Claire J. Rice surveys state law approaches to establishing probable cause using plain odor and canine sniffs in states that have legalized marijuana, concluding that the Illinois legislature should, first, clarify that marijuana odor cannot serve as the sole basis for probable cause to search a vehicle and, second, ban the use of marijuana-detecting canines.
Tag: criminal law
Youssef Mohamed summarizes how United States v. Turkiye Halk Bankasi A.S. impacts the law of foreign sovereign immunity as it applies in criminal proceedings, ultimately concluding that, without further input from Congress, courts should defer to executive branch determinations of foreign immunity as manifested by the commencement of criminal proceedings.
Alessandro Clark-Ansani applies the equal protection analysis in United States v. Carrillo-Lopez to federal marijuana laws, concluding that courts should find such laws to be an unconstitutional violation of the Equal Protection Clause because of their racially discriminatory intent.
Laura Geary surveys recent state laws that regulate the use of commercial genetic databases by law enforcement, concluding that states should be cautious about adopting laws that require law enforcement officers to use government genetic databases before commercial ones.
Jaden Lessnick argues that the Seventh Circuit's holding in United States v. Thacker misapplies the compassionate release statute and that, instead, a case-by-case assessment of whether a nonretroactive sentencing amendment can justify compassionate release is more consistent with the statute and Seventh Circuit precedent.
Last August, the New Mexico Supreme Court repudiated the spousal evidentiary privilege on feminist grounds. Alexandra Aparicio argues that in so doing, the court overlooked feminism's complexity—and the right result.
Prosecutors seem to be the primary target for criminal justice reformers today, and with good reason: they are key gatekeepers to whether criminal charges get brought or not, and the particular charges they bring often dictate a defendant’s sentence. In a world dominated by plea bargains, prosecutors are essentially the final adjudicators in most criminal … Continue reading Criminal Justice Reform and the Courts by Rachel E. Barkow