Category Archives: Supreme Court

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Blog, Legal News, Supreme Court

Supreme Court ruling suggests neuroscience could upend US legal system

By on February 10, 2016 at 12:30 pm

If one wants to go hunting for fossilized remains, they need not look further than the United States legal system. Based upon what amounts to medieval precedents from English common law, our present legal code is so out of step with decades of neuroscientific findings as to be rendered almost ridiculous.

While it would take nothing short of a complete overhaul to bring our legal system up to date with neuroscience, a premise cogently argued by Dr. David Eagleman in his article for The Atlantic “The Brain on Trial,” there are signs science is beginning to penetrate the anachronistic outer shell of the US Supreme Court. Last week the Supreme Court ruled that a 2012 precedent banning mandatory sentences of life without parole for juvenile killers must be applied retroactively. This would potentially allow hundreds of American children convicted of homicide to be rehabilitated and rejoin society.

At the heart of the Supreme Court decision was the scientific evidence that the human brain does not reach full maturation until well into one’s early 20s. Prior to that, humans are biased towards serial risk taking, as every observant parent will readily attest. These findings make it clear that teenage killers aren’t playing with the same deck of cards as adults and the law needs to reflect.

While this is intuitively sensible to many of us, it nonetheless required a landslide of scientific evidence to overturn the old sentencing pattern. This serves to illustrate just how stodgy and antiquated a legal system we are living with. But change it must, for as science marches on and the gap between legal tenet and scientific understanding continues to grow, we will increasingly bump up against a discontinuity between the two. This gap is only tenable up unto a point, and all the evidence suggests we’re quickly approaching that juncture.

For those curious to peer into the looking glass and see what legal reform is likely to take place as a result of neuroscience, there are several indicators that can point in the correct direction. To explore these, let’s dive into the strange world of neuroscience as it applies to criminal tendencies. Many of the most interesting cases in neuroscience involve lesions to the brain with resulting changes in behavior. The history of the discipline is littered with examples like that of Phineas P. Gage, a railroad construction foreman who lost a large portion of the frontal lobe due to a gruesome job accident. One of the most surprising results of the accident were the changes to his personality, transforming him from a mild mannered householder into a bawdy and brawling miscreant.

Today, neuroscience has established without a shadow of doubt that small, almost invisible lesions to the brain can have a drastic impact on behavior, deeply calling into question old notions of criminal culpability. A person who otherwise appears normal may unwittingly be suffering from a brain disorder that has a profound impact on their decision making.

Take the case of a man referred to in the scientific literature as Alex. In 2000, Alex suddenly developed an overwhelming appetite for child pornography. Hitherto, he had been a normal and by all accounts wholesome member of society. He could not account for this new and insatiable desire, but it quickly landed him in front of a judge. On the night before he was to report for prison sentencing, he experienced a terrible headache and submitted himself to the hospital. Here he was found to possess a massive tumor in his orbitofrontal cortex. When the tumor was removed, his unusual sexual proclivities disappeared and he returned to being the devoted husband and householder of before.

Read Full Article – http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/222653-supreme-court-ruling-suggests-neuroscience-could-upend-us-legal-system

Blog, Divorce, Family, Legal News, Supreme Court

Rocco Ritchie Allegedly Pictured Smoking Amid Custody Battle: ‘This Is Exactly What Madonna Has Been Afraid Of,’ Says Source

BY JEFF NELSON

02/08/2016 AT 07:10 AM EST

Madonna and Guy Ritchie‘s custody battle rages on.

Over the weekend, U.K.’s The Sun posted photos of the exes’ underage son Rocco allegedly smoking with friends in London while under his father’s care.

“This is exactly what Madonna has been afraid of,” a source tells PEOPLE. “Rocco still isn’t back in school – and now this. He is just a rebellious teenager, but he needs guidance and direction from his father.”

The teen had been on tour for a few months with Madonna, 57, but left to go live with his father, 47, in the U.K. in December because, as sources previously told PEOPLE, he prefers his father’s laid-back parenting style.

However, when Rocco refused to return home to his mother for the holidays, a judge reportedly ordered him to return to New York for his parents to sort out his living situation. Despite the order, Ritchie has yet to return Rocco to the United States, and a source close to the singer alleges Rocco has missed some school. As a Ritchie source told PEOPLE last week, Madonna even visited her son in between tour legs to make a plea for him to come home.

As a Ritchie source told PEOPLE last week, “It’s about a fundamental difference in parental philosophies,” adding the filmmaker views his ex’s “old-school” approach as “counter-productive” and “harming his self-esteem and confidence at such a crucial part of his life.”

But a friend of the former couple – who finalized their divorce in 2008 – believes the custody squabble was caused in part by their contentious history.

“This is far beyond a situation about Rocco – it’s about a situation between Madonna and Guy,” the friend told PEOPLE last month. “They don’t have a good relationship; it’s more of a power fight between them and if he can one-up her. This is the best way he can do it.”

Madonna and Ritchie are due in New York Supreme Court for a hearing March 2; reps are not commenting.

Full Article From  – http://www.people.com/article/madonna-guy-ritchie-custody-battle-rocco-smoking-underage

Blog, Civil Rights, Legal News, Supreme Court

New state voting laws face first presidential election test

, USA TODAY10:22 p.m. EST January 29, 2016

WASHINGTON — Battles are being waged across the country over new voter ID laws and other election changes that have never before been tested in a presidential election.

National and local civil rights groups also have launched grass-roots efforts to fight state laws that they say could suppress voting by minorities and the elderly.

President Obama joined the cause in pledging during his Jan. 12 State of the Union Address to travel the country lobbying for steps to make voting easier.

“You’re going to see some ramping up of activism,’’ said the Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP. “The president is right, but everybody should be joining in that (effort).’’ Barber’s group will lead a voting rights rally Feb. 13 in Raleigh.

Some of the new state election laws require would-be voters to show specific forms of identification. Others cut back on the time period that voters can cast ballots early, or make it more difficult to register to vote.

Supporters of the laws say they protect against voter fraud. They say Obama and voting rights groups should leave the issue to states.

“It seems that the president is moving to … federalizing the way we handle elections,’’ said Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Fifteen states have enacted more restrictive election laws never before tested in a presidential election, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

Those states — Alabama, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin — account for 162 electoral votes of the 270 necessary to win the presidency.

Myrna Pérez, director of the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights and Election Project, said voters in some of those states, “are going to be voting in a presidential election with fewer federal protections than they’ve had in the last 50 years.”

In some states, new voting laws took effect soon after a 2013 U.S. Supreme Courtdecision nullifying a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Under that provision, states and other jurisdictions with a history of voter discrimination — mostly in the South — had to obtain advance permission, or “pre-clearance,” from federal officials before making any changes to their election systems.

The new laws attracting the most attention were adopted by Republican-run state legislatures and focus on voter ID requirements. Thirty-three states have voter ID laws — some enacted many years ago — that will be in place on Election Day in November, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Mississippi’s 2012 voter ID law didn’t hamper participation in last year’s governor’s race, according to Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann.

The law requires would-be voters to show one of 10 forms of photo ID. Eligible IDs include a driver’s license, a firearms license, a passport, and any state or federal government ID bearing a photo.

​Hosemann said Mississippi is the only state that wasn’t sued by the Justice Department over its voter ID law, “because we did it right.’’

“President Obama doesn’t have to come here to talk about voter ID because that’s in our rearview mirror … We’re moving on,’’  he said.

Last week, Hosemann proposed an election law package that includes allowing people to register to vote online, a 21-day early voting period, tougher penalties for election-law crimes, and moving the state’s presidential primary up by a week to the first Tuesday in March. The package is expected to be part of legislation introduced next week.

“I’m just real pleased about where we’re going in Mississippi,’’ Hosemann said. “Right now it’s such a difference from where we were half a century ago.’’

Derrick Johnson, president of the Mississippi NAACP, which opposed the voter ID law, said the group continues to review complaints and monitor its implementation.

Read Full Article – http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/01/29/new-state-voting-laws-face-first-presidential-election-test/79534420/

Blog, Business Law, Civil Rights, Criminal, Drug Companies, Legal News, Supreme Court

How Misguided Drug Policies Are Failing the EDM Community

The legal crackdown on ecstasy has only made dance music more dangerous for everyone

BY
ON JANUARY 27, 2016, 9:00AM
 In 2002, a bipartisan group of three Republicans and four Democrats led by then-Senator Joe Biden responded to growing public concern about MDMA use. A flurry of legal pressure had risen from the drug-related death of 17-year-old Jillian Kirkland, who passed away after an evening at New Orleans’ State Palace Theatre in 1998. Nearly four years later, the Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act, aka the R.A.V.E. Act, was referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
The loosely worded act was an extension of the 1986 “Crack House Statute,” under which promoters and event organizers could be charged with “maintain[ing] a drug-involved” premise. Wondering what that phrase actually means? So have US promoters, venue owners, advocates, artists, and fans since a slightly augmented act — the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act — was tacked onto a 2003 Amber Alert bill, which passed without a vote or much debate. Like most US drug policies, the act has hindered true harm reduction within club and festival culture.
During what has been reported as the plateau of MDMA use and resultant hospitalizations in the US, the DEA sent baby-faced undercover agent Michael Templeton to the site of Kirkland’s death to acquire a firsthand account of the environment and the interactions between club owners, drug dealers, and revelers. During a six-month period in early 2000, Templeton and a fellow DEA agent were able to, according to a Time report, purchase 45 hits of ecstasy. Instead of arresting any of their dealers, the DEA and the New Orleans Police Department gathered info to prosecute State Palace managers Robert and Brian Bruner, as well as promoter Donnie Estopinal, aka Disco Donnie.
The feds weren’t just building their case on the ecstasy hits, but the culture itself: uptempo beats, touching and massaging, glow sticks, availability of free water, and even the energetic style of dancing. “The country was a lot more conservative and much less open-minded,” remarks Estopinal via telephone about the era. “Scary times in this industry … [we] didn’t know who would be next.”
Unable to convict any party under the Crack House laws, the government pushed for new regulations that would allow for easier prosecution. By naming easy access to free water and “chill rooms” as indicators of drug-involved premises, authorities eliminated two primary harm reducers in order to make their next arrests. While the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act has yet to be used to successfully prosecute a single promoter or venue owner, the lack of those harm-reduction essentials has itself claimed multiple lives.
After heading to D.C.’s Echostage with some of her fellow University of Virginia Alpha Phi sorority sisters on August 30th, 2013, Shelley Goldsmith consumed unadulterated MDMA as many of her classmates had done since heading off to university. Later, she would succumb to hyperthermia, possibly to do excessive dehydration, and eventually die of cardiac arrest at the age of 19.
Eight months later, Shelley’s mother, Dede Goldsmith, would lead the collective efforts to Amend the R.A.V.E. Act. “In this situation, it became very clear that there is a problem with the law, but also a problem on college campuses in terms of identifying and supplying harm-reduction techniques for these substances just like there already is with alcohol,” says Goldsmith via phone.

Misinformation about MDMA is rampant. In contrast to underage drinking, little has been done at universities and colleges to properly educate young adults on the risks associated with club drugs. As Goldsmith points out, “[There are] organizations like SSDP (Students for Sensible Drug Policy) that work with more of an alternative crowd, but no one that really reaches out to Greek Life.” Given the increased risk of drug use within the US Greek system, that’s one communication gap that needs to be bridged.

 

“Everyone feels safe to come together around the drug war. ‘Those evil drugs, we gotta get ‘em,’” quips Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies’ (MAPS) Policy and Advocacy Manager Natalie Ginsberg.

Even though we are nearly 50 years removed from the cultural renaissance that was 1968, politicians are still wary of the PR associated with progressive drug reform policies. While Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) has assisted Goldsmith in officially connecting with the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), and Goldsmith herself has been appointed to the Virginia Commission on Youth, no legislator has officially supported or introduced an amendment initiative. And Goldsmith doesn’t envision any campaigning politician to support the policy shift in the foreseeable future.

 

Full Article – http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/01/how-misguided-drug-policies-are-failing-the-edm-community/

Blog, Civil Rights, Legal News, Personal Injury, Supreme Court

Erin Brockovich appeals to Porter Ranch residents as law firms push gas leak suits

Alice Walton and Louis Sahagun Contact Reporters

Movie-famous activist Erin Brockovich stood in front of 400 Porter Ranch residents on a recent weeknight and told a disturbing personal story.

“When I first came to Porter Ranch I couldn’t believe it,” she said of her visit to the community closest to Southern California Gas Co.’s leaking well. “I was in somebody’s house and within 10 minutes, I started feeling kind of dizzy.”

She said she saw a doctor who told her she “had what they called a chemically induced kind of bronchitis.”

The message was clear. If Brockovich, 55, became ill after just 10 minutes, Southern California Gas Co.’s ruptured well must be harming anyone who breathes the fumes even for a short time — and for that, the victims should get compensation. Brockovich and the law firm she was advocating for, Weitz & Luxenberg, invited the residents to join their lawsuits against the gas company.

Across the region, other law firms are holding similar meetings and running advertising campaigns using a mix of dire warnings about health risks and reduced property values, promises of money and practical advice to try to persuade aggrieved Porter Ranch families to join lawsuits.

Since the leak began at the Aliso Canyon well nearly three months ago, at least 25 lawsuits have been filed seeking damages from the utility and its parent firm, Sempra Energy. The attorneys say their take could range from almost nothing to more than one-third of the awards, depending on the outcome of the cases.

A majority of the lawsuits have been filed by residents of Porter Ranch, a community of 30,000 people in the rolling hills of the north San Fernando Valley. The legal actions claim negligence, hazardous activity, nuisance and trespass and seek compensation for emotional and physical injuries, as well as for diminished property values.

Read Full Article – http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-porter-ranch-lawyers-20160119-story.html