Category: Legal Decisions

53 years ago today, the US Supreme Court decided Leland v. Oregon, ruling that requiring a criminal defendant to bear the burden of proving insanity beyond a reasonable doubt does not violate the Constitution.  That may not seem important or even complicated, but it is.  Why?  Because the Supreme Court has consistently ruled that the prosecution is obligated under our Constitution […]

Over the last several weeks, the country has, once again, been in the throes of a national debate over the cost-benefit analysis of vaccination.  The medical community is universal in its conclusion that vaccination vastly reduces (and, in many instances, eliminates) the spread of certain diseases.  A vocal minority of citizens, however, has argued that, […]

54 years ago today, Irving Feiner learned that his conviction for disorderly conduct would be upheld. In Feiner v. New York, the Supreme Court ruled that potentially hostile crowd reactions to unpopular speech permitted the police to intervene and direct a speaker to stop his public address.  The refusal to stop speaking by Mr. Feiner, who […]

42 years ago today, the US Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, which, at the time, established a woman’s unqualified constitutional right to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy during the first two trimesters — the generally accepted period during which the fetus is not viable outside the womb.  Do the same protections established in Roe still exist […]