Questions tagged [united-states]
For questions specific to the United States as a whole, or that span multiple state jurisdictions. If your question is related to a specific state then you should use that state's tag instead (or as well).
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Obtaining right to copy music for private use?
If I wish to obtain the right to copy music for private use, how do I do that? Or do I need to do that?
There is an organization called ASCAP that will sell rights to publicly perform music, like in a ...
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Is it illegal to threaten harm to yourself?
If Bob goes up to Alice with a knife and threatens to cut her, obviously that's illegal. But what if Bob points the knife at himself, and threatens to hurt/kill himself? Assuming he's subdued before ...
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Can the USAF legally prevent me from walking on the beach waterline?
TL;DR: Do I have a right to walk on the beach at Eglin Air Force Base if I don't stray from the water's edge?
I've been walking along the beach in Florida for years. Part of my route used to take me ...
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Were there ever attempts to prosecute organized crime as a form of rebellion in the US?
Before the RICO statute was passed, has there ever been any attempts to treat armed criminal organizations as forms of rebellion?
It is sometimes said (regardless of whether it is true) that crime ...
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Why are authors suing Meta and OpenAI instead of Shawn Presser for copyright infringement?
Various authors are suing OpenAI and Meta for alleged copyright infringement in using the authors' works to train the companies' large language models (LLMs).
My understanding is that OpenAI has ...
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Are war crimes eligible for private prosecution?
Is there any circumstance in which a private individual or organization could undertake a criminal prosecution for a violation of 18 U.S. Code § 2441 - War crimes?
Since the passage of the "...
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Is it constitutional to require that certain drivers have no detectable alcohol in their bloodstream without religious exemptions?
It would likely be unconstitutional for a state to prohibit minors from consuming small amounts of alcohol for religious purposes, such as Communion in Christianity.
It is possible, although unlikely, ...
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Lapse in Coverage By Becoming Disabled From a Pre-Existing Condition at a New Job?
In the US, most job-based health insurance plans include a stipulation which references the pre-existing condition exclusion period:
The time period during which a health plan won't pay for care ...
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Divorce court jurisdiction: filing
Is there a uniform rule on where a spouse can file for divorce? I can see 4 possible jurisdictions:
Where the couple married
Where the filing spouse lives
Where the non-filing spouse lives, if ...
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Refusal of service to filthy/stinky customer [duplicate]
I am currently working a job where there is a regular customer who appears to be homeless. She is filthy and smells dreadful. She visits my place of work nearly everyday, sometimes more than once. ...
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Has anyone been prosecuted in the US because a minor consumed alcohol for religious purposes?
Has anyone been prosecuted because a minor drank alcohol for religious purposes, such as sacramental wine used for the Eucharist/Communion in some Christian denominations? This could be either the ...
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Is publishing defamatory statements from an "anonymous source" protected?
Say that Andy the Actor is minding his own business, when the Washington Post posts an article about him, claiming that, according to anonymous sources, Andy is a racist bigotted transphobe that has ...
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What are the rights of the school to deny my use of my own laptop?
My school has district laptops for all the students. The laptops have recently been fitted with Classwize, a screen monitoring app which gives the teacher the ability to lock certain apps and/or ...
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Who is at fault for this late payment?
John has a mortgage with Friendly Bank. When John signed the mortgage papers, among other things, he filled out and signed a document setting up automatic payments, with the clear expectation that ...
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Does a Dental Office have an obligation to tell you they are going out of network when you have been a patient for four years in-network?
I had been going to a dentist from 2018-2022. I had work done in the summer and fall of 2022. They treated these appointments as normal - collected my copay, did the work, filed with the insurance, ...
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Which jury duty is the mandatory one to attend if a person is summoned to both State and Federal court on the same day?
In the United States, while it is extremely rare, it is possible to be summoned for Federal and State jury duty on the same day as depicted in this picture taken from a Reddit post:
When this happens,...
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Is it necessary to have one's driver license in one's posession while driving in Oregon?
In some jurisdictions, it is necessary to carry one's driver license at all times while driving. In others, it is only required to be licensed; it can be proven later after being pulled over, perhaps ...
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Does an eighteen-year-old Oregon resident who obtained a driver license as a minor need to get a new license to tow a trailer?
In Oregon, drivers under eighteen years of age may not tow trailers. The "Provisional Driver License" issued to drivers aged sixteen through eighteen says it is valid for "[a]ny signle ...
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Is creating the possibility for an illegal outcome already illegal?
A contrived example:
You connect the fuse of a bomb to a 50/50 randomizer and take it for a walk across some public place.
You get lucky with the randomizer and the bomb doesn't go off.
Can you ...
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Can states refuse to put a candidate on a ballot?
Do states have the authority to refuse to list presidential candidates from major parties on their ballots? It is my understanding that the states administer Presidential elections.
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Why would a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization run its major operations in an LLC?
I was looking into the corporate structure of the Signal App, and it's very strange from the non-lawyer (IANAL) perspective.
The parent organization is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, but the app is developed ...
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Is there any minimum sentence faced by SBF?
The widely reported maximum sentence available faced by Bankman Fried is 115 years. Is there any minimum?
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What emission laws apply to diesel electric trucks?
There’s a truck manufacturer called Edison motors. They make hybrid electric trucks where the truck is powered by batteries and there’s an onboard generator which charges the batteries when it gets ...
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Can the president of the United States be impeached on the basis of felonies committed prior to their presidency?
Under the Articles of the Constitution, can the president of the United States be impeached on the basis of felonies he or she committed prior to being sworn in as president?
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Is McGee v State of Indiana 131.2 cited in The Verdict a complete fiction?
In the 1982 movie The Verdict (and, possibly, in the original novel as well), the respondent's lawyer cites "McGee v State of Indiana, United States 131.2" (at 1:57:10):
The admission of a ...
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Fake service emails that are actually marketing emails
There is law in the US requiring email marketing lists to allow you to unsubscribe from them.
But emails that are part of providing a service seem to be exempt: you can't necessarily unsubscribe from ...
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Do I have to keep encryption keys secret if I know they decrypt copyrighted content that was distributed without authorization?
Say someone else posts an encrypted file online, and challenges people to decrypt it.
Say I download the file headers, and I manage to determine the password. (Maybe it was a made-up word that only me ...
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Can my landlord charge me a fee not stated in the lease? But told in text/verbally?
This is in Pennsylvania.
My landlord told me, before I signed the lease, that there is a 45 dollar laundry fee every month. Ok, fine. I go to sighn the lease, and no where in the lease does it state ...
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Liability with Stolen Property
A car is stolen and the thief injures himself, another, or property.
Does liability extend to the owner? Does it matter if the owner had yet reported the car stolen?
For the sake of this question let ...
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How does the law decide who a computer is?
Is there any established logic for deciding who (software author, computer owner, local user, person who sent a remote command, etc.) is responsible for the actions of a computer?
Say that 1000 copies ...
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Can a public school require a student to contract with a third party?
Can a public K-12 school require a student to accept a contract with a private third party, as a condition of enrollment or as a condition of passing enough courses to graduate?
For example, a student ...
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If someone commits a crime, but suffers brain damage and has no memory of the crime, will they get punished?
Say that Bob is a horrible person who commits murder, theft, and a bunch of other bad stuff. Before getting caught, he shoots himself in the head. Miraculously, he survives, but with a severe case of ...
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Can a person legally consent to being killed by someone else? [duplicate]
I am referring to rare instances of 'mercy killing.' For example, a family member in the hospital, stricken with a terminal illness, asking a loved one to administer a lethal dose of morphine, or an ...
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Mailing advertisements of goods to areas where they are illegal
I received an advertisement in my mailbox for a dispensary located in a different state (Michigan), where marijuana is legal. However, where I live it is illegal for both recreational and medical use....
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What court in Kentucky, USA handles cases between $2500 and $5000?
I'm not the OP on that Reddit thread, nor have I commented on it, so I'm not trying to spam it.
A comment on r/LegalAdvice mentioned
Kentucky's small claims limit is $2500 [...] so if the value is ...
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Does Posse Comitatus Apply To Errant Military Personnel?
There is currently a manhunt underway for an Army Reservist who is suspected of having perpetrated a mass shooting in Maine.
To avoid the fine details of reservist status v. active duty military, ...
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What happens to oneself when one is at fault in accident with their own injuries?
No-Fault State
My understanding is that insurance travels with the car.
Therefore, this is the example
Driver1Car1 100k liability
Driver2Car2 300k liability
Car1 hits car2.
Car1 driver 100% at fault....
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Can sexual consent be passively implied in light of the pre-existing rapport or character of the relationship between the parties?
It seems that in Canada, there must be an active effort to ascertain the complainant’s consent for each and every sexual act or episode of sexual acts and that prior rapport with the complainant (even ...
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Do convicted rapists automatically lose parental rights in connection with their offspring resulting from the rape?
Bob raped Alice, so impregnating her. Alice carried the child to term.
If Bob is not convicted, then under laws such as Maryland’s Rape Survivor Family Protection Act a victim is allowed to ask a ...
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Can an american tax payer sue a researcher that knowingly conducted fraudulent research with taxpayer funded grants?
There has been an uptick in cases of academic fraud being reported in the mainstream media.
With websites like retraction watch tracking the general field of things.
Popular commentators such as Pete ...
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Can I break my lease because of being lied to [closed]
So my lease stated we are paying water and sewer per usage in the lease, but when it came time to be billed for water and sewer after living here for a week, the bill was/is $300. When I confronted ...
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Was Wayne Hsiung acquitted or convicted this week? [closed]
Or has the jury not yet returned a verdict? Note: as stated in title, this question is asking about the case that hit a jury this week.
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What is the cause of Letitia James’s “civil claim” against trump? [duplicate]
It’s confusing to me because her standing seems to derive from her position as attorney general, and yet this is a position that is meant as I had understood to prosecute crimes, not civil matters. So ...
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How does gift tax work for unmarried households?
Say Ash, Bret, and Charlie decide to form a household.
Ash has a house that would rent for $10,000 a month, Bret has three extremely expensive cars, and Charlie has a huge collection of very valuable ...
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Personality Rights: Text vs Images in Commercial Works [duplicate]
I can't use a person's "image" in advertising without permission, but I believe one can legally write about famous people without their permission. I think the legal term is "expressive....
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If I use stolen money to gamble, do I get to keep the winnings?
If a person were to steal $10,000 from a convenience store and gamble with it, winning $500,000.
And later they were caught, would the government only claw back the $10,000 or also the $500,000?
Would ...
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What is the significance of “moral turpitude”?
Ellis, Chesebro and Powell have all asked the court to state their crimes were not ones of “moral turpitude”. What is the significance of that expression and why is it so important to them?
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What are the minimum required legal obligations for US citizens?
I'm writing a work of fiction.
Imagine a remote wilderness location in the US, during contemporary times. There is a self-sufficient community living out a farming lifestyle and relying on 19th ...
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What happens when a Native American is party to a crime on a different tribe's reservation?
Some interactions involving native Americans on tribal land are subject to tribal law instead of state and federal law.
Is a N.A. from a different tribe subject to the host tribe's jurisdiction like a ...
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Are there federal murder offenses that do not involve interstate activity in the United States?
When one commits the crime of murder in a single state of the United States, does he also violate a federal law against murder, or does it only become a federal crime if the murderer crosses state ...
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