Tag Archives: Supreme Court

You might remember KaZaA, a file-sharing site that allowed users to share music. Jammie Thomas-Rasset likely remembers it, and vividly. She was the first person to challenge the recording industry when it began coming after people for sharing music online, and now she has to pay up. After seven years and three trials resulting in different damages awards, the Minnesota woman who used KaZaA in 2005 to download 1,700 songs now owes four record companies $222,000. The 8th U.S. Circuit …

Una investigación criminal federal de dos años sobre el infame Joe Arpaio, Sheriff de Arizona, por abuso de poder y  mal uso de fondos, fue suspendida a principios del mes. Pero el autoproclamado “sheriff más duro de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica” tiene más problemas legales en camino. Arpaio es celebrado y  vilipendiado a lo largo de todo el país por sus políticas tan duras sobre inmigración, aplicadas en el Condado de Maricopa, en Arizona, apoyando la discriminación por perfil racial, …

A two-year federal criminal investigation of infamous Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio for abuses of power and financial misconduct was dropped earlier this month, but the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America has plenty more legal trouble looming. Arpaio is celebrated and vilified through the country for his tough-on-immigration policies in Maricopa County, Ariz., endorsing racial profiling in policy if not in name to arrest suspected undocumented immigrants and turn them over to federal authorities for deportation. However the sheriff is also …

Texas state officials continue to insist that the state’s controversial voter ID law is valid, despite a federal appeals court ruling on Aug 30 that the law is “retrogressive,” meaning it reduces the voting strength of minorities. The U.S. Supreme Court will likely have the last say – possibly before the elections in November. A three-judge panel in Washington, DC agreed with the Department of Justice, which had refused to “pre-clear” the law in March in a review process required …

The federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that police do not need a warrant to track suspects using location data from their cell phones. Mobile phone users, the court said, do not have any expectation of privacy for data that emanates from their phones. The decision stemmed from a case in 2006 when law enforcement agents intercepted phone communications from a known drug trafficker without a warrant.  The information gave them the location and vehicle information for a …