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Was Rittenhouse’s Possession of the AR-15 Unlawful?

JonathanTurley

In covering the motions hearing last week in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, I noted a surprising comment from Judge Bruce Schroeder that he had “spent hours” with the Wisconsin gun law and could not state with certainty what it means in this case. It is also hard to instruct a jury on an ambiguous statute.

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Locked and Loaded: Third Circuit Declares Federal Gun Law Unconstitutional Over Ex-Felon Rights

JonathanTurley

Yesterday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit handed down a major ruling in favor of the Second Amendment rights of ex-felons. At issue was the federal “felon-in-possession” law—18 U.S.C. § The federal law makes it “unlawful for any person. 922(g)(1), which bars ex-felons from possession of firearms.

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Fourth Circuit Overturns Conviction Of Retired Air Force Colonel For Using Racial Slur

JonathanTurley

In a major but likely controversial victory for free speech, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned the conviction of a retired Air Force Colonel for using a racial epithet at the shoe store on the Marine base at Quantico in Virginia. 568, 572 (1942), the Court has sharply abridged the application that exception.

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Connecticut High School Student Arrested For Posting Racist Slur

JonathanTurley

The case could present an important court test for this country in resisting the criminalization of speech that we have seen in Europe. ” The law is similar to the type of vague speech codes that we have addressed on campuses but this is an actual criminal provision under state law. Free speech demands bright lines.

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California Dreaming: Newsom’s Kidnapping Claim Against DeSantis is Long on Politics and Short on the Law

JonathanTurley

Newsom cited the kidnapping statute but apparently failed to read it or the underlying cases. Many migrants are released soon after capture, including some without a hearing date or court dates that are years in the future. The reason is that these claims are made for cable news, not courts of law.

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The Land that Law Forgot: The Supreme Court and the New York Legal Wasteland

JonathanTurley

Through various contortions, Bragg converted a dead misdemeanor case into 34 felonies in an unprecedented prosecution. New Yorkers and the media insisted that such selective prosecution was in defense of the “rule of law.” This week in the Supreme Court, a glimpse of the legal landscape outside of Manhattan came more sharply into view.

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August 2021 Updates to the Climate Case Charts

ClimateChange-ClimateLaw

Washington Supreme Court Said Climate Activist Was Entitled to Present Necessity Defense Based on Evidence that Legal Alternatives Were Not “Truly Reasonable”. The Supreme Court reversed an intermediate appellate court’s decision affirming a superior court determination that the defendant could not present a necessity defense.

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