If the provision passes, it would allow for prosecutions beyond 15 years if investigators are able to determine a DNA match. To ensure that DNA evidence is preserved, the proposal would require all evidence collection kits in cases of sexual assault to be stored for a minimum of 15 years, the release said. Healey's budget recommendation itself lays out a more detailed set of guidelines for handling and preserving DNA evidence.
"The calculus, in terms of the statute, is always for our brilliant attorneys at DOJ, who we work in conjunction with," Patel said on the Charlie Kirk Show Thursday afternoon. "We always abide by the statute of limitations and any constitutional parameters that we have." Patel explained that a judge found "probable cause" for the FBI to execute a search warrant, so law enforcement "did just that."
The lawsuit, filed in May 2021 by a former assistant to the musician, had been dismissed in December because it exceeded the statute of limitations, a maximum time period for initiating legal proceedings after the related events took place. But plaintiff Ashley Walters asked the court to reconsider her case in January, when a new law mandated a two-year window for the consideration of sexual assault cases that had already expired under the statute.
Under the principles in SCA Hygiene, Petrella, and Brockamp, there is no room for the courts to displace Congress' specific policy choice on timeliness, even when 'the lack of a laches defense could produce policy outcomes judges deem undesirable.' The Supreme Court rejected equitable defenses of laches in infringement suits, reasoning that by enacting a statute of limitation, Congress left no statutory "gap" for equitable judgments on timeliness. See Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (2014), and SCA Hygiene Prods. v. First Quality Baby Prods (2017).
Intro 1297, which had more than 41 co-sponsors and passed on Nov. 25 with 48 votes in the affirmative, will clarify that survivors may bring claims under City's Gender-Motivated Violence Act (GMVA) not only against individual abusers but also against institutions that enabled sexual violence, even when the abuse occurred decades ago. If signed by outgoing Mayor Eric Adams before the end of this year,
Yesterday, Judge Cameron McGowan Currie tossed the Trump administration's slapdash effort to criminally prosecute former FBI Director James Comey, noting that the purported U.S. Attorney behind the prosecution had all the legal authority of three raccoons in a trench coat. Alas, the role of "Kinda Sorta Interim-ish U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia," is not so much "real," with the statutory authority provided to the actual interim U.S. Attorney having expired months ago.
"Consequently, I conclude that the Attorney General's attempt to install Ms. Halligan as Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was invalid and that Ms. Halligan has been unlawfully serving in that role since September 22, 2025," Currie wrote. "I conclude that all actions flowing from Ms. Halligan's defective appointment, including securing and signing Mr. Comey's indictment, constitute unlawful exercises of executive power and must be set aside."
A metal detectorist who illegally excavated a Roman coin and silver hoard in the Hildesheim area of Lower Saxony in 2017 has confessed to the authorities after concealing its existence for eight years. The hoard consists of around 450 silver denarii, several silver bars, a gold ring and a gold coin. It dates to the 1st century A.D., but beyond its monetary value, it is of great archaeological importance.
When I was a child, I was sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein. I could not come forward before. I wasn't ready. Awareness and courage take time. Now I am.
Earlier this year, SCOTUSblog co-founder and veteran Supreme Court litigator Tom Goldstein was arrested on a 22-count indictment alleging tax crimes and making false statements to lenders. According to the government, Goldstein participated in high-stakes poker games and failed to disclose his winnings (in tax filings) and losings (in loan applications). Over the course of several years, the indictment says that Goldstein racked up big winnings and bigger losses in high-stakes underground poker matches, both domestically and abroad.
A lawyer loyal to President Donald Trump was sworn in as the top federal prosecutor in eastern Virginia on Monday, as the president becomes increasingly impatient for the indictments of two people he despises: former FBI Director James B. Comey and Attorney General Letitia James of New York. The lawyer, Lindsey Halligan, a White House adviser and former Trump defense attorney with no prosecutorial experience, was tapped as the interim U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia,
