Tag Archives: Justice Scalia

Racist Criminal Laws Examined At The Supreme Court

Posted April 18th, 2012
Shon R. Hopwood
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This week the Supreme Court considered, in Dorsey v. United States and Hill v. United States, whether the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 applies retroactively to those prisoners sentenced before the act took effect. A number of media outlets reported on the oral arguments, including  Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSBlog; Adam Liptak at the New York Times; Mike [...]
Posted in Criminal Law |( Leave a comment)

Attaching a GPS Device to a Car Is a Fourth Amendment Search

Posted January 23rd, 2012
Shon R. Hopwood
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In a big loss for the federal government, the Supreme Court held today that when the government attaches a GPS device to a vehicle to monitor the vehicle’s movement, the government conducts a Fourth Amendment search. Justice Scalia wrote the opinion for the Court in United States v. Jones, No. 10-1259, backed by the Chief Justice, [...]
Posted in Criminal Law, Supreme Court |( 1 Comment)

Do We Finally Have Consensus on the Failings of the Drug War?

Posted October 7th, 2011
Shon R. Hopwood
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It appears that we may have finally reached a consensus on the simple proposition that the War On Drugs is bad policy. Well, kind of. I know what you’re thinking, are there really people out there who believe that the drug war is good policy? Unfortunately, yes, especially if they happen to be employed by [...]
Posted in Criminal Law, Supreme Court |( Leave a comment)

An Interview with the Legal Writing Pro: Ross Guberman on Writing Style, the Supreme Court, and the Next Project

Posted July 19th, 2011
Shon R. Hopwood
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Ross Guberman is President of Legal Writing Pro, Adjunct Professor at George Washington University Law School, and author of Point Made: How to Write Like the Nation’s Top Advocates. I learned of Ross’s work after reading an essay entitled “Five Ways to Write Like John Roberts.” In the essay, Ross distills five techniques that the [...]
Posted in Uncategorized |( 1 Comment)

Should We Listen To An Argument of Fear? Relieving Overcrowded Prisons May Actually Increase Public Safety

Posted June 3rd, 2011
Shon R. Hopwood
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If we release prisoners to relieve overcrowding, then prisoners will rape, rob and murder our citizens. That is frightening; therefore we shouldn’t release prisoners, even though the State cannot afford to humanely incarcerate them. This argument was at the heart of Justices Scalia and Alito’s dissenting opinions last week in the California prison case. The argument, [...]
Posted in Constitutional Law, Prisoners, Supreme Court |( Leave a comment)

Justice White for the Apples and Justice Scalia for the Oranges

Posted March 21st, 2011
Palma Joy Strand
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Scalia Supreme Court dissents as judicial activism of process
Posted in Constitutional Law, Opinions, Uncategorized |( 2 Comments)