Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Supreme Court Upholds Travel Ban

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled a travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries and rejecting the argument that it represented unconstitutional religious discrimination.
The 5-4 ruling, with the court's five conservatives in the majority, ended a fierce fight in the courts over whether the policy amounted to an unlawful Muslim ban. Trump can now claim vindication after lower courts had blocked his travel ban announced in September, as well as two prior versions, in legal challenges brought by the state of Hawaii and others.

The court held that the challengers had failed to show that the ban violates either U.S. immigration law or the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment prohibition on the government favoring one religion over another.

Friday, June 22, 2018

Warrant Required For Access To Cellphone Data

The U.S. Supreme Court imposed limits on the ability of police to obtain cellphone data pinpointing the past location of criminal suspects in a victory for digital privacy advocates and a setback for law enforcement authorities.

In the 5-4 ruling, the court said police generally need a court-approved warrant to get access to the data, setting a higher legal hurdle than previously existed under federal law. The court said obtaining such data without a warrant from wireless carriers, as police routinely do, amounts to an unreasonable search and seizure under the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment.

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Medical pot as a painkiller substitute

     Illinois lawmakers have approved a measure not only to allow medical marijuana to be used in place of prescription painkillers, but also to eliminate requirements for patients to get fingerprints and criminal background checks.
     The change would allow all new applicants to buy medical marijuana from licensed dispensaries based on their doctor's orders, rather than having to wait up to four months for bureaucratic approval.  Patients could no longer be denied based on criminal convictions. This bill has not yet been signed into law.