practice of transferring military equipment to local police departments is coming under increasing scrutiny by lawmakers incensed over images emanating from Ferguson, Missouri. 

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/ferguson-militarizing-police-lawmakers-110062.html

See where California murderers most often get away with their crimes [Sac Bee, 8/16/14]: Barely half of all murders in California are solved and cleared by police. About 21,600 Californians were murdered between 2003 and 2012, according to the California Department of Justice. Police identified and found about 12,200 murderers during the same period - for a clearance rate of roughly 56 percent.

http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/14/6629659/see-where-california-murderers.html

Justice tells women: ‘Rooting out unconscious bias is much harder’ [Santa Fe New Mexican,, 8/16/14]: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told a Santa Fe audience Friday that discrimination against women is more subtle than it used to be and can be more difficult to combat than the overt discrimination she encountered when she began her legal career more than 50 years ago.

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/justice-tells-women-s-symposium-rooting-out-unconscious-bias-is/article_2fa41ac0-9b09-566d-ae0b-2b78e00cb265.html