Justices do not act on high-profile cases

The Supreme Court issued orders on Tuesday morning from the justices’ private conference last Friday, Jan. 15. The order list was most notable for what the justices did not do: Not only did they not grant any new cases, but they did not act at all on any of the high-profile cases that they considered last week, including the challenge to Mississippi’s ban on abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy; the dispute – now apparently moot – over whether President Donald Trump can block people from hi...
Tags: Featured, Mississippi, Supreme Court, Law, Boston Marathon, Donald Trump, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Howe, Cases in the Pipeline

Boston Marathon Bomber sues over his right to wear a baseball cap in prison

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is the surviving of the two Boston Marathon Bombers. Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan, who was very possibly an FBI informant, was believed to be the mastermind behind the attacks; however, he was killed during their escape from Cambridge, leaving Dzhokar to the standoff in Watertown and all subsequent legal matters. — Read the rest
Tags: Post, News, Prison, Prisons, Incarceration, Boston, Fbi, Cambridge, Boston Marathon, Boston Marathon Bombing, Prison Reform, Terrorists, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Prisoners, Watertown, Tsarnaev

Blockbuster Watch

John Elwood reviews Monday’s relists How does the Supreme Court possibly top the excitement of last Friday’s fourteen new grants — including grants in a few important First Amendment cases? With 10 new relists, including some cases that could be blockbusters if the court decides to take them. Perhaps the most blockbustery of them all is Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 19-1392, a case that was originally on track for the court’s Sept. 29 conference, but which has been repeatedly del...
Tags: Health, Texas, Featured, Mississippi, Maryland, Supreme Court, Law, Obama, Congress, California, Barack Obama, Pennsylvania, United States, Boston Marathon, Catholic, Johnson

Justices issue more orders from Friday’s conference, decline to fast-track election-related cases

The Supreme Court on Monday morning issued more orders from the justices’ private conference last week. After adding 14 new cases to their docket for the term on Friday afternoon, the justices were not expected to grant review in additional cases on Monday – and they did not. Monday’s order list was nonetheless noteworthy because the justices turned down a group of requests to expedite the consideration of petitions for review in cases seeking to undo the results of the 2020 presidential electio...
Tags: Featured, Mississippi, Supreme Court, Law, Congress, Joe Biden, Pennsylvania, United States, Boston Marathon, Wisconsin, Nevada, Biden, Donald Trump, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Pittsburgh

Friday round-up

After a winter recess, the justices meet Friday for a private conference at which they will consider cert petitions asking them to take up new cases this term. Numerous high-profile cases are slated for consideration. Some are petitions that the justices have considered at prior conferences and are continuing to review (a status indicating that the court is seriously thinking about taking up the case). These relists include petitions about sentencing reform for crimes involving crack cocaine, un...
Tags: Mississippi, Supreme Court, Law, Boston Marathon, Donald Trump, Puerto Rico, Trump, Round-up, Democratic, Breyer, Liptak, Gohmert, Lasnik, Lawrence Hurley Reuters, Brittany Renee Mayes Tara Bahrampour, Washington Post Covering SCOTUS

Justices grant review in 14 new cases but don’t act on hot-button issues

The Supreme Court took a big step on Friday night toward filling up its merits docket for the rest of the 2020-21 term, granting review in 14 new cases for a total of 12 hours of argument. The justices will weigh in on the First Amendment rights of students and charitable organizations, as well as sentencing reductions for inmates serving time for small amounts of crack cocaine. Perhaps just as notably, the justices did not act on several high-profile petitions that they considered at Friday’s c...
Tags: Twitter, Featured, Mississippi, Supreme Court, Law, Congress, Navy, California, Pennsylvania, United States, Boston Marathon, Nevada, Donald Trump, Terry, San Antonio, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

What it's like for small businesses in downtown Nashville after the bombing

Debris remains on the sidewalks in front of buildings damaged in a Christmas Day explosion in Nashville. Mark Humphrey/AP In the early-morning hours of Christmas Day, an RV loaded with explosives was detonated on Second Avenue in Nashville, Tennessee.  An estimated 41 businesses were damaged in the blast that appears to have been targeted at an AT&T facility on the block. While local business owners say they've received early signs of support, recovery efforts of this scale have taken mont...
Tags: Kentucky, Boston, US, Trends, Boston Marathon, Nashville, Cnbc, Trump, Rose, Lee, Nashville Tennessee, Sandy, Gibson, Second Avenue, Marcus Lemonis, Lemonis

A bloggy review of the sentencing year that was 2020

I always enjoy "year in review" pieces, even in years like 2020 that many folks may quite rightly be quite eager to forget.  So I figured I might as well "celebrate" the end of a rough year with a "bloggy" accounting of 2020 based on an all-too-quick review of some blog posts from the past year.  This accounting is not meant to be representative or even all that reflective of the year that was, it is just a list of a few post titles catching my eye for each month as I went though my 2020 archive...
Tags: New York, Supreme Court, Law, Congress, Time, US, America, Joe Biden, Fbi, Gop, Williams, Harvey Weinstein, Boston Marathon, Ohio, Oklahoma, Biden

Donations for Nashville small businesses damaged in the Christmas Day bomb attack are pouring in from across the country. Owners pray it's enough.

Smoke billows from the site of an explosion in the area on Friday, Dec. 25, 2020 in Nashville, Tenn. Buildings shook in the immediate area and beyond after a loud boom was heard early Christmas morning. Andrew Nelles/The Tennessean via AP In the early-morning hours of Christmas Day, an RV loaded with explosives was detonated on Second Avenue in Nashville, Tennessee.  An estimated 41 businesses were damaged in the blast that appears to have been targeted at an AT&T facility on the block. Wh...
Tags: Kentucky, Boston, US, Trends, Ap, Best, Boston Marathon, Nashville, Cnbc, Trump, Rose, Nashville Tennessee, Second Avenue, Marcus Lemonis, Lemonis, DOMINICK REUTER

Meet the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team: the law-enforcement equivalent of Delta Force

The HRT's Tactical Helicopter and Mobility Teams during an exercise. FBI The roughly 100 members of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team are the Tier 1 operators in the federal law-enforcement community. They have a lot in common with the military's best special-operations forces, but their status as civilian law enforcement mean there are important differences in what they can do. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The FBI's Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) is the Tier 1 law-enforc...
Tags: Utah, Navy, Virginia, Iraq, US, International, Alabama, Los Angeles, Trends, Atlanta, Fbi, Afghanistan, Army, Boston Marathon, Rangers, Somalia

Reviewing CJUTF Recommendations: how might the Biden Administration seek to abolish the death penalty?

Right after the election, I blogged a bit (here and here) about some criminal justice reform recommendations from the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force (available here pp. 56-62, called the CJUTF hereinafter).  A few weeks ago, as explained here, I decided to start a series of posts to spotlight and amplify some recommendations from the CJUTF that ought to be of particular interest to sentencing fans.  In the wake of two more notable federal executions last week (noted here and here), this post wil...
Tags: Fcc, Law, Congress, Massachusetts, Joe Biden, Cnn, United States, House, Boston Marathon, Department Of Justice, Biden, Donald Trump, Justice Department, Kamala Harris, Pressley, Charleston Church

"What Biden’s Win Means for the Future of Criminal Justice"

The title of this post is the headline of this extended new piece from The Marshall Project, which begins this way: During his presidential campaign, Joe Biden promised to end private prisons, cash bail, mandatory-minimum sentencing and the death penalty.  Candidate Biden also said the U.S. could reduce its prison population by more than half.  While he didn’t put forward as progressive or as detailed a platform as many of his competitors for the Democratic nomination (including his running mat...
Tags: Law, Obama, Congress, Eric Holder, Joe Biden, Boston Marathon, Department Of Justice, Biden, Eisenhower, Nyu, Trump, Charleston, HARRIS, U S, Maurice Chammah, USSC

3 traits winning sports teams have in common, and what business leaders can learn from them

Winning teams set ambitious goals, normalize failing, and work together when times get tough. Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports If you want to build a high-performing team during a pandemic, winning sports teams and coaches can teach you how to stay resilient through challenging times.  Successful teams set big, ambitious goals, but also nurture an environment where their teammates aren't afraid to fail and learn together from their mistakes.  Whether it's on the field or at work, your team sho...
Tags: Google, Usa, Trends, Xerox, Boston Marathon, Nba, Rays, WNBA, Tampa Bay Rays, Don, Phillips, Steve Kerr, Geoff Burke, Ursula Burns, Brett Phillips, Katie Burke

Petitions of the week: The public-charge rule, Boston Marathon bombing and more

This week we highlight cert petitions that ask the Supreme Court to review, among other things, the Trump administration’s public-charge rule and the vacated death sentences of Dzokhar Tsarnaev, convicted for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, immigrants can be denied green cards if, “in the opinion of” the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, the person is “likely at any time to become a public charge.” Congress, however, did no...
Tags: New York, Featured, Supreme Court, Law, Congress, Dhs, United States, Boston Marathon, Department Of Homeland Security, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Trump, Wolf, Gary, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, U S Department of Homeland Security, Barrett

Coronavirus updates: Wisconsin may run out of ICU beds in 2 weeks; Boston Marathon postponed; CVS adds rapid testing sites

California Gov. Gavin Newsom says no, again, to reopening theme parks. India tops 8M cases. CVS to add more rapid testing sites. Latest COVID news.         [Author: USA TODAY]
Tags: Usa, News, California, India, Boston Marathon, Wisconsin, Usa Today, Cvs, Gavin Newsom

Justice Department asks Supreme Court to reinstate death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber

The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to review a lower court opinion that wiped away the death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the brothers involved in the 2013 Boston marathon bombing that killed three spectators and injured hundreds.
Tags: Supreme Court, Boston, Cnn, Boston Marathon, Justice Department, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Feds officially seek SCOTUS certiorari to review First Circuit's reversal of Boston Marathon bombers death sentence

As reported in this Boston Globe piece, "Federal prosecutors on Tuesday formally filed their request for the US Supreme Court to review an appeals court ruling in July that threw out the death penalty in the case against Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev." Here is more (links from the original): The 424-page request, known as a writ of certiorari, raises two questions for the high court to consider. First, it asks whether the District Court should have allowed “evidence that responden...
Tags: Supreme Court, Law, Boston, Boston Marathon, US District Court, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, US supreme court, Boston Globe, First Circuit, District Court, US Court of Appeals, Tsarnaev, AG Barr, Douglas A Berman, George A O'Toole Jr, Colorado Prior

Mayors Against Illegal Guns Still Embracing Extremist Violence

By Larry Keane Bloomberg and his cronies may be, “against illegal guns” but they sure love political violence. IMG NSSF U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- Sorry, Mayors Against Illegal Guns. We didn’t know you were still here. Mea culpa. It’s just that no one has heard from this Bloomberg created and funded group in, well… years. Imagine the surprise when a letter signed by 10 mayors with a bone to pick with the Trump administration was published because Americans weren’t rolling over to the looters, ...
Tags: Guns, Bloomberg, Wheeler, Portland, Boston Marathon, Seattle, Richmond, Pittsburgh, Albuquerque, Trump, Keller, Concord N H, IMG, Tim Keller, Richmond VA, Mike Bloomberg

(RRW) Athletics: Boston Marathon Cancelled; Virtual Race Option Offered

The already-postponed 2020 Boston Marathon has been cancelled for the first time since its inception in 1897.
Tags: Sport, Running, Boston Marathon, Boston Marathon Cancelled

‘City Hall’ Review: Frederick Wiseman’s Mammoth Boston Doc Shows Anti-Trump Politics in Practice

It’s been seven years since the Boston Marathon bombing put the Massachusetts capital in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, and beyond the odd bright flash of #BostonStrong graffiti on a shabby streetscape, it’s not discussed directly in “City Hall.” It doesn’t need to be: Its community-wide burden of grief, caution and a shared […]
Tags: Reviews, Massachusetts, Festivals, Boston Marathon, Venice Film Festival, City Hall, Frederick Wiseman, Mammoth Boston Doc Shows Anti Trump Politics

Rep. Stephen Lynch defeats primary challenger Robbie Goldstein in Massachusetts' 8th District

8th Congressional race candidate, Dr. Robbie Goldstein, an infectious disease specialist at MGH, grabs campaign signs from Meghan Gallagher, one of his campaign staffers, on Aug. 13, 2020 in Brockton, MA. David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Rep. Stephen Lynch defeated infectious disease specialist Dr. Robbie Goldstein in the Democratic primary for Massachusetts' 8th Congressional District. Lynch, a former union ironworker and Massachusetts state legislator, has served in Congres...
Tags: Politics, Congress, Senate, Boston, Massachusetts, Trends, Getty Images, Hillary Clinton, United States, House, Boston Marathon, PAC, Kennedy, Lynch, MGH, FEC

LIVE UPDATES: Robbie Goldstein takes on Rep. Stephen Lynch in Massachusetts' 8th District

8th Congressional race candidate, Dr. Robbie Goldstein, an infectious disease specialist at MGH, grabs campaign signs from Meghan Gallagher, one of his campaign staffers, on Aug. 13, 2020 in Brockton, MA. David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Infectious disease specialist Dr. Robbie Goldstein is challenging Rep. Stephen Lynch in the Democratic primary for Massachusetts' 8th Congressional District. Goldstein is challenging Lynch from the left on a progressive platform of expanding ...
Tags: Politics, Congress, Senate, Boston, Massachusetts, Trends, Hillary Clinton, United States, House, Boston Marathon, PAC, Kennedy, Lynch, MGH, FEC, Federal Election Commission

The best cheap running shoes

You don't need to break the bank to find a reliable pair of running shoes — so long as you know what to shop for. Some of the best athletic brands like New Balance, Hoka One One, and Brooks offer dependable runners in the range of $100 to $130.Whether you prefer ample cushioning, a shoe capable of logging heavy miles, or just want a wallet-friendly pair for quick weekend runs, there's an affordable running shoe fit for your lifestyle.Our top pick, the HOKA One One Rincon, is a cushion-heavy runn...
Tags: Reviews, Fitness, Trends, Features, Buying Guide, Running, Boston Marathon, Women's Shoes, Fleet Feet, Dick, New Balance, Clifton, Brooks, SKECHERS, Rincon, Brooks Ghost

Friday round-up

Two new cert petitions from the Trump administration were in the news Thursday: one involving the death penalty for the Boston Marathon bomber and the other involving President Donald Trump’s practice of blocking people on Twitter. In the Boston bombing case, the Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to review a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit that vacated the death sentence for Dzkokhar Tsarnaev, CNN’s Connor Spielmaker, Sonia Moghe and Paul LeBlanc report. Ts...
Tags: Twitter, Supreme Court, Law, Boston, Cnn, United States, Boston Marathon, Donald Trump, Wall Street Journal, Justice Department, Aba, Trump, Round-up, Walsh, Coyle, Jess Bravin

Justice Department asks Supreme Court to review decision to vacate Boston bomber death sentence

The US Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to review an appellate court decision to vacate the death sentence for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who along with his brother planted homemade bombs near the finish of the 2013 Boston Marathon, killing three spectators and injuring hundreds.
Tags: Supreme Court, Boston, Cnn, Boston Marathon, Justice Department, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, US Justice Department

AG Barr says, unsurprisingly, that feds will appeal reversal of Boston Marathon bomber's death sentence

As reported in this new AP piece, headlined "Barr: Feds to appeal ruling, seek death for Boston bomber," the US Attorney General has told the press that the Justice Department will seek to get the Boston Marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, back on federal death row. Here are the details: The Justice Department will seek to reinstate a death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man who was convicted of carrying out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Attorney General William Barr said Thursday. In a...
Tags: Supreme Court, Law, Boston, US, Ap, Mit, Boston Marathon, Donald Trump, Justice Department, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, First Circuit, U S Supreme Court, Waltham, Patton, Tsarnaev, Barr

Loving Your Best Life Sweepstakes $4300+ Prize

We have something very exciting to share with you! We are excited to announce that we have collaborated with 9 other incredible lifestyle brands to bring you the “Loving Your Best Life” Sweepstakes worth over $4300!  Enter to win a 3 Night Stay in Myrtle Beach + gift cards and prizes for healing health supplements, healthy snacks, delicious crabs and seafood, science-based skincare, jewelry, lounge and workout wear, practical home solutions, and more! What is FindKeep.Love ? ...
Tags: NFL, America, Usda, Anthropology, Boston Marathon, Giveaway, Myrtle Beach, Stacy, Harbour House, Visa Gift Card, Thank You Page, Bulbhead, Chesapeake Bay area, Aneela Dias D Sousa, 4300, Findkeeplove

Opinion: The Boston Marathon bombing was a horrific crime, but Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should not be executed

The Justice Department must decide whether to appeal a court decision blocking a death sentence of the surviving Boston Marathon bomber. It should not.
Tags: News, Boston Marathon, Justice Department, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Morning Docket: 08.18.20

* A special prosecutor appointed in the Jussie Smollett case found that the prosecutor's office abused its discretion in overseeing the matter. [Wall Street Journal] * A Texas lawyer is being sued for allegedly leading clients to a failed real estate investment with which the attorney had an undisclosed interest. [Texas Lawyer] * The Boston Bar Association is urging Attorney General Barr not to pursue the death penalty for the Boston Marathon bomber. [Boston Globe] * Apparently it's not lib...
Tags: Morning Docket, Boston Bar Association, Boston Marathon Bombings, Cook County, Jussie Smollett, Maine, Texas

Unsurprisingly, victims of Boston Marathon bomber differ on seeking a new death sentence for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev after reversal on appeal

Later this month, I will have the pleased of starting a new semester teaching my sentencing law and policy class.  I often ask my students about on-going real cases, and this year I will press student to consider whether they would want the US Attorney for Massachusetts to pursue capital resentencing in the Boston Marathon bombing case, United States v. Tsarnaev, following the First Circuit’s recent death sentence reversal. Helpfully, the Boston Globe has these two new pieces focused on this top...
Tags: Law, Colorado, China, Massachusetts, US, United States, Cambridge, Boston Marathon, Rhode Island, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Michael, Boston Globe, First Circuit, Boston University, Tsarnaev, Lu