Civil Rights

Police And Prosecutors Allegedly Engaged In Scheme Of Using Sex And Drugs To Coerce Confessions

This took prosecutorial discretion way too far.

Biglaw Firm Does Good In A Big Way: Gibson Dunn Secures Major Win For George Floyd Protester Injured By LAPD Officer

This is the first time a verdict has been secured against the LAPD arising from the George Floyd protests.

Morning Docket: 06.29.22

* Texas sheriff decides that Dobbs just didn't happen. [The Guardian] * The "deeply rooted" rhetoric from the Dobbs opinion is already getting used to attack trans folks. If only America was deeply rooted in equality. [Axios] * The SCOTUS Dobbs ruling was so bad -- *How bad was it?* -- that it tanked American soft power. Please clap. [WaPo] * Reminder: Respect to Dick's and all, but planning on corporations to save you generally isn't good praxis. [Commondreams] * With Bremerton nixing the Establishment Clause, I wonder how the Court will process religious justifications for abortion? [Miami Herald]

Morning Docket: 05.11.22

* Democratic Senators are trying to enshrine and expand Roe in light of the Alito leak. [AP News] * Might need faith bigger than a mustard seed for this one: the Supreme Court's approval rating is tanking. [Yahoo!] * Prep begins for a civil rights lawsuit after police appear to racially profile a lacrosse team. [USA Today] * Biden may issue an executive order that increases abortion access. [Reuters] * Weed being legal in NY means that employers have less leeway penalizing their employees for what they do in their free time. Oh noes. [Newsday]

Insults Are Undermining Your Civil Rights

They keep going low for a reason.

How The Drug War Corrupts Our Institutions

The evidence has been compelling for decades that the policy of drug prohibition corrupts our institutions into creating more harm rather than mitigating it.

The Loss Of Civility

It is no coincidence that the same figures who seek to enact gratuitously cruel policies or deny fundamental liberties are always the ones opining about a loss of 'civility.'

Gross Hypocrisy Is No Longer A Political Sin, And Other Reflections On A Year Gone By

It’s Tyler Broker’s one-year anniversary here at Above The Law, so he felt compelled to take some perspective.

Poverty Is Wholly Preventable And Escaping It Should Now Be Considered A Natural Human Right

My generation has a chance to completely wipe out poverty, but the result will be not achieved by a statist, communist method, and neither will it come from a conservative ‘deserving only’ system.

Lawyer Sends Around Racist Pictures Of Beer, NAACP Gets Involved

After facing consequences for posting an offensive image online, a lawyer complains that it's everyone's fault but his.

Qualified Immunity Empowers Constitutional Violations, But That Can Change…

SCOTUS has an opportunity to reverse this trend and insist that those who have been constitutionally wronged have some available means to vindicate their violation.

Will The Confederate Justice Department Refuse To Prosecute Eric Garner’s Killer?

I have literally no faith in the current Justice Department to do the right thing when black lives are taken.

Collars For Dollars: An Unconstitutional Police Practice?

Other juries will soon be asked to decide whether a petitioner's civil rights were violated through arrests by police seeking to make overtime dollars. 

Unpacking The Ways Trump’s NYC Tweets Violate Due Process

Can somebody get a message to the president that he's not helping?

St. Louis Police Now Just Arresting And Taunting Protestors

As the Department of Justice declines to intervene.