During the criminal trial, the court reporter was unable to capture substantial portions of the trial proceedings. So the stenographer instead recorded, “blah, blah, blah,” “blah blah,” “omitted,” or undecipherable characters instead of the words actually spoken. This is what
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Second chance for murder defendant due to potential Batson violation
At this criminal trial, the prosecutor used his peremptory challenges to remove a series of Black jurors from the case. The criminal defendant was convicted of capital murder but challenged the fairness of the trial due to what he claimed
Supreme Court narrowly interprets Federal Arbitration Act for intrastate bakery drivers
The Supreme Court last week narrowly interpreted the Federal Arbitration Clause — which favors arbitration and usually produces court rulings for management, which does not want cases in court but instead through the private arbitration process — to mean that
$76,000 First Amendment verdict is taken away
This case has been kicking around for quite some time. The plaintiff argues that the Town of Babylon (on Long Island) accused him of violating the Town’s rental permit requirements in violation of the First Amendment (he claimed the Town
Disparate impact case for social workers' licensing exam is rejected on appeal
This race discrimination claim alleges that the licensing exam for certain social workers discriminates on the basis of race because Black and Hispanic test-takers perform significantly worse than white candidates but that the Association of Social Work Boards, which administers
First Department reinstates sex discrimination case
The Appellate Division has reinstated a sex discrimination case against a securities firm on the basis that the case is not untimely and the plaintiff can argue that her termination was the product of a continuing violation. This is a
Bergstein & Ullrich prevail in striking down speech rules at West Point
Judge Lifts West Point’s Restrictions on Civilian Professors’ Speech
A
federal judge also said that the government had offered no real
justification for limiting the ability of a professor who sued to
express opinions in a Military Academy classroom.
Father wins constitutional appeal after the city seized his child due to mother's neglect
This case arose when the government determined to remove the child, KA, from the plaintiff-father, KW, on the basis that the child’s mother was unsuitable to raise KA due to neglect and problems relating to her prior children. KW paid
Union's case against Trump administration's funding requirements is moot
Here is another case that originates from the current political environment: a teachers’ union sued the U.S. Department of Justice, the Attorney General, and other high-ranking federal officials, challenging the Trump administration’s termination of approximately $400 million in federal funding
Supreme Court to deterimine if Title IX authorizes employment discrimination lawsuits
The Supreme Court is going to decide whether sex discrimination victims may sue schools and universities under Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in federally-funded educational institutions. This case will resolve a split in the lower federal circuits, many of