Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center

Department of Continuing Legal Education

Presents

The 29th Annual Leon D. Lazer

SUPREME COURT REVIEW
October 2016 Term Ending June 2017

Touro Law Center in Central Islip

Friday, October 27, 2017       8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Co-Sponsored With Practising Law Institute

6 hours of CLE credit

Last term, the United States Supreme Court rendered several important decisions determining the constitutional rights of individuals and the powers of government.  The Court upheld the right of a religious organization to reserve public benefits, struck down a prohibition on registered sex offenders’ access to the internet, and held that the government lacked authority to deny trademark protection to disparaging names.  

The Court decided a landmark case involving government takings of private property.  It held that the Fourth Amendment governed a challenge before pretrial detection based on alleged fabricated evidence, decided claims of excessive force by law enforcement officers, and rejected claims against high ranking federal officers allegedly responsible for abusive and discriminatory treatment of post – 9/11 detainees.             

The Court decided many important criminal law issues, including post-verdict inquiry into claims of jurors’ racial bias claims of jurors, claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, a vagueness challenge to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, and the right of exonerees to recover fines and fees.          

For the majority of the term, the Court functioned with eight Justices.  On April 7, 2017 the Senate confirmed Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, returning the Court to a Court of nine and likely restoring a conservative majority that existed prior the death of Justice Antione Scalia.  

This term, the Court has agreed to decide the legality of the President’s travel ban, a challenge to political gerrymandering and a clash between laws having discrimination against homosexuals and freedom of religion, and whether police cellphone tracking requires a search warrant.  These and numerous other issues will be analyzed and discussed at the program.              

The highly experienced and accomplished faculty includes a law school Dean and constitutional scholar, a federal court judge, law school professors, civil rights experts, and trial and appellate litigators.