Law

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2320015

The Virginia Court of Appeals overruled a man’s misdemeanor conviction for fleeing from police after ruling the Lynchburg police officer who attempted to make the arrest didn’t get close enough to the suspect to have a realistic chance of grabbing him.

In an opinion revealing what the court described as a legal quirk unique to Virginia, the court found that an officer telling someone to stop from 20 yards away doesn’t satisfy a rule requiring officers to have the “immediate physical ability to place the person under arrest.”

The opinion applies mainly to foot chases, not a separate eluding law that criminalizes fleeing police in a motor vehicle.

This looks to be the first instance of a set of fake electors from the 2020 presidential election being charged with a crime. Eight felony counts for each fake elector.

The woman, whose name Phoenix New Times is withholding to protect her privacy, is one of more than 450 people in Phoenix who have been charged with manifestation of prostitution over the past eight years. The ordinance, which has been called unconstitutional by the ACLU of Arizona, allows the act of flagging down a car or wearing provocative clothing to be used as grounds to cite someone.

In 2014, the city’s prosecution of Monica Jones under the ordinance drew national outcry. Civil rights organizations condemned the arrest of Jones, a transgender activist and social work student. Even celebrities spoke out against the city’s use of the law.

But Phoenix has not stopped using the ordinance, according to data obtained by New Times.

I'm an almost 60-year-old, overweight, boomer. Maybe I ought to get a really short kilt and some flip-flops and take a walk, shirtless, down the street. Provocative enough?

Amy Howe does a good job documenting the remaining cases at https://amylhowe.com/2023/06/15/the-20-remaining-cases/

Looking at the remaining cases, let's try to make some educated guesses:

1. November: Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Kavanaugh have not written an opinion yet. The four remaining cases are the big affirmative action cases (Harvard and UNC), and two rather technical cases (Jones v. Hendrix and Mallory v. Norfolk Southern). Kavanaugh's concurrence in Brackeen suggests that it's unlikely that we see a liberal decision in the affirmative action cases. Roberts is savvy enough to know that affirmative action isn't that popular and recent liberal rulings give him some room to make a conservative decision. I expect him to take at least one of those two cases.

2. December: Roberts, Kagan, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh have not written an opinion yet. The big cases are 303 creative, Moore v. Harper and United States v Texas. I expect Roberts to come up with something in Moore v. Harper that will not fully embrace ISL, but still give conservatives a win. Gorsuch is very opinionated about religious freedom and is likely to provide a setback to LGBT rights in 303 creative. Who knows what will happen in Texas case, though I somehow expect Kavanaugh to write that one given his interest in admin law.

3. April: Alito, Sotomayor, Kagan and Kavanaugh have not written yet. The interesting case here is Groff v. DeJoy, which I expect to be a narrow victory for Groff penned by Kagan.

Cross-posted from [email protected]

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-376_7l48.pdf

This case turned out to be far better than I expected, complete with a pro-tribal Gorsuch concurrence and salty Thomas-Alito dissents.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/22-227_i426.pdf It's remarkable that Gorsuch continues to be pro-tribal dignity, even in cases where no other justice agrees.

Cross posted from https://beehaw.org/c/politics