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1500 questions
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2 answers
How is a plea agreement NOT a “threat or promise”?
I was viewing a televised case, the Judge asks the defendant “have any threats or promises been made to you to deliver this plea” before the defendant delivers their guilty plea as part of a plea bargain.
I was wondering, how is a plea bargain/plea…
Mave
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What is the legality of "known" harmful actions while pregnant?
There are lots of things that are generally accepted as harmful to a developing fetus, such as drinking alcohol, lots of caffeine, smoking, etc.
Would a pregnant woman who did something known to cause harm to the fetus be open to being charged with…
Ravi Kothari
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16
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Can an extra-terrestrial be legally adopted?
Background: My client has disclosed to me that he is an extra-terrestrial entity who arrived from another planet some time after 1900. He was sent to Earth in a rocket by his (now dead) parents, then placed up for adoption and legally adopted by two…
Richard
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Why must I consent to treatment at the eye doctor when implied consent is obvious?
Whenever I get a checkup with my eye doctor, they have me sign a consent-to-treat form. I never gave it a second thought. This last visit, though, the front desk attendant was distracted when I arrived. They knew I was there waiting, but forgot…
nuggethead
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7 answers
Advantages of a law license other than the ability to practice law
The late Professor Charlotte Striebel was a lawyer if that term means one who is licensed to practice law, but not a lawyer if that term means one who does practice law. She worked for decades as a professor of mathematics at the University of…
Michael Hardy
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3 answers
Can disrupting an online video game be illegal?
Imagine for example, a person makes an online game unplayable by flooding the game with bot accounts, winning games through cheating etc, but the person doesn't steal any data and they aren't violating copyright either since they are just sending…
eternalstudent
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Is it false advertising to call a closed-source program "open"?
IIRC, a court recently ruled that calling closed-source software "open-source" in marketing is false advertising. Does this apply to "open" on its own? For example, is the name of OpenVMS false advertising? My first thought when I saw the name was…
Someone
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Are auto-generated identifiers PII if they cannot be linked to an identity?
The reason for this post is to express a contradiction that seems to be widespread in some places on the internet.
I'm not a lawyer, I'm a software developer doing my best to comply with the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive. If I had enough money I…
svprdga
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Can a U.S. state bring action before the Supreme Court against another state for equal rights of its own citizens when they visit the other state?
Let’s make this hypothetical. Two U.S. states, East Lumbago and West Lumbago, which share a common border. It’s a First Amendment issue, specifically: “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging . . . the right of the people peaceably to assemble,…
MTA
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Could the right to "life" in the constitution be used by the supreme court to reject a federal law forbidding abortion bans?
I saw a question on here asking about how hard it would be to pass a Federal law that prevents states from banning abortion, and the discussion was mostly about whether the federal government had the jurisdiction to create a law that supersedes laws…
Steven Sagona
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9 answers
How are any gun restrictions constitutional?
The Second Amendment says (emphasis mine):
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
How are any laws restricting the "right of the people to…
Someone
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3 answers
What happens when a will conflicts with a new law (a law made after the testator has died)?
What happens when a will conflicts with a new law (a law made after the testator has died)?
Suppose I have been bequeathed the family farm and the testator specified that the farm must be run in accordance with how it was traditionally run (this is…
Natasha
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4 answers
Can I viably sue for damages caused by bugs in freeware?
Freeware is software released free of charge. Often times freeware is written by a hobbyist or academic who is looking to create a tool for their field, but is either not interested in profit or thinks that profit is not viable.
I know that in some…
Daniel Goldman
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votes
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What is the effect of lost and recovered prior art on patent validity?
Normally, the existence of prior art containing matters for which a United States utility patent makes claims to patent rights prevents a patent from being issued for those claims, and if a patent somehow issues anyway, it provides a defense to a…
ohwilleke
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1 answer
Algorithm generated fines
In the UK, there was recently a case in the press about a driver that was issued a fine for driving in a bus lane. The photograph the Local Authority supplied as "evidence" was of someone wearing an item of clothing with wording that was similar to…
Lefty
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