In July of 2000 Curtis Williams was indicted by a grand jury in Williamson County, Texas for aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury. While under indictment, Williams traveled to Louisiana from Texas on a Greyhound bus. The bus Williams was traveling on was scheduled to make a stop at the Shreveport Greyhound Bus terminal on September 12,…
Dethorne Graham, who is a diabetic, asked a friend, William Berry, to drive him to a store to purchase some juice to neutralize the start of an insulin reaction. When Dethorne Graham entered the store, he saw the number of people that would be ahead of him, Dethorne Graham hurried out and asked William Berry to drive him to a friend's house instead. Connor, a Charlotte, North Carolina police officer, became wary after seeing Dethorne Graham quickly enter and leave the store. Officer Connor followed William Berry's car, about half a mile from the store, he made an investigative stop and ordered Dethorne Graham And William Berry to wait while he found out what had happened in the store.…
In Bridgeport, Connecticut around 2:15 a.m in the morning, Sergeant Connolly received a tip from an informant that a suspect who was sitting in a vehicle early in the morning at a high crime area carrying narcotics and a gun at his waist. After calling for backup, Sergeant Connolly approached to the vehicle and tapped on the widow and asked Robert Williams (the suspect) to open the door. Instead of opening the door, Robert Williams rolled down the window. At this time, Sergeant Connolly reached in and removed a fully loaded gun from the Robert Williams’s waist. Also, the gun was not visible from outside the car, but it exactly where the informant said it was. After arresting Robert Williams for illegal possession of a handgun, heroin and a…
Wisconsin v. Avery is a major case between Steven A. Avery and the state of Wisconsin. Steven Avery was born on July 9, 1962 and grew up in a very small area knows as Manitowoc county in the state of Wisconsin. His family owns an auto salvage yard where abandoned vehicles are obtained for the sale of parts. Avery was not a smart man, his IQ was seventy and he “barely functioned in school”. He had a very rough childhood and he turned to crime through his teens and into his twenties. In 1981, Avery and and his friend were charged with burglary at a local bar and were each sentenced to two years in…
Michael Harrison Jr. the plaintiff filed a complaint with the EEOC against the defendant Killeen Fast- Food Restaurant (Wendy’s) for refusal to hire him based on his hearing impairment despite his qualifications. The EEOC filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas Waco Division, the general manager of the restaurant refused to hire…
Summary of Key Facts A. Deborah Weisman graduated from Nathan Bishop Middle School, a public…
Facts: William E. Story had promised his nephew, William E. Story II, $5,000 if his nephew would abstain from drinking alcohol, using tobacco, swearing, and playing cards or billiards for money until the nephew reached 21 years of age. The uncle responded to his nephew in a letter dated February 6, 1875 in which he told his nephew that he would fulfill his promise. The uncle died a couple years later without sending the money to the nephew.…
The case originated back in October 1963, involving John W. Terry and Richard Chilton. The two men were seen on a corner by veteran police detective, Martin McFadden, of the Cleveland Police Department, Ohio. According to the officer, the two men were acting in a suspicious way, by peering into the same store window. The two men were seen making multiple trips toward the window, when a third man came into the scenario. The officer suspected the men of “casing” the store for robbery. The officer followed the men and then stopped and questioned them. He first grabbed Terry and conducted a pat down and located a pistol on the inside of his jacket. Finding the weapon, he ordered the men into the nearby store, where a more invasive search ensued. He then removed Terry’s jacket and removed the weapon from its holster. A weapon was also found on Chilton, and both were charged with carrying concealed weapons.…
Abagail Fisher, a white female, applied for admission into the University of Texas. She was denied entrance because she did not qualify for Texas' Top 10 Percent Plan. This plan guarantees entrance to the top ten percent of every graduating high school class in Texas. Miss Fisher sued the University of Texas because she claimed that the use of race in admissions to the college violated the Equal Protection Clause from the 14th Amendment. The case made it all the way up to the Supreme Court which came to a final verdict. The University of Texas could use race as a plus factor when considering admissions. This use of race as a plus factor promotes diversity and therefore satisfies strict scrutiny.…
The landmark case that opened up the ability for business to operate across state lines was Gibbons v. Ogden. The case started in 1809, when the Legislature of the State of New York granted exclusive navigation privileges of all boats that moved by fire or stream in the waters within the jurisdiction of the state, for twenty years, to Robert R. Livingston and Robert Fulton (Livingston). They wanted a monopoly on a national network of steamboat lines, but were unsuccessful in their pursuit. Only the Orleans Territory awarded them a monopoly on the lower Mississippi (Livingston).…
The Tarasoff case is the case that “established a clinician’s duty to warn” (Mottarella, n.d.). Prosenjit Poddar, a student at University of California Berkeley (UCAL) was a patient of Dr. Lawrence Moore, a psychologist a hospital affiliated with UCAL. Poddar was seeking treatment for an emotional breakdown after being romantically rejected by Tatiana Tarasoff. In the course of therapy Poddar related to Dr. Moore his intent to kill Tarasoff that fall. Dr. Moore conferred with his superiors at the facility and the determination, customary at that time, was made to have Poddar involuntarily committed. Dr. Moore notified the campus police and requested that Poddar be picked up, warning that Poddar can appear quite rational at times. Campus…
On the morning of December 18, 1992, two brothers were shot and killed in their Houston home. Police were called by a neighbor who heard the gunshots, and then seen a “dark colored” car fleeing from the house. It was later found out that defendant, Genovevo Salinas, was at the residence where the murders took place the night before December 18th. When officers went to Salinas’ house, they arrived to a dark blue vehicle that matched the witness’s account of the car. Police asked Salinas a few questions, he let the officers have his shotgun, and then the police asked him to come down to the station to answer a few questions so they could “clear him as a suspect.”…
The first amendment in the Bill of Rights states “Congress shall make no law respecting…
On May 23, 1957, police officers in a Cleveland, Ohio suburb received information that a suspect in a bombing case, as well as some illegal betting equipment, might be found in the home of Dollree Mapp. Three officers went to the home and asked for permission to enter, but Mapp refused to admit them without a search warrant. Two officers left, and one remained. Three hours later, the two returned with several other officers. Brandishing a piece of paper, they broke in the door. Mapp asked to see the “warrant” and took it from an officer, putting it in her dress. The officers struggled with Mapp and took the piece of paper away from her. They handcuffed her for being “belligerent.”…
Justices of the United States Supreme Court are strategic actors who strive to secure policy outcomes as close to their preferred outcome as possible. Accomplishing this sometimes requires justices to not always pursue their true policy preferences and sometimes it requires justices to ignore legal and policy questions. In this essay, I will analyze how justices were strategic in a few landmark supreme court cases.…