Criminal Law—Special Needs Test Applies to Fourth Amendment Analysis of DNA Backlog Elimination Act—United States v. Weikert, 421 F. Supp. 2d 259 (D. Mass. 2006)

Apr 17, 2007 | Case Comments, Number 3, Print Edition, Volume 40

The DNA Backlog Elimination Act of 2000 (DNA Act) requires convicted felons to submit DNA samples to law enforcement for entry into the Combined DNA Index System Database (CODIS).  The Fourth Amendment protects individuals from searches that are deemed unreasonable. ...

Employment Law—Fair Labor Standards Act Requires Compensation for Employees Walking To and From Workstations—IBP, Inc. v. Alvarez, 126 S. Ct. 514 (2005)

Apr 17, 2007 | Case Comments, Number 3, Print Edition, Volume 40

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) is a federal statute governing overtime, minimum wages, recordkeeping, and child labor standards that affect workers in both the public and private sectors.  The FLSA requires employee compensation for activities performed...

Constitutional Law—Tenth Circuit Decides an English-Only Policy Enacted By a Government Employer Does Not Violate Free Speech of Public Employees—Maldonado v. City of Altus, 433 F.3d 1294 (10th Cir. 2006)

Apr 17, 2007 | Case Comments, Number 3, Print Edition, Volume 40

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits Congress from interfering with an individual’s right to free speech and free exercise of religion. While acknowledging that freedom of speech occupies a “preferred position” in constitutional...

A Community’s Response to a Shocking Crime: The Jessica Lunsford Act and the Florida Sexual Offender Registry

Apr 17, 2007 | Notes, Number 3, Print Edition, Volume 40

On February 23, 2005, Florida residents awoke to a news bulletin:  a young girl was missing and police were asking for the public’s help.  Over the next month, the search for twelve-year-old Jessica Lunsford dominated local news as pictures of the young girl, and...

Criminal Law—Distinction with a Difference: First Circuit Misapplies Smith by Holding Bartering Drugs for Guns “Use” Under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)—United States v. Cotto, 456 F.3d 25 (1st Cir. 2006)

Apr 17, 2007 | Case Comments, Number 3, Print Edition, Volume 40

In 1986, Congress amended the criminal code to make the use of a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime separately punishable by up to thirty years imprisonment. The Supreme Court subsequently held that bartering firearms in exchange for drugs constituted...

Saving Probable Cause

Apr 11, 2007 | Lead Articles, Number 3, Print Edition, Volume 40

It is time to save an old friend. It is an age when acts of terrorism have produced irrational doubts about whether the laudatory principles our public documents espouse will serve, to some degree, as the prescription for our own undoing.  These doubts are insidious,...