In the past month, Libertarian U.S. Representative from Michigan, Justin Amash, has proposed a bill to Congress that would end qualified immunity for government officials. With everything going on in the United States over the past few months, discussions on civil rights have dominated the public square. This proposal is no exception. In order to [...]
Every US citizen has the freedom of assembly thanks to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. But what exactly does this mean? What about freedom of assembly in New Jersey? If you’re curious about your civil rights, you’ve come to the right place. In the past, our blog has covered your rights when [...]
If someone unjustly attacks you and puts your life at risk, you are allowed to defend yourself. But what do you do if that person is a police officer? It’s a hard question. There’s no easy answer. Officers are called to protect and serve the people. But sometimes they wrongfully harm citizens. That’s where rights [...]
Maybe you’ve heard about some of the cases of people getting arrested for not following social distancing rules. Whatever you think about social distancing rules – whether you think they’re violations of our rights, are important rules to follow, or a little bit of both – it’s important to know them! So, along with washing [...]
Building on our post from last week, today we’re going to go a little deeper into martial law. You may have heard rumors and conspiracies that the US government could declare martial law to address COVID-19 concerns. Last week, we gave a brief definition of martial law (not marshall law), its history in the US, [...]
What is martial law? Perhaps you’ve heard that phrase thrown around over these last days. Could issues with the coronavirus get so serious that the United States enacts martial law? That sounds scary, but we need to know what that means for us. Although state-imposed restrictions, quarantines, and curfews may feel strict now, they can't [...]
It seems like every day new information about the coronavirus, or COVID-19, comes out. Few things are more important to your health and safety than knowing how to protect yourself. To that end, new policies and laws are getting passed every day. However, the situation seems to impact each state differently. Therefore, it’s important to [...]
Imagine living in a country where the government can seize your property for no reason at all. If they want to take your home away from you and put you out on the street, they can. If they want to take your car for no reason, they can. Or if they want to take your [...]
In our series about the Fifth Amendment, we’ve covered pleading the fifth and double jeopardy. In a lot of ways, you could consider these as continuations of our series on legal jargon. Today, we cover “due process.” You may have heard that phrase thrown around. What is it? How does it work? What does it [...]
Last week, we covered some basics about the fifth amendment. Namely, we answered, “What does plead the fifth mean?” This week we’re covering another right protected by the fifth amendment: protection from double jeopardy. We’ll give a basic definition of double jeopardy, cover some double jeopardy laws, and tell you other ways you can protect [...]