Thursday, June 21, 2012

Crack, Fines, & the Supreme Court

No health care opinions, but two criminal law opinions today, both favoring the defense.  From ScotusBlog:

We have the opinion in Dorsey and Hill, the Fair Sentencing Act cases.  The opinion is by Breyer.  The Seventh Circuit is vacated and remanded.  The vote is 5-4.  Justice Scalia dissents, joined by the Chief and Alito and Thomas.
The Court holds that the FSA's new mandatory minimums applies to sentences for crack cocaine imposed after the Act for pre-Act crimes.  Dorsey and Hill have the more traditional line-up that we have come to expect in 5-4 cases.
The full opinion is at this link.

Re Fines and Apprendi:
Justice Sotomayor has opinion. The rule of Apprendi v. NJ applies to the imposition of criminal fines. The First Circuit is reversed. The vote is 6-3. Justice Breyer dissents, joined by Kennedy and Alito.
The full opinion is available at this link.


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry, but did you say 6-3 with Breyer, Kennedy, and Alito in the dissent? I'm going to have to read this.

Anonymous said...

Can ANYBODY ever imagine an AUSA doing something like this?:

"Prosecutors in Norway have called for self-confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik to be considered insane in their closing argument at his trial.

Prosecutor Svein Holden said there were still doubts about his insanity but he should be placed in psychiatric care, not sent to prison.

Judges in the trial in Oslo are due to deliver their verdict in the trial in July or August.

Breivik killed 77 people and injured 242 on 22 July of last year.

He bombed government buildings in Oslo before shooting young Labour Party supporters at an island camp.

Breivik, who insists he is sane, sought to justify his attacks by saying they were necessary to stop the "Islamisation" of Norway.

The defence concludes on Friday.
'Killing machine'

"We are not convinced or certain that Breivik is legally insane but we are in doubt," said Svein Holden.

"So we request that he is transferred to compulsory psychiatric care."

Mr Holden said it was worse to sentence a psychotic person to prison than to place a non-psychotic person in psychiatric care."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18530670#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

Anonymous said...

GO GATORS!!

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Savannah golf club and homeowners association that was sued for the wrongful death of an elderly woman who was killed by an alligator in the gated community in 2007.

Anonymous said...

i think you are a poseur

Anonymous said...

Fake Rumpole said:

The Miami Heat still suck. If they don't win the next 10 straight chapionships, they're the worst team I've ever seen. And I'll remind you that they didn't win the championship last year.

Anonymous said...

What about the Lewis Tein opinion from the Third DCA?

Anonymous said...

For example, there is Rick Perry's zealous support of state rights and the 10th Amendment. The liberal critics make fun of Rick Perry's jokes about the secession of Texas. However, to national social conservatives, this isn't something to joke about. Their agenda has dual objectives to ban gay marriage and abortion in the entire country. When he signed a pledge against abortion, the activists who are against abortion began to ask themselves if he would consider restricting abortion by using federal power.

Anonymous said...

Why do you believe that men should marry men and women should marry women? The whole idea is disgusting. But more importantly, it's against God's law. God created marriage in the first place and men seek to pervert it with their vile ideas. Gay marriage should not only be banned, it should never enter into anyone's mind in the first place.

Anonymous said...

I think if two men or two women are in love, want to make a life-long commitment to each other and want to mess up all the good pre-marital sex they are having by getting married, then more power to them.
Bottom line: preventing discrimination against gasy and lesbians is justteh right thing to do - you can spin it any way you want - but it is just the right thing to do.