This blog passed two million hits this week. It has far surpassed the modest expectations I had when it began. Thanks to everyone who is part of the blog community for contributing to its success. In other news: Bill to allow non-lawyer judges. As the News and Observer notes here, the General Assembly is considering a bill, H 397, to allow certain non-lawyers to become district court judges. Interestingly, while every United States Supreme Court justice so far has been a lawyer, it is not constitutionally required that a justice be an attorney. New York stop and frisk trial. A high-profile civil trial began this week over the use of stops and frisks by the New York Police. The police say that they’re using lawful tools to drive crime down, while some citizens believe the police are unfairly targeting minorities and are alienating residents. The Huffington Post has the scoop here. Death penalty repeal in Maryland? The ebb and flow of the death penalty continues, with Maryland moving towards abolishing the punishment. What would repeal mean for the five inmates currently on death row in the Old Line State? Sentencing Law and Policy ponders the point here. DC law professor on searching cell phones incident to arrest. Orin Kerr, perhaps the leading scholar in the area of crime and technology, recently expressed his view of how the Fourth Amendment should apply to searching a cell phone incident to arrest. It’s likely to be an influential opinion. In a nutshell, he argues [...]
Faculty Coordinators
