Law Commons^™

The Fda And The Ftc Join Forces,, Robert Sanger

Robert M. Sanger

To those of us in the trenches dealing with civil and criminal enforcement of government regulation, it is not surprising that more than one federal agency will join in an investigation. Sometimes this takes the form of a “tag along” where, for instance, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) may follow up on a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) white collar fraud case to assert the claim that taxes were not paid on the ill-gotten proceeds of the transaction. There are other cases where two federal agencies both attempt to take the lead in an investigation and clash in a “turf” …

The New Rules For Admissibility Of Expert Testimony: Part Ii, Robert Sanger

Robert M. Sanger

As described in the last Criminal Justice column for the Santa Barbara Lawyer magazine, the California Supreme Court’s opinion in Sargon Enterprises v. University of Southern California, 55 Cal. 4th 747, 149 Cal. Rptr. 3d 614 (2012) made it clear that California is now, (and perhaps unsuspectingly has been for some time), a Daubert jurisdiction. This requires the trial court be the “gatekeeper” and make a determination as to the admissibility of scientific or expert testimony and to determine the limits of any testimony, if it is introduced. The Court held that there are essentially three criteria: The first criterion …

The New Rules For Admissibility Of Expert Testimony: Part I, Robert Sanger

Robert M. Sanger

In a previous series of articles for this magazine, I took the position that California really was a Daubert jurisdiction in the sense that Kelly and Frye and thenexisting case law required that the court be the “gatekeeper” and make a determination as to: 1) whether a science (or area of expertise) was a science (or area of expertise); 2) whether the witness was a scientist (or expert); 3) whether the data was reliable; and then, and only then, 4) what a true scientist (or expert) could say based on the science and based on the reliable data. In the …

The Anniversaries Of The Right To Counsel And Thecreation Of The Public Defender’S Office,, Robert Sanger

Robert M. Sanger

There has been much celebration this year of the 50th Anniversary of the Gideon decision1 rendered by the United States Supreme Court in March of 1963. Gideon guaranteed that indigent persons accused of crime would be entitled to representation. It has been said for some time now, that the full promise of Gideon has never been realized. Nevertheless, the right to counsel in criminal cases is an important constitutional right.

2013 also marks the 120th Anniversary of the first public proposal of a public defender system which was introduced in Chicago in 1893. It also marks the 99th anniversary of …

The National Academy Of Sciences And Juvenile Justice, Robert Sanger

Robert M. Sanger

In March of 1863, during the height of the Civil War in the United States, President Abraham Lincoln founded the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). This spring, the NAS celebrated its 150th anniversary. President Barack Obama gave a speech praising the history of the organization and noting its many achievements. The NAS brings together the finest scientific minds to assist the government on scientific matters from the military, to the space program, to education, to medicine, to global warming, to industrial science, to engineering, to cybersecurity.

The National Academy of Sciences also assists the Federal Judicial Center and the Administrative …

Sovereignty And Suspicion, Erik Luna

Erik Luna

Most academics agree that search and seizure jurisprudence is a "mess." Professor Luna proposes a new approach to the Fourth Amendment founded on a sovereignty-based theory of the Constitution. Under this individual rights model, a government search or seizure of an individual's home or body receives the strongest presumption of invalidity. This presumption, he argues, could only be rebutted in three discrete circumstances: (1) consent by the individual to search his home or body; (2) individualized suspicion of wrongdoing; or (3) real, direct, and substantial threats to the sovereignty of other persons. Apart from these exceptions, governmental intrusions into the …

Traces Of A Libertarian Theory Of Punishment, Erik Luna

Erik Luna

No abstract provided.

Race, Crime, And Institutional Design, Erik Luna

Erik Luna

Minorities are gravely overrepresented in every stage of the criminal process--from pedestrian and automobile stops, to searches and seizures, to arrests and convictions, to incarceration and capital punishment. While racial data can provide a snapshot of the current state of affairs, such information rarely satisfies questions of causation, and usually only sets the scene for normative theory.

Welfare Fraud And The Fourth Amendment , Erik Luna

Erik Luna

No abstract provided.

Prosecutors As Judges, Erik Luna, Marianne Wade

Erik Luna

No abstract provided.

The Curious Case Of Corporate Criminality, Erik Luna

Erik Luna

No abstract provided.

Mandatory Minimalism, Erik Luna, Paul Cassell

Erik Luna

One of us (Cassell) is a former federal judge nominated by President George W. Bush, now a “conservative” scholar whose work is often supportive of law enforcement, the death penalty, and the rights of crime victims. The other (Luna) is a “libertarian” who tends to be suspicious of government and adamant about abuses of power, including those by police and prosecutors, and his scholarship has expressed the need for wholesale criminal justice reform (especially in the federal system). If we could find common ground on ways to modify federal mandatory minimums, we hoped that policymakers might share this agreement, perhaps …

Criminal Justice And The Public Imagination, Erik Luna

Erik Luna

As this symposium demonstrates, criminology has much to offer criminal law and procedure. But there are limits to this endeavor, such as when public policy is distorted by powerful emotions that ignore the lessons of legal doctrine and social science. This article presents one possible response in such circumstances: expanding the interdisciplinary relationship to include literary and cultural materials usually associated with the humanities. These works can inspire the public imagination in ways that law and criminology cannot, at times offering an alternative narrative to counter emotion-driven claims of necessity, for instance, and raising the exact type of questions that …

Psychopathy And Sentencing, Erik Luna

Erik Luna

No abstract provided.