Notable Supreme Court Cases & Rulings

Discussion in 'Law & Justice' started by waltky, Mar 22, 2012.

  1. waltky

    waltky Well-Known Member

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    Plea bargaining becomes a whole new ballgame...
    :shock:
    Supreme Court Makes Landmark Ruling On Plea Deals
    Mar. 21, 2012 - WASHINGTON - A divided Supreme Court ruled for the first time Wednesday that the guarantee of effective legal representation applies to plea-bargain agreements, significantly expanding the constitutional rights of defendants as they move through the criminal-justice system.
     
  2. waltky

    waltky Well-Known Member

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    The David vs. Goliath couple trump the EPA...
    :cool:
    Supreme Court sides with Idaho property owners over EPA
    March 21, 2012 | WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has come forcefully down on the side of an Idaho couple in its fight against the Environmental Protection Agency, unanimously ruling Wednesday that the couple can challenge an EPA order to stop construction of their home on property designated a wetland.
     
  3. Phil

    Phil Well-Known Member

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    I don't get it. How do I-the defendant-know about deals the prosecutor offered my attorney if they never tell me? Even the specific case mentioned in the article involved a guess about what might have happened, a stupid guess but a guess nevertheless.
    I think it's usually 50-50 whether a defendant would suffer more if a trial followed. I pleaded guilty to a crime I didn't commit because I was about to lose my job for sneaking off to court every three weeks to wait for a hearing.
     
  4. PatrickT

    PatrickT Well-Known Member

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    Plea bargaining should be prohibited. Over-charging should be prohibited.

    Plea bargaining harms society, harms the victim, harms all future victims of that criminal, and benefits only the criminals. Well, it benefits the attorney for both sides but they're covered by the term criminals.
     
  5. waltky

    waltky Well-Known Member

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    Granny hopes dem lib'ral, activist judges don't side with the terrorists...
    :bomb:
    Supreme Court considers taking up anti-terror laws
    May 21, 2012 WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court, after a four-year break from terrorism issues, is set to decide as soon as today whether to again take up constitutional challenges to anti-terrorism laws involving wiretapping and the Guantanamo prisoners.
     
  6. waltky

    waltky Well-Known Member

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    Say what?? They never heard of fraud or misrepresentation???...
    :omfg:
    Justices dismiss law making lying about military honors a crime
    June 28th, 2012 - The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a federal law making it a crime to falsely claim military medals earned.
     
  7. waltky

    waltky Well-Known Member

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    Scotus okays stem cell research...
    :cool:
    Supreme Court won't stop embryonic stem cell research
    January 7, 2013 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won't stop the government's funding of embryonic stem cell research, despite some researchers' complaints that the work relies on destroyed human embryos.
    See also:

    High court rejects Medicare challenge
    January 7, 2013 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has turned away a challenge from former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and other Social Security recipients who say they have the right to reject Medicare in favor of continuing health coverage from private insurers.
     
  8. Anders Hoveland

    Anders Hoveland Banned

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    I am all for more rights and protection of the accused, but it seems the Supreme Court has been overextending its authority recently. What exactly are the limits to the power of the Supreme Court?
     
  9. waltky

    waltky Well-Known Member

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    Anders wrote: I am all for more rights and protection of the accused, but it seems the Supreme Court has been overextending its authority recently. What exactly are the limits to the power of the Supreme Court?

    Good question...

    ... under our system of checks and balances...

    ... supposedly the other two branches can get together and overturn a Scotus ruling by passing legislation to negate its effect...

    ... however, in my lifetime I can't recall that ever happening...

    ... probably because they mainly stick to matters of constitutional law...

    ... which gives them the last say in what is constitutional...

    ... and what is not...

    ... which gives them more ability to check the other two branches of gov't.

    ... than the other way around.
    :wink:
     
  10. waltky

    waltky Well-Known Member

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    Searches limited to immediate vicinity when suspect not home...
    :cool:
    High court limits detention powers in searches
    19 Feb.`13 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has limited the power of police to detain people who are not at home when their residence is to be searched.
     
  11. Shiva_TD

    Shiva_TD Progressive Libertarian Past Donor

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    Personally, as a libertarian, I oppose plea bargains as they are based upon coercion by the prosecution to obtain a conviction. Over 90% of all criminal convictions are the result of a plea bargains and in all cases coercion exists. The perfect example of this is the Tommy Chong conviction.

    http://old.post-gazette.com/localnews/20030912chong0912p5.asp

    Federal agents actually used entrapment to arrest Tommy Chong and then threatened to prosecute his wife and his son if he refused to plead guilty. Faced with the possibility of his wife and son being sent to prison he was coerced into pleading guilty as opposed to fighting his own case based upon entrapment. That was pure BS and violated his legal Rights to a fair trial.

    I also believe that the 2nd degree murder charges against George Zimmerman are an attempt to obtain a conviction for the lesser crime of aggravated assault. Zimmerman is faced with the possibility of 20 years or more in prison if convicted of 2nd Degree Murder but would probably only receive about 5 years if he plea bargains this down to aggravated assault. That's one hell of a choice to have to make. Fight it and possibly lose and go to jail for over 20 years or plea bargain for a much shorter sentence.

    It would be my position that pleading guilty to a lesser crime should not be allowed nor should the prosecution of others be dropped in a plea bargain deal. The crime should be established properly by the prosecution and coercion should never be allowed such as was the situation in the Tommy Chong case.

    A person should not be subjected to "greater punishment" because they choose to oppose the prosecution in court.
     
  12. Phil

    Phil Well-Known Member

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    This is fascinating. Breyer has finally done something important and he had to side with Breyer and Alito to do it. Clarence Thomas has seniority on the losing side of a 6-3 decision. That might be the first time in his career that he has had seniority on either side even in defeat. He chose correctly in letting Breyer write the dissent. If Breyer could have persuaded any of the women to come over he might have ended up in the majority, making it the high point of both Breyer and Thomas' careers. Watch and see if they collaborate again in the future-if only to make their careers memorable for something.
    Meanwhile Roberts' real motivation in letting Obamacare through may be coming to light. By carving his decision so carefully he may have stolen the hearts of Sotomayor and Kagan and will have them on his side in many controversial cases in the future.
    As usual Kennedy gets to write the big decision, because whenever he agrees with Roberts they win.
    this may also mean that Alito is getting ready to break off from Roberts and possibly overthrow scalia as the voice of conservatism on the court. Scaia is almost 20 years older than Alito so Alito can expect to inherit that mantle, but seizing it prematurely in a coup might make for high drama.
    This decision appears to be written so narrowly that it will not change the lives of any police officers, just give defense attorneys one more small point to stall the case and increase their income by a few thousand dollars a few times per year. (that's the purpose of most laws anyway.)
     
  13. waltky

    waltky Well-Known Member

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    Court pondering if allowing DNA on those not convicted is a violation of the 5th amendment...
    :confusion:
    Court takes up question of arrestee DNA sampling
    Feb 26,`13 WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday struggled with what one of the justices called its most important criminal procedure case in decades, whether to let police take DNA from those arrested, but not convicted, in hopes of using it to solve old cases.
     
  14. waltky

    waltky Well-Known Member

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    Suit over FISA thrown out...
    :confusion:
    Justices block lawsuit over foreign intelligence surveillance
    February 26th, 2013 - The Supreme Court rejected an effort by a group of attorneys, journalists and others to proceed with a lawsuit over the federal government's sweeping electronic monitoring of foreigners suspected of terrorism or spying.
     
  15. Phil

    Phil Well-Known Member

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    So it looks like the conservatives on the court are giving a liberal Presidential administration the right to take away the liberties liberals have given. This is the problem with political labels. Liberalism has not seen the light, only the way to get what they want by using the confused logic of conservatives against them. They already achieved this with the concept of stare decisis, which forces conservatives who hold to it to uphold past liberal court decisions while leaving liverals free to expand those same decisions.
    The other case is tricky, it might prompt officers to charge everyone they arrest with an outrageous false charge just so they can collect his DNA and find out if he ever really did something bad. That would be bad even though we'll solve many crimes.
     
  16. waltky

    waltky Well-Known Member

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    More on Clapper v. Amnesty International, No. 11-1025...
    :confusion:
    Justices Turn Back Challenge to Broader U.S. Eavesdropping
    February 26, 2013 WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned back a challenge to a federal law that broadened the government’s power to eavesdrop on international phone calls and e-mails.
     
  17. waltky

    waltky Well-Known Member

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    Supremes takin' another look at Section 5 of Voting Rights Act of `65...
    :confusion:
    US Supreme Court Reviews Key Civil Rights Law
    February 27, 2013 WASHINGTON — A key civil rights law from the 1960’s that helped ensure minorities could vote is now under review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
     
  18. waltky

    waltky Well-Known Member

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    Granny says ya s'posed to be a citizen to vote in our `lections...
    :grandma:
    Top US Court Weighs Voter Law Against Illegal Immigrants
    March 18, 2013 WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on whether the state of Arizona has the right to craft its own voting laws to prevent illegal immigrants from casting ballots, a process critics say opens the door to discrimination against legal voters.
     
  19. Shiva_TD

    Shiva_TD Progressive Libertarian Past Donor

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    Fraud and misrepresentation are only relevant if a person profits from the fraud or misrepresentation in which case it would be a civil and not a criminal act. The person "defrauded by misrepresentation" is able to seek compensation and even punative damages in a civil lawsuit under current law.
     
  20. Shiva_TD

    Shiva_TD Progressive Libertarian Past Donor

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    When it comes to the protections of our inalienable Rights I actually have a problem with the "majority" vote criteria used by the US Supreme Court. I expressed those concerns in another thread.

    http://www.politicalforum.com/civil...amendment-protect-our-inalienable-rights.html

    It is my belief that no law or action in dispute should be ruled "constitutional" unless all of the Supreme Court justices agree that it is constitutional. Whenever we see a decision that is disputable it always relates to a split decision by the US Supreme Court where the arguments by the disseniting justices have merit.

    We can always live without a law or action of dubious constitutionality and the fact that any Supreme Court Justice would oppose the law or action establishes doubt as to the constitutionality of the law or action. The US Supreme Court should be required to affirm the constitutionality of any law or action by unanimous consent for the protections of the Rights of the Person in the United States. It is a high standard but when it comes to our Rights and the authority of government it should require this high standard. Split decisions compromise our inalienable Rights.
     
  21. Tennyson

    Tennyson Member

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    I see where you are going, but I see several issues with this method. First it would be unconstitutional, and would run counter to the structure of the federal judiciary protocol. Cases must originate in a federal court, then generally work their way through the appellate process. Almost every single law passed is considered constitutionally dubious by one party or another, so this would encompass all laws. This would also encompass all state and municipal laws that seem constitutionally dubious. The shear volume of laws would make it impossible. Split decisions are the direct result of politically motivated appointments, and this dates back to John Adams.

    - - - Updated - - -

    I see where you are going, but I see several issues with this method. First it would be unconstitutional, and would run counter to the structure of the federal judiciary protocol. Cases must originate in a federal court, then generally work their way through the appellate process. Almost every single law passed is considered constitutionally dubious by one party or another, so this would encompass all laws. This would also encompass all state and municipal laws that seem constitutionally dubious. The shear volume of laws would make it impossible. Split decisions are the direct result of politically motivated appointments, and this dates back to John Adams.
     
  22. Shiva_TD

    Shiva_TD Progressive Libertarian Past Donor

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    Please note that I proposed this as a Constitutional Amendment so it wouldn't be "unconstitutional" to require unanimous consent to validate the law as Constitutional. For the most part this wouldn't affect State laws which are generally under the State Constitution and not the US Constitution with some noteable exceptions. States have far more latitude in the passage of laws than the US government under the 10th Amendment.

    There would be no increase in the number of laws being challenged related to their Constitutionality. Overwhelmingly the vast majority of laws passed are not of dubious Constitutionality.

    What we would unquestionably see are fewer laws being passed though.

    For example we wouldn't have laws related to Social Security or Medicare, Federal Unemployment insurance, and the ACA ("Obamacare") today because the cases of Helvering vs. Davis, Stewart Machine vs. Davis, and Carmichael vs. Southern Coal & Coke and Gulf States Paper were all split decisions by the US Supreme Court in 1937. Those three cases greatly expanded the federal governments role where the majority opinion basically established that Congress could decide whatever it wanted was in the "general Welfare" of the United States and then tax and spend related to it. These cases fundamentally gave Congress the authority to do pretty much as it pleases and removed the requirement for the enumeration of roles and responsibilities in the US Constitution. From my perspective it changed the Constitution from being addressed under contract law as now Congress could unilaterally assume roles and responsibilities not delegated to it by the States.

    By way of example I've often used the analogy of an auto repair contract. I can take my car to a shop for a brake job and sign the work order (contract) for the shop to do my brakes. This authorizes the shop to do what is necessary to repair my brakes, including subcontracting out the turning of the rotors to a machine shop, and I'm obligated to pay for those repairs. The repair shop cannot look at my car and decide in needs an engine overhaul, rebuild the engine, and then bill me for that work. The Supreme Court cases related to Social Security fundamentally established that Congress could decide my engine needed to be overhauled, rebuild my engine, and then bill me for the expendatures even though they had no written authorization to do so.

    http://www.socialsecurity.gov/history/court.html

    I don't disagree that "split decisions" result in political oppointments (although not in the context that many believe) and argue that we shouldn't be playing "politics" with our inalienable Rights. Either laws should be Constitutional or not and there should be no doubt about the Constitutionality of a law. This can only be assured if there is unanimous consent related to the Constitutionality by the Supreme Court.
     
  23. Tennyson

    Tennyson Member

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    Since the Constitution does not define the role or mythology of the judiciary, an easier route, as any amendment has zero chance of being passes as divided as the country is, would be to pass a judiciary act such as the Judiciary Act of 1789.

    It is the state laws that end up in the Supreme Court since the incorporation doctrine. I believe there would be an increase unless a delineating criteria was set.

    One good plus as you state would be fewer laws passes.

    I agree with you 100% regarding the FDR era laws.

    I agree with you entirely. I think a more comprehensive solution, and it will never happen, would be the elimination of the 14th Amendment, a definitive and narrow definition of the commerce clause aligning with its original intent and meaning, and the same with the welfare clause. This would take the Supreme Court out of the equation.
     
  24. Shiva_TD

    Shiva_TD Progressive Libertarian Past Donor

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    I had to actually reread the 14th Amendment and I still can't find any logical reason for it's repeal. If this is related to the 1st clause then I would state that there isn't a reason to repeal but that this clause was absolutely necessary because of the violations of the inalienable Rights of the Person by our state and federal government.

    http://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment14/amendment.html

    This addressed previously unenumerated inalienable Rights of the Person that had been violated as well as enumerating protections based upon those Rights.

    First and foremost it enumerated the criteria for natural born citizenship based upon jus soli (i.e. the Right of Soil) which had always been the unenumerated criteria for natural born citizenship in the United States. This was confirmed by the US Supreme Court decision in the United States v Kim Wong Ark. Natural born citizenship based upon jus soli is an inalienable Right that was being violated prior to the 14th Amendment. This protection is expanded to ensure the protections of privileges and immunities of the citizens against infringement by statutory laws as well as enumerating the protections of life, liberty and property for all persons.

    These 1st clause of the 14th Amendment also enumerated that inalienable Right of Equal Protection Under the Law. Every person subjected to the authority of the United States government has a natural (inalienable) Right to being treated equally under the laws of the United States.

    Note: The Kim Wong Ark decision happened to be a split decision that statutory laws denying citizenship to Kim Wong Ark were unconstitutional but even had the decision gone the other way with a split decision the law would still have been struck down under the criteria I've proposed.

    The 1st clause was absolutely necessary because of the violations of the inalienable Rights of the Person that were being violated in the United States at the time. It was necessary to establish the explicit criteria for "natural born citizenship" as that is an inalienable Right of the Person. It was absolutely necessary to estabish equal protection under the law for all persons as that inalienable Right was also being violated. The 1st clause in the 14th Amendment is one of the best clauses in the US Constitution.

    Now, if there are problems with the other clauses then I'm open to listening to them.

    I agree on the "commerce" clause as that was about facilitating commerce, not restricting it as well as the "welfare" clause as Article I Section 8 actually enumerates those roles and responsibilities the federal government was given under the US Constitution to provide for the general welfare. We, of note, added a few additional roles and responsibilities for the federal government in providing for the general welfare in later amendments.
     
  25. waltky

    waltky Well-Known Member

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    Granny says high drug prices is a bitter pill to swallow...
    :grandma:
    Supreme Court: Can Drug Companies Pay to Delay Generics?
    March 25, 2013 WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators are pressing the Supreme Court to stop big pharmaceutical corporations from paying generic drug competitors to delay releasing their cheaper versions of brand-name drugs. They argue these deals deny American consumers, usually for years, steep price declines that can top 90 percent.
     

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