Amicus due March 15, 2010 - Argument: April 2011

Keywords: Criminal Procedure - Search and Seizure

Question Presented: What steps must a police officer must take to verify the identity of a person inviting him into a residence, when entering for a protective purpose?

Facts: A police officer, looking for a motel manager in order to retrieve a dirty needle, knocked at the motel room where he knew the manager had lived three months earlier …

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Amicus due March 15, 2010 - Argument: May 6, 2010

Keywords: Criminal Procedure - Disabilities - Judicial Review

Question Presented: Whether a witness with a speech-related disability has the right to challenge her exclusion as a witness during trial; whether the judge properly excluded her testimony for inability to give narrative answers.

Facts: The appellant is the alleged victim in the criminal trial of Kofi Agana. The alleged victim suffers from expressive aphasia, a condition that permits her to understand language, but to …

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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 …

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Argument: February 11, 2010

Keywords: Administrative Law - Energy - Environmental Law - Local Government

Question Presented: Whether the Energy Facilities Siting Board (“EFSB”) acted within its authority in granting a set of approvals for the Cape Wind energy project.

Facts: Construction of an energy facility such as the Cape Wind project often requires approval by many state and local agencies, any one of which can block development.  To avoid that …

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Argument: February 11, 2010

Keywords: Administrative Law - Energy - Environmental Law - Exhaustion of Remedies

Question Presented: Whether the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board (“EFSB”) has the power to override the rejection by the Cape Cod Commission (“Commission”) of a proposed wind farm development.

Facts: Cape Wind Associates, LLC applied for Development of Regional Impact (“DRI”) approval from the Commission, pursuant to St. 1989, c. 716. The Commission denied the application without prejudice on the …

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