Jeff Conrad said he may be able to get his client’s first degree murder charge reduced to third degree because the client was drunk.

First degree murder requires that the perpetrator acted “with malice and a specific intent to kill” (18 Pa.C.S.A. § 2502).

Conrad explained that he did not believe…

A Mount Joy teen was acquitted June 27, 2014, of felony arson charges.

The 17-year-old high school senior was accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at a Mount Joy home in January. He was charged with felony counts of arson, risking catastrophe, and conspiracy.

Lancaster County Judge David Workman adjudicated…

Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court protected Conestoga Wood Specialties’ religious freedom to not provide contraceptives in employee insurance policies.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) does not permit “the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to demand that … corporations provide health-insurance coverage for methods of contraception…

Thursday, June 26, 2014, the US Supreme Court unanimously struck down the Massachusetts law that required a 35-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics.

The law prevented anyone from demonstrating within thirty-five feet of an abortion clinic, but “the Commonwealth may not do that consistent with the First Amendment,” said Chief…

Paul Gottfried, a conservative journalist for Lancaster Newspapers, Inc., was recently fired from his seven-year position as a regular columnist.

“This was part of a larger purge of independent contributors from the right,” said Gottfried.

Gottfried said he never wrote from a GOP position, but the new owner was displeased that…

Wednesday, June 18, Schuylkill County Orphans Court Clerk Theresa Santai-Gaffney filed a Notice of Appeal of Judge John E. Jones III’s same-sex marriage ruling in Whitewood v. Wolf.

Jeff Conrad, one of Santai-Gaffney’s attorneys said, “It would be wrong for anyone to believe the fight is over.”

The appeal was…

Friday, June 6, Theresa Santai Gaffney, clerk of the Orphans Court of Schuylkill County, filed a Motion to Intervene in Whitewood v. Wolf seeking to protect traditional marriage.

The intervention seeks to have the Third Circuit of Appeals review Judge John E. Jones III decision in May that declared Pennsylvania’s…

“Prayer [in town meetings] has a permissible ceremonial purpose. It is not an unconstitutional establishment of religion,” said Justice Anthony Kennedy on May 5, 2014, in the majority opinion of Greece, NY v. Galloway, et al.

Justice Elena Kagan in her dissenting opinion argued that sectarian prayer to a god…

In May, Attorney James N. Clymer of Clymer Musser & Conrad, P.C. testified at a hearing regarding the impeachment of Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane.

Multiple charges were brought against Kane for failure to fulfill her constitutionally mandated duties, including refusal to charge state Democrats from for accepting gifts and…

In May, Clymer Musser & Conrad, P.C.’s Jeff Conrad traveled to Texas to attend the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (NCOM) 29th Annual Convention. The yearly NCOM convention brings motorcycle clubs from around the country together to work toward causes that are common to all motorcyclists.

The right to ride free,…