Articles Posted in supreme-court

The US Supreme Court held that taking DNA from those arrested for “serious” offenses is constitutional and is in the same vein as taking fingerprints and photos of arrestees. In Maryland v. King, the Defendant was arrested on a felony and a DNA swab of his mouth revealed he was the previously unknown assailant in a…

On April 18, 2013, the United States Supreme Court made a ruling that directly affects Drunk Driving Cases in California and across the country. The Supreme Court case is Missouri v. Mcneely, 2013 DJDAR 4918. Previous to this court ruling it was generally held that if a driver suspected of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol…

About two years ago Republican Governor Jan Brewer and the Arizona legislature passed a bill making it legal for local police to stop people and make inquiries about their immigration status. The US Constitution specifies that matters of immigration shall come under the purview of the Federal Government only. As a result, the Attorney General…

The Georgia Supreme Court upheld the murder convictions of an Atlanta couple. The parents had been found guilty by a jury in 2007 for malice murder, involuntary manslaughter, felony murder, and cruelty to children. The incident is from 2004, when the parents took their 6 week infant to the hospital for breathing problems. The infant…

After an order from the U.S. Supreme Court, California has to eliminate 33,000 inmates from its prisons due to overcrowding and basically inhumane conditions. Inmates will be released, sent to other states or sent to county jails to serve their sentences. Various county officials expressed their reservations over the reduction plan which has to be…

San Quentin has done some remodeling. Using inmate labor and $853,000 taxpayer money the prison has a new execution chamber. A revision of the chamber stemmed from a federal court order addressing deficiencies in the process. The chamber itself is bigger; there is an adjacent room where the inmate would be for the six hours…

A federal judge in San Francisco recently found that the ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional because it denied homosexuals equal treatment under the law and served no legitimate government purpose. A majority of Californians voted in favor of the ban so naturally many people were upset about the court’s decision. Supporters of the ban…

Everyone knows from the many cop shows on TV that once a person is arrested and before they can be questioned by police they must be read their Miranda rights. Miranda refers to the 1966 case Arizona v. Miranda where the U.S. Supreme Court decided that statements may not be used against a Defendant if…