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Ex parte Jackson Hospital & Clinic
Ruled that the Governor's emergency proclamation limiting healthcare providers' liability for negligence as to COVID-19 was neither unconstitutional under the separation-of-powers clause nor the provision that only the Legislature could suspend laws, nor did it violate the constitutional prohibition on curtailing a right to a remedy
People v. Jennings
Will consider what standard Michigan courts should adopt to determine whether prosecutorial misconduct bars retrial under the state’s double jeopardy clause. The defendant argues that the federal constitutional standard--which requires proof that a prosecutor specifically intended to cause a mistrial--inadequately protects the principles of double jeopardy and insufficiently deters egregious conduct, so an objective standard should apply under the Michigan Constitution.
Cincinnati Enquirer v. Bloom
Found the blanket sealing of a juvenile’s delinquency records when the juvenile is found not delinquent — the juvenile equivalent of not guilty — unconstitutional because there was no determination that the harm to the juvenile outweighed the public’s right to access court records
Gonzalez v. Miller
Unanimously affirmed the denial of a district attorney’s effort to dismiss a state Open Records Act request relating to her office’s “failure . . . to effectively prosecute criminal cases, and an open disregard for the laws of the State of Georgia"
Paschall v. Thurston
Ruled that votes for a proposed marijuana-related amendment will not be counted because the name and ballot description for the measure are misleading
Genser v. Butler County Board of Elections
Held citizens whose mail-in ballots were disqualified for a failure to return them in the required secrecy envelope have a right to cast a provisional ballot and have it count.
Commonwealth v. Yard
Held that the evidentiary limitation that requires that "proof is evident or presumption great," which calls for a burden of proof between probable cause and beyond a reasonable doubt, does not apply to the life-offense exception to the right to bail under the state constitution
William W. Berry III
William W. Berry III is Associate Dean for Research and Montague Professor of Law at the University of Mississippi.
How Courts and Litigators Can Help Redefine “Cruel” and “Unusual” Punishments
A new law review article offers guidance for state appellate judges interpreting their Eighth Amendment cognates for the first time.
Keisha Stokes-Hough
Keisha Stokes-Hough is a deputy director of legal management at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
