In an action brought by plaintiff, the executor of decedent's estate, for wrongful death and conscious suffering under Massachusetts law, defendant government moved to dismiss claims against it and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1). The executor ...

Here the Court held that a series of barbaric and incompetent acts by prison dentists on an unmate die not rise to the level of deliberate indifference required by the Eighth Amendment since they were merely negligence, incompetence or malpractice.

Scicluna v. Wells, 345 F.3d 441 (6th Cir. 2003) (Judge ...

Scicluna v. Wells, 345 F.3d 441 (6th Cir. 2003) (Judge Gilman)
Majors v. Ridley-Turner, 277 F.Supp.2d 916 (N.D.Ind. 2003) (Judge Sharp)

The decisions in these two cases help to explain why so much confusion exists regarding the wonderfully dichotomous concept of “deliberate indifference” - one of the most frequently cited ...

This case is noted for its up-to-date review of the law on video-conferencing and when it is permitted in Federal criminal cases. The Court noted that most of the cases have traced the defendant’s right to be present “at every stage of the trial” to Rule 43 of the Fed.R.Crim.P.; ...

Here the Court affirmed an injunction barring the California Department of Corrections from requiring that parcels of books and magazines sent to prisoners have an approved vendor label affixed to the package on the grounds that the policy “unreasonably burdened” the plaintiff’s First Amendment rights and because it “was not ...

The defendant in this case, Herman Soriano, was convicted of possession of stolen mail and receipt of a stolen U.S. Treasury check, both of which were discovered during a warrantless search of a motel room that he was sharing with his girlfriend, Hiroe Mukai. On appeal, Soriano argued principally that ...

Here, relying on the "special needs" exception to the Fourth Amendment, the Court rejected a union challenge that Michigan’s random, suspicionless drug and alcohol testing program of four categories of State employees violated the Fourth Amendment.

The plaintiff union in this case (the “UAW”) filed an action, pursuant to 42 ...

This case is noted for its detailed summary of the scope and the legislative history of the enormously potent Criminal Forfeiture Act of 1984 (21 U.S.C. § 853), which creates a rebuttable presumption that any property of a person convicted of a felony drug offense is subject to forfeiture if ...

Here the Court upheld the dismissal of a civil rights lawsuit based on an infringement of freedom of speech, holding that the plaintiff had no First Amendment right to hand out pamphlets advocating jury nullification in a courthouse.

This is an interesting decision in which First Amendment rights clashed head-on ...