More than four in 10 public school teachers in Chicago were chronically absent last year, according to a new report released by the Illinois State Board of Education. Chronically absent teachers missed 10 or more days of school, including sick days and other personal leave, but not including most long-term leave, such as parental or […]
An interesting analysis by Prof. David Cole (Georgetown), the former National Legal Director of the ACLU, at Just Security; an excerpt: After more than two hours of argument Friday morning in TikTok v. Garland, the Supreme Court appears likely to allow the U.S. government to force divestiture or shuttering of the platform on January 19…. In my view, that’s […]
An excerpt from the >16,000-word opinion written by Commissioner Paul Stein in Abasciano v. Boston Police Dep’t, decided last month by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Civil Service Commission, though just posted on Westlaw: The substantive issue presented in this appeal is whether certain tweets sent by the Appellant on January 6, 2021, while attending the […]
In the first decision of its kind in Nevada, a judge ruled last week that state law enforcement can’t evade stricter requirements for seizing cash and property by partnering with the federal government. The plaintiff in that lawsuit, a Marine veteran named Stephen Lara, had nearly $90,000 in cash seized from him in 2021 by […]
Igal Ness on Unsplash ‘/> “So every John is a sex trafficker?” asked Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Scott L. Kafker in the courtroom last week. “Yes, your honor,” replied Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney Julianne Campbell. The case—Commonwealth v. Garafalo—represents the latest assault on civil liberties and basic language to be carried out in the […]
The California National Guard arrived in burn zones Friday to assist local police “with traffic control and critical infrastructure protection,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said. Since then, the National Guard has been helping to enforce a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. in and around Pacific Palisades and Altadena—the two neighborhoods most […]
Today the Supreme Court denied certiorari in Sunoco LP v. Honolulu and Shell PLC v. Honolulu, two petitions from oil companies seeking High Court intervention in a state-law-based climate case in Hawaii. Unlike with prior cert denials in climate tort cases, no justice indicated that he or she supported certiorari. On the one hand, this cert denial […]
As I noted on Friday, the Supreme Court accepted certiorari to hear an appointments clause challenge to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in Becerra v. Braidwood Management. This task force is the entity that determines which preventative treatments must be covered by health insurance without requiring any co-payment by the insured under the Affordable […]
An update on the fires: So far 24 people are known to have died in the fires burning in and around Los Angeles, while at least 16 people remain missing. Over 38,000 acres have burned, more than two and a half times the size of Manhattan. Though the winds calmed for a portion of the […]
The Denver Post (Shelly Bradbury) was apparently the first to report on the story: Yujin Choi falsely accused Dan Hines, a criminal investigator in the district attorney’s office, of sexually harassing her, according to the Tuesday ruling from the Office of Presiding Disciplinary Judge, which handles professional discipline for Colorado attorneys. Choi created fake text […]