In the wake of 9/11, the three branches of our Federal Government - the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial - have alternately combined to authorize and approve secret but massive surveillance of U.S. citizens as one of the Government’‘s principal strategies in its War on Terrorism.

In that vein, ...

In Moore v. Madigan, 702 F.3d 933 (7th Cir. Dec. 11, 2012) (Moore I) (P&J, 12/24/12), a divided three-judge panel from the Seventh Circuit invalidated, as unconstitutional, a strict Illinois state law that made it illegal for most people to carry loaded guns in public.

Effectively, a majority of the ...

In this case, a three-judge panel from the Tenth Circuit unanimously held that, “in light of our nation's extensive practice of restricting citizens' freedom to carry firearms in a concealed manner, we hold that this activity does not fall within the scope of the Second Amendment's protections.” In its sweeping ...

Justice Kagan framed the issues of this canine drug search case in her opening paragraph as follows::

“In this case, we consider how a court should determine if the ‘alert’ of a drug-detection dog during a traffic stop provides probable cause to search a vehicle. The Florida Supreme Court held ...

In 2010, the Supreme Court issued a blockbuster ruling which held that a Sixth Amendment ineffective assistance of counsel claim could be based on a defense counsel’s failure to inform his client of the possible immigration consequences, such as deportation, that could result by entering a guilty plea. (See, Padilla ...

Here, the Court limited the power of the police to detain suspects when their house is being searched by holding that a search warrant of a house does not allow police to search people who left the premises and were detained nearly a mile away.

In this case the Court ...