News Roundup
Afternoon Briefs: ABA president feedback on Law Day rule-of-law theme; digital grand juries upheld
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ABA president notes significance of Law Day theme
ABA President Patricia Lee Refo mentioned this 12 months’s Law Day theme—“Advancing the Rule of Law Now”—is especially vital contemplating final 12 months’s occasions. “The rule of law means no one is above the law, and no one is beneath it,” she mentioned in a press release. “We have made progress as a nation in areas of equity but there is so much work still to do. The rule of law provides us with a framework to improve.” In reference to the May 1 occasion, the ABA has let go a survey discovering that Black respondents and younger persons are much less prone to agree that the U.S. judicial system “adheres to the rule of law, under which all individuals are treated equally in the eyes of the law.” (ABA press release)
Top New Jersey court docket upholds digital grand jury proceedings
The New Jersey Supreme Court has held that digital grand jury proceedings don’t violate the state constitutional proper to an indictment by a grand jury. “The Constitution must operate not just in the best of times but also in the worst of times,” the court docket mentioned in its April 28 opinion. “This court has utilized technology to preserve, not to undermine, the constitutional right of defendants to a grand jury presentation.” (Courthouse News Service, the Associated Press, Bloomberg Law, the New Jersey Supreme Court decision through the Legal Profession Blog)
FISA court docket permits one other 12 months of warrantless surveillance
In a November ruling made public Monday, the presiding decide of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court allowed a warrantless surveillance program operated by the National Security Agency to proceed for one more 12 months. Presiding Judge James Boasberg recertified this system, which allows warrantless surveillance of out of the country targets in terrorism and espionage investigations, regardless of noting multiple situations during which the FBI improperly searched American’s emails collected in this system. (The New York Times)
