The United States Education Department has issued new guidelines under Title IX that prohibits sex discrimination at educational institutions like Penn State . The schools can lose funding if they use the standard of clear and convincing evidence for investigating...
Lisko & Associates
United States Supreme Court Weighs In On Drunk Driving Cases
Recently the United States Supreme Court gave police officers the right to administer warrantless breath tests to anyone they suspect of drunk driving. The case, Birchfield v. North Dakota will affect the laws in eleven states. Some authorities believe that the case...
New Rules for CDL
There are now new licensing requirements for commercial truck drivers in Pennsylvania. The Federal Government overhauled the regulations for commercial truck drivers and is now requiring applicants to pass more extensive road tests and provide better proof of identity...
President Obama Commutes Sentences
Recently President Obama issued 95 commutations and 2 pardons. Most of these clemency grants were for drug-related offenses. Many of the crimes involved cocaine. So far this year President Obama has granted clemency to 165 inmates. Part of the rise in clemency grants...
More People Getting Gun Permits
After recent mass shootings, the request for concealed carry permits has jumped. In one western county, the average request was fifteen to twenty per day and that has spiked to sixty applications per day. In Allegheny County, PA, the chief deputy sheriff has said that...
Drunk Driving Tests Face Challenge
The United States Supreme Court has agreed to decided three cases where people were suspected of drunk driving. The suspects' contention is that the they're Constitutional Rights were violated. The question raised by these challenges is whether or not the state can...
Plea Bargaining: Is it Really a Bargain?
In some circles, plea bargaining is a process that induces too many defendants to plead guilty to avoid what has become known as a trial penalty. It is well known among experienced lawyers that people who go to trial and are found guilty receive a much more severe...
Sexting
If you are a State College High School student or a Penn State University student, you may want to think twice before texting nude pictures. One study has found that nearly 30% of American teens send a nude photo of themselves to another teen. In one Colorado town,...
Guilty Mind
The United States House Judiciary Committee recently passed a bill that would prevent people from being convicted of crimes they had no intent to commit. In effect, to be guilty of a crime, a person must know that he or she is committing a crime. Consider the case of...
More Regulations for Truckers
Under a new federal rule, truck drivers will have to switch from paper records to tracking their driving electronically. The purpose of the rule is to make roads safer by forcing limits on the time drivers spend behind the wheel. Federal regulators argue that the...