New Braunfels Law Blog

The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits unreasonable government searches and seizures. The general rule is that the government needs a warrant, or an exception to the warrant requirement, for a search or seizure to be constitutional. However, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that no warrant or even probable cause is required for customs officers to search at the U.S. border or 100 miles into the interior in what is called the "border zone." The border zone includes Houston, San Antonio and even New Braunfels.

Does that mean the Fourth Amendment doesn't apply in the border zone? Do the residents of Houston or San Antonio have fewer constitutional rights than other Americans? No, according to a recent opinion by a federal judge.

Each year, the FBI releases its Uniform Crime Reports for the previous year, which are based on data provided by local law enforcement agencies. These reports give us crucial information about what types of crimes, and how many, have been reported to police. Similar reports are issued by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which gauge how many crimes were actually committed, even if they weren't reported. These are the two main sources used to determine America's crime rate.

The crime rate is important in criminal justice because a high rate of crime, especially violent crime, is often used rhetorically to call for tougher laws, increased enforcement and harsher penalties for criminal defendants. Yet these "tough on crime" initiatives have arguably contributed to our nation's mass incarceration crisis and other problems. Therefore, it's crucial for citizens to have an accurate sense of how much crime we experience in the U.S.

When doctors refer to a "complete spinal cord injury," they mean that there has been a total severance of the spinal cord at some point in the neck or back. The gap prevents the brain from communicating with any part of the body connected below it. Unfortunately, these injuries have long been considered intractable, with no way to restore the communication and an extremely limited chance for improvement in the patient.

Now, however, researchers have found a three-part cocktail that can coax one type of spinal nerve to grow across the gap of a complete spinal cord injury in rodents. The nerves were then able to take on electrical communication from the brain, although physical therapy would still be needed to for the patient's body to re-learn how to use the newly-healed spine.

At the Dallas County jail, about 5,000 people are held behind bars every day. So far this year, only 23 percent have been able to post bail, leaving most trapped in pretrial detention. After days or weeks in jail, with their housing and jobs often lost, most end up pleading guilty regardless of their actual guilt.

Pretrial detention due merely to inability to make bail is a problem across the United States. As you may recall, in February the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals found Harris County's bail system unconstitutional.