Problems with Modern Electronic Legal Research—the Importance of “Rosetta Stones”
By Michael Wein
The ancient Egyptians – the builders of the Sphinx, the Great Pyramids, and rulers of much of the “fertile crescent” for millennia — were a mystery civilization for one main reason: No one could decipher their hieroglyphic writing. That changed in the early Nineteenth Century, when Napoleon’s Army stumbled upon a marker holding Ptolemy’s Decree: the Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta Stone contained writing in three languages on the same tablet: (1) Egyptian Hieroglyphics (which no one alive for centuries understood or read), (2) Egyptian “Demotic” cursive writing, and (3) Ancient Greek, which was still used regularly by scholars. And because it was a “translation” of the same decree, it became the “key” in 1822 for understanding Hieroglyphics (mostly for working back the translation through Ancient Greek), it began a reinvigoration in interest in the Egyptian history that was once thought lost.
Legal research in our modern era, now through online databases like Westlaw and Lexis, may appear distant from the ancient Hieroglyphics (depending on the case you’re working on). But there is a lesson in the Rosetta Stone for us.
Read More…Maryland high court to hear challenge to COVID-related tolling orders
The Maryland Court of Appeals has accepted the following certified question from the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland: “Did the Court of Appeals act within its enabling authority under, inter alia, the State Constitution and the State Declaration of Rights when its April 24, 2020 Administrative Order tolled Maryland’s statutes of limitation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic?”
Read More…Dissenters Say Supreme Court Majority Takes Easy Out In Controversial Case
By Megan E. Coleman
On June 28, 2021, the United States Supreme Court issued a per curiam opinion in Jody Lombardo, et al. v. City of St. Louis, Missouri, et al., No. 20-391. The question presented to the Supreme Court was whether a reasonable jury could find that officers used excessive force when they put a handcuffed and shackled person face-down on the ground and pressed into his back until he suffocated to death.
Rather than decide the issue, the per curiam opinion punted the question back to the Eighth Circuit, reasoning that the Eighth Circuit had discounted “insignificant” facts that might have made a difference when deciding whether to grant summary judgment on an excessive force claim. The Supreme Court also asked the Eighth Circuit to clarify whether it believed that the use of a prone restraint is per se constitutional so long as an individual appears to resist officers’ efforts to subdue him.
True to per curiam format, this opinion fails to list an author or name the justices comprising the majority. However, this per curiam opinion features a dissent by Justice Alito, which was joined by Justice Thomas and Justice Gorsuch. The dissent calls into question whether this was a proper use of a per curiam opinion, or instead, whether it was used to avoid deciding a controversial issue in the midst of a social justice movement.
The timing of the issuance of this per curiam opinion fuels the argument by the dissent as this per curiam opinion was issued just three days after Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced for the murder of George Floyd. The Lombardo case presented facts akin to those in George Floyd’s case and ultimately called for a similar determination of whether the police used excessive force under the circumstances.
Read More…July 2021 Maryland Certiorari Grants
On Friday, July 9, the Maryland Court of Appeals granted certiorari in three cases:
Broadway Services, Inc. v. Comptroller of Maryland – Case No. 19, September Term, 2021 (Reported COSA Opinion, by Gould, J.)
Issues – Tax-General – 1) Where tangible personal property is purchased by an intermediary contractor for the use of a non-profit charitable institution in carrying on its exempt purpose, are those purchases exempt from Maryland sales and use tax in light of John McShain, Inc. v. Comptroller, 252 Md. 68 (1953) under Md. Code § 11-204 of the Tax-General Article? 2) Were the Maryland Tax Court’s factual findings supported by substantial evidence such that the purchases in question are exempt from Maryland sales and use tax?
Read More…Supreme Court’s Latest Fourth Amendment Case Clarifies Exigent Circumstances Doctrine
By John Grimm
The Supreme Court recently clarified the limits of law enforcement’s ability to enter a fleeing suspect’s home without a warrant in Lange v. California. While the Fourth Amendment generally requires police to get a search warrant before coming into a house, they can make a warrantless entry under certain exigent circumstances.[1] Lange presented the question whether the pursuit of a fleeing misdemeanor suspect is categorically an exigent circumstance. The Court held that it is not—exigency must be assessed on a case-by-case basis, and a suspect’s flight is only one circumstance that officers should weigh in making that assessment.
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Maryland Appellate Blog 