Chief Judge James E. Shadid in the Central District of Illinois granted summary judgment in favor of two correctional officers at the Jerome Combs Detention Center in Kankakee County, Illinois in McKinstry v. Colbert, et al. Case No. 16-CV-02362 (C.D. Ill. June 12, 2018). Plaintiff, a pre-trial detainee, alleged that another detainee had concocted a…
Read MoreA motorist on an orange and black motorcycle had eluded Virginia police officers twice. One officer found a picture that matched the motorcycle on Facebook and, through research, found the house where the motorcycle was located and that the motorcycle may have been stolen. The officer pulled up to the house, saw what appeared to…
Read MoreIn a recent Eleventh Circuit case, Prison Legal News v. Sec’y, Fla. Dep’t of Corr., No. 15-14220 (May 17, 2018), a federal appellate court upheld the Florida Department of Corrections’ (DOC) decision to confiscate a monthly prisoner magazine, Prison Legal News, published by the plaintiff, Prison Legal News (PLN). The Court found that the DOC’s…
Read MoreGovernmental employers need to balance their interests in providing services and managing employees with their duty to respect the Constitutional rights of their employees. What happens when an employee, after refusing to say what his governmental employer wants him to say, is fired? Does such retribution run afoul of the First Amendment? Lorenzo Davis worked…
Read MoreIn a recent decision, Byrd v. U.S., No. 16-1371 (May 14, 2018), the Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion that a driver in lawful possession or control of a rental vehicle, despite not being named as a driver in the rental agreement, has a reasonable expectation of privacy in that vehicle. Latasha Reed rented a…
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