Massachusetts courts have recognized self-defense as a defense to homicide as far back as the trial following the Boston Massacre in 1770, where John Adams successfully defended all but one of a group of British soldiers who had fired into a crowd of protesters that had thrown objects at them.…
Following the U.S. Senate’s decision in July to remove language in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that would have limited the ability of states to regulate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the employment and hiring context, states are now free to continue to legislate in…
Where is the line between free speech and sexual harassment? Students at public schools have both the right to free speech and expression, and the right to educational environments free of discrimination and harassment. At times, these rights can seem to run headlong into each other. When one student says…
If you or your child is accused of engaging in academic misconduct, you’ll get a crash course in how the college or university bureaucracy works to process these cases and sanction students. Before that happens–and to prevent that from happening–it is important to understand a few key points about academic…
This week, the Appeals Court decided a case examining how students can bring claims under Chapter 151C, the Fair Educational Practices law. In Doe 99 v. Cheffi et al., a former public high school student who alleged she had been sexually abused by a teacher sued the City of Chelsea…
Show-cause hearings, also known as clerk-magistrate’s hearings, are a unique feature of the Massachusetts legal system, offering many of those accused of criminal conduct but not arrested a chance to privately contest charges before they publicly issue, thus potentially avoiding the expense, uncertainty, and reputational harm associated with a formal…
Last week, the SJC decided City of Newton v. Commonwealth Employment Relations Board, a case considering what an employee must show to make out a prima facie case of retaliation under the Massachusetts public employee collective bargaining law. The week before, the MCAD decided MCAD and Nom v. Acton Auto…
A group of Massachusetts lawmakers has introduced a bill this year that would require automatic sealing of many criminal records after specified waiting periods have passed from the end of the defendant’s sentence. The waiting periods have been part of the Commonwealth’s sealing laws for many years and, as we…
Since 2012, Massachusetts laws have prohibited discrimination based on gender identity, including in education. The Massachusetts Department of Education has had longstanding guidance in place instructing schools to use students’ preferred names and pronouns while at school. This week, in Foote v. Ludlow School Committee, the First Circuit Court of…
More than forty-five years ago, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court led the nation in combatting racial discrimination by prosecutors in jury selection. In its landmark decision in Commonwealth v. Soares, the SJC held that the use of peremptory challenges by prosecutors to exclude members of racial (or other) minorities from…