Supreme Court to decide whether guilty plea waives right to challenge law News
Supreme Court to decide whether guilty plea waives right to challenge law

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] granted certiorari [docket] on Tuesday to determine whether a guilty plea waives a defendant’s right to challenge the constitutionality of the statute under which he was convicted. The case, Class v. US [docket; cert. petition, PDF], concerns a guilty plea made by Rodney Class to possession of a firearmt. Class lacked counsel at the time of his plea at his own request. The appeals court ruled [opinion, PDF] that because the defendant signed the plea agreement, which included an explicit waiver of appeal rights as to his conviction and sentencing, he has no standing to any appeal of this matter.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Ku Klux Klan founded

The US hate group known as the Ku Klux Klan was founded on December 24, 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee as a reaction to reconstruction efforts following the Union victory in the American Civil War. The group would later become notorious for its attacks on Black Americans, being targeted by the Enforcement Act of 1871, which imposed civil and criminal liability for deprivation of constitutional rights. Read the Enforcement Act of 1871.  

Hamid Karzai born

On December 24, 1957, Hamid Karzai was born in Karz, Afghanistan. He would go on to become in 2004 his country's first elected president after the end of Taliban rule in 2001.