Argument: September 2010

Keywords: Constitutional Law - Criminal Procedure - Judicial Review - Search and Seizure

Question Presented: Whether police were justified in impounding and searching a vehicle when the driver was arrested at 4:15AM in a “high crime area” and the car’s owner could not be contacted.

Facts: Officers saw the defendants leave an after-hours party at a residential home at 4:15 AM, carry open bottles of beer into a car, and drive away. (Remarkably, parties at …

Read more »

Argument: Not yet scheduled.

Keywords: Commerce Clause - Constitutional Law - Tax

Question Presented: Whether a ferry company transporting many out-of-state visitors between points within Massachusetts is “engaged in” interstate commerce.

Facts: Global Companies, a fuel company, sold fuel to Hy-Line and collected sales tax. Hy-Line provides about one quarter of the transportation between Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. Its …

Read more »

Argument: Not yet scheduled.

Keywords: Constitutional Law - Criminal Procedure - Probation

Question Presented: Whether a defendant violates probation running “from and after” his jail sentence if he commits a crime while still serving the sentence.

Facts: The defendant was convicted of various crimes and sentenced to two and a half years in the house of corrections, with a ten year term of probation to run “from …

Read more »

Argument: May 2010

Keywords: Constitutional Law - Criminal Procedure - Evidence - Search and Seizure

Question Presented: Whether a defendant’s conclusory motion to suppress evidence permitted him to challenge the reliability of a 911 call after the close of evidence; whether an anonymous statement that the defendant was waving a gun was sufficiently reliable to justify an investigatory stop.

Facts: Police received an anonymous 911 call that a person was loading a firearm and waving it in the air. The suspect was described as a black male wearing a gray …

Read more »

Argument: May 6, 2010 (reserve)

Keywords: Confrontation Clause - Constitutional Law - Criminal Procedure

Question Presented: Whether admission of a 911 call made by the alleged victim of an assault and battery from a neighbor’s house violated the defendant’s right of confrontation.

Facts: After a physical fight between the defendant and the alleged victim, his girlfriend, the victim ran to a neighbor’s house and made a 911 call. On the call, the …

Read more »

Argument: April 7, 2010

Keywords: Constitutional Law - Criminal Law - Probation - Sex Offenders

Question Presented: Whether a judge can modify a sex offender’s probation to require him to wear a GPS tracking device, absent a probation violation.

Facts: The defendant began the probationary portion of his sentence for a set of sex offense convictions in 2009, after serving 15 years in prison and another four years committed as …

Read more »

Amicus due February 16, 2010 - Argument: May 4, 2010

Keywords: Constitutional Law - Environmental Law - Takings

Question Presented: Whether enforcement of the Massachusetts Watershed Management Act, GL. c. 92A½, effects a regulatory taking requiring just compensation under the Massachusetts Constitution.  

Facts: The Watershed Management Act of 1992 prohibits alterations to land within 200 feet of a lake. GL. c. 92A½.  However, the Act allows construction of a single family dwelling on …

Read more »

Amicus due March 15, 2010 - Argument: May 2010

Keywords: Constitutional Law - Criminal Law - Criminal Procedure - Judicial Review - Sex Offenders

Question Presented: Whether an improper basis for imprisonment of a sex offender bars the Commonwealth from petitioning for commitment of the offender as a sexually dangerous person.

Facts: Repeat sexual offenders are subject to a mandatory sentence of community parole supervision for life (“CPSL”), a lifetime status equivalent to parole.  G.L. c. 265, § 45.  The petitioner pled …

Read more »

Argument: April 6, 2010

Keywords: Constitutional Law - Criminal Procedure - Professional Responsibility

Question Presented: Whether a witness to a crime can be compensated for their testimony by a third party, contingent on obtaining an indictment or conviction.

Facts: The defendant was convicted of second-degree murder after two witnesses implicated him in a nighttime shooting in New Bedford. The witnesses were compensated by the New Bedford Chamber of Commerce …

Read more »

Amicus due February 16, 2010 - Argument: March 2, 2010

Keywords: Constitutional Law - Criminal Procedure - Evidence - First Complaint

Question Presented: Whether a report by a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) is admissible in a rape trial, either as a medical record or a prior consistent statement.

Facts: A jury convicted the defendant of crimes included aggravated rape after the victim testified that he attacked her, digitally raped her, picked up her purse, and then ran away when …

Read more »

Amicus due February 16, 2010 - Argument: April 6, 2010

Keywords: Administrative Law - Civil Procedure - Constitutional Law - First Amendment - Personal Jurisdiction - Securities

Question Presented: Whether the Secretary of the Commonwealth has the power to impose a fine on out-of-state persons who market unregistered securities to a Massachusetts resident.

Facts: Bulldog, an out-of-state company, maintained a website offering information on its hedge funds, which were unregistered securities.  An unregistered security is essentially one for which detailed disclosure statements have not …

Read more »