"Cruelty disfigures our national character. It is incompatible with our constitutional order, with our laws, and with our most prized values. Cruelty can be as effective as torture in destroying human dignity, and there is no moral distinction between one and the other. . . . Where cruelty exists, law does not." -- Alberto Mora, former Navy General Counsel, recent winner of the Kennedy Foundation "Profiles in Courage'' Award

"Freedom means learning to deal with being offended." -- Andrew Sullivan, "Your Taboo, Not Mine" Time, February 13, 2006, p. 100

DECISIONS OF INTEREST

SUPREME COURT Burlington N. & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. White, No. 05-259 (U.S.S.C. June 22, 2006)
The anti-retaliation provision of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act does not confine the actions and harms it forbids to those that are related to employment or occur at the workplace. The provision covers those, and only those, employer actions that would have been materially adverse to a reasonable employee or job applicant. http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/us/000/05259.html

US v. Gonzalez-Lopez, No. 05-352 (U.S.S.C. June 26, 2006)
A trial court's erroneous deprivation of a criminal defendant's choice of counsel is not subject to harmless-error analysis and entitles the defendant to reversal of his conviction.
http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/us/000/05352.html

League of United Latin Am. Citizens v. Perry, No. 05-204 (U.S.S.C. June 28, 2006)
In the context of challenges to Texas' new congressional districting map, Texas' redrawing of a district's lines amounted to vote dilution violative of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/us/000/05204.html

Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, No. 05-184 (U.S.S.C. June 29, 2006)
In a challenge brought by a Guantanamo detainee, a judgment of a court of appeals reversing an earlier grant of habeas relief is reversed where the military commission convened to try petitioner lacks the power to proceed because its structure and procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and the Geneva Conventions. http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/us/000/05184.html

Clark v. Arizona, No. 05-5966 (U.S.S.C. June 29, 2006)
Due process does not prohibit Arizona's use of an insanity test stated solely in terms of the capacity to tell whether an act charged as a crime was right or wrong. Further, Arizona does not violate due process in restricting consideration of defense evidence of mental illness and incapacity to its bearing on a claim of insanity, thus eliminating its significance directly on the issue of the mental element of the crime charged. http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/us/000/055966.html

THIRD CIRCUIT Alexander v. Nat'l Fire Ins. of Hartford, No. 05-1560 (3d Cir. July 13, 2006)
Summary judgment against an insurer of a condominium association in a coverage dispute is affirmed where its policy covered claims incurred when a second-story exterior wooden deck attached to one of the condominium association's units collapsed and caused injuries to a number of people who were on the deck, and its coverage is primary. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/3rd/051560p.pdf

181 S. Inc. v. Fischer, No. 05-1882 (3d Cir. July 18, 2006)
In the context of a challenge brought by the operator of an adult cabaret which holds a liquor license, a state regulation prohibiting "any lewdness or immoral activity" on liquor-licensed premises, as construed by New Jersey courts, is not unconstitutional. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/3rd/051882p.pdf

NEW YORK COURT OF APPEALS Hernandez v. Robles, No. 86, 87, 88, 89 (N.Y. July 06, 2006)
The New York Constitution does not compel recognition of marriages between members of the same sex. Whether such marriages should be recognized is a question to be addressed by the Legislature. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/ny/cases/app/86-89opn06.pdf

In the Matter of Shondel J. v. Mark D., No. 46 (N.Y. July 06, 2006)
A man who has mistakenly represented himself as a child's father may be estopped from denying paternity, and made to pay child support, when the child justifiably relied on the man's representation of paternity, to the child's detriment. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/ny/cases/app/46opn06.pdf

MATTERS OF INTEREST

The United States Supreme Court unanimously approved proposed amendments to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which address the handling of electronically stored information during discovery. Unless Congress takes steps to prevent their enactment, the new Rules will become effective December 1, 2006.

THE SUPREME COURT HOLDS EVIDENCE FROM NO-KNOCK ENTRIES ADMISSIBLE IN COURT
 Typically, the police are supposed to knock and announce their presence before searching a residence. But what happens if they don't? As Colb explains, the Court declined to punish, and deter, such violations via the Exclusionary Rule, which forbids the fruit of unconstitutional conduct to be admitted into evidence. Colb takes issue with the Court's ruling, and explains the case for applying the Exclusionary Rule. http://writ.lp.findlaw.com/colb/20060628.html

THE SUPREME COURT DENIES MENTALLY ILL DEFENDANTS' RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL
Colb critiques a Supreme Court decision upholding Arizona's insanity defense statute. Colb argues that, contrary to the Court's decision, Arizona's law was unconstitutional-in part because, as Justice Kennedy argued in dissent, it makes no sense to convict a killer who acts without knowledge or intent ONLY IF the killer is mentally ill. http://writ.news.findlaw.com/colb/20060712.html

BRIEF RELIEF - MATTERS

1. New York - material on reconsideration of order and relief sought
2. New York - motion to extend time to file claim against public entity; infancy
3. Missouri - right of non-married man and woman to adopt child
4. daft of verified complaint and order to show cause
5. appeal of DWI conviction