
In 2011, as a cure for a severely underfunded pension system, the New Jersey Legislature enacted amendments to N.J.S.A. 43:3C-9.5 which increased both State and employee contributions for a period of seven years in order to restore the pension system to a fiscally sound level. The language of the amendments clearly states that these pension contributions were contractual obligations of the State .
read moreRichard Baumgartner was convicted of the federal misprision statute for providing positive character references on behalf of a drug user. Mr. Baumgartner challenges this conviction on First Amendment grounds and argues that his speech to a another person has no concealing affect, since it was not with law enforcement, and did not happen in the context of a criminal investigation.
read moreSupervised release conditions are often contained on a "check the box" form where a judge can tick off the conditions applicable to an offense. However, when such a check box item becomes artfully interpreted by a zealous probation officer Josepha Remon, it can lead to absurd consequences as it did for petitioner Kyle McClamma.
read moreA group of world renowned journalists and human rights advocates, led by Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Christopher Hedges and Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame want to restore a permanent injunction against the National Defense Authorization Act §1021(b)(2) which permits the U.S. Military to indefinitely detain American citizens in off-grid foreign prisons if suspected of significantly as
read moreThink it can't be done? Well it can when the feds target an innocent man WHO HAS ALREADY BEEN ACQUITTED once in a state trial. He stood up by himself and explained to the district judge that he had misapplied the law and permitted a trial to go forward on a statute that in no way could possibly apply to his case. The district judge ignored every one of the pro se defendant's motions and the federa
read moreThe Supreme Court set off a major change in criminal sentencing with its 2000 Apprendi ruling which required that any fact that increased the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum is, in effect, an element of the crime, which must be submitted to a jury and proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Verhagen challenges a Wisconsin law where a person convicted of an OUI offens
read moreAre officers who brutally assaulted a person resulting in his death entitled to qualified immunity, when the victim was not actively resisting, did not pose a physical threat, and was not fleeing, because the person was later found to be possessing drugs. The Fourth Circuit opined that there was no distinction between active and passive resistance in justifying the use of police violence–a resu
read more