Today in the News, 2.19.09

“The odds against winning discrimination cases have some employee lawyers reluctant even to try.” WSJ discusses how difficult it is for workers to win job-discrimination lawsuits in federal courts. More from ACSBlog here.

“Given the slim and shady evidence against Kezer, it’s reasonable to believe he would have been acquitted had the jury known that Abbott changed his story — and continued to change it, eventually giving five different versions of what he allegedly witnessed.”Jeralyn at TalkLeft writes of a Missouri man who has been released from jail after spending nearly half his life in prison, following a judge’s decision that he was wrongfully convicted when the prosecutor in his case withheld evidence from his defense lawyer. Had the Supreme Court ruled differently in Van de Kamp v. Goldstein last month and abandoned the doctrine of absolute prosecutorial immunity (as we argued it should have in our amicus brief) then Josh Kezer would have a better shot at obtaining redress for the prosecutor’s mishandling of his case, thereby deterring similar miscarriages of justice in the future. More here and here.

“The slate of cases on divisive civil rights issues offers a reminder of the importance of each individual justice’s vote.” USA Today highlights the array of important civil rights cases coming before the Supreme Court this spring.