On June 23, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court in Lange v. California, held that the pursuit of a misdemeanor suspect does not always justify entering his home without a warrant. This case arose when a police officer tried curbing a vehicle for a traffic offense. Instead of stopping, the suspect drove to his house and…
Read MoreThe Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently reversed the jury convictions of Ethel Shelton, the administrative assistant to former Calumet Township Trustee Mary Elgin, in a high-profile political corruption case, United States v. Shelton. This case involved the FBI’s use of an informant to obtain documents used against the defendant and propriety of how the…
Read MoreOn April 9, 2021, the Illinois Appellate Court, First District decided Robinson v. Village of Sauk Village, et al. 2021 IL App (1st) 200223. In Robinson, a pedestrian who was struck and injured by a fleeing lawbreaker sued Sauk Village, the Village of Crete, and several of their police officers for willful and wanton conduct…
Read MoreA federal judge in the Northern District of Illinois recently granted summary judgment in favor of three City of Morris police officers. The incident giving rise to the suit began when a woman reported to the Morris police department that her boyfriend had struck her in the face. Later that evening, officers went to his…
Read MoreThe Seventh Circuit no doubt raised some eyebrows last month when it reversed a $44.7 million jury verdict in First Midwest Bank v. City of Chicago. But despite the high verdict and tragic facts, the decision simply applied longstanding Supreme Court precedent on the distinction between government wrongs, which certainly do violate the federal constitution,…
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