The FBI May Be Reading Your Emails

by Elizabeth on May 22, 2013

in Privacy

If the police want to go through your home, they need your consent or a warrant. The same is true if they want to sift through your mailbox. These are places where you have a certain expectation of privacy, where you do or have personal things that you may not want shared with everyone. The 4th Amendment protects you from unreasonable infringements on this privacy, by barring unreasonable searches and seizures. Interestingly, however, the FBI doesn’t seem to think this applies to them searching through your emails. [click to continue…]

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Will Drunk Driving Laws Change to Criminalize a Single Drink?

by Elizabeth on May 20, 2013

in Drunk Driving

Across the country, you can be arrested and jailed for having a blood alcohol content of .08% or greater. Generally, this equals about four drinks in an hour for an average 180 pound man. But federal officials have decided this isn’t good enough; they’ve recommended that all states lower their legal limit to .05%, an estimated two drinks in an hour’s time. Their error isn’t in wanting to keep people safe, but in thinking that criminalizing everyone who has a few drinks will result achieve that goal. [click to continue…]

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Congress Creates Over-Criminalization Task Force

May 17, 2013

There is a lot to complain about in the U.S. criminal justice system. And many of those complaints (mass incarceration, mandatory minimums, etc.) have a whole lot to do with over-criminalization in general. To that end, the House Judiciary Committee has created a task force to look at over-criminalization at the federal level and issue [...]

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How Being Poor Could Land You In Jail

May 8, 2013

Being poor isn’t a crime. Or is it? Americans living in poverty are more likely to be involved in the justice system than those from other economic groups. It’s partly because they have little to no access to employment and the means by which to keep themselves and their families fed with a roof over [...]

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Colorado Court: Medical Marijuana Can Cost You Your Job

May 2, 2013

In Colorado,people with a number of conditions have been allowed to smoke marijuana for medical reasons. They’ve jumped through hoops to be allowed this designation and are “card carrying” members of what was once an elite club (not so elite now that recreational marijuana has been legalized). Still, the medical marijuana users represent a group [...]

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Supreme Court Rules on DUI Blood Draws

April 24, 2013

Score a victory for civil liberties and protections. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that police generally must seek a warrant before drawing blood in a suspected drunk driving case. In a section of criminal law that often turns due process on its head, this ruling is a positive one indeed.

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What You Should Know About Recording Police

April 22, 2013

Many of us no longer feel like the police are here to protect us. As a collective, citizens are growing more and more suspicious and even afraid of police officers. When we see cases of police brutality and the militarization of law enforcement, it only makes us more wary of the badge. This distrust has [...]

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Examples of Our Growing Police State?

April 12, 2013

When you call the United States a “police state”, people either look at you like you are a paranoid conspiracy theorist or they nod their head in agreement. While the thought of the “land of the free” being anything but free is troubling, to be sure, there are signs that the people of this nation [...]

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Bill Would Let Judges Bypass Mandatory Minimums In Certain Cases

April 4, 2013

Sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimums have not done what was promised—they haven’t reduced crime and they haven’t eliminated racial disparities. What they have done is serve as fuel to the prison systems of this country and forced government at local, state, and federal levels to dole out millions in related costs. In an effort to [...]

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SCOTUS Limits Warrantless Drug-Dog Searches

March 29, 2013

In the past, U.S. Supreme Court justices have sided with the states in warrantless drug dog sniff searches. But this past week, they shifted directions on one Florida case, deciding that the police can’t use a drug dog at a home (even on the front porch) without a warrant. The difference between this case and previous ones? [...]

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