Today, a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held unconstitutional a provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) defining “marriage” exclusively as opposite-sex unions, setting up an all-but-certain Supreme Court case for next year. Acting in response to a Hawaii Supreme Court …
Last week, the U.S. Justice Department acknowledged that its Bureau of Justice Statistics website had been hacked. The hacker group Anonymous claimed credit for the hack and published 1.7 gigabytes of data. Included in the data were internal e-mails, which possibly contained personal or sensitive information related to crimes, criminals, …
As part of an ongoing series, the Heritage Center for Legal and Judicial Studies periodically identifies a “Bill of the Week” that relates to the problem of overcriminalization in America. Our Bill of the Week segment usually highlights a piece of legislation that, due to its underlying policies, exacerbate the …
In a recent 5-2 decision, the Maryland Court of Appeals (Maryland’s highest court) ruled that the state’s 2008 DNA Collection Act was unconstitutional because collecting DNA after an arrest, rather than post-conviction, violates the defendant’s constitutional rights. This decision is troublesome for a number of reasons. The use of forensic …
As swimsuit season approaches, millions of Americans are starting vigorous diet and exercise regimens to get in shape. Most people would love to get into shape the way Steve Cooksey has. Mr. Cooksey would love to share his wisdom, but there’s just one problem: the state of North Carolina threatened …
Prosecution for exercising one’s free speech rights is becoming a trend in the current Administration and the Department of Justice (DOJ). In April, the Legal Center highlighted the DOJ’s outrageous prosecution of Mary Susan Pine, a pro-life advocate. Thankfully, when the rubber hit the road, the DOJ lawyers had nowhere …
Imagine the police knocking on your door because you mistakenly forgot to fill out an obscure form required by foreign law before opening up a small business. Imagine your 80-year-old mother being arrested for failing to place the appropriate sticker on an otherwise properly shipped package. Imagine your cancer-stricken neighbor …
