THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT on Tuesday overturned Massachusetts’s anti-panhandling statute, concluding that it unconstitutionally abridges free speech. Massachusetts state law prohibits a person from signaling or stopping a car for the purpose of soliciting charity or selling merchandise. But the SJC, in a unanimous decision written by Justice Barbara Lenk before her retirement, ruled that because […]
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Posted inOpinion
SJC decision on Baker’s powers is poorly reasoned
THE MASSACHUSETTS Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruled on Thursday that Gov. Charlie Baker’s various COVID-19 orders were authorized by the Massachusetts Civil Defense Act of 1950, and did not violate the plaintiffs’ due process rights or right to assemble under either the state or federal constitutions. The court’s opinion is superficial and poorly reasoned at […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Baker nominating Georges for SJC
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SERGE GEORGES JR.’S nomination to the Supreme Judicial Court is poised to make history in more ways than one. Georges, announced Tuesday as the latest pick from Gov. Charlie Baker to fill existing or impending vacancies, would join only a handful of district court judges in Massachusetts ever elevated to the […]
Posted inUncategorized
Baker nominates Kimberly Budd as chief justice
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Wednesday nominated Associate Justice Kimberly S. Budd, the only person of color on the Supreme Judicial Court, to become chief justice — the highest judicial position in the state. If confirmed, Budd would become the first black woman to lead the court in its 328-year history, and only the second black […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion
SJC judges decry racism in criminal justice system
The seven justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court released the following letter on Wednesday, June 3. Dear Members of the Judiciary and the Bar: The events of the last few months have reminded us of what African-Americans know all too well: that too often, by too many, black lives are not treated with the dignity […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Coronavirus infection in state prisons more than two times statewide rate
THE CORONAVIRUS INFECTION rate among inmates in the state prison is more than two times than the statewide rate, according to new figures from the Department of Correction. Prisoners’ Legal Services sent out an analysis on Friday analyzing the rate of infection among the 64 prisoners out of 7,841 Department of Correction inmates who have contracted the virus, finding a rate of 0.82 percent. That […]