Criminal Law Library BlogA Service from the ABA Criminal Justice Section, http://www.abanet.org/crimjust
United States v. Stevens (No. 08–769)
United States Supreme Court Opinion Decided: April 20, 2010
Articles Posted in Criminal Law and Justice
What Should Be The Appropriate Privacy Expectations Of A Public Employee When Text Messaging On the Job?
In City of Ontario California et. al. v. Jeff Quon et. al. the U.S. Supreme Court is wrestling with the issue of whether public employees are entitled to a reasonable expectation of privacy in text messages transmitted on their workplace pages or similar devices without such messages being subject to review from recipients public employer. The city of Ontario, California is asking the justices to overturn a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, holding that it violated the Fourth Amendment privacy rights of Mr. Quon, a member of the Ontario police department SWAT team, when it reviewed transcripts of his and another offiicer’s text messages on their department pagers. Below are links to the argument transcipts and other docuemts related to this case:
Argument: City of Ontario California, et. al. v. Jeff Quon, et. al. 08-1332
The Scotus Wiki contains links to other useful documents related to this case.
Forthcoming Books About Cybercrime: To June 2010
Title: Principles of Cybercrime
Author: Clough, Jonathan Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN or UPC: 0-521-89925-7 (Active Record)
Format: Trade Cloth Date: May 2010 Price: $125.00 Market: United States Availability: Available for Order
Findlaw Case Law Summaries: Criminal Law and Procedure. April 5 – April 9, 2010.
To view the full-text of cases you must sign in to FindLaw.com. All summaries are produced by Findlaw
April 5 – April 9, 2010:.
U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, April 01, 2010 Chamberlin v. Town of Stoughton, No. 08-1289 In plaintiff-officers’ 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit against a town, its officials and police chiefs involving various workplace discrimination and harassment claims, district court’s grant of a directed verdict in favor of one of the two police chiefs is affirmed as any error in granting the directed verdict was harmless because of the rejection of plaintiffs’ claims against the other police chief by a different jury in a second trial.
U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, April 06, 2010 US v. Flores-Rivera, No. 09-1131 In defendant’s action seeking return of seized property without notice arising from his drug arrest and conviction in 1991, district court’s ruling that his property should be returned but simultaneously ordering that the funds be applied to defendant’s criminal fine is vacated and remanded with instructions to promptly conduct a hearing, follow the applicable statutory procedures, and otherwise provide defendant with the long-delayed process to which he is entitled.
U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, April 06, 2010 US v. Sed, No. 09-1489 In a prosecution of defendant for conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute drugs and other related crimes, defendant’s conviction and sentence is affirmed where: 1) the seizure of defendant by Pennsylvania State Police in Ohio was not unreasonable and the district court did not err in denying his motion to suppress; and 2) the district court did not err when it failed to grant defendant a downward departure or an additional downward variance as the record amply supports the district court’s conclusion that defendant perjured himself and that the Pennsylvania State Police did not act improperly in conducting their sting operation.
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Legal Treatises on the Law of Evidence 1880 – 1900
A select bibliography.
In response to a recent request I compiled a short, selected list of treatises published between the years 1880 and 1990. It is being reproduced here for the benefit of those readerw who might also be interested. This list is selective and thereroe not intended to be exhaustive. Even among the authors listed, many produced an number of additional titlies related to the law of evidence.:
Selected treatises on the law of evidence – United States published in the late 1800’s
Obtaining and Using Evidence From Social Network Sites
On October 6, 2009 the Electronic Frontier Foundation submitted a request to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for access to records concerning “use of social networking websites (including, but not limited to Facebook, MYSpace, Twitter, Flickr and other online social media) for investigative (crimiinal or otherwise) data gathering purposes created since January 2003…”. The response from DOJ, date stamped March 3, 2010 states that “While processing your request we located one record totaling 33 pages. After careful review of this document we determined to release this item in part.”. It goes on to explain that material being witheld from this one document, Obtaining and Using Evidence From Social Networking Sites, consists of work telephone numbers and e-mail addresses of DOJ attorneys..
Click here to download the document: OBTAINING AND USING EVIDENCE FROM SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES
ABA Journal Newsletter – April 2, 2010
Top ten stories for week ending April 2, 2010:
Layoffs Lovells to Shutter 20-Lawyer Chicago Office Mar 30, 2010, 02:38 pm CDT
International Law
U.S. Second Circuit: Enhanced Sentencing in New York for Persistent Felons Violates U.S. Constitution
Citing a series of U.S. Supreme Court rulings, including Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296 (2004), the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled on March 1 that a New York state statute that permits stiffer sentences for persistent felony offenders violates defendant’s constitutional rights. In the ruling Judge Ralph K. Winter wrote:
“We hold that the Sixth Amendment Right to a jury trial, applicable to the states as incorporated in the Fourteenth Amendment, prohibits the type of judicial fact finding resulting in enhanced sentences under New York’s {Persistent Felony Offender] statute.”
Reporting on the decision in the April 1, 2010 New York Law Journal Joel Stqashenko writes, “The immediate effect of yesterday’s ruling was not clear. Second Circuit rulings on New York law are not binding on the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. The federal panel did not, howeverk that state court rulings upholding the constitutionality of the persistent felony offencer statute have been ‘unreasonable’ in light of seemingly contrary U.S. Supreme Court decisions in similar cases.”
Once Every Hundred Years?
In an earlier posting on November 5 , 2009 we reported that on November 3, 1909 the criminal court building in Manhattan (bounded by Centre, Lafayette, Franklin, and White Streets) was declared unsafe for human occupancy and everyone in the building at the time was ordered to leave immediately. When the last man was out a squad of thirty policemen took charge of the building, roping it off on all sides and remaining on guard outside the building to forbid anyone to enter or even pass through any of the flanking streets”.
On March 2, 2010 for very different reasons the present criminal court building in Manhattan was evacuated due to smoke and water damage caused by an electrical fire in the basement.. When the last people were out, policemen, firemen and court officers took charge of the building and for a time did not permit anyone to enter the building except for business related to coping with the emergency situation..
As noted earlier there were many differences in the two events. By most accounts the old criminal courts building was in very poor condition by 1909. The present Criminal Courts buiilding is perfectly safe and in good condition with lingering smoke and other residual damage from the fire causing the building to remain closed until March 8.
Cyber Crime: A Clear and Present Danger
The 2010 CyberSecurity Watch Survey, sponsored by Deloitte and conducted in collaboration with CSO Magazine, the U.S. Secret Service, and the CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon, indicates that threats posed by cyber crime have increased faster than potential victims — or cyber security professionals — can cope with, placing targeted organizations at significant risk.
While we cannot provide you a copy of the actual Survey, the Deloitte whitepaper, Cyber Crime: A Clear and Present Danger reports on several of the survey findings and includes Deloitte’s interpretation of key results. Quoting from the Introduction to the white papter: “By its very nature, interpretation goes beyond simple reporting of results…and may prompt disagreement and even controversy”
With that, we invite you to download the white paper from the link below, read it, and draw your own conclusions