After
Decades of Action, Supreme Court Cools on School Cases [School
Law Blog, 9/30/14]: Justice Robert H.
Jackson famously warned in 1948 that the U.S. Supreme Court should not become
"a super board of education for every school district in the nation."
Check out this graphic from
the article:
Video footage was supposed to offer jurors objective
evidence. Sometimes, it doesn't
[Vox blog, 9/30/14]: As America moves toward
accepting more video evidence from surveillance, dashboard, and body cameras in courtrooms, researchers are finding that these
relatively new technologies come with some serious drawbacks and caveats.
Ninth Circuit rejects Commerce
Clause challenge to Alameda County, California's Safe Drug Disposal Ordinance [Trial Insider / Cal Appellate
Report, 9/30/14]: The Safe Drug Disposal Ordinance requires any prescription
drug producer who either sells, offers for sale, or distributes brand name and
generic drugs in Alameda County, to collect and safely dispose of the County’s
unwanted prescription drugs, no matter which manufacturer made the drug in
question.
Read the
decision in PRMA v. County of Alameda:
Successful Freedom of Information Act request reveals
how Reagan executive order empowers surveillance [1st Amend. Coalition, 10/1/14]: Freshly
declassified documents from the Reagan years show how the National Security
Agency uses unchecked presidential powers to conduct surveillance. Reagan’s
Executive Order 12333 is used to collect e-mails of U.S. citizens and to
intercept overseas internet traffic between Google and Yahoo data centers.
Constitution
Check: Is there a right to vote before election day? [Constitution
Daily, 9/30/14]: Lyle Denniston, the
National Constitution Center’s adviser on constitutional literacy, looks
at the Supreme Court’s decision to postpone some early voting in Ohio, and what
the court could consider on the issue in the near future.
http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2014/09/constitution-check-is-there-a-right-to-vote-before-election-day/
Fox: The Plastic Bag
Referendum and the Connection to the Sec. of State Race [Fox and Hounds, 10/1/14]: If the referendum
filed to overturn SB 270, the plastic bag ban law signed by Governor Brown
yesterday makes the ballot, arguments against the ban will deal with lost
manufacturing jobs and charging consumers 10-cents for paper bags that go into
the grocers’ pocket. Those arguments should be highlighted during the signature
drive and later in the campaign if the referendum qualifies.
GOP casts Clinton as
third term for Obama [The Hill,
10/1/14]: Seizing on Obama’s low approval ratings, the Republican National
Committee (RNC) and outside GOP spending groups are casting the president’s
former secretary of State as being in lockstep with his agenda.
Can Democrats replace Ginsburg? [“Rule 22” blog, 9/25/14]: The Senate’s
increasingly partisan process can be traced back to the very
late-1980s/early-1990s, but really it has only recently begun to fully blossom
in the last 15 years. The last decade of Senate politics is arguably the least
cooperative, most partisan in its history. That is not to say past policy
disagreements were not stark in previous generations. But today’s obstruction
and procedural hardball is unmatched.
Governor signs bill
requiring annual child abuse reporting training [CC Times, 10/1/14]: Spurred by more than two
years of this newspaper's reports on school employees failing to properly
report child abuse, Assembly Bill 1432 will change state law from
"strongly encouraging" training to making it mandatory within the
first six weeks of each year for certificated and classified workers.
Governor's bill signing
spree [KPCC, 10/1/14]: The list
compiled by KPCC:
Brown wraps up ed bills,
leaves some heads shaking [Cabinet
Report, 9/30/14]: Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed a bill that would have made
kindergarten mandatory while at the same time signing one intended to show the
overwhelming boost that optional year gives kids headed to first grade.
A few thoughts on Heien v. North Carolina [Volokh Conspiracy blog, 9/30/14]: The first argued
case in the new Supreme Court term will be Heien v. North Carolina,
a Fourth Amendment case about whether a reasonable mistake of law can create
cause for a Fourth Amendment search or seizure.
A Plea Bargaining Strike [Gerard Magliocca in Concurring Opinions, 9/30/14]:
The New Yorker’s article on Kalief Browder is astonishing. Browder is
arrested for theft. He does not receive bail. He is imprisoned for
three years on Rikers Island without trial. Then the prosecutor dismisses
the case (because the alleged victim moved to another country).
Student 'intimidated'
into reciting Pledge of Allegiance gets apology [LA Times, 10/1/14]: Compelling an atheist high
school student to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance against his will
was a mistake rooted in ignorance of his 1st Amendment protections, a
misperception that apparently existed throughout the Oak Park Unified School
District, the superintendent said.
On Hobby Lobby, Ginsburg Was Right [Jeffrey
Toobin in The New Yorker, 9/30/14]: The great Oliver Wendell Holmes once observed that important
Supreme Court decisions “exercise a kind of hydraulic effect.” Even if the
authors of such decisions assert that their rulings will have limited impact,
these cases invariably have a profound influence. So it has been with Burwell v.
Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.,
which is less than six months old.
How Serious Is the Supreme Court
About Religious Freedom? [The Atlantic, 9/30/14]: A new case will test whether the justices'
defense of conscience in Hobby Lobby applies to minority
religions like Muslims, or just to Christians.
Divorce
law out of sync with same-sex marriage [AP, 9/30/14]: Cori Jo Long, 31, and Brooke Powell, 30, did
everything right before they married. They fell in love slowly, based on years
of friendship stretching back to high school. They planned their nuptials
carefully for about a year, choosing to travel from Texas to New Hampshire in
2010 as same-sex marriage spread. Sadly, bad times set in three years later,
but uncoupling has proven far more difficult. The two women are now trapped in
a state of bitter, desperate "wedlock," an emerging antithesis to
same-sex marriage victories for those who want to divorce but can't find a way
around legal snarls that prevent it.
Colorado Supreme Court considers
whether workers can be fired for marijuana use [Denver Post, 9/30/14]: A Colorado Supreme Court hearing that will have major implications for
marijuana and the workplace ended Tuesday with the state's most esteemed
justices mostly scratching their heads.
New Desegregation Documentary and Curriculum
Available for Free: The Memphis 13 [Ed Law Prof blog, 9/30/14]: For those who have not seen it,
I highly recommend Daniel Kiel's documentary, The Memphis 13, which explores
the integration of Memphis schools through the voices of those who did it.
The film is now available for streaming online and includes a curriculum.
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