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Criminal Practice
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June 23, 2025
DOJ Sues Wash. Over New Abuse Reporting Rule For Clergy
The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday moved to join the Catholic Church's constitutional challenge of a Washington state law making clergy members mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse, saying the requirement violates priests' right to freely exercise religion by forcing them to disclose information shared during Confession.
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June 23, 2025
Justices To Review Liability For Forcing Prisoner's Haircut
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a former Louisiana prisoner's case for damages after guards forcibly shaved his head, removing the dreadlocks he maintained as part of his Rastafarian religion.
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June 20, 2025
Fla. Panel Reverses Life Sentence In Carjacking Case
A Florida appellate court reversed a life sentence for a man convicted of felony battery and carjacking, saying the lower court wrongly believed it didn't have the discretion to impose a lighter punishment.
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June 20, 2025
Wisconsin Judge Gets Court To Weigh Dismissal Before Trial
A Wisconsin federal judge overseeing the government's prosecution of a state judge for allegedly helping an unauthorized immigrant evade arrest canceled a jury trial scheduled for July, saying he will rule on her motion to dismiss first.
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June 20, 2025
Top Court Limits Sentencing Factors For Release Violations
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday limited what factors district judges may consider when sentencing defendants for violating the terms of supervised release, vacating the Sixth Circuit's findings that allowed lower courts to undertake the same analysis for revocation proceedings as primary sentencings.
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June 18, 2025
Ex-Public Defender Says Bogus Bias Reports Got Her Fired
The former chief public defender for Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, said Wednesday in a lawsuit that she was wrongfully accused of racial bias and unilaterally fired by the county manager, rather than by the county executive who had appointed her.
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June 17, 2025
Domestic Violence Groups Sue Feds Over Grant Restrictions
A group of domestic violence and sexual assault coalitions is asking a federal court to block the Trump administration from imposing restrictions on grants by the Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women, saying the new rules make it impossible to effectively operate their programs that help victims.
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June 17, 2025
Texas AG Seeks Execution In Shaken Baby Syndrome Case
The Texas attorney general's office has asked a state court to set an execution date for a man convicted based on a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, despite his case pending on appeal before the state's highest criminal court.
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June 17, 2025
New Acting US Attorney Tapped For Colorado
U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi has appointed a new acting top federal prosecutor in Colorado, turning to a veteran of the agency.
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June 17, 2025
DOJ Tells Md. Judge That Abrego Garcia Suit Is Now Moot
The Trump administration has urged a Maryland federal court to throw out Kilmar Abrego Garcia's suit challenging his wrongful removal to El Salvador, saying his claims are moot now that the federal government has facilitated his return to the United States.
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June 16, 2025
NJ Justices OK Grand Jury Investigations Of Clergy Abuse
New Jersey can empanel a special grand jury to investigate allegations of clergy sexual abuse, the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday, saying that no case law or court rule allows a judge to prohibit a grand jury inquiry before it has even begun.
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June 16, 2025
Convict's Outbursts Didn't Warrant DQ, Conn. Justices Rule
A Connecticut trial court judge acted within his power to consider and then add three criminal contempt sentences to a murder convict's prison term after the defendant hurled a series of racial and profane attacks at the court when a habeas corpus hearing concluded, the state's highest court ruled Monday.
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June 16, 2025
High Court Turns Down Influencer's Jury Right Appeal
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to hear the case of a social media influencer who argued his case deserved to be heard by a jury after he was convicted of a misdemeanor in a bench trial.
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June 16, 2025
Council on Criminal Justice, Rand Partner On AI Task Force
The Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank, announced Monday that it had struck a new partnership with the Rand Corp. to launch a national task force working to develop standards and recommendations for the integration and oversight of artificial intelligence in the criminal justice system.
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June 13, 2025
Omitted Jury Instruction Tainted Fraud Trial, DC Circ. Says
A D.C. Circuit panel ruled Friday that a new trial was warranted in a pandemic relief loan fraud case based on the trial court's inadvertent failure to instruct jurors to not draw negative conclusions from the defendant's decision not to testify.
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June 13, 2025
Ex-UMich Coach Fights Default Judgment In Hacking Case
A former University of Michigan assistant football coach accused of hacking the personal information and intimate photos of thousands of students has asked a Michigan federal judge to set aside a default entry against him, saying in the pro se filing that he was never properly served.
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June 13, 2025
4th Circ. Axes Guilty Plea Over Police Misconduct
The Fourth Circuit vacated a North Carolina man's guilty plea on drug trafficking charges, holding Friday that new information regarding "egregious police misconduct" that plagued the prosecution's case rendered his plea involuntary.
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June 12, 2025
Texas Man Gets 11 Years In Cross-Border Transport Case
A Texas federal court has sentenced a man to 11 years in prison for helping lead a violent conspiracy to monopolize the transport of used vehicles and other goods from the U.S. through Mexico for resale in Central America.
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June 12, 2025
Weinstein Sex Abuse Trial Ends After Mixed, Partial Verdict
Harvey Weinstein's sexual abuse retrial ended Thursday with a Manhattan jury failing to reach a verdict on a count alleging the movie mogul raped an actress, one day after he was convicted of forcing sex on a production assistant and cleared on a third charge.
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June 12, 2025
Justices Clarify Appeal Deadline In Win For Pro Se Inmate
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday allowed a pro se inmate to appeal a suit alleging harsh treatment while behind bars, reversing the Fourth Circuit in an opinion that says civil litigants do not need to file a second notice of appeal if they filed prior to a court's decision to reopen the case.
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June 11, 2025
11th Circ. Says Cop ID'ing Driver Justified Arrest Over Car Theft
The Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday affirmed the dismissal of a false arrest and malicious prosecution suit against city of Miami police officers after finding they had probable cause to arrest a man who had reported a stolen vehicle because of an officer's identification of him as the reckless driver who had crashed the vehicle.
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June 11, 2025
Ex-Judges Urge High Court To Protect Right To Counsel
A group of six high-profile retired judges urged the Supreme Court to protect criminal defendants' right to consult with counsel during overnight trial recesses, saying a current "patchwork" of practices in this area is bad for judges as well as defendants.
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June 11, 2025
Phone Search During Traffic Stop Aboveboard, 8th Circ. Says
A police officer's search of a registered sex offender's phone during a traffic stop that revealed images of child pornography was lawfully used as evidence in a trial that resulted in a more than 17-year prison sentence, the Eighth Circuit ruled Wednesday.
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June 11, 2025
11th Circ. OK's Probationer's Malicious Prosecution Suit
The Eleventh Circuit said a man can continue with his suit against two Georgia probation officers accused of filing a false warrant application for his extradition back to the Peach State, affirming that the Fourth Amendment's protections are not limited to the officers' "narrow definition" of a criminal proceeding.
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June 11, 2025
2nd Circ. Rules Girlfriend's Phone Search Didn't Violate Rights
The Second Circuit on Wednesday upheld the conviction of a New York man on charges over the receipt and possession of child sexual abuse material, rejecting claims that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated when his girlfriend unlocked his phone, found illicit images and showed them to a police officer.
Expert Analysis
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Perspectives
Reading Tea Leaves In High Court's Criminal Law Decisions
The criminal justice decisions the U.S. Supreme Court will announce in the coming weeks will reveal whether last term’s fractured decision-making has continued, an important data point as the justices’ alignment seems to correlate with who benefits from a case’s outcome, says Sharon Fairley at the University of Chicago Law School.