Latest 2 Cases: Rogers v. Lewis & Clark County (Civil Rights), State v. Christensen (Criminal Law)

What About the Bar Exam After the 2020 Dust Settles?

VIKRAM DAVID AMAR

Illinois law dean and professor Vikram David Amar comments on some of the questions commentators and analysts are, or will soon be, asking—specifically why we have bar exams for legal licensure, and, assuming we retain them, what they should look like going forward. Amar observes the limitations of the so-called diploma privilege advocated by some and suggests that states adopt greater interstate uniformity in their bar exams, shift toward more performance (as opposed to memorization) exams, and move away from being so time pressured.

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Rogers v. Lewis & Clark County

Citation: 2020 MT 230

Opinion Date: September 15, 2020

Judge: Gustafson

Areas of Law: Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law

The Supreme Court held that Mont. Code Ann. 46-5-105 prohibits detention center employees who are booking a person into the general population of a detention facility from conducting a visual body cavity search without reasonable suspicion to believe that person is concealing contraband, a weapon, or evidence of the commission of a crime. William Rogers, leading ninety-six named plaintiffs, brought this action challenging the Lewis and Clark County Detention Center policy to conduct an unclothed visual body cavity search of every detainee prior to placement in the general population of the facility as a violation of Mont. Const. art. II, 10 and 11 and Mont. Code Ann. 46-5-105. The district court granted summary judgment for Defendants as to ninety-two of the named plaintiffs and denied the motion as to four plaintiffs who were never placed in the general population of the facility after they were strip searched. The Supreme Court affirmed in part and reversed in part, holding (1) Plaintiffs' diminished privacy interests did not outweigh the legitimate penological interests of the Detention Center; and (2) the plain language of section 46-5-105 unequivocally prohibits suspicionless strip searches of those arrested for minor offenses in any situation.

State v. Christensen

Citation: 2020 MT 237

Opinion Date: September 16, 2020

Judge: Mike McGrath

Areas of Law: Criminal Law, White Collar Crime

In a split decision, the Supreme Court reversed Defendant's negligent homicide convictions but upheld his convictions on nine counts of criminal endangerment and eleven counts of criminal distribution of dangerous drugs, holding that there was insufficient evidence to establish that Defendant's actions in prescribing narcotics was the cause in fact of the deaths of two of his patients. After a jury trial, Defendant, a licensed medical doctor, was convicted of several crimes related to the repeated prescribing of copious amounts of opiates and other narcotics to eleven individuals. Two of Defendant's patients died from drug overdoses. The Supreme Court reversed in part and affirmed in part the convictions, holding (1) the State did not present sufficient evidence to establish that Defendant's actions were the direct cause of the two drug overdose deaths; and (2) Defendant was operating outside the bounds of a professional medical practice, and therefore, the exemption for medical practitioners acting within the course of a professional practice did not apply to the facts of this case.