-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Oral arguments will be presented next week in a case involving the exigent circumstances exception to the Fourth Amendment. The idea behind the exigent circumstances exception is to relieve the police from the necessity of getting a warrant in cases involving emergencies. Emergencies such as when a suspect is destroying evidence or when police are in hot pursuit of a suspect.
The facts of the case:
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, preparing for a run for President, has granted clemency to two African-American sisters serving life sentences for an armed robbery 17 years ago. The sisters were convicted of robbing at gunpoint two men who were driving them to a nightclub in northern Mississippi in 1993. They had no prior criminal record and got $11.00. Each was sentenced to two life terms. Civil Rights activists have lobbied for their release arguing the sentences were too long.
Continue reading “Miss. Governor Frees Sisters Who Robbed $11 – But With A Catch”
Submitted by Mark M. Esposito, Guest Blogger
Dr. Zahi Hawass is none too happy with New York Mayor Bloomberg. The Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council on Antiquities has sent the Mayor a letter demanding the City preserve a 3500 year old obelisk known as “Cleopatra’s Needle” or send it back. Since 1881, the red granite monument has stood in Central Park near the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is nearly 68 feet high.
Continue reading “Egypt Demands Return of “Cleopatra’s Needle.””
The chief rabbi in the city of Holon, Avraham Yosef, has issued a religious decree banning women from driving — again bringing extremists in both Islam and Judaism to a mutually agreeable position with regard to women’s rights.
Continue reading “Driving Miss Delilah: Leading Israeli Rabbi Bans Women From Driving”
The Vatican is teaming up with the Discovery Channel in a reality show based on the Vatican’s case files and interviews with its top exorcists. While Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon might have had to wait for a Vatican murder to get access to the Vatican files, Discovery can do so with the promise of a reality show. It just shows that even the Pope cannot resist the temptation of a reality show any more than Sarah Palin.
Continue reading “The Exorcist Files: Catholic Church Agrees To Reality Show With the Discovery Channel”
In an important statement, Pope Benedict has stated that such theories as the Big Bang theory is evidence of God’s design. This is a far cry from the reaction to prior theories of scientists like Galileo. The statement occurs as researchers in Geneva at CERN are attempting to recreate conditions at the formation of the universe. Where is Tom Hanks when we need him?
Continue reading “The Pope Embraces The Big Bang As God’s Plan”
The mother of Takara Davis, 13, was in shock as she rushed with Takara to surgery after she was hit by a car on her way back from school. Takara was in a coma and doctors were rushing to save her life when a Las Vegas police officer pulled Kellie Obong aside . . . to hand her a ticket for her daughter’s jaywalking.
Continue reading “Police Officer Goes to Hospital of Comatose Teenager Heading into Surgery . . . To Give Mother a Ticket for Jaywalking”
In the video below, police appear to shoot a man in a wheelchair who was armed with knives and may have stabbed an officer. There are a number of questions raised by this video over the use of lethal force.
Continue reading “Video: San Francisco Police Shoot Man in Wheelchair”
While the legal profession debates the propriety of his decision to participate in the educational sessions for conservative new members of Congress, Associate Justice Antonin Scalia is also causing a stir over his public statement that the 14th Amendment does not prohibit discrimination against women or gays.
Continue reading “Scalia Publicly Rejects the Use of the 14th Amendment to Bar Discrimination Against Women and Gays”
While academics and commentators line up to denounce the plan of New South publishers to edit out the n-word from Huckleberry Finn, a federal jury is set to decide whether there is a different standard for a white person as opposed to a black person in using the n-word in the work place. Former Fox29 reporter-anchor Tom Burlington has sued his former station alleging that he was the victim of racial discrimination and a hostile work environment over the use of the n-word.
Continue reading “Federal Court Clears Way For Jury Trial on Whether There Is A Different Standard for Blacks and Whites In The Use of the N-Word”
The mainstream Islamic organizations have rallied in response to the assassination of of Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab province by one of his bodyguards. However, they are not rallying to denounce the killing but to celebrate it because Taseer had stood up against the country’s notorious blasphemy laws. Islamic leaders warned people not to mourn his death and warned other politicians that they could face the same fate if they tried to curtail blasphemy prosecutions. In the meantime, his killer, Mumtaz Qadri was showered with rose petals and kisses by supporters in court.
Continue reading “Mainstream Pakistani Islamic Groups Praise Assassin of Governor and Warn Others That They Would Be Killed For Opposing Blasphemy Prosecutions”
Colorado Senator Suzanne Williams (Dem. Aurora) is being accused of an extraordinary act in Amarillo, Texas. Police allege that, after her 3-year-old grandson was ejected in a head-on accident, Williams placed him back into a seat in her SUV after the wreck.
When the New York Jets were fined just $100,000 for the infamous tripping of Miami’s Nolan Carroll by Jets coach Sal Alosi, many of us remarked how relatively light the punishment was for such an unsportsmanlike act. It appears, however, that even that fine is too much for the management of the Jets, which is appealing the punishment.
Continue reading “Jets Appeal Fine Over Dolphin Trip”
In a ruling that could reach the Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit has held that San Diego’s Mount Soledad cross is unconstitutional. The 43-foot cross was erected to honor veterans of the Korean war. The case is Trunk v. City of San Diego, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 53 (January 2011), and the case could well be on its way to the United States Supreme Court where at least four justices are likely to question this analysis.
Continue reading “Ninth Circuit Declares Mount Soledad Cross To Be Unconstitutional”
In Barre, Vermont, Patrol Officer Zak Winston, 34, is facing a bizarre criminal charge that he first stole his neighbor’s television from under her Christmas tree and then, after police came to his house, tossed the TV into the Winooski River.
Continue reading “Vermont Police Officer Accused of Stealing Neighbor’s Television From Under Christmas Tree”