“How Long Do We have to Keep This?” Record Retention for Local Law Enforcement Documents
Written by: Rebekah Maddox Ditto, Esq. and Jennifer D. Herzog, Esq. Having the honor to represent numerous local law enforcement agencies we often get the question (usually in response to an open records request but sometimes as a result of a la
Whose Precedents Count for Qualified Immunity?
Written by: Pearson Cunningham, Esq. On October 18, 2021, the Supreme Court summarily reversed the Ninth Circuit’s denial of qualified immunity to a Union City, California police officer in Rivas-Villegas v. Cortesluna. Many commentators and c
Insights From a County Attorney: The Privilege of Government Service
Written by: Jennifer Dorminey Herzog, Esq. This piece was published in the Fall 2021 edition of Georgia County Government Magazine. I was born and raised in Tift County and after law school returned to my hometown where I am now employed as a p
Supreme Court Expands Fourth Amendment Protections
Written by: Phillip E. Friduss, Esq. Getting hit by a bullet but still escaping in the getaway car implicates the Fourth Amendment after all sayeth Chief Justice Roberts in a heated 5-3 Opinion along ideological lines. Justice Amy Coney Barr
Supreme Court Quietly Hammers Fifth Circuit in Conditions of Confinement Case, Reversing Qualified Immunity Ruling
Written by: Phillip E. Friduss, Esq. This past Monday, in a per curiam decision (Justice Barrett not participating; Justice Alito concurring to suggest cert should not have been granted, but otherwise concurring with the judgment; and, Justice T
Supreme Court Takes on New Fourth Amendment Case
Written by: Phillip E. Friduss, Esq. Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Lange v. California, Docket No. 20-18, where the issue has been coined in two different, but similar ways: Whether the pursuit of a person whom a police officer has
How “Open and Obvious” Begets “Plain and Palpable”: Appeals Court Rules for State University in Premises Suit
Written by: Jacquelyn S. Clarke, Esq. and Michael V. Profit, Esq. “Plain, palpable, and undisputed”: that phrase’s appearance in both briefs to the court supporting or opposing, or court orders on, motions for summary judgment underscores
Supreme Court Refuses to Stop Order to Move Inmates From Virus-Ravaged Prison
Written by: Phillip E. Friduss, Esq. Thus is the title of Adam Liptak’s New York Times coverage of the Ohio inmate transfer case, Williams v Wilson case we reported on last week. The piece begins: “The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused a req
An Unprecedented Time: Decarcerating and other Steps Being Taken in Georgia’s Jails and Prisons as the Result of COVID-19
Written by: Jennifer Dorminey Herzog, Esq. Because of policies of mass incarceration over the past four decades, the United States has incarcerated more people than any other country on Earth.[1] Highly transmissible novel respiratory pathogen
US Supreme Court Ready to Sit Down to a Full Plate of Qualified Immunity
Written by: Phillip E. Friduss, Esq. Our Supreme Court Justices are about to sit down to an unprecedented feast of qualified immunity. That feast will be served during its May 15 conference, where the Court will consider thirteen different qua