The Commonwealth Court vacated four Williamsport property-maintenance convictions because the citations charged violations of a code edition the city had never adopted.
The Superior Court held that Pennsylvania’s Sentencing Commission could apply the domestic-violence enhancement even when no minor witnessed the assault.
The Commonwealth Court held that Pennsylvania’s Medical Marijuana Act did not prevent the Parole Board from denying street-time credit after a parolee’s third drug-related DUI.
The Commonwealth Court held that the Parole Board timely conducted a revocation hearing after a federal prisoner returned to Pennsylvania custody and had no duty to seek an earlier interstate transfer.
The Commonwealth Court held that a dog attack is without provocation when, under all surrounding circumstances, the victim could not reasonably foresee that her conduct would trigger the attack.
The Massachusetts SJC held that SORB abused its discretion by denying an indigent registrant funds for an expert to address whether multiple pre-arrest offenses predict future dangerousness.
The Ninth Circuit remanded asylum and cancellation issues because immigration adjudicators relied on non-elements of the conviction and failed to address material evidence of responsibility.
The agency permissibly treated a California DUI involving severe intoxication and an accessible loaded firearm as a particularly serious crime.
The Ninth Circuit upheld the statutory good-moral-character bar because the petitioner served more than 180 days in custody as a result of a DUI conviction.
The Commonwealth Court held that prison discipline delaying parole eligibility does not deprive a Pennsylvania inmate of a protected liberty interest.
Court issues a substantive appellate ruling [J-64-2025] IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA EASTERN DISTRICT TODD, C.J., DONOHUE, DOUGHERTY, WECHT, MUNDY, BROBSON, McCAFFERY, JJ.
The Superior Court erred in concluding otherwise, and we reverse that portion of its decision. [J-85-2025] IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA MIDDLE DISTRICT TODD, C.J., DONOHUE, DOUGHERTY, WECHT, MUNDY, BROBSON, McCAFFERY, JJ.
Court issues a substantive appellate ruling [J-20-2025] IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA WESTERN DISTRICT TODD, C.J., DONOHUE, DOUGHERTY, WECHT, MUNDY, BROBSON, McCAFFERY, JJ.
Court issues a substantive appellate ruling [J-88-2025] IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA MIDDLE DISTRICT TODD, C.J., DONOHUE, DOUGHERTY, WECHT, MUNDY, BROBSON, McCAFFERY, JJ.
Drugs carried in a car supported mandatory license revocation.
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania held that the 2020 amendment changing mandatory parole review for rape convicts from annual to triennial (61 Pa.C.S. § 6139(a)(3.3)) does not violate the ex post facto clause, because it alters only when the Board must conduct review—not the standards for granting parole or the Board’s authority to act on its own motion sooner.
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania reversed the denial of a license suspension appeal, holding that Court Administration’s ten-year failure to schedule a hearing — despite repeated court orders to do so — constituted an extraordinary government-caused delay that violated the licensee’s due process rights under the Middaugh framework and mandated dismissal of the suspension.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court held that a sex offender’s subsequent criminal convictions rendered moot his challenge to the reliability of hearsay evidence used in his SORB reclassification from level 2 to level 3, affirming the board’s decision in a case of first impression for published classification appeals.
The Second District affirmed the revocation of NGRI conditional release for a defendant who exhibited a pattern of treatment noncompliance and refusal to accept responsibility for underlying offenses.
The Third Department upholds an administrative determination by the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in an Article 78 proceeding, finding it supported by substantial evidence.
The Fifth District holds that body-worn camera footage showing an officer left a DUI suspect alone in a patrol car during the required 15-minute observation period is sufficient to rebut the presumption that breath test procedures were properly followed.
Second District holds that vacatur of a murder conviction under Penal Code section 1172.6 does not establish an “erroneous conviction” entitling the former defendant to compensation under section 4900, because Senate Bill 1437’s narrowing of murder liability was a legislative act o
First District holds that the DMV’s revised hearing structure satisfies due process and rejects the broader ‘appearance of bias’ approach used in Romane v. DMV (now before the California Supreme Court).
Fourth District grants writ relief, holding that Government Code section 27706(g) gives a public defender discretion to decline appointment to represent a habeas petitioner — including a Racial Justice Act claimant — without showing unavailability.