Legal News

Recent Court decisions on Constitutional rights/issues:

4th Amendment: Police Searches

United States v. Jones, January 2012, U.S. Supreme Court:

The U.S. Supreme Court held that search warrants are required for law enforcement to secretly put a GPS tracking device on a suspect vehicle.
 

Health Care

Federal Healthcare law held unconstitutional:

The U.S. District Court in northern Florida ruled in early 2011 that the new, extensive federal healthcare law is unconstitutional. A lengthy decision, but well worth reading regardless of your position on health care reform. The Judge writing the opinion does a thorough job discussing the history of the Commerce Clause within the Constitution, the clause relied upon by Congress in passing the healthcare law, from pre-constitutional days, the Federalist Papers that were published in the late 1780's in support of adopting the Constitution, and following the analysis of that clause in U.S. Supreme Court decisions up to the present day. The Judge made clear that the Constitution is still to be followed, and that the federal government is still under some limits as to its powers.

The end result is that the healthcare law is declared unconstitutional because it tries to do something that Congress has never tried before: passing a law making people buy something, in this case, health insurance, in the personal health insurance mandate portion of that law. That was held to be beyond the authority granted to the federal government in the Constitution to "regulate" commerce. The Judge did not act as an "activist judge" by creating some new reason to strike down a law, but rather followed court precedent and original intent of the drafters of the Constitution pretty strictly in reaching his decision. He noted that even the Congressional legal advisors at the time the law was being drafted opined that the constitutionality of the individual mandate was questionable.

In this case, there was no overall challenge to the general extent of the government takeover of health care in the law.

In large part because the government in the court case urged, in trying to keep the personal mandate allowable, that the mandate was critical to the whole operation of the healthcare law, the Judge found that he could not just strike down the personal mandate and leave the rest of the law in effect. So he held the whole 2000-plus page law to be unconstitutional.

Some 26 States, along with a few individuals and a small business organization (the NFIB), had sued to have the law declared unconstitutional.

Please do not confuse the State laws requiring car insurance with the ruling in this decision. The U.S. Constitution intentionally did not limit State powers the way it limits the power of the federal government.

There have been conflicting court decisions on this question, so it will surely be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court for a definitive ruling.
 

Criminal Law

U.S. Supreme Court case stating that a passenger in an automobile, who gets charged with a crime from evidence obtained from the stop of the vehicle by police, has a right to challenge in Court the legality of the stop, much like the driver's right. Brendlin v. California, 2007.

Note: NEVER try to physically or by argument challenge the legality or Constitutionality of the officer's actions at the scene of an encounter with police. You will not win at the scene, and you could wind up with additional charges for obstructing the police in their duties, etc. And even worse, someone could get hurt. Like the rest of us, the police are not always right, but most law enforcement officers these days are polite and professional with people they encounter, as long as you don't make it difficult at the scene for them to do their job. If you do not agree to the police search of a vehicle, person, or place, that search or arrest can be challenged in Court. If you object to the legality of the search of a vehicle or container or place that you have occupied or have some possessory interest in, or the search with or without arrest of yourself or a juvenile in your control, you can politely and clearly state at the scene, hopefully before the search is done, that you do not consent to the search of that person or place, which helps preserve your later legal challenge. But then do not physically interfere with that search.
 

2nd Amendment: Firearms

• District of Columbia v. Heller, U.S. Supreme Court, 2008.
   
• The U.S. Supreme Court held two years ago that the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the recitation in the original the Bill of Rights of the right to keep and bear arms, is an individual right and prohibits the federal government from imposing unreasonable restrictions on firearms ownership. Now, on June 28, 2010, in another close 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court has made clear that the 2nd Amendment, like most amendments in the Bill of Rights, applies against unreasonable State or local government laws as well. McDonald v. City of Chicago.

Proposed and new legislation:

The Colorado legislative branch, referred to as the Colorado State Assembly, meets every year from January through early May. New legislation currently being considered:

Senate Bills

House Bills

Laws in the news:

Colorado record sealing law expanded in 2011 to include all drug-related convictions.

 

Archived legal news can be found here.