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In an 8-1 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that inmates do not have a right to file a federal lawsuit against private prison employees for alleged 8th Amendment violations. The case – Minneci v. Pollard – follows up on a 2001 decision in which the Supreme Court barred constitutional lawsuits against federally-contracted private prison companies. As in that ruling, the Court has decided that federal inmates may only seek damages from private prison employees in state court....

The Arizona Supreme Court found that tattoos are a constitutionally protected form of free speech. The question of whether tattooing is protected speech had been litigated in several states with mixed results, reports Reuters. However, this Arizona decision is significant as it is the first decision by a state Supreme Court to find that tattoos can be protected speech. So does this decision mean that tattoo parlors can just open everywhere and anywhere in Arizona?...

Here’s a good way to get your kids taken away from you: Let them play with a .40-caliber handgun. A couple from Evansville, Indiana, is facing child neglect and criminal recklessness charges after police found a cellphone video of the woman’s 1-year-old baby placing a gun in her mouth. The incident was apparently no accident: According to police reports, a man can be heard in the background of the video repeatedly encouraging the toddler to say “pow....

Hipsters are filtering into every aspect of urban life, even criminal juries. In fact, some New York City defense attorneys have begun to notice a disturbing trend: that well-off, educated white people are slowly gentrifying Brooklyn’s jury pool. Some worry that these “hipster jurors” are bad news for criminal defendants. But is a jury of privileged young people really that bad? Influx of Young White Jurors The New York Post reports that trendy neighborhoods in Brooklyn like Williamsburg have produced a shift in the demographics of the jury pool....

In another astroturfing incident, a nutritional supplement company was found to have paid for positive reviews to be posted on a “third party” website it operated. The National Advertising Review Council stated that marketers should disclose when reviews have been purchased. For a nice rundown to the Urban Nutrition case, see the write-up in the Daily Online Examiner. Basically, the company paid reviewers to post positive reviews of its Serenity “non-prescription mood enhancement” and MiracleBurn dietary supplement....

A jury awarded Alan Newton $18.5 million for wrongful conviction of rape. Newton served 22 years in prison, before DNA evidence exonerated him. In Newton’s civil suit against the City of New York, U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin has granted the City’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. “No reasonable jury could have concluded” the City of New York deliberately denied Newton his constitutional rights, or withheld evidence," Judge Scheindlin ruled last week....

Amanda Knox may now breathe a sigh of relief. She has finally been acquitted of murder. Italy’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, overturned Amanda Knox’s latest conviction for the murder of Meredith Kercher. Knox’s legal nightmare began in 2007 when her roommate in Italy, Meredith Kercher was found murdered in their home. Knox and her then boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted of murder in 2009. They were then acquitted by an appeals court in 2011....

More and more users are turning to Android smartphones, which might be why there’s been a big increase in the amount of Android malware. The number of malware, or malicious software, that target Android phones have increased 76% since the previous quarter, according to McAfee. This new statistic means that Android is now the most highly-attacked mobile operating system, according to CNET. In comparison, Apple’s operating system has few malware threats....

America’s first celebrity president is having a bit of trouble finding celebrities to perform at his inauguration. While the list of confirmed performers sits at the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and 16-year-old former America’s Got Talent singer named Jackie Evancho, the list of those who’ve declined Donald Trump’s invitations includes varied luminaries from Elton John to Garth Brooks and Andrea Bocelli to Kiss. One group of performers’ famous legs were straddling the fence on whether to perform for the infamous President-elect: initial reports said the Radio City Rockettes were being forced by their employer to dance at the inauguration, but it now looks like participation at the event will be voluntary....

If you’re a smoker, now may be a good time to try to kick the habit, because a bump in the federal tax on cigarettes goes into effect this week, raising the federal tax per pack from 39 cents to $1.01. The increase in the federal tobacco tax is a part of the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009, which was signed into law in February. The Act calls for an increase in the federal excise taxes on all tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, rolling papers, and chewing tobacco....

Getting arrested at the beach? It’s true – your day of sun and fun could end up with you in just your swimmies and handcuffs. With summer in full swing, it may be time for you and your beloved fellow beach bums to hit the waves, or just crash on the sand for a day of relaxing. With that said, it might be easy to forget that despite how chill everything may appear, the beach is still not a lawless land....

‘DEATH PENALTY!’ So tweeted President Donald Trump, in response to the deadly truck attack in New York City this week. The president elaborated that he “[w]ould love to send the NYC terrorist to Guantanamo,” but “[t]here is also something appropriate about keeping him in the home of the horrible crime he committed.” It’s probably for the best that Trump’s tweets don’t define criminal jurisdiction under federal or state law. But is he right that the suspect, 29-year-old Uzbek immigrant Sayfullo Saipov, could face the death penalty?...

Two American musicians are suing British pop singer Ed Sheeran for more than $20 million, claiming copyright violations. Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard sued Sheeran in federal court in California, arguing that his hit song “Photograph” contains striking similarities to their 2009 song “Amazing.” Sheeran, 25, is one of Britain’s top-selling pop artists, reports Reuters, and the song in question is off of his hit album “x” (which we are supposed to pronounce “multiply” and is one sign that Sheeran’s not much of a writer)....

Grisel Ramirez wanted a baby so bad that she faked a pregnancy to her husband and then tried to steal a newborn to continue her deception. The 48-year-old Ramirez allegedly told her estranged husband that she was pregnant. But when nine months passed and it came time to produce a baby, the California woman reportedly grew desperate and tried to kidnap a baby at an Orange County Hospital. Ramirez did not live with her husband, and the husband had been pressing Ramirez on when he could visit the baby and when he needed to sign the birth certificate, reports The Associated Press....

Pop diva Lady Gaga seems pretty independently creative. But she is being sued for copying another apparently creative lady. A French artist claims that Gaga got the idea to put bumps in her face in a 2011 music video from Orlan’s “carnal art” projects. Orlan sued Gaga for plagiarizing her work, according to Page Six, claiming 7.5 percent of profits from Gaga’s “Born This Way” album, or $31.7 million. Orlan’s attorneys intend to subpoena Gaga’s creative team in New York and question them about the styling of the video, which Orlan says is a copy of her life’s work, her carnal art....

The lawsuit against baby food making giant, Gerber, for deceptive labeling, has been revived by the Ninth Circuit Court. The case, which was nearly completely dismissed in 2013, alleges that the labels on Gerber baby food contained phrases that were misleading to customers. The circuit court has remanded the matter back to the district court to re-review the matter, and continue hearing the case, which despite being four years old, is still in its infancy....

Quicker than you can say “Full House,” the jury in the John Stamos extortion trial returned their verdict: guilty. After four hours of deliberation, the jury found defendants Allison Coss, 24, and Scott Sippola, 31, guilty of conspiracy and using email to threaten a person’s reputation. The trial took only four days. According to E!Online, Coss and Sippola were accused of sending emails to Stamos, one under the name of “Jessica T” saying that she was pregnant with his child and then others threatening to reveal pictures of Stamos with strippers and cocaine to the tabloid press....

Japanese carmaker Honda has expanded its recall of vehicles with potentially defective Takata air bags. The move comes at the request of the U.S. government, reports The Detroit News, and came after the manufacturer of the air bags, Japan’s Takata Corp., refused to expand their own recall. The Honda recall also follows an expansion of recall efforts by Toyota last week linked to the same defective air bag issue in which the company added 50,000 vehicles to its own international recall....

It wasn’t a bird or a plane, but the silver bullet-like Biebermobile that got pop star Justin Bieber pulled over for speeding in Southern California this morning. Believe it or not, the Biebs was allegedly clocked going more than 100 mph on U.S. 101 in Los Angeles about 11 a.m., KCBS-TV reports. A pair of California Highway Patrol officers stopped Bieber in his shiny chrome Fisker Karma – a birthday present from his manager that cost $100,000, according to the Los Angeles Times....

Justin Bieber’s latest run-in with a paparazzo was not a hit-and-run, police tell Reuters. According to an LAPD spokesman, officers are currently investigating what they have categorized as a “traffic collision” involving a “pedestrian in the roadway.” The spokesman emphasized that it was “not a hit-and-run.” In the much-publicized incident, Bieber allegedly struck a photographer with his Ferrari while driving away from a comedy club in Los Angeles. The LAPD launched an investigation and interviewed Justin a few hours after the incident....