Case Study: United States V. Morrison

According to Alexander (2011), “the authority to stop, interrogate and search anyone, anywhere, provided they get ‘consent’ from the targeted individual” basically promise biased consequences. It is a fact that more than one in ten Americans will violate a drug law in a given year; drug buying/selling indeed are a popular and consensual activity. With that, law enforcement needs to have a more proactive approach as compared to violent or property crimes. Once the public consensus was built by media portrayals of these groups, “racial bias in the drug war was inevitable.” (Alexander, 2011) Prosecutors have the most power in the criminal justice system but the police hold the most discretionary power. In the Supreme Court case, Armstrong v. United

The court case of the United States v. Morrison seemed to be an unfair case in favor of the men convicted of rape. The United States v. Morrison case was a United States Supreme Court decision, which held that parts of the VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) were unconstitutional because they exceeded congressional power under the Commerce Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment. The USC passed the VAWA that contained a provision (42 USC) that protected victims of gender-based violence, even if no charges had been filed against the criminal. In 1994 at Virginia tech, Christy Brzonkala claimed she was raped by two of her fellow classmates, Antonio Morrison, and James Crawford. During the first hearing of the case, Morrison admitted to having sexual

Currently in the United States there are no federal laws relating to sexual assault. This is due to the court ruling of US v. Morrison which overturned the clauses in the Violence Against Women Act which allowed women to sue their attackers in a Federal court. The Supreme Court justified overturning these articles in the VAWA by saying that allowing women to sue in Federal court whether there was a conviction or not was an over reach on the part of the Federal government and the commerce clause. By doing this the Supreme Court limited the commerce clause in order to overturn the articles, which was one of the first time that the commerce clause had been limited since its

In 1994, Christy Brzonkala, a student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, stated that Antonio Morrison and James Crawford raped her. A year later, Brzonkala filed a complaint against Morrison and Crawford under Virginia Tech’s Sexual Assault Policy. After two hearings, Morrison was found guilty of sexual assault and sentenced to immediate suspension for two semesters. At some point throughout the duration of these hearings, Morrison personally admitted to having sexual contact with Brzonkala after she said “no” twice, however still affirmed that the sexual act was consensual. Crawford, however, stated that he left the room before any sexual activity commenced and was later charged with a lesser offense that was unrelated to sexual conduct. Being that both Morrison and Crawford were valued varsity members of the prestigious Virginia Tech football team and worried about the continuity of their athletic careers, they made an appeal through the university’s administrative system to reduce their suspensions. After being processed, the punishments were set aside

The court rejects the previous test used to decide Free Exercise cases, the Sherbert test. The state no longer had to prove a “compelling interest” for legislation nor that it was the “least restrictive means” of regulation.

Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128 (1978) The Court held that a defendant must prove there is a legitimate expectation of privacy for a search to be challenged.

The Founding Fathers tried to protect citizen’s rights to religious choice and attempted to keep the government form religious interference. The purpose was not to disallow religion but to give the people a choice of whom and where to worship. Today, the views are not the same. Freedom of religion is being interpreted as freedom of religion as long as it is acceptable with everyone else. The Founding Fathers also wanted separation of church and state to protect the church from government interference. The concept has now become removal of religion from all aspects of government. The cases of Van Orden v. Perry and McCreary County v. ACLU are two prime examples, both with different results.

There are 4 Ps. Ps claim they were unlawfully detained by MOS and falsely arrested on drug charges. Ps allege that they live in a three family private house with apartments on 3 floors. Ps allege that the first floor apartment was of P Yolanda Lopez; second floor apartment was of P Yvonne (non-party), and basement apartment was of Evelyn Lopez and her 17 year old daughter, Karina Lopez. Ps Rafael Rivera and Erin Morales were staying on the first floor. P Rivera alleges that MOS entered the house and order him to get to his knee and P Rivera complied. P Rivera alleges that while he was on his knees MOS struck P Rivera in the face with the riot shield. P Evelyn Lopez alleges that defendant MOS Anthony Hughes grabbed her arm and struck her face against a wall and illegally searched her basement apartment. Defendant MOS John Natoli stated that the search warrant applied to all floors because each family has access other family’s

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984) was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that set the standard for determining whether a criminal defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel is violated by a lawyer's alleged incompetence during trial. On September 25,1789 the Sixth Amendment was introduced into the United States Constitution as part of the Bill of Rights, and on December 15, 1791 it was ratified. The Sixth Amendment guarantees a defendant the right “[T]o have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.”

On a beautiful day in 1965, June 4th, President Lyndon B Johnson spoke at the commencement at the prestigious Howard University commencement. He can be quoted saying “ You do not take a man who for years has been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race saying ‘ you are free to compete with all the others,’ and still justly believe you have been completely fair.”(ECS1) Shortly after giving this address President Johnson, “Put his money where his mouth was” and signed executive orders mandating that all government contractors take “affirmative action” to hire minority groups (Brunner 2002). In responses to this many professional schools, colleges and university’s followed the governments

MILLERSBURG — After serving eight months in prison for going into and stealing money from a Washington Township home last September, a former Wooster man last week was granted early release.

Bound v. Smith was a North Carolina case that was filed by three (3) inmates against state administrators under section 1983,1. The facts of the case alleged that the inmates has been deprived of access to the courts in violation of their fourteen (14th) amendment rights by the state’s failure to provide legal research facilities (Shaw, 1978).

After the death of Senator Sam Foley, Hubert Hopper, a governor, was pressured to select a newly appointed senator.

The sixth and fourteenth amendment both protect rights having to do with due process and right to counsel.

On the night of 5-26-17 at approximately 2145 security recieved a call from Casper Police Department dispatch asking for the ambulance bay door to be opened as Police were responding to a disturbance in the Emergency Department. Previous to this call security knew nothing of a disturbance. Security Officer Ubbes escorted Casper Police Officer who walked through the front entrance. Upon arrival Ubbes was informed by one of the ER nurses that the patient from bed 11 was extremely intoxicated, he was leaving his room wandering the ER without any clothes on and entering other patient rooms. Casper Police arrested the individual without further incident and left at approximately