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Overrun and Overreach: the New Challenge to Grand Jury Subpoenas
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March 26, 2026
Overrun and Overreach: the New Challenge to Grand Jury Subpoenas
By: James Trusty
Most criminal law practitioners are quite familiar with clients receiving grand jury subpoenas. There are rituals we go through to figure out whether it’s a “friendly” subpoena, i.e. just trying to get business records from the client to be used against some other target, or whether it’s the visible start of a potential criminal prosecution against the client. Because the legal standard to justify issuing a subpoena is so low, an outright fight against the prosecutor issuing the subpoena is extremely uphill. A motion to quash is only granted “if compliance would be unreasonable or oppressive.”[1]Until a couple of weeks ago, that framework usually translated into successful challenges only when the subpoena’s request was so broad in terms of substance…
Through the Looking Glasses: Will the Public Accept Meta Ray-Bans?
March 17, 2026
Through the Looking Glasses: Will the Public Accept Meta Ray-Bans?
By: Nicole Kardell
What do a plastic grocery sack and a pair of Meta Ray-Bans have in common? The harm they can do to others who are powerless to their use. A grocer may pack a shopper’s groceries in a disposable plastic bag, and the shopper may be fine with the packing – the bag is cheap for both. But the environment ends up paying a hefty toll…
The New Corporate Enforcement Blueprint: DOJ’s “First-Ever” Department-Wide Corporate Enforcement Policy
March 16, 2026
The New Corporate Enforcement Blueprint: DOJ’s “First-Ever” Department-Wide Corporate Enforcement Policy
By: Robert Ward
Understanding the DOJ’s New Corporate Enforcement Framework On March 10, 2026, just weeks after the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) released its updated voluntary corporate self-disclosure program for fraud and financial misconduct, the Department of Justice introduced its first Department‑wide Corporate Enforcement Policy (CEP). The CEP establishes a uniform approach for evaluating voluntary disclosures and cooperation across all DOJ…
Even Governors Go To Jail
January 6, 2015
Even Governors Go To Jail
By: Ifrah Law
Photo Credit: Steve Helber, AP This afternoon, the long-running saga of Robert McDonnell came to what may be the end (not counting appeals) when the former Virginia Governor was sentenced to serve two years in prison after a jury convicted him of bribery while in office. As with many cases, this one has lessons to teach for those of us who carefully follow sentencing advocacy…
Remote Search Warrants and the Continued Threat to Privacy Rights
December 1, 2014
Remote Search Warrants and the Continued Threat to Privacy Rights
By: Nicole Kardell
What were you doing Wednesday, November 5, 2014? If you are a staunch Republican, you might have been toasting the election results from the day before, dreamy-eyed and dancing. If you are a staunch Democrat, you might have been scratching your head profusely, thunderstruck and quiet. People across the country were talking politics and policy in a very public way that day. How would the…
The Crisis of New Jersey Courts and the Challenge to Judicial Recall
November 25, 2014
The Crisis of New Jersey Courts and the Challenge to Judicial Recall
By: Ifrah Law
At the very core of judicial independence is the notion that courts and judges decide matters in accordance with the evidence and legal precedent, independent from political power or outside controls. The question of whether a bipartisan and independent judiciary is still alive and well in New Jersey has been called into question recently, as Governor Christie has been accused of packing the state supreme…
Smart is the New Tough: A Changing Approach in America’s War on Drugs, Crime?
November 24, 2014
Smart is the New Tough: A Changing Approach in America’s War on Drugs, Crime?
By: Ifrah Law
Fact: the United States incarcerates its citizens at the highest rate in the developed world. Indeed—save one small chain of islands, whose entire population is just a fraction of our prison population—the United States’ incarceration rate is the highest on the planet. And nearly half of our approximately 1.75 million inmates are serving time for nonviolent and/or drug-related offenses. That is not OK. It is…
Where to Draw the Line With Undercover FBI Operations
November 13, 2014
Where to Draw the Line With Undercover FBI Operations
By: Nicole Kardell
Several news publications have been making much ado about a tactic the FBI used in 2007 to locate an individual suspected in a series of bomb-threats to Washington state high schools. The FBI created a fake news article, falsely representing it as an Associated Press publication, and sent a link to the suspect’s MySpace account. The article headline, which was directed at the suspect, was…
