Some observations about the 2014 Criminal Law Quiz

Latest revision as of 09:26, December 30, 2014

Last January's quiz. All of the questions did in fact have an answer except one. The COA didn't issue any opinions on the three proposed merger issues in question (3). And while I don't think the substantial quantities/Flores question will be answered until 2016, I am confident we'll get an answer then. (3) said:

(3) The Court of Appeals will look at merger of drug counts anew, and they will hold:

(A) Manufacturing and Possession will merge under State v. Blake.

(B) DCS and PCS will merge, because contrary to St v Sergent, solicitation by itself does not equal an attempted delivery.

(C) DCS (substantial quantity) and PCS will merge under the analysis of St v Flores.

The first question is the only one with an unambiguously good answer. In case you've forgotten, it was:

(1) SCOTUS will have two opinions on searching cell phones incident to arrest by July. The opinions will roughly hold:

(A) If you can search the defendant's pockets when he's arrested, you can go through the entire contents of his cell phone without a warrant.

(B) You can only look in the cell phone for something very specific to the crime he's arrested for, i.e., the phone number of the person with whom he just arranged a drug deal.

(C) Nope, can't look in it at all, no more than you could turn on and search a lap top. You need a warrant!

As to the other questions, well the Oregon Supreme Court did in fact grant review of a religious freedom case. Expect an opinion this year. The Court of Appeals did reaffirm St v. Mallory in State v. Cuevas, but the Oregon Supreme Court did grant review. If you do felonies, and neither Mallory nor Cuevas mean anything to you, please look them up. Very important opinions, at least for the time being.

And the Ziska question was answered, and disappointly so.

As usual, the quiz rewarded neither unbridled optimism nor total cynicism.