Articles

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s deadlock ruling essentially reiterates and emphasizes that the State Constitution’s strict protections against unlawful searches and seizures are absolute and without exception. A “deadlock” ruling is equivalent to a stand still or a non-ruling. As a result of a deadlock vote amongst justices, or a vote more commonly referred to as […]

This summer the Supreme Court decided that states cannot prevent or restrict sex offenders from utilizing social networking sites. In an effort to limit sex offenders from interacting with potential victims, states such as North Carolina have enacted laws making it a felony for convicted sex offenders to access “commercial social networking” websites that have […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia just recently ruled that individuals have a First Amendment right to video record on-duty police officers. Backed by the American Civil Liberties Union (“ACLU”), two private citizens appealed a federal judge’s ruling that the constitutional right to record police activity was not absolute and […]

The latest on the Bill Cosby “deadlock”

Last September, the Arizona Supreme Court issued a startling decision that expanded the state’s child molestation law to criminalize any contact between an adult and a child’s genitals. Molestation of a child under the statute consisted of “intentionally or knowingly engaging in or causing a person to engage in sexual contact with a child under […]