dopplrstaffIf someone experiences a personal injury due to the negligence or intentional actions of another party, the legal system allows...
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Illegal Search and Seizure and Probable Cause: What Are Your 4th Amendment Rights?
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” One [...]
B. Clausen
Leslie Jones: Laws Against Cyber-bullying and Hate Speech
Leslie Jones, co-star of the new Ghostbusters movie, was on the receiving end of deplorable, horrific, and downright racist cyber-bullying on Twitter yesterday. Some of the things these creeps were sending her was absolutely shameful. This, while awful, was probably the lightest version of the hate she received: The tweet from Yellow [...]
B. Clausen
Dressing Room Surveillance Laws
One of the cornerstone issues of the first 16 years of the 21st century has been privacy. Phones, computers, the TSA, Facebook advertising, drones; they all have had a significant impact on our understanding of privacy. As technological capability advances, so too does our concern for privacy. Technology has always advanced much faster [...]
B. Clausen
House Votes To Not Expand Patriot Act
In a somewhat sneaky attempt to fast-track H.R. 5606, otherwise known as the Anti-Terrorism Information Sharing Is Strength Act, Congress used a strategy called “suspension of the rules” to try and get it passed. However, it required two-thirds majority, and failed by about 55 votes. It would have chipped away at Fourth [...]
B. Clausen
Is Nintendo Liable For Pokemon Go Injuries? Are Lawsuits Coming?
The new app, Pokémon Go, has been wildly popular in its short existence. Some of the numbers are jaw-dropping: Nintendo’s stock has risen nearly 50 percent in the last five days. It has surpassed Candy Crush as the most popular mobile game ever, and has already overtaken Twitter in active users. In fact, mobile users are […]
B. Clausen
First Recorded Fatality In a Self-Driving Car
There have been two high profile accidents regarding Tesla’s new self-driving cars. One happened in Montana, in which the driver claims that the car essentially drove itself off the road into a guard rail. The second had a tragic result, when the car went underneath the trailer of a semi. It’s been reported that the […]
B. Clausen
Home Computers Aren’t Private: Virginia Judge Rules Against Fourth Amendment
(Update; 7/12, 4:00 pm): The FBI used malware to infiltrate the site and obtain all of the user information. This could very well mean that evidence may be dismissed, and the FBI’s practices called into question. Further updates may warrant. A recent decision by a federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia has stipulated [...]
B. Clausen
Filming the Police: Laws and Your Rights
In just 24 hours, we have seen police kill two innocent black men at point blank range while they were doing nothing that warranted a threat. An officer’s perception of “imminent danger” seems to be easier to find when they are confronting a black person, and the only reason we know about what happened in […]
B. Clausen
The U.S. Spends More Studying Hyper Dogs Than Gun Violence
The CDC currently spends around $100,000 a year studying gun violence. In 2015, three government agencies joined forces to spend a combined $10 million dollars to study hyper dogs (spoiler alert: professionally trained dogs remain calmer under pressure than excitable pet dogs with little training). For the first time since 1960, guns are [...]
Brian Beltz