Dondero, the chief of police, sued after the Township closed the police department he worked for. He alleged retaliation in violation of the First Amendment and violations of substantive and procedural due process. The District Court granted summary judgment for the Township. On appeal, Dondero contended he was entitled to a hearing before the Township … Read more
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ended the prosecution of Bill Cosby by vacating his convictions and barring a retrial. The Court held that the non-prosecution agreement between then-D.A. Bruce Castor and Cosby was enforceable and binding against successive D.A.s. The Court found that there was nothing from a reasonable observer’s perspective to suggest that the non-prosecution was anything … Read more
In Feliciano v. PA Dep’t of Corr., the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court reset the standard by which the court can act in its original jurisdiction to potentially redress an alleged constitutional violation suffered by a prisoner at the hands of his jailers. Here, an inmate was found guilty of testing positive for a controlled substance after … Read more
In March 2014, Appellee was convicted of DUI. The clerk’s office was required to send PennDOT a record of the conviction within ten days after its occurrence. See75 Pa.C.S. § 6323(1)(i). For some reason, that office waited twenty-eight months after the ten-day deadline had passed to notify PennDOT of the conviction. When PennDOT received the … Read more
In Commonwealth v. Donoughe, the defendant was charged with DUI and accepted into the ARD program. Pursuant to a written policy, ninety days after the defendant was accepted into ARD, the Pennsylvania State Police destroyed the mobile recording video of the arrest. But the defendant got kicked out of ARD and proceeded to trial. He … Read more
In Spanier v. Dir. Dauphin Cty. Prob. Servs., Spanier, the former Penn State president, challenged his state-court conviction through a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that his rights under the Due Process and Ex Post Facto Clauses were violated. He also argued that his due process rights were violated by the application … Read more
In Doe v. Governor of Pa., two John Does wanted to buy guns. They were thwarted, though, because both had been involuntarily committed under Section 302 of Pennsylvania’s Mental Health Procedures Act. As a result of their commitments, Section 6105 of the PA Uniform Firearms Act prohibited them from possessing a firearm. The two Does … Read more
In Mirambeaux v. Att’y Gen., the Board of Immigration of Appeals ruled that the petitioner was convicted of an aggravated felony and thus ineligible for withholding of removal. The petitioner claimed a violation of his Due Process rights when the Immigration Judge denied a request for a continuance. The 3rd Circuit held that the claim … Read more
In Johnson v. Wetzel, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that its holding in Bundy v. Wetzel, applies to inmates whose prison inmate accounts were subject to Act 84 deductions without the benefit of the safeguards enunciated in Bundy. Thus, due process required that the Department of Corrections, in response to an administrative grievance which accurately recites that … Read more
In Porter v. Pa. Dep’t of Corr., the 3rd Circuit ruled that its 2017 decision in Williams v. Sec’y Pa. Dep’t of Corr. applied to a plaintiff in a Section 1983 action where that plaintiff’s death sentence had been vacated, but the vacatur order was currently stayed pursuant to local district court rules. The Court … Read more