Three states are set to allow voters to decide whether to legalize the use of
marijuana in their states for recreational use this fall. The three states are Colorado, Oregon and Washington. A recent poll by MSNBC indicates that nationally, 51% of the public believe that
marijuana should be legalized for recreational use. On reason that states are moving in the direction of legalizing
marijuana is financial. These states stand to gain additional tax revenue if
marijuana was legalized and would save substantial sums of money by not having to spend money arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating people charged with violating these
drug laws which make the mere
possession of marijuana illegal. If these measures pass, then it will be interesting to see how the Federal Government responds. There will be a conflict between state law and federal law and it will be interesting to see how that conflict plays out in the political and legal arena.
We will keep our readers updated on the progress and outcome of these ballot measures.
For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at
www.legaldefenderspc.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.
The Kane County Board has stopped plans to address issues at the courthouses in Kane County which would have expanded the Judicial Center in St. Charles, converted two third floor courtrooms into one, and installed a new elevator in the courthouse in Geneva. The expanded courtroom on the third floor would have benefited the civil division by providing for a larger courtroom which is required in civil cases in which there are multiple plaintiffs and defendants with many sets of lawyers. The elevator in Geneva is also in need of replacement and this has been delayed as has the plan to expand the Judicial Center in St. Charles. One of the Board members noted that the cost for the new elevator in Geneva has already been dropped by $43,000 and are hoping to get further reductions for the judicial center and courtroom expansion projects in St. Charles.
The Kane County Board is scheduled to take up these matters again in October.
For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at
www.legaldefenderspc.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.
Earlier this year, the Chicago City Council and the Illinois Legislature gave the go ahead to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to pepper the City of Chicago with speed cameras that would cover school safety zones and start generating tickets to people caught speeding. The plan was to start sending out $100 tickets by early next year. However, a quirk in Illinois law has put the brakes on Mayor Emanuel's ambitious plans. Turns out that an opinion from the Illinois Attorney General from 38 years ago requires that children be "visibly present" in order for tickets for speeding in a school safety zone can be issued. This means that the picture of the vehicle speeding must also include a picture of a child present. This has presented a technical challenge which has placed the entire plan to implement the program in jeopardy. There's also an obvious legal challenge. If a speeding ticket in a school zone is issued by one of these cameras and does not include proof that a child was present, a
criminal defense attorney could raise this 38 year old legal opinion from the Illinois Attorney General as a way of getting the ticket dismissed in court. The technical challenge is to be able to come up with a way for a camera to recreate what a police officer can see and testify to. There currently is no such camera in existence which could accomplish this. If such a camera or system could be developed, it must be developed in such a way that it is cost effective and worth it to the company providing the service to the City. And here's another problem which I have though of. Even if another camera is set up to photograph pedestrians or humans, how could you tell from the camera that the individual is a child and not an adult? The technical and legal problems have placed the entire plan in jeopardy. My prediction is that Mayor Emanuel will convince the Illinois General Assembly to change the law so as to remove the legal challenges and alleviating the need for any technical challenges. There's too much money at stake.
For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at
www.legaldefenderspc.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.
The Chief Judge for Cook County has come out in strong support of putting cameras inside of courtrooms in Cook County. In fact he is so much in favor of placing cameras in court that he is considering reassigning judges who are opposed to having cameras placed in their courtrooms. Chief Judge Timothy Evans has stated that he expects the cameras to be installed by the end of the year and is expecting that cameras will be placed in the criminal and civil courtrooms as well as in the suburban districts. The camera program began in January of this year when the Illinois Supreme Court began a pilot program allowing cameras in courtrooms. The program began outside of Cook County and has slowly been expanded in other counties and has been moving closer and closer to Cook County. Judge Evans seems to be moving towards enacting a more expansive program than the Illinois Supreme Court envisioned. For instance the Supreme Court gave trial judges discretion in deciding if cameras will be allowed in their courtrooms. Evans indicated that he may use his authority as Chief Judges to reassign judges who resist. He wants to explore finding a way to televise
bond hearings even though the Supreme Court provided for a 14 day period of notice by the media before televising a court hearing. He also is considering placing cameras in each one of the suburban courthouses and transferring high profile cases to that courtroom so they could be televised.
It looks like big changes will be coming to the Cook County courthouses shortly. Stay tuned.
For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at
www.legaldefenderspc.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.
License plate scanners, which are known as Automatic License Plate Readers, are being used by police departments throughout the country in increasing numbers. Scanners are placed in the front of police cars which scan the license plates of vehicles within their field of vision searching for the license plate numbers in a national database. Police in Columbia South Carolina report that roughly 20
stolen motor vehicles have been located by the use of these license plate scanners. Civil liberty groups fear that these scanners could help compile data would could be used to create a national data base which would record the location and date of every single license plate on every vehicle that is scanned. This data base could be used to track everybody's movements which could help create a gigantic government database which would help the government track each and every citizen of this country. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has sent record requests to 38 different police departments throughout the United States requesting that they be provided information on how the information obtained from these license plate scanners is used and if and where it is stored. The ACLU also wants to learn if third parties have access to this information and whether the police departments store this information from the license plate scanners. Instead of targeting particular individuals, like GPS devices do, license plate scanners have the potential of tracking everyone, regardless of whether they are suspected of doing anything illegal. Officials in Maine retain the data for 21 days while in New Jersey the data is retained for five years. The ACLU has yet to receive the information that they requested.
Since this is a relatively new technology, it is important that citizens get as much information as possible to determine the extent to which our privacy is being infringed upon.
For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at
www.legaldefenderspc.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.
In a sweeping decision which has the effect of amending the United States Constitution, a Federal Appeals Court has ruled that the government may wiretap its citizens without a warrant. To understand the impact of this court ruling, you must understand the history of this case. Shortly after the Watergate scandal, Congress passed a series of domestic surveillance laws which prohibited the government from wiretapping its citizens without a warrant. Shortly after the terrorist attacks on 9/11 the Bush Administration invalidated the law and gave the ok to law enforcement to wiretap citizens phones without a warrant. In 2008 Congress gave the Bush Administration the go-ahead to continue with the warrant-less wiretapping. Five years before Congress authorized the warrant-less wiretapping the National Security Agency had illegally wiretapped the phone conversations of two attorneys with their clients in Saudi Arabia. The Bush Administration's illegal wiretapping program had been exposed in a 1995 New York Times article. The illegal wiretapping of the attorneys phone calls with their clients had been revealed in documents that had been turned over by the government by mistake in an unrelated case. The attorneys sued the federal government for violating the domestic surveillance laws that Congress had enacted after Watergate and won. Each attorney was awarded $20,000 plus $2.5 million in attorney fees. The government appealed the attorneys victory and yesterday the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled in favor of the government and dismissed the lawsuit and threw out the damages award. In reaching this decision, the court ruled that when Congress passed the domestic surveillance laws after Watergate, it did not specifically waive the government's sovereign immunity, meaning it did not give citizens the right to sue the government when the government is caught illegally wiretapping them. The Plaintiffs have indicated that they will continue to appeal this decision, but if it is not overturned, it effectively ends the court challenges to the Bush Administration's illegal wiretapping program since this is the only legal challenge to the once secret program.
For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.legaldefenderspc.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.
Texas has the distinction of being the second largest state in the United States by land mass. Today's it has also achieved the distinction of being the only state in the United States to
execute mentally retarded citizens. The case involves 54 year old Marvin Wilson who was
executed in Texas last night as a result of a 1994
murder conviction. Wilson had been convicted of
murdering a
drug informant in 1992. In 2002 the United States Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to
execute mentally retarded inmates because it violated the Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. But the 2002 Supreme Court ruling gave states discretion in deciding who they consider to be mentally retarded. Texas, an an effort to circumvent the Supreme Court's prohibition against
executing mentally retarded inmates adopted a ridiculous standard to find that Marvin Wilson qualified for an
execution. Wilson's IQ had been measured at 61. Anything below 70 is considered to be mentally retarded. Texas argued that Wilson's IQ test had been administered by an inexperienced intern, and that based on his ability to lead, lie and the opinion of his friends and family that he was not mentally retarded and qualified for an
execution. Texas is now the only state to use such a standard to determine if an inmate is mentally retarded. Before the
execution, Wilson's attorneys made a final plea to the Supreme Court but was turned down by Justice Antonin Scalia who is overseeing emergency appeals from the Court of Appeals covering the State of Texas.
Wilson was the seventh inmate
executed in Texas this year and the 25th
executed in the United States so far this year.
For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at
www.legaldefenderspc.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.
The Legal Defenders, PC
70 West Madison, Ste 1400 * Chicago * IL 60602 * Phone: (800) 228-7295 * Fax: (800) 604-0507
Three states are set to allow voters to decide whether to legalize the use of marijuana in their states for recreational use this fall. The three states are Colorado, Oregon and Washington. A recent poll by MSNBC indicates that nationally, 51% of the public believe that marijuana should be legalized for recreational use. On reason that states are moving in the direction of legalizing marijuana is financial. These states stand to gain additional tax revenue if marijuana was legalized and would save substantial sums of money by not having to spend money arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating people charged with violating these drug laws which make the mere possession of marijuana illegal. If these measures pass, then it will be interesting to see how the Federal Government responds. There will be a conflict between state law and federal law and it will be interesting to see how that conflict plays out in the political and legal arena.
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