- Skull and crossbones to follow: San Francisco pols decree health warnings on soft drink, Frappuccino billboards [Steve Chapman]
- Judge criticizes feds’ punitive handling of AIG rescue as unlawful, but says no damages are owed to Hank Greenberg [Bloomberg, Thaya Knight/Cato, Gideon Kanner who predicted outcome, W$J]
- Congress resisting Obama/HUD scheme to force communities to build low-income housing [Jonathan Nelson/Economics21, Marc Thiessen, Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing or AFFH]
- California, following New York, proposes 50 hours of mandatory pro bono work for prospective lawyers [John McGinnis]
- Five part Renee Lettow Lerner series on historical role and present-day decay of juries [Volokh Conspiracy, introduction, parts one, two, three, four, five] Related: Mike Rappaport and follow-up on Seventh Amendment, Liberty and Law.
- Latest Scotland drunk-driving blood threshold: Drivers “warned that having ‘no alcohol at all’ is the only way to ensure they stay within the limit” [Independent via Christopher Snowdon]
- How not to argue for bail reform: Scott Greenfield vs. NYT op-ed writer [Simple Justice]
Posts Tagged ‘jury nullification’
New Hampshire Supreme Court restricts jury nullification law
Tending to confirm the predictions of those who hoped or feared, as the case may be, that the legal system would not actually be willing to encourage juries to take into consideration the justice of the outcome as well as the facts of the case in deciding whether to acquit. [Tuccille, our post two years ago when the law passed]
July 29 roundup
- Say nay, laddie: Unsettling new Scotland law will assign each child state interest guardian (“named person”) [BBC, Scottish government, more, Josie Appleton/Spiked Online, opposition group and another] More: Skenazy.
- Why Judge Alex Kozinski doesn’t like jury nullification [Reason interview last year]
- “Asbestos Ruling Boosts Transparency —- and Threatens Plaintiffs’ Attorneys” [Paul Barrett, Business Week, on Garlock ruling]
- Winona, Minn. town cap on rental conversions violates property owners’ rights [Ilya Shapiro, Cato]
- Challenger claims Ohio attorney general’s hiring of debt collection firms amounts to pay to play [Columbus Dispatch]
- Mixed verdict in Philadelphia traffic court prosecutions [Inquirer, ABA Journal, earlier]
- Save the date! Cato’s annual Constitution Day returns Wed., Sept. 17, with panelists and speakers like P.J. O’Rourke, Nadine Strossen, Tom Goldstein, Judge Diane Sykes, Roger Pilon, and a host of others [details]
New Hampshire passes jury nullification law
It’s a fairly mild enactment as these things go, but any hint that juries are free to acquit a defendant to avoid injustice is deeply controversial in establishment legal circles [Tim Lynch/Cato Institute, Radley Balko, Reason]
April 23 roundup
- Fearful of adverse Supreme Court ruling, Department of Justice said to have exercised pressure on city of St. Paul to buckle in housing-disparate-impact case [Kevin Funnell]
- Justice Janice Rogers Brown: we can dream, can’t we? [Weigel] The Brown/Sentelle opinion everyone’s talking about, questioning rational basis review of economic regulation [Hettinga v. U.S., milk regulations; Fisher, Kerr]
- Claim: “The Bachelor” TV franchise discriminates on basis of race [Jon Hyman]
- Chicago sold off municipal parking garages. Good. It also promised to disallow proposals for private parking nearby. Not good [Urbanophile]
- Bad day in court for Zimmerman prosecution [Tom Maguire, more, Merritt]
- “I want some systematic contacts wherever your long arm can reach” — hot-‘n’-heavy CivPro music video satire [ConcurOp, language]
- Federal judge dismisses charge against man who advocated jury nullification outside courthouse [Lynch, Sullum, earlier]
Further update roundup
- More on prosecution of “jury nullification” activist Julian Heicklen [Brian Doherty, Tim Lynch/Cato, earlier]
- Age-bias litigant who complained about 88 year old judge is reassigned same judge [NYDN via Ellie K., earlier]
- Court certifies Nutella class action [Russell Jackson, earlier here and here]
- D.C. agency dismisses Banzhaf’s complaint about single-sex dorms at Catholic U. [Caron, earlier]
- After SCOTUS decision in Brown v. Plata, L.A. faces possible release of thousands of inmates [PoL, earlier here, here and here, Federalist Society panel]
- Cautionary tale of star attorney Stanley Chesley [Corporate Counsel] Ken Feinberg, Harvey Pitt back off expert avowals in Chesley cases [Robert Ambrogi] Judge Bamberger disbarred in Kentucky fen-phen scandal [ABA Journal]
- Texas doctor will surrender license in case where nurses faced false criminal charges [PoL, earlier]
- Mistrial in case of New Jersey lawyer Paul Bergrin [Star-Ledger, earlier]
February 28 roundup
- Feds indict activist for handing out “jury nullification” tracts outside courthouse [Volokh, Greenfield] Anti-abortion billboard taken down after demand by NYC pol; co. says fear of violence was spur [NY Times]
- Pigford class action (USDA bias against black farmers) defended and assailed [Friedersdorf and readers, Daniel Foster/NR, Mark Thompson/LOG, earlier here, here, here, etc.]
- Avik Roy on Pennsylvania defensive-medicine study [Forbes]
- Backstory: Scott Walker battled AFSCME for years as Milwaukee County exec [Aaron Rodriguez, Hispanic Conservative] “Wisconsin’s teachers required to teach kids labor union and collective bargaining history” [Daily Caller]
- “The return of the $0 Costco fuel settlement” [CCAF]
- Historic preservation vs. the obesity crusade: should a vintage Coke sign in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood come down? [SFGate]
- Law blog that covers a single beat closely can turn itself into a valued practice tool [Eric Turkewitz on John Hochfelder’s New York Injury Cases]
- “Soda suits: Banzhaf browbeats school officials” [five years ago on Overlawyered]
U.K.: “Jury decides that threat of global warming justifies breaking the law”
“The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a jury decided yesterday. In a verdict that will have shocked ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage.” (Michael McCarthy, Independent (U.K.), Sept. 11).
Palin and jury nullification
Expect some controversy over hints that the Alaska Governor may have expressed sympathy with the argued right of criminal juries to decide on matters of law as well as fact, perhaps in the process acquitting some violators of unjust laws. Despite its extensive pedigree in Anglo-American legal history, that position has become highly unpopular with most authorities in bench and bar, even as it remains popular with many Americans at the grass roots. (Eugene Volokh, Sept. 3). Some blog background on the subject: Randy Barnett, Dan Markel, Anne Reed, Eric Muller, Tim Lynch.