Blanton v. City of North Las Vegas
Blanton v. North Las Vegas, 489 U.S. 538 (1989), was a decision issued by the United States Supreme Court clarifying the limitations of the Right to Trial by Jury.
Background
Melvin R. Blanton was charged with Driving under the influence of alcohol. His petition for a jury trial was denied and he was instead given a bench trial. Blanton appealed, arguing that his sixth amendment right to trial by jury had been violated.
Decision of the Court
The US Supreme Court ruled that Blanton did not have the right to a jury trial because the crime he was charged with was "petty". The court went on to elaborate: "offenses for which the maximum period of incarceration is six months, or less, are presumptively petty...a defendant can overcome this, and become entitled to a jury trial,..by showing that additional penalties [such as monetary fines]...are...so severe [as to indicate] that the legislature clearly determined that the offense is a serious one."
See also
Breedlove v. Suttles
Breedlove v. Suttles, 302 U.S. 277 (1937), is a United States Supreme Court decision which upheld the constitutionality of requiring the payment of a poll tax in order to vote in state elections.
Background
At the relevant time, Georgia imposed a poll tax of $1.00 per year, levied generally on all inhabitants. The statute exempted from the tax all persons under 21 or over 60 years of age, and all females who do not register for voting. Under the state constitution, the tax must be paid by the person liable, together with arrears, before he can be registered for voting.
Nolan Breedlove, a white male, 28 years of age, declined to pay the tax, and was not allowed to register to vote. He filed a lawsuit challenging the Georgia law under the Fourteenth (both the Equal Protection Clause and the Privileges and Immunities Clause) and the Nineteenth Amendments. T. Earl Suttles was named defendant in the case in his official capacity as tax collector of Fulton County, Georgia.
United States v. Ross
United States v. Ross, 456 U.S. 798 (1982), was a search and seizure case argued before the Supreme Court of the United States. The high court was asked to decide if a legal warrantless search of an automobile allows closed containers found in the vehicle (specifically, in the trunk) to be searched as well. The appeals court had previously ruled that opening and searching the closed portable containers without a warrant was a violation of the Fourth Amendment, even though the warrantless vehicle search was permissible due to existing precedent.
Background
On November 27, 1978, Washington, D.C. police detectives received a tip from a reliable source describing a man known as "Bandit" who was selling illegal narcotics stored in the trunk of his car. The informant gave the location of the car and a description of both car and driver. The detectives discovered the parked car, and called for a computer check on the car, which confirmed that the car's owner matched the description and used the alias "Bandit". Shortly thereafter they observed the car being driven by a man matching the description. They stopped the car and ordered the driver out. After noticing a bullet on the front seat, they searched the glove compartment and discovered a pistol, at which point they arrested the driver, identified as Albert Ross. A detective then opened the trunk and discovered a closed brown paper bag. He opened the bag and found numerous bags containing white powder, which were later identified as heroin. During a later search, they also found and opened a zippered red leather pouch, which contained $3,200 in cash. No warrant was obtained for these searches.
E's
E's (Japanese: エス, Hepburn: Esu) is a Japanese shōnen manga series written and drawn by Satoru Yuiga. It was originally serialized in Monthly GFantasy from 1997 through 2005, and later published in 16 tankōbon volumes by Square Enix from March 18, 2003 to February 27, 2010. The series focuses on Kai Kudō, an "Esper", who is recruited by an organization called Ashurum to become a soldier to purportedly save other psychics from regular humans. After a mission in Gald goes wrong, Kai finds himself living with a man named Yuuki and his adopted sister Asuka. As he learns more about Ashurum, Kai finds himself wondering what their true goals are, and worrying about his ill sister, who is under Ashurum's care.
The series was adapted into a twenty-six episode anime series entitled E's Otherwise (エス·アザーワイズ) by Studio Pierrot. It debuted in Japan on April 1, 2003 on TV Tokyo; the final episode aired on September 23, 2003. Two light novels and three drama CDs related to the series have also been released in Japan.
European Economic Area
The European Economic Area (EEA) provides for the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital within the internal market of the European Union (EU) between its 28 member states, as well as three of the four member states of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA): Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The Agreement is applied provisionally with respect to Croatia—the remaining and most recent EU member state—pending ratification of its accession by all EEA parties.
The EEA was established on 1 January 1994 upon entry into force of an agreement between the member states and the EU's predecessors, the European Economic Community and the European Coal and Steel Community. EFTA states which join the EEA participate in the EU's internal market without being EU members, adopting almost all the relevant EU legislation other than laws regarding agriculture and fisheries. The EEA's "decision-shaping" processes enable them to influence and contribute to new EEA policy and legislation from an early stage.
Planck time
In physics, the Planck time (tP) is the unit of time in the system of natural units known as Planck units. It is the time required for light to travel, in a vacuum, a distance of 1 Planck length. The unit is named after Max Planck, who was the first to propose it.
The Planck time is defined as:
where:
The two digits between parentheses denote the standard error of the estimated value.
Physical significance
The Planck time is the unique combination of the gravitational constant G, the special-relativistic constant c, and the quantum constant ħ, to produce a constant with units of time. Because the Planck time comes from dimensional analysis, which ignores constant factors, there is no reason to believe that exactly one unit of Planck time has any special physical significance. Rather, the Planck time represents a rough time scale at which quantum gravitational effects are likely to become important. The nature of those effects, and the exact time scale at which they would occur, would need to be derived from an actual theory of quantum gravity. All scientific experiments and human experiences occur over trillions upon trillions of Planck times, making any events happening at the Planck scale hard to detect. As of May 2010, the smallest time interval uncertainty in direct measurements is on the order of 12 attoseconds (1.2 × 10−17 seconds), about 2.2 × 1026 Planck times.
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