Constitutional Law Criminal Law Laws Misdemeanor 
JonathanTurley
NOVEMBER 14, 2021
In covering the motions hearing last week in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, I noted a surprising comment from Judge Bruce Schroeder that he had “spent hours” with the Wisconsin gun law and could not state with certainty what it means in this case. Criminal laws are supposed to be interpreted narrowly.
JonathanTurley
MAY 2, 2021
Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association and the Law Enforcement Labor Services has taken the unusual (if not unprecedented) step of asking the University of Minnesota to investigate a student for her call to make the lives of campus police a living “hell.” Here is the underlying criminal provision: 609.78
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JonathanTurley
OCTOBER 19, 2021
Generally there is no duty to rescue or to call police under the common law. For example, Washington state allows for the charging of a misdemeanor. The law covers violent crimes, sexual assault, and assault of a child. I am unaware of such a law in Pennsylvania, but these laws are rarely enforced.
JonathanTurley
JULY 13, 2023
Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio charged Durant with a “federal misdemeanor charge under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.” The most recent is a student at Bowling Green State University named Whitney Durant, who reportedly had a history of extremist conduct at the school before her arrest.
JonathanTurley
MAY 19, 2021
The arrest appears to have been made under a state hate crime law that has long been criticized by some of us in the free speech community as dangerously vague. ” The law is similar to the type of vague speech codes that we have addressed on campuses but this is an actual criminal provision under state law.
JonathanTurley
APRIL 2, 2022
Aladin was charged with robbery, which is a second degree felony, and Whettstone and Lawrence were charged with first degree misdemeanor assault. Oberlin maintained in court filings that the son and grandson of the owners of Gibson’s Bakery “violently and unreasonably attacked” an unarmed student, but that is not how the police viewed it.
JonathanTurley
MAY 12, 2021
” The language of the statute in my view is unconstitutional due to its sweeping criminalization of any “curse or abuse” that could “provoke a breach of the peace.” ” However, the appellate panel corrected noted that such laws are narrowly construed in light of controlling precedent.
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