Category «Courts»

France Bans Judge Analytics, 5 Years In Prison For Rule Breakers

Artificial Lawyer – “In a startling intervention that seeks to limit the emerging litigation analytics and prediction sector, the French Government has banned the publication of statistical information about judges’ decisions – with a five year prison sentence set as the maximum punishment for anyone who breaks the new law. Owners of legal tech companies …

Subjects: AI, Courts, E-Records, Government Documents, Intellectual Property, Internet, Legal Research

Justice Department Clarifies Redactions To Mueller Report

The US government pushed back on a lawsuit by BuzzFeed News that seeks the Mueller report in its entirety: “The Department of Justice told a federal court judge that it cannot disclose any redacted parts of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report without harming ongoing national security investigations and other sensitive matters. BuzzFeed News and the …

Subjects: Censorship, Courts, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

Enforcing Federal Privacy Law – Constitutional Limitations on Private Rights of Action

CRS Legal Sidebar – Enforcing Federal Privacy Law—Constitutional Limitations on Private Rights of Action, May 31, 2019: “Over the last two years, the prospect of a comprehensive federal data privacy law has been the subject of considerable attention in the press and in Congress. Some Members of Congress and outside groups have developed many proposals …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Courts, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation, Privacy, Social Media

Facebook reportedly thinks there’s no ‘expectation of privacy’ on social media

cnet – The social network wants to dismiss a lawsuit stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal. “Facebook on Wednesday [May 28, 2019]reportedly argued that it didn’t violate users’ privacy rights because there’s no expectation of privacy when using social media. “There is no invasion of privacy at all, because there is no privacy,” Facebook counsel …

Subjects: Courts, E-Records, Legal Research, Privacy, Social Media

How Often Has the U.S. Supreme Court Struck Down a Federal Law? Part II

More often than you might think – Keith Whittington |The Volokh Conspiracy: “As I noted last week, there once was a robust political and scholarly debate over the answer to the question of how often the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down a provision of a federal statute. The question was thought to matter because …

Subjects: Congress, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

The Indian Law That Helps Build Walls

The Supreme Court’s legal abuse of Native Americans set the stage for America’s poor treatment of many of its vulnerable populations. By Maggie Blackhawk. Ms. Blackhawk is an assistant professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania. “The first two years of the Trump administration have brought us horror story after horror story about our …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

PBS Frontline – Supreme Revenge

Season 37: Episode 14 – “Inside the no-holds-barred war for control of the Supreme Court. From Brett Kavanaugh to Robert Bork, an investigation of how a 30-year-old grievance transformed the court and turned confirmations into bitter, partisan conflicts.” See also Law.com [subscription req’d] – New Documentary Examines Supreme Court Confirmations From Bork to Kavanaugh. “The …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

May Federal Prosecutors Take Direction From the President?

Bruce A. Green and Rebecca Roiphe, May Federal Prosecutors Take Direction From the President?, 87 Fordham L. Rev. 1817 (2019). [h/t Mary Whisner] “Suppose the president sought to serve as prosecutor-in-chief, telling prosecutors when to initiate or dismiss criminal charges in individual cases and making other discretionary decisions that are normally reserved to trained professionals …

Subjects: Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

The Lack of Diversity on the Magistrate Judge Bench

Jennifer L. Thurston, Black Robes, White Judges: The Lack of Diversity on the Magistrate Judge Bench, 82 Law and Contemporary Problems 63-102 (2019) [h/t Mary Whisner] “…From 2009 to 2016, females on the district court bench increased 13.2%, from 19.4% to 32.6%, and non-white district judges increased 10.6%, from 16.4% to 27.0%.24 During this same …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

US District Judge in DC rules Congress may subpoena records from Trump accounting firm

BuzzFeedNews: ” A federal judge in Washington, DC, on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s efforts to block a subpoena issued by House Democrats to his longtime accounting firm. US District Judge Amit Mehta wrote in a 41-page opinion that the House Oversight Committee had presented “facially valid legislative purposes” in subpoenaing Mazars LLP for financial …

Subjects: Congress, Courts, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research

Trump’s Lawyers Argue Congress Has Little Power To Investigate A Sitting President’s Personal Affairs

BuzzFeedNews – “As President Donald Trump fights investigations by the Democrat-controlled House on multiple fronts, a court hearing Tuesday highlighted his strategy to fend off inquiries into his personal business affairs. Trump so far is challenging congressional subpoenas for financial records — both personal and from the Trump Organization — in federal courts in Washington, …

Subjects: Congress, Courts, E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research