In U.S. v. Jones, the government attached a GPS device to a vehicle of a criminal suspect to monitor the vehicle's movement. What effect will the Supreme Court’s ruling have on warrantless searches, warrant-based searches, the right to privacy, and the Fourth Amendment? How helpful is the Court’s opinion for law enforcement and defendants? On this previously recorded conference call, the experts provide their analysis of the case and answer questions from the callers. Featuring Prof. Orin S. Kerr of The George Washington University Law School; Mr. Peter Thomson of Fowler Rodriguez Valdes-Fauli; and Mr. Dean A. Reuter, Vice President & Director of Practice Groups of The Federalist Society, as the moderator.

This article examines whether it might be possible to craft a comprehensive strategy designed to dramatically reduce crime by using advances in GPS technology to effectively eliminate the recidivist criminal’s ability to relapse into prior criminal conduct. Such a long-term strategic approach would implicate a number of constitutional and legal issues. However, if the legal hurdles can be overcome, such an innovative crime-reduction strategy might well be successful, particularly if it could integrate a number of other time-tested crime reduction strategies that criminal justice advocates have successfully employed. These strategies would support long-term, active GPS monitoring, and would include: crime scene correlation, active supervision, and community-oriented behavioral modification techniques such as restorative justice, a powerful program requiring criminals to interact with their victims and immediate social communities. [Read now!]

The mail fraud statute of 1872 may be regarded as the progenitor of what we now call white collar crimes. Originating with the Postmaster General’s concern that the mail system was being used to facilitate fraudulent schemes, the mail fraud statute has evolved into a powerful prosecutorial weapon. The core prohibition in the statute, first amended in 1909, punishes “any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises.” Not only does the statute reach far and wide in its own right, it is also a predicate crime for RICO and money laundering prosecutions... [Read more!]

The Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group hosted this panel on "Prisoner Releases and the Role of the Courts" on Friday, November 11, 2011, during the 2011 National Lawyers Convention. The panel featured Dr. Richard A. Berk of the University of Pennsylvania; Hon. Deborah J. Daniels of Krieg DeVault LLP; Hon. Sarah V. Hart of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office; Mr. Donald Specter of the Prison Law Office; Attorney General Luther Strange of Alabama; and JudgeEdith Brown Clement of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.