Browse US Law Articles

What if you decided to rewrite F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby? Good luck with that. But wait: your protagonist is not Nick Carraway, but instead is Jordan Baker—long-time friend of Daisy Buchanan. Jordan, like Nick, goes to Gatsby’s fabulous garden parties on West Egg, drinks and rubs expensive elbows. Jordan is also a professional golfer, and the original novel hints that she may have some skeletons in her closet. So you seek to address Gatsby from a new perspective—one hinted at in the original, but one wholly unexplored, and one that you think will beget a new, incisive and surprising result. So what’ve you got—groundbreaking literary copy or copyright liability? more...

Since the advent of the smart phone, more and more people have come to rely on the many services it can provide. But with the recent revelation that unencrypted data can expose to almost anyone where you are and where you’ve been, at what point do privacy concerns trump convenience? more...

Fans of Law and Order and other popular crime dramas might be familiar with a common storyline—illegal search and seizure. But do you actually know the particulars regarding your Fourth Amendment rights? This handy primer gives you an overview of the search warrant process, including your right to refuse a search, when a warrant is not required and what to do if the police show up at your doorstep. more...

An April 2010 decree from President Obama states that hospitals must allow designated loved ones access to a patient even if they aren’t related by blood or marriage. The decree was prompted by a hospital denying Janice Langbehn the right to see Lisa Pond, her long-time partner, before Pond’s death. The decree is viewed as a win for gay rights. more...