u.s. supreme court

No Absolute Immunity For Sheriff, Prosecutor Who Created False Testimony That Locked Up An Innocent Man For 16 Years2 11 May 2022 The thing about absolute immunity is it tends to be absolute. Except when it isn’t. This immunity — one that protects prosecutors, judges, and certain politicians...

Court Suppresses Phone Search, Telling Cops A Warrant With No Probable Cause Is Like Having No Warrant At All 22 July 2022 Not every crime is linked to a cell phone, no matter what cops may think. True, cell phones are omnibuses of information, containing overflowing email inboxes, social...

Entire Police Dept Abandons Their Posts and Quits and the Town is Not Devolving Into Lawlessness This month, without warning, the taxpayers of Kenly, N.C. found out that the police department they have been paying for "protection," no longer wished to serve them. 25 July 2022 This month...

Homeland Security Is Buying Its Way Around the Fourth Amendment 19 July 2022 American taxpayers pay to be spied upon. That's one takeaway from new documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has been examining how federal agents spent millions to purchase massive...

Supreme Court Tells Cops To Stop Playing Doctor The unanimous decision is a good first step for getting law enforcement out of prescription decisions. 15 July 2022 No one witnessing a burglary in progress would call 911 and ask for a doctor. Likewise, it makes no sense for a doctor to consult...

Kentucky Supreme Court Says Warrants Are Needed For Real-Time Cell Location Pings 1 July 2022 In 2018, the Supreme Court declared warrantless access to historical cell site location information unconstitutional, given the privacy implications of being able to track someone’s movements over...

Possible Problems With Lethal Injection Drugs Stop Tennessee Execution Meanwhile in South Carolina, the state Supreme Court delays a planned execution by firing squad. 22 April 2022 A scheduled execution in Tennessee Thursday night was put on temporary hold by the governor, but it's not...

The Supreme Court Says You Can Sue Cops Who Frame You on False Charges The previous standard barring such lawsuits made “little sense," wrote Justice Brett Kavanaugh for the majority. 5 April 2022 Police officers could frame people, file bogus charges, conjure evidence out of thin air—and, in...

The spineless wimp cop is suing as "John Doe": https://www.aclu.org/cases/doe-v-mckesson Louisiana Supreme Court Allows Police Officer's Lawsuit Against Black Lives Matter Organizer DeRay Mckesson didn’t cause or encourage violence against police in Baton Rouge in 2016. The court says he can...

ICE settles with immigrant rights leader who sued over first amendment violations Ravi Ragbir said he was targeted for deportation because of protected speech criticizing ICE and the immigration enforcement regime. 24 February 2022 A NEW YORK CITY activist who alleged in court that he was...

Secret Surveillance Warrants Remain Secret In November, the Supreme Court declined to consider an ACLU petition arguing that the public has a First Amendment right to see the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court's classified decisions. 24 February 2022 For nearly a decade, the American...

Anti-Crime Checkpoints in Jackson, Mississippi, Blatantly Violate the Fourth Amendment To "get wanted individuals off the streets," police are stopping drivers without any evidence that they have broken the law. 23 February 2022 "We're checking driver's license, proof of insurance," a...

Arizona House Committee Approves Bill To Criminalize Filming Cops on the Job "You'll have a bunch of people who plead to avoid trial or go broke trying to vindicate their rights." 22 February 2022 The Arizona House Appropriations Committee on Monday green-lit a bill that would criminalize...

There Is Nothing 'Conservative' About Letting Police Violate Our Rights Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin's support for qualified immunity is in opposition to the principles he says he stands for. 21 January 2021 Newly-minted Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin appears on track to become somewhat of a...

You Can't Solve Homelessness by Making It a Crime In an August ruling, Washington's Supreme Court found that a homeless plaintiff's truck qualified as his homestead. 17 January 2022 A man's car is his castle. So declared the Washington Supreme Court, more or less, when it ruled last August...

Police Misbehavior Is a Crucial Threat to Liberty Cops in Los Angeles killed a young girl in a department store dressing room by accident while firing at a suspect armed with nothing more than a bike lock. 14 January 2022 Whenever I write about police abuse and use-of-force issues, I often...

Not specifically police-related but very relevant given how often cops lie in their reports and fabricate evidence: Tenth Circuit Denies Qualified Immunity To Social Worker Who Fabricated A Mother's Confession Of Child Abuse 3 January 2022 For the second time in about as many weeks, an...

New California Law Makes It Easier To Sue Cops Who Violate Civil Rights 4 October 2021 California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed a bill (SB 2) that will eliminate several legal immunities that shield law enforcement from civil rights lawsuits, a move that will make it easier for victims...

"Innocence isn't enough": Arizona urges the supreme court to send Barry Jones back to death row The case has far-reaching implications: Should new evidence be ignored by the federal courts even when it exposes a wrongful conviction? 30 December 2021 THE MORNING OF the oral argument in Shinn...

In 2021, Qualified Immunity Reform Died a Slow, Painful Death Despite bipartisan momentum at the federal level, Congress still couldn't get anything over the finish line. 30 December 2021 The year 2021 was widely seen, almost certainly foolishly, as the end of a dark era and the beginning of...