American family values
Article Abstract:
A trend toward eliciting testimony from relatives or pleas from defendants via pressure on an accused's family violates tradition and much of the Western world's law but not America's. Most of the steps in this direction have come under leaders who proclaim family values while threatening to indict defendant's parents or children, or subpeoning siblings. These tactics are reminiscent of horror stories about China and the Soviet Union, in which children were required to inform on their parents' political views.
Publication Name: The National Law Journal
Subject: Law
ISSN: 0162-7325
Year: 1995
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Star chamber redux: secret court in America
Article Abstract:
Some of the provisions of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 go too far. The aim of the act is to expedite the deportation of alien terrorists. Aliens suspected of being terrorists go before a new Alien Removal Court. Overuse of statutory provisions classifying evidence make the defendant's task daunting. This court also can authorize surveillance of people who might be foreign agents and such surveillance need not meet Fourth Amendment standards. The court amounts to a US star chamber.
Publication Name: The National Law Journal
Subject: Law
ISSN: 0162-7325
Year: 1996
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Is summary disposition cowardly avoidance
Article Abstract:
The US Supreme Court's position for summary disposition, whereby the court grants certiorari and issues a decision without briefing or oral argument at the same time, exists for cases with a clear issue and a result dictated by precedent. Sometimes, however, the court appears to use this tactic to rule on a potentially controversial case before it is noticed. This is what seems to have happened in US v. Watts, a cocaine and gun possession case where a sentence lengthening was based on acquitted conduct.
Publication Name: The National Law Journal
Subject: Law
ISSN: 0162-7325
Year: 1997
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