FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — When Florida prosecutors charged former Deputy Scot Peterson for his alleged inaction during the 2018 Parkland school massacre, they faced a major hurdle: no law precisely fit.
So it was not a surprise to legal observers that Peterson was acquitted Thursday of child neglect and other charges for failing to confront the shooter who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Without an on-point statute to base their case upon, prosecutors tried to make the law fit the facts instead of the facts fit the law, lawyers said. That is always a tougher…
This post was authored by Tyler Doan, Esq.
Petitioner appealed a decision of the ZBA town, town board, and related defendants challenging a dismissal by the ZBA of the challenge to the zoning enforcement officer’s determination that a proposed subsurface sewage-disposal system was a permitted nonresidential accessory use that could be located on a split lot (one zoned partly for residential and partly for commercial use). The town board, while the petition was pending, adopted a local law on the subject of subsurface systems on split lots that effectively codified the zoning officer’s determination. The petitioner amended their complaint also…
This post was authored by Robert Thomas, Esq. and originally appeared on the InverseCondemnation Blog and is reposted with permission. See, https://www.inversecondemnation.com/inversecondemnation/2023/05/ca6-legislative-conditions-are-subject-to-nexus-and-proportionality-requirements.html
The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Knight v. Metro. Gov’t of Nashville, No. 21-6179 (May 10, 2023) held that conditions imposed on every development — and not just ad hoc administratively-imposed conditions — must conform to the Nollan-Dolan-Koontz close nexus and rough proportionality standards.
The Sixth Circuit has added to the growing split in the lower courts about whether legislatively-imposed conditions on development which cover everyone are, as some courts characterize them, mere land use regulations subject…
A US attorney is now “greatly regretting” his decision to trust OpenAI’s ChatGPT in a litigation process. Steven Schwartz will be charged in a New York court for using fake citations cooked up by the AI tool in legal research for a case he was handling.
In a sworn affidavit, Schwartz admitted to using ChatGPT to research for the case, representing his client Roberto Mata, to sue Colombian airline Avianca for sustained injuries onboard one of its planes in 2019.
Despite ChatGPT’s widely known warnings that it can sometimes produce incorrect information, Schwartz defended himself saying he was “unaware that…
This post is authored by Andrew LW Peters originally appeared on the Rocky Mountain Sign Law Blog and is reposted with permission
The first federal circuit court opinions applying Reagan National Advertising of Austin, Inc. v. The city of Austin is flowing in, and local governments may perhaps breathe a sigh of relief: normalcy has returned. Just last week, the Seventh Circuit upheld Madison, Wisconsin’s regulations on “advertising signs,” the definition of which used the same on/off-premises distinction at issue in City of Austin.
The story there was typical of the genre. Madison has regulated billboards since at least the…
WASHINGTON – Hours after being arraigned in a New York courtroom, former President Donald Trump used a speech to supporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate to lash out at New York prosecutor Alvin Bragg and other prosecutors who are investigating him.
“I never thought anything like this could happen in America,” Trump told the crowd gathered in Palm Beach, Fla. Trump is facing 34 felony counts in the New York case, becoming the first-ever former president to face criminal charges.
Trump indictment updates::Trump pleads not guilty to 34 felony counts in historic New York case
Trump’s 27-minute speech amounted to a…
An attorney in Georgia has been convicted on charges in relation to his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
William McCall Calhoun of Americus, Ga., was found guilty in a DC court of felony and multiple misdemeanor charges for his role in the Capitol insurrection, according to a Department of Justice news release.
Calhoun, 59, is a practicing criminal defense attorney in his home state.
According to court documents, local and federal law enforcement began receiving tips on Jan. 6 about Calhoun’s potential involvement in the Capitol insurrection, saying Calhoun posted on his social media accounts…
Former President Donald Trump’s attorney downplayed a folder marked classified that was found in his bedroom, claiming that he only used it to help him sleep.
Trump attorney Timothy Parlatore told CNN on Sunday that the former president’s legal team completed its searches for classified material on his properties and turned over an empty folder marked “Classified Evening Summary,” which was found in Trump’s bedroom, in response to a subpoena.
Parlatore told CNN that Trump used the folder to block a light on his phone, calling it one of the more “humorous” aspects of the investigation.
“He has one of…