Frein v. Pa. State Police, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 24414 (3rd Cir. August 30, 2022) (Bibas, C.J.) Police may seize potential evidence using a warrant.  They may not keep it forever.  They did that in this case.  After a man assassinated a Pennsylvania state trooper and injured another, the trooper seized his parents’ guns.  The […]

Pa. Envtl. Def. Found. v. Commonwealth, 2022 Pa. LEXIS 1127 (S. Ct. August 5, 2022) (Baer, C.J.) We reiterate that Section 27 imposes fiduciary duties on Commonwealth entities to “conserve and maintain [Pennsylvania’s public natural resources] for the benefit of all the people,” which includes a “duty to prevent and remedy the degradation, diminution, or […]

Greenberg v. Goodrich, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52881 (E.D. Pa. March 24, 2022) (Kenney, J.)  This Court fully commends and supports the aims and intentions of the American Bar Association (“ABA”) in its creation of the ABA Model Rule 8.4(g) as a statement of an ideal and as a written conviction that we must be […]

Justice Gorsuch delivered the opinion of the Court.  Joseph Kennedy lost his job as a high school football coach because he knelt at midfield after games to offer a quiet prayer of thanks. Mr. Kennedy prayed during a period when school employees were free to speak with a friend, call for a reservation at a restaurant, check […]

Amalgamated Transit Union v. Port Auth. of Allegheny Cnty., 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 17951 (3rd Cir. June 29, 2022) (Porter, C.J.)  Beginning in April 2020, the Port Authority of Allegheny County (“Port Authority”) required its uniformed employees to wear face masks at work. Some employees wore masks bearing political or social-protest messages. Concerned that such […]

By Cliff Rieders of Rieders, Travis, Dohrmann, Mowrey, Humphrey & Waters posted in Constitutional Law on Thursday, July 2, 2015. E.E.O.C. v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, 135 S.Ct. 2028 (2015).  Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits a prospective employer from refusing to hire an applicant in order to avoid accommodating a […]

N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, 2022 U.S. LEXIS 3055 (S. Ct. June 23, 2022) (Thomas, J.)  In District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U. S. 570, 128 S. Ct. 2783, 171 L. Ed. 2d 637 (2008), and McDonald v. Chicago, 561 U. S. 742, 130 S. Ct. 3020, 177 L. Ed. 2d 894 (2010), we recognized that the Second and Fourteenth […]

Carson v. Makin, 2022 U.S. LEXIS 3013 (S. Ct. June 21, 2022) (Roberts, J.)  Maine has enacted a program of tuition assistance for parents who live in school districts that do not operate a secondary school of their own. Under the program, parents designate the secondary school they would like their child to attend—public or […]

Firearm Owners Against Crime v. City of Pittsburgh, 2022 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 67 (May 27, 2022) (McCullough, J.) The Pennsylvania Uniform Firearms Act, found at 18 Pa. C.S. 6120(a) prohibits a municipality, township, etc. from in any way regulating ownership, possession, transfer or control of guns or ammunition.  Here, the City of Philadelphia prohibited assault […]