Yes, women could vote after the 19th amendment - but not all women. Or men

MPR News: "On Aug. 26, 1920, the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution officially took effect when Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed a proclamation certifying its ratification."

Oregon Supreme Court to determine scope of nonunanimous jury fallout

OPB News: "The Oregon Supreme Court is hearing a series of cases Tuesday that deal with nonunanimous juries, as the state grapples to determine the scope of the cases affected by a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling this spring that declared nonunanimous juries unconstitutional."

Dakota Datebook: Last state passes 19th Amendment

Prairie Public: "On this date in 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the federal woman’s suffrage bill, meeting the three fourths majority required to pass the 19th Amendment."

Feds release nationwide sex offender registry regulation

ABC News: "The Justice Department announced a new regulation Monday spelling out detailed nationwide requirements for sex offender registration under a law Congress passed in 2006."

State juvenile sex offense laws are wide-ranging, harmful, report says

Juvenile Justice Information Exchange: "Youth in Minnesota who commit sexual offenses can be held on a registry for, at a minimum, 10 years. In nearby North Dakota, the minimum is 15 years. In South Dakota it’s five years."

The nudge and tiebreaker that took women's suffrage from nay to yea

MPR News: "The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified 100 years ago this week."

Justice by Zoom: Frozen video, a cat - and finally a verdict

Washington Post: "The proceeding that appears to be the nation’s first virtual criminal jury trial was underway for just a couple of minutes this week, when a moment occurred that would be familiar to many during the pandemic: a juror’s Zoom video feed froze."

Zoom courts will stick around as virus forces seismic change

Bloomberg News: "Virtual court proceedings will probably outlive the Covid-19 pandemic, as even skeptical judges and lawyers say that they’ve made depositions, oral arguments, and jury selection much more efficient."

Will the COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally remake the legal industry?

ABA Journal: "In late February, the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School held a Law 2030 conference focused on the myriad challenges the legal profession was likely to face in the next decade and how it could adapt to combat them."

Boulder-based Native American Rights Fund turns 50

Boulder Daily Camera: "John Echohawk, executive director and founding member of the Native American Rights Fund, has worked in law for half a century protecting the rights of native people and tribes in court."

Okla.: Tribal law expert calls Supreme Court's McGirt ruling 'most important' in state history

Tulsa World: "Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s original reservation boundaries were never legally disestablished ranks as one of the most important court decisions in Oklahoma history."

Student who collected garbage to pay for college is accepted to Harvard Law School

ABC News: "A Maryland college graduate has been admitted to Harvard Law after overcoming a laundry list of obstacles."

Zoom trials demand new skills

Law 360: "As masses of legal work shift online, trial lawyers are turning on their webcams and realizing their old courtroom skills are no longer enough"

Courts straining to balance public health with public access

Associated Press: "The U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to a public trial, but some courts have held arraignments and other pretrial hearings without the public watching or listening. In some cases, the public had no means of participating."

Wisconsin court finds blood test for passed-out drivers unconstitutional

Courthouse News Service: "A provision allowing for an unconscious driver to have their blood drawn and tested was declared unconstitutional by a Wisconsin appeals court Thursday, marking a consequential turn in the ongoing debate on implied consent laws."

Military lawyers admit racial disparities in service justice systems

Stars and Stripes: "Black and other minority service members are more likely to face punishment than their white comrades in all of the military services, top uniformed lawyers admitted Tuesday, telling lawmakers that they had yet to determine reasons behind such disparities."

4 ways coronavirus may forever change legal tech

Law 360: "When the novel coronavirus closed down courthouses and law firms, technology allowed attorneys, their clients and judges to move litigation forward without jeopardizing public health."

Remote court proceedings useful in emergencies, lawyers say

Bloomberg News: "U.S. federal courts should loosen rules requiring live testimony and hearings in the event of another national emergency, attorneys told the federal judiciary in recently submitted comments."

Work from home boom reignites attorney licensing questions

Law 360: "When law offices shuttered to stop the spread of the coronavirus back in March, attorneys hunkered down at home — sometimes, across state lines from where they work and are admitted to practice."

Privacy risks lurk In tech-heavy return-to-work plans

Law 360: "With businesses increasingly coming back online amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, employers are turning to an assortment of apps and high-tech gadgets designed to make their workplace safety plans easier to execute, but attorneys warn those technologies come with privacy risks and employee relations headaches."

As virus wanes, employers warm up to long-term telework

Law 360: "Many businesses plan to let employees continue working remotely when they reopen their offices and may keep doing so even after the coronavirus pandemic subsides, according to a survey released Tuesday by Littler Mendelson PC asking more than 1,000 employers how they're navigating the return to work."

How COVID-19 is pushing down filings across practices

Law 360: "Federal court filings in many practice areas saw declines last month as the legal system continues to grapple with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, with tax and copyright cases experiencing the most dramatic drops."

Legal experts see tough road for jury trials while pandemic rages

Courthouse News Service: "As the Covid-19 pandemic prevents people from gathering in courtrooms, courts throughout the United States are exploring new ways of preserving the right to trial by jury."

Judges prefer Zoom and WebEx as courtrooms go virtual

Law 360: " Zoom and WebEx are the online platforms of choice for judges throughout the country in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the National Judicial College's polling of hundreds of judges."

First Amendment advocates probe court access in a post-pandemic world

Courthouse News Service: "The Covid-19 pandemic has darkened courtrooms and snarled court operations throughout the country. But it’s also been a driving force for tech innovation in the courts."

Will remote hearings improve appearance rates?

National Center for State Courts: "The coronavirus pandemic has brought misery, if not inconvenience, to the vast majority of the nation, but it has also brought some silver linings. When it comes to state courts, officials say the pandemic has forced courts to become more nimble, particularly in their ability to conduct remote hearings."

Hackers target Texas courts in ransomware attack

Courthouse News Service: "Websites for the Texas Supreme Court and the state’s appellate courts remained mostly shuttered Monday after a cyberattack last week, according to the court system’s administrator."

Appeals court finds constitutional right to literacy for schoolchildren in Detroit case

Detroit Free Press: "A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the U.S. Constitution includes a right to 'a basic minimum education,' which lawyers claim the state of Michigan denied to a group of Detroit Public School students."

Utah becomes first state to let law grads skip bar exam amid COVID-19

Law.com: "Utah has officially become the first jurisdiction to allow aspiring lawyers to bypass the bar exam and become licensed amid the COVID-19 pandemic."

Majority of state supreme courts stream arguments

Broadcasting & Cable News: "Thirty-three out of 50 top state courts agree, virtual arguments are the way to keep the gavel's banging in the age of COVID-19."

New law school graduates face strong headwinds

Courthouse News Service: "Standing at the pinnacle of their academic careers, spring 2020 law school graduates are staring at a profession battered by winds of pestilence. And the dragon they’ve been preparing to slay, the state bar exam, is slipping out of range."

When court moves online, do dress codes still matter?

New York Times: "Justice is supposed to be blind. But in courtrooms, decorum matters."

Justice Dept. watchdog to inspect prisons amid virus spread

Associated Press: "The Justice Department’s inspector general will conduct remote inspections of Bureau of Prisons facilities to ensure they are following best practices to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus after hundreds of federal inmates tested positive for the virus."

Courts rapidly adopting videoconferencing tech to conduct business

Washington Times: "The Zoom videoconferencing platform is fast becoming the judiciary’s technology of choice to conduct business while following social distancing requirements for the coronavirus pandemic."

Coronavirus threatens to flood courts with contract disputes

Bloomberg News: "The coronavirus pandemic has left companies across an array of industries wondering what to do if they can’t perform the services they are contractually obligated to provide."

In the 1700s an enslaved Massachusetts woman sued for her freedom - and won

NPR News: "Nearly 250 years ago, a group of white men gathered in a house in Massachusetts to draft a document on independence aimed at the British crown. A woman who was enslaved in the house overheard the discussion and determined that the words applied to her, too."

Federal report says women in prison receive harsher punishments than men

MPR News: "Women in prison, when compared with incarcerated men, often receive disproportionately harsh punishments for minor violations of prison rules, according to a report released Wednesday by a federal fact-finding agency."

Who should decide what books are allowed in prison?

MPR News: "Michael Tafolla says the books he read in prison helped him understand how he had landed there in the first place. He remembers one especially eye-opening title: Illegal: Reflections of an Undocumented Immigrant."

U.S.: Forty years ago, they changed how hate groups are sued

Courthouse News Service: "Opal Jackson still carries the shotgun pellets in her leg. On the night of April 19, 1980, a group of three Klansmen went on a shooting spree in a black neighborhood of Chattanooga."

Law Library of Congress to offer legal research webinar Feb. 20

The Law Library of Congress will be offering a free webinar on researching U.S. case law on Thursday, Feb. 20.

High percentage of grads pass bar within 2 years, ABA says

Bloomberg Law: "Almost 90% of graduates of accredited law schools passed a bar exam within two years of graduation, the American Bar Association said in a new report."

Wyoming’s first female supreme court justice paved the way for others

Casper Star Tribune: "Marilyn Kite was living in Jackson, working as an attorney and raising her son when she got the call. Justice Richard Macy was retiring. The Wyoming Supreme Court would have an opening. Would she consider it?"

How quickly should courts change the law? Florida tests the limit

Christian Science Monitor: "When the Florida Supreme Court ruled late last month that a unanimous jury is not required for the state to hand down a death sentence, the decision reverberated in the state prisons that house hundreds of felons already sentenced to death."

For the first time, flagship law journals at top U.S. law schools are all led by women

Washington Post: "Only one woman worked on the staff of the Harvard Law Review when Ruth Bader Ginsburg arrived on campus in 1956. It would be another two decades before a woman was elected to lead the school’s prestigious legal journal."

Alaska lawyer blends life and law as a tribal court judge and an Orthodox Jew

ABA Journal: "How does a Jewish kid from Philly become a tribal court judge in Alaska? Just ask Judge David Avraham Voluck."

Canada: B.C.'s oldest practising lawyer just turned 100 and isn't retiring yet

CBC News: "It takes a lot to slow down Constance Isherwood, British Columbia's oldest practising lawyer. She took only a few days off work after the city of Victoria was hit with a snowstorm last week that forced schools and businesses to close."

Banished native women fight tribal leaders in federal court

NPR News: "Four women from the nation's second largest Indian reservation have turned to the federal court system after they were banished by tribal leadership last year."

Writing a will that says something about who you are - not what you have

MPR News: "When we talk about wills, we often talk of money, of assets and valuables. But there's growing interest in wills that pass down lessons learned, guidance for a life well-lived — a legacy."

Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady unexpectedly dies

Time: "Mark Cady, the soft-spoken chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court who wrote key decisions on gay marriage and abortion access that rankled social conservatives, has died at the age of 66."

U.S.: Case of bungled pot raid on tomato-loving family revived anew

Courthouse News Service: "The bizarre case of a Kansas sheriff’s department that mistook tomato plants and loose-leaf tea for evidence of a marijuana grow and accordingly launched a SWAT-style raid on an innocent suburban family will return to a lower court for a third crack at a judgment."

Celebrating 230 Years of the U.S. Courts

U.S. Courts News Release: "On [Sept. 24, 1789], President George Washington signed the Judiciary Act of 1789 establishing a federal court system separate from state courts. The 230-year-old act set forth a three-tier federal court structure of one Supreme Court and two levels of inferior courts."

Nation: 39 states show decreases in prison populations

ABC News: "The renewed interest in criminal justice reform is having an impact in a real way, experts say. A recent report shows that 39 states had decreases in their prison populations from 2009 to 2017."

Nation: 'FACT' teams aim to keep people with mental illness out of jail

MPR News: "When someone is experiencing a mental health crisis, often the only alternatives are jail or an emergency room. Neither of those alternatives is particularly helpful, and sometimes they can make a person’s condition worse."

The Constitution Annotated: The Constitution explained in plain English

To celebrate this year's Constitution Day, the Law Library of Congress is launching the Constitution Annotated, a website that provides online access to a massive Senate document that has served for more than a century as the official record of the U.S. Constitution.

U.S.: Court cuts jury award, warns Steinbeck family to end litigation

KTLA News: "A federal appeals court attempted to close the book on endless litigation between the relatives of author John Steinbeck in a ruling that upheld a $5 million verdict against his daughter-in-law, but threw out $8 million she faced in punitive damages."

Feds decline to adopt protections for Yellowstone bison

Courthouse News Service: "The federal government has decided there will be no review of the Yellowstone National Park bison to be considered for federal protection, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Thursday."

ABA releases new formal ethics opinion

The American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility has released Formal Opinion 488 on judges’ social or close personal relationships with lawyers or parties as grounds for disqualification or disclosure.

U.S.: Watched case on taxpayer access to courts won’t be reheard

Bloomberg News: "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit won’t review the dismissal of a lawsuit against IRS efforts to combat micro-captive transactions, in a case raising major questions about when tax rules can be challenged in court."

Revered from left and right, she’ll soon be Canada’s longest-serving judge

Los Angeles Times: "Newspaper publisher Conrad Black, who disagrees with just about everything she does and believes, says, 'she would get my vote as an ecumenical saint.' Alan Dershowitz, who disagrees with only most of what she does and believes, says he would 'trade her for two American Supreme Court justices.'"

Seventh Circuit guts FTC’s powers -- Setting up Supreme Court showdown

Courthouse News Service: "Breaking with eight other circuits, the Seventh Circuit ruled Wednesday that the Federal Trade Commission lacks authority to seek restitution from companies that defraud consumers, and vacated a $5 million judgment against a credit-monitoring company."

Mary Murphy Schroeder: She broke barriers from the start

U.S. Courts: "In 1979, Mary Murphy Schroeder joined a historic class of women judges who transformed the federal judiciary, but her law career nearly ended before it began. The night before her first final law exam at the University of Chicago, Schroeder collapsed and was hospitalized with a severe kidney infection."

Nation: Welcome to the Olympics of court reporting

Denver Post: "A man poured baby powder on his hands to soak up the nervous sweat, a computer fan blowing a slight breeze on his face. Across the aisle, in a silent hotel conference room, a contestant rubbed her face, breathing deeply."

U.S.: 40 years later, pioneering women judges savor place in history

U.S. Courts: "Federal Judge Sylvia Rambo first thought of a legal career in the 1940s when her school bus drove by a local law school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. 'It was like a voice came out of nowhere,' she recalled, 'saying, ‘You’re going to be a lawyer.'"

Nation: Law governing adoptions of Native American children upheld

Sioux City Journal: "A 1978 law giving preference to Native American families in foster care and adoption proceedings involving American Indian children is constitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Friday."

Arthur Lazarus, who represented Sioux Nation in landmark Supreme Court case, dies at 92

Boston Globe: "Arthur Lazarus Jr., a Washington lawyer who represented Native American tribes for more than four decades, notably securing a landmark $106 million award for the Sioux Nation as part of its long fight for the Black Hills of South Dakota, died July 27."

Federal executions brought back after 16-year limbo

Courthouse News Service: "Federal inmates on death row will be executed for the first time since 2003, Attorney General William Barr announced Thursday, championing the return to capital punishment as a way to bring 'justice to victims of the most horrific crimes.'"

Nation: Prisons resort to video for psychiatric care

MPR News: "As more and more people in prison need mental health care, more and more prison systems are turning to telepsychiatry. It’s basically a video psychiatry appointment, a doctor’s visit via Skype or FaceTime."

Nation: More than 3,000 prisoners released under First Step Act

CBS News: "Freedom came Friday for more than 3,000 people. They were released from prisons and halfway houses across the country under the First Step Act signed into law by the president last year."

Proposal would repeal US laws that hurt Native Americans

Sioux City Journal: "Leaders of Oklahoma-based Native American tribes are praising a proposal to repeal unenforced federal laws that discriminate against Native Americans."

Nation: Emojis are increasingly coming up in court cases

CNN: "Can a knife emoji double as a threat to kill someone? Does a heart emoji from a manager constitute sexual harassment? More emojis are showing up in court cases throughout the United States. Attorneys are having to argue for different interpretations of the small illustrated characters that are used to express emotions, activities or objects."

Nation: The fight over Native American adoptions is about more than just the children

Time: "Each time Elisia Manuel sees her daughter Precious rehearsing traditional basket dancing and humming tribal songs around their home in Casa Grande, Arizona, she’s overwhelmed with emotion. 'It’s beautiful to witness,' the mother of three says. 'She’s part of the community.'"

Wanted: Lawyers for rural America

Pew Charitable Trust: "In 2012, the American Bar Association called on federal, state and local governments to curb the decline of rural lawyers, and South Dakota responded. The following year, it became the first state to enact legislation to recruit lawyers to rural areas."

Nation: Judges reveal stress, scrutiny they face in their jobs

Courthouse News Service: "Former federal judge Jeremy Fogel started a firestorm when he ruled that California’s execution procedures were unconstitutionally harsh back in 2006. Despite the hundreds of angry emails and letters, he said he’s glad it happened before Twitter took off."

Iowa Supreme Court affirms Dakota Access pipeline project

WRAL News: "The Iowa Supreme Court said Friday that a crude oil pipeline running across Iowa was legally permitted to be built dashing the hopes of a group of farmer landowners who wanted the pipeline moved off their land and an environmental group that wanted it shut down."

U.S.: Blacks and Hispanics face military trials at disproportionate rates, GAO report to Congress says

Stars and Stripes: "Black and Hispanic servicemembers are more likely to face criminal investigations and be brought to trial than their white counterparts, though they are no more likely to be convicted, according to a government watchdog investigation report."

U.S.: Navigating the immigration court system in the rural mountain West

NPR News: "The backlog in U.S. immigration courts is now over 850,000 cases long. People can wait years for their hearings. And that can be a long time to pay for a lawyer and to make appearances in court. Both of these things can be much harder for immigrants living in rural and mountainous parts of the West."

U.S.: Longest-running housing discrimination case outlives judge

ABC Fox Montana News: "A federal judge who worked until his recent death at age 96 left a historic trail of groundbreaking legal opinions. But one case outlived Damon Keith: the longest-running housing discrimination lawsuit in the United States."

Lake Region Bar Association holds Law Day event

The Lake Region Bar Association held a Law Day event at the Lake Region Heritage Museum May 1. Fourth, fifth and sixth graders from Tate Topa Tribal School in Fort Totten, Sweetwater Elementary School in Devils Lake and Starkweather Public School performed a mock trial and deliberated as jurors in the historic federal courtroom.

Nation: Study examines how tribes have used treaty rights to successfully halt energy development

University of Kansas: "A University of Kansas law professor has written a study analyzing seven cases in which treaty rights have been upheld in courts or administrative bodies and prevented energy development in areas with legal ties to tribes opposed to the projects."

U.S.: Seat reclining dispute aboard flight from MSP ends in legal thicket

MPR News: "On July 9, 2015, two passengers had a heated argument aboard a Delta Airlines flight from Minneapolis to Los Angeles. It started when Monique Lozoya tried to recline her seat and the passenger behind her, Oded Wolff, traveling with his wife, jostled the seatback."

Conference of Chief Justices adopts guidelines to make family courts work for the families they serve

News Release: "In an important step toward making family courts more user-friendly and less adversarial, the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) has adopted new guidelines to help courts evolve to meet changing needs and expectations.

With Washington victory, the 'necessity defense' for environmental protesters is gathering steam

Legal News Line: "A Washington appeals court’s decision to overturn the conviction of a man who claims he had no choice but to break into a pipeline facility to save the planet from global warming represents the most important endorsement yet of a legal strategy that once was considered impossible."

N.D. Attorney General opinions: April 11

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem has issued an opinion that the City of Dickinson violated the open records laws because it did not provide records within a reasonable time and that the City of Arnegard violated the law by holding committee meetings without providing public notice.

Nation: Beware of even the fine print, attorneys warn of ALI's insurance law Restatement

PennRecord: "The industry should be wary of more than just the main points in the American Law Institute's project on insurance liability law, because danger also lurks in the comments section, said several panelists at a University of Connecticut Law School conference."

Mountain West tribes and states join Indian Child Welfare Act lawsuit

Wyoming Public Media: "So far, 325 tribes and states, including Montana, Idaho, Utah and Colorado, have joined forces to preserve a law that gives Native families preference in adoption of Native children. Texas, Indiana and Louisiana argue the Indian Child Welfare Act creates a special and unequal status for Native children that's unconstitutional."

Nation: 3 months into new criminal justice law, success for some and snafus for others

Wyoming Public Media: "After spending 15 years in prison for a drug offense, Randy Rader had almost lost hope that he might get out of prison before his release date in 2023. If Rader's conviction for 5 grams of crack cocaine — his third drug offense — had happened after 2010, he would have received a much shorter sentence."

Calif.: Single mom wins $153K in child support 50 years after divorce

ABC News: "A California woman was finally awarded child support 50 years after her ex-husband moved to Canada without making any of the court-ordered payments."

U.S. court: Cop can’t stop driver for flipping him off

MPR News: "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit was short and to the point in ruling this week that giving the finger to a cop is free speech and you can’t be pulled over for doing so."

U.S.: Judicial Conference approves package of workplace conduct reforms

News Release: "The federal Judiciary’s national policy-making body [March 12] approved a package of workplace conduct-related amendments stating the obligations of judges and Judiciary employees to report reliable information likely to constitute misconduct."

U.S.: Appeals court to hear Native American child welfare case

Winona Daily News: "A federal law that gives preference to Native American families in foster care and adoption proceedings involving Native American children is facing the most significant legal challenge since it was enacted more than 40 years ago."

Nation: Tougher law-school sanctions could come later this spring

Arizona Republic: "The accrediting body for the nation's law schools continues to consider setting tougher standards for schools where too many graduates fail the bar exam. Even as they do, more schools are reviewing their own passage rates and changing the data they report about their graduates."