This nation is currently engaged in vigorous discussion about how to address brutality and targeting of minorities committed by law enforcement. In some cases, even where liability is admitted as to racially targeted policing, a court may significantly reduce the amount of damages awarded by a jury to victims of police brutality through use of a procedure call “remittitur...
Data breaches are becoming a more frequent and more troubling part of modern life. When customer or employee information is stolen en masse, lawsuits often follow. Courts have frequently dismissed such cases very early for want of Article III standing. For purposes of standing, courts are faced with the question of whether or not the fact of a breach is sufficient for plaintiffs...
As the wage-market remains stagnant, and student indebtedness continues to rise, many graduates struggle to balance their student loan debt. Generally, when a debtor files for bankruptcy, her student loan debt is not dischargeable. However, under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(8), debtors can discharge their student loans through bankruptcy if they can prove that maintaining those student...
In 2011, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker enacted 2011 Wisconsin Act 23. This law required that most of the state's voters show an acceptable form of photo identification to cast a ballot. State officials contended the regulation was necessary to detect and prevent fraud, promote public confidence in the electoral process, and improve election administration. On the other hand...
One of the defining characteristics of the U.S. Constitution is its guarantee of certain enumerated rights, including the right to free speech. The First Amendment guards against governmental regulations that infringe on the right to free speech. In recent years, local governments across the nation have enacted local laws and ordinances that regulate or prohibit panhandling in...
Sometimes businesses advertise offers for particular products or services. In addition to product advertising, businesses frequently engage in “image” advertising, where they promote their brand generally rather than a specific product. Both types of advertising may constitute commercial speech. The U.S. Supreme Court commonly defines commercial speech as “speech that proposes a...
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law passed in 1993 to account for changing demographics in the United States. Its intent is to improve work-life balance for employees while improving the overall productivity of employers. Under 29 U.S.C. § 2612, eligible employees are protected should they decide to request unpaid leave from work for the birth of a child, for...
When Jerry Markadonatos was arrested in the Village of Woodridge, Illinois, he was required to pay a thirty-dollar booking fee as required by Woodridge Municipal code, without any procedural process. Mr. Markadonatos challenged this fee as a violation of due process. He eventually brought both a procedural and substantive due process claim. By the time his claim reached the...
Proponents fighting for the recognition of same-sex marriage as well as the legal ability to enter into the institution of marriage have typically argued that same-sex marriage bans violate the Fourteenth and Fifth Amendments of the United States Constitution. More specifically, they argue that the bans infringe upon an individual’s fundamental right to marry, discriminate on the...
Undocumented immigrants within the United States are human. Whether they exist as "people" protected by the Bill of Rights is another question entirely. The Second Amendment states "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." The phrase "the people" appears in the First, Second, Fourth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments to the United States Constitution...
A writ of habeas corpus is often the last resort—the final "Hail Mary"—for prisoners seeking relief. Dubbed the "Great Writ," a writ of habeas corpus is used to bring a prisoner before the court to determine the legality of the prisoner's incarceration or detention. This writ, utilized since our country's inception, is protected by the Constitution, and is available to all...
In recent years, the Supreme Court has continuously reiterated the importance of the right to marry, finding it to be a fundamental right protected by the Constitution. Activists across the nation have celebrated the Court's continued protection of this fundamental right as it has expanded the rights of same-sex couples. What has received somewhat less attention is how the Court...
The Internet is a temptation which many courts have been unable to resist. Over the past twenty years, judges at trial and appellate levels have increasingly used Internet research in crafting their judicial opinions. Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit is a huge proponent of this proposition, and in August 2015, he authored an opinion which took this independent Internet...
In EEOC v. Mach Mining, LLC, the Seventh Circuit sharply diverged with its sister circuits when it held that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)'s statutorily mandated conciliation process is immune from judicial review. In Mach Mining, the Seventh Circuit addressed the provision contained in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that requires the EEOC to...
Congress passed the safety valve to mitigate the disparate and often harsh sentences mandatory minimums impose on low-level drug defendants. But judicial interpretation continues to impose disparate sentences. In 2014, in United States v. Acevedo-Fitz, the Seventh Circuit reaffirmed its position in an ongoing circuit split regarding the safety valve. The safety valve requires...
Federal courts disfavor granting collateral relief from final criminal judgments. This mentality is premised on a need for finality in the criminal process; the idea that, at some point, a criminal case must come to an end. Post-conviction relief is available, however, where an error in the trial court causes a miscarriage of justice that must be remedied to preserve the...
Anti-abortion activists have sought to undermine and restrict a woman's right to choose ever since 1992, when the Supreme Court replaced Roe v. Wade's strict scrutiny analysis with the looser undue burden test in Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. Under Casey's undue burden test, a state regulation cannot have the "purpose or effect of placing a significant obstacle in the path...
Class actions are an essential tool for plaintiffs seeking relief from relatively minor harms. In recent years, the Supreme Court has handed down a collection of rulings that seem to have created additional hurdles––or heightened those already in place––to obtaining class certification under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 23. One such ruling, Comcast v. Behrend, seemed to...
Integral to the success of a business is its ability to protect its trademark. When another individual or business infringes upon a business's trademark, the infringed user can bring a claim under the Lanham Act, which codifies federal trademark law, in part to protect consumers from confusion as to the source of a product or service. An essential question is whether a trademark...
Sometimes, law enforcement officers violate the Fourth Amendment and in the process find and seize evidence they wish to use in a subsequent criminal prosecution. In these circumstances, a question that has long troubled courts, and a question that is becoming more and more difficult to answer, is whether such evidence should be admissible at trial. In Weeks v. United States and...