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Constitutional Law—Supreme Court of Minnesota Upholds Warrantless DNA Sample of Individual Convicted of Misdemeanor—State v. Johnson, 813 N.W.2d 1 (Minn. 2012)

The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and article I, section 10 of the Minnesota Constitution protect an individual’s privacy right from an unreasonable search or seizure.  However, courts have upheld the constitutionality of some searches when an individual’s...

Constitutional Law—Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Distinguishes Thompkins’s Unambiguous Invocation Requirement of Right to Remain Silent—Commonwealth v. Clarke, 960 N.E.2d 306 (Mass. 2012)

The United States Supreme Court famously held in Miranda v. Arizona that the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination granted a series of required safeguards, and outlined a way a suspect can invoke his rights.  In 2010, the Court revisited this issue in...

Criminal Law—First Circuit Upholds Restitution Order Without Requiring Evidence of Defendant’s Causal Contribution to Victim’s Losses—United States v. Kearney, 672 F.3d 81 (1st Cir. 2012)

In criminal cases, restitution for victims is typically limited to the losses that the defendant caused in the commission of the crime.1 Title 18, section 2259 of the United States Code requires courts to order restitution for victims of sexual crimes against children...