The issue of whether criminal defendants’ Sixth Amendment right to be warned of the immigration consequences of guilty pleas, as established by a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, is retroactive was front and center during oral arguments on Thursday.

Tagged with: Anthony Kennedy Antonin Scalia Michael Dreeben Padilla v. Kentucky U.S. Supreme Court

The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 reduced the sentencing disparity between defendants convicted of crack cocaine-related crimes and those convicted of crimes involving the powder version of the drug.

Tagged with: cocaine crack Crack cocaine Fair Sentencing Act John Roberts Jr. Michael Dreeben Ruth Bader Ginsburg Sonia Sotomayor

The Supreme Court seemed split Tuesday on whether criminals who were arrested but not yet sentenced for crack cocaine offenses should be able to take advantage of newly reduced sentences.

Tagged with: 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Antonin Scalia crack Crack cocaine Fair Sentencing Act Michael Dreeben Ruth Bader Ginsburg Sentencing Sonia Sotomayor Supreme Court

In a case that had the justices questioning just how far the expectation of privacy extends in a world of ever-evolving technologies, the U.S. Supreme Court considered Tuesday whether the police’s use of a warrantless GPS tracking device on a suspect’s car violated the Fourth Amendment.

Tagged with: Anthony Kennedy Antonin Scalia certiorari Elena Kagan Fourth Amendment GPS Michael Dreeben Samuel Alito Supreme Court U.S. v. Jones