SCOTUSblog flags three notable new sentencing cert petitions
Last year around this time, I expressed my sense that it has been quite some time since the Supreme Court has taken up a really big and interesting sentencing case. This post from near the end of last year s SCOTUS Term, titled Do others sense that SCOTUS has become particularly (and problematically?) quiet on sentencing matters? , captured this zeitgeist. In the year since, we have gotten a few notable sentencing rulings (on juve LWOP in
Jones and on ACCA predicates in
Borden, but these decisions are more clarifications than game-changers.
I review these broad realities not just because we are approaching the close of another SCOTUS Term, but also because SCOTUSblog has this new post spotlighting three new cert petitions that could each lead to a significant sentencing ruling. Here some details from a post worth reading in full:
Court TV via AP, Pool
In a somewhat surprising development from the standpoint of timing if nothing else the Biden Justice Department has obtained an indictment of four former Minneapolis Police Officers, including Derek Chauvin, on charges they violated the federal civil rights of George Floyd and thereby caused his death.
Indicted along with Chauvin are three other officers who were at the scene and assisted in arresting Floyd Thou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane.
Chauvin was also indicted in a second unrelated case where he was charged with the same crime in a separate episode. He is alleged to have unlawfully struck a minor suspect several times with a flashlight while holding the suspect by the neck in 2017.
Roy Exum: Two Differing Views Thursday, April 22, 2021 - by Roy Exum
Roy Exum
For many reasons, I am infatuated with Constitutional law and, therefore, I was absorbed with the abject unfairness of the Derek Chauvin trial we just watched unfold in Minneapolis, Minn. Understand, my concern has nothing to do with the verdict. Instead, I am drawn to the nationwide circus that accompanied the outcome and how is it possible for the courtroom to be void of all emotion when thousands are gathered on the lawn, and pressing on the doors, of the Hennepin County Justice building. My God, the media even printed the names of the jurors.
GOP Rep. Jim Banks says the move is all part of the Democrat Party s grand plan to federalize elections and make it hard for Republicans to ever win again.
A New Jersey police union has won a dispute with a town that demanded local officers identify if they had participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The town of Neptune upheld a grievance filed by the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP)-New Jersey Labor Council, which claimed that the town had violated its members’ constitutional and contractual rights.
The town issued a notice on Jan. 20 that required officers to identify if they were involved in the Jan. 6 riot in Washington, D.C. The FOP argued, however, that there was no indication, complaint, or information to suggest that any Neptune Superior Officer was in any way involved.
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