National News

ULC to hold webinar series on uniform law amendments

Tue, 16 Aug 2022 05:20:00 GMT

The Uniform Law Commission has scheduled a series of webinars on new amendments to the uniform laws. Part I will be on Digital Assets and will be held Aug. 31.

New UCC Article 12 provides rules to govern commercial transactions involving new types of digital assets, including virtual currencies, non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”), and what are functionally electronic promissory notes and electronic bills of exchange. Amendments to UCC Article 9 will clarify how digital assets can be used as collateral security in loan transactions and how security interests in digital assets can be perfected and achieve priority. The amendments address fiat electronic money, such as anticipated central bank digital currencies, and new choice-of-law law rules will clarify which state’s law applies to a given transaction.

For more information and to register go to: https://www.uniformlaws.org/newsandpublications/webinars

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

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 08:30:00 GMT

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.

The amendment promised women that their right to vote would "not be denied" on account of sex.

Yet, even after that milestone, millions of people — women and men alike — were still excluded from the vote, as many barriers to suffrage remained.

Oregon Supreme Court to determine scope of nonunanimous jury fallout

Wed, 19 Aug 2020 06:00:00 GMT

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.

Five lead cases are before the Oregon Supreme Court. Each deals with a different set of issues surrounding nonunanimous jury verdicts and represent a number of underlying cases.

For example, one case looks at whether just the use of nonunanimous jury instructions violated the Constitution.

Dakota Datebook: Last state passes 19th Amendment

Tue, 18 Aug 2020 08:30:00 GMT

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.

The bill had easily passed the Tennessee Senate, but had remained deadlocked in the State House of Representatives. Finally, young Harry Burn, whose own constituents were locked in debate and swelling in anti-suffrage ranks, changed his “nay” to an “aye,” creating uproar in the room. Another representative, a staunch anti-suffragist, changed his vote as well so that he could propose voting again, but nothing would change—suffrage passed.

Representative Burn received a lot of criticism for his vote, but defended his decision, stating that he believed in the right of suffrage.

Feds release nationwide sex offender registry regulation

Tue, 18 Aug 2020 07:00:00 GMT

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.

The regulation, which stems from the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, requires convicted sex offenders to register in the states in which they live, work or attend school. It details specific information that registered sex offenders across the U.S. must provide to officials.

While the law required that sex offenders provide personal information, the regulation codifies precisely what information must be provided, including name, birth date, Social Security number and specific information about travel, vehicles and professional licenses.

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

Mon, 17 Aug 2020 07:00:00 GMT

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.

What qualifies a young person for a sex offense registry varies in those states too, according to a report released today. In Minnesota “all sexual offenses” mean mandatory registration. In North Dakota it’s mandatory for felony sexual offenses and discretionary for juvenile misdemeanor sex offenses. In South Dakota sentencing is “generally” mandatory, but with some exceptions.

Across the country, a complicated set of state laws that place youth on sex offender registries creates disparities and confusion over how youth are treated, according to the Juvenile Law Center report.

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

Mon, 17 Aug 2020 07:00:00 GMT

MPR News

The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified 100 years ago this week, and it comprises just 39 words:

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

But the fight to secure women that right to vote was decades long, and the final step toward ratification hinged on the decision of one young man in Tennessee: state Rep. Harry T. Burn.

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

Wed, 12 Aug 2020 07:00:00 GMT

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.

The trial, which was being staged using the video conferencing site that has become ubiquitous during quarantines and office shutdowns, ground to a halt with juror No. 5 paused with one hand aloft as if he were taking an oath.

Over the next several minutes, the judge and his staff tried to remedy the problem, but ultimately they had to dismiss the man from the seven-member panel that was deciding the guilt of a driver accused of speeding in a construction zone.

Zoom courts will stick around as virus forces seismic change

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 06:00:00 GMT

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.

Courts forced to accelerate years of innovation into weeks may never go back to how they did business before the pandemic, according to interviews with more than 30 state and federal judges, lawyers and court staff in 16 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The embrace of technology is a revolution for many courts that have historically resisted it.

“We’re going to be doing court business remotely forever,” said Nathan Hecht, chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court and co-chair of the National Center for State Court’s pandemic rapid response team. “This has changed the world.”

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

Tue, 28 Jul 2020 08:00:00 GMT

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.

Soon after, the spread of deadly COVID-19 forced law firms and the justice system to rapidly evolve in ways that conferencegoers had predicted would take years to come to fruition.

Shelter-in-place orders and social distancing guidelines necessitated that an industry known for being slow to embrace technology quickly shift to remote working and use the tools needed to do so effectively. Courts also furiously worked to implement videoconferencing and other electronic solutions to keep providing forums for litigants to resolve disputes amid courthouse closures and the suspension of jury trials.

Boulder-based Native American Rights Fund turns 50

Mon, 20 Jul 2020 08:00:00 GMT

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. Now 74 years old, he plans to work as long as he is in good health

NARF, a nonprofit legal firm specializing in federal Indian law, was established 50 years ago. This area of law refers to “a complex body of law composed of hundreds of Indian treaties and court decisions, and thousands of federal Indian statutes, regulations and administrative rulings,” according to NARF’s website. The organization concentrates on existing laws and treaties and takes on cases where those rights are threatened.

NARF’s main office is in Boulder, with two others in Anchorage, Alaska, and Washington. Since its founding, NARF has represented plaintiffs in major cases. Some cases take years before seeing progress.

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

Fri, 10 Jul 2020 08:00:00 GMT

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, according to a Tulsa attorney with extensive experience in federal tribal law.

“I think this is the most important decision in Oklahoma history in terms of sovereignty for the state of Oklahoma and sovereignty for the five tribes,” said Mike McBride III, an attorney with Crowe & Dunlevy.

McBride made his comments in a Tulsa World interview following the court’s ruling in a case brought by a Wagoner County man who challenged his conviction on jurisdictional grounds.

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

Fri, 10 Jul 2020 06:00:00 GMT

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

Until he turned 8 years old, Rehan Staton said his childhood in Bowie, Maryland, was a life of privilege -- loving parents, a supportive big brother and a cushy, private school education, including a tutor.

Everything changed when his mother left the country with the family's savings and his father lost a job, later having to work up to three at a time just to pay the bills. Food became scarce. Turning on the thermostat was a luxury they couldn't afford.

Zoom trials demand new skills

Mon, 06 Jul 2020 06:00:00 GMT

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. But recent remote proceedings are already showing that online trials can actually work — with the right considerations.

Latham & Watkins LLP associate Corey Calabrese was one of the first lawyers in the nation to undertake trial proceedings on Zoom when she gave closing arguments in March in a voting rights trial in the Southern District of New York. Up until closings, the bench trial had been conducted the traditional way, in a courtroom.

Courts straining to balance public health with public access

Mon, 29 Jun 2020 06:00:00 GMT

Associated Press

After her son was arrested for allegedly throwing rocks at police during a protest over racial injustice, Tanisha Brown headed to the courthouse in her California hometown to watch her son’s arraignment.

She was turned away, told the courthouse was closed to the public because of coronavirus precautions. A day later, the Kern County Superior Court in Bakersfield posted a notice on its website explaining how the public could request special permission from judicial officers to attend court proceedings.

But problems with public access have persisted, according to a federal lawsuit filed Friday on behalf of Brown and several others who have been unable to watch court sessions.

Wisconsin court finds blood test for passed-out drivers unconstitutional

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 05:00:00 GMT

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.

A three-judge panel of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals’ District IV in Madison concluded in a 43-page decision that “the incapacitated driver provision is unconstitutional because the implied consent that incapacitated drivers are deemed to have given and presumed not to have withdrawn does not satisfy any exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement.”

Read the court's opinion at: https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/wis-blood.pdf

Military lawyers admit racial disparities in service justice systems

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 06:00:00 GMT

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.

But the services have begun taking steps to understand and address racial disparities within the military’s justice system, the most senior military lawyers for the Army, the Air Force, the Navy and the Marine Corps said during a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee’s personnel subpanel.

Committee members implored the lawyers to take the issue seriously and to incorporate experts from outside the military in their search for solutions amid growing national cries in recent weeks for racial equality.

4 ways coronavirus may forever change legal tech

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 06:00:00 GMT

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.

Some of those emergency fixes could stick around even after life returns to normal. Legal experts say embracing remote technology has boosted efficiency, transparency and access to the courts.

Here are some of the top tech fixes that attorneys hope will stick around after the pandemic.

Remote court proceedings useful in emergencies, lawyers say

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 08:00:00 GMT

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.

Federal rules governing civil and criminal practice that restrict remote proceedings have been a hindrance for lawyers during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the event of another outbreak, attorneys said, there should be clearer language that trials and testimony in civil cases and certain criminal proceedings can be conducted through remote means.

Some attorneys would even like to see those rules expanded outside the context of another emergency, though that sentiment was mostly focused on the civil side.

Work from home boom reignites attorney licensing questions

Tue, 16 Jun 2020 06:00:00 GMT

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.

For some legal ethics attorneys, that's raised questions about whether lawyers are unwittingly flouting local licensure rules.

"This is an issue that law firms are concerned about," according to Janis Meyer, a professional liability attorney at Clyde & Co. LLP. "Everybody had to go home. Lawyers found a place to stay in the beginning or middle of March and practiced from there."