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In US v. Maggi, No. 08-30223, the court of appeals vacated defendants’ convictions for, respectively, sexual abuse of a minor and assault, holding that 1) there was no evidence that one defendant had any blood from a federally recognized Indian tribe; and 2) the other defendant lacked sufficient government or tribal recognition as an Indian. Tamang v. Holder, No. 08-73550, concerned a petition for review of the denial of petitioner’s asylum application....

In 2012, M.A., an 11 -year-old girl in Nebraska, began to receive unsolicited sexually explicit messages on Facebook from a fictional individual named Bob Shepard. Local law enforcement investigated and soon discovered that Bob Shepard was actually Jeffrey Anderson. Anderson is M.A.’s half-brother. An officer took control over M.A.’s Facebook account and, sure enough, Anderson continued with his dark, incestuous fantasizing by sending a sexually explicit image to M.A.’s account. The image, which originally depicted two adults engaged in consensual fornication, had Anderson’s half-sister’s face superimposed on the adult female’s body....

Much like last week, we’re going to keep this quick. After all, it’s Friday, you’ve already gone home, and no one is reading this (until Monday. Yay procrastination.) What’s the skinny on SCOTUS this week? Not a whole lot, to be honest, other than Justice Stephen Breyer possibly outting himself (gasp!) as an atheist or nonbeliever. There’s also a pretty funny infographic making the rounds, which should put a smile on your SCOTUS-loving faces....

Four years after an FBI dragnet brought down her husband, Arlene Drimal’s lawsuit against agents who listened in to her privileged conversations with her husband has been dismissed. According to the Second Circuit, Drimal’s allegations of improper wiretapping failed to assert sufficient facts under Iqbal and Twombly. Drimal’s husband, Craig Drimal, pleaded guilty to securities fraud in connection with the collapse of the Galleon hedge fund and its founder, Raj Rajaratnam, whose insider trading landed him one of the longest white collar criminal sentences ever....

Lawyer tip of the day: If your client is on trial for witness tampering, the jury knows that the cops think your client is guilty. Should cops conclusively state during testimony that your client “did it?” No. But your client isn’t going to get a new trial based on such an outburst. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that a detective’s statement during trial that the defendant “did it” was a harmless error....

A Kansas City man who printed child porn at his local library lost a challenge to his conviction in the Eighth Circuit last week. Donald Paris was nabbed after librarians discovered him printing out emails from other child pornographers. Those emails led to an investigation that showed he’d also printed child porn at the library and taken pornographic images of his young nephew, leading to his eventual conviction for producing child porn....

Are you locked into the KonMari method madness yet? Do you evaluate all your possessions in both your personal and professional life to see if each one sparks joy, or should be replaced or relinquished? If so, it may be time to take it to the next level and start Tidying Up your client list. And while physically holding your client in your hands to see if they spark joy seems mildly awkward at best, read on below for a few tips on how to KoniMari your client list....

You may think of time travel as something straight out of a fiction novel. But last week, the Tenth Circuit took us on a trip down memory lane, as it had to recall the legal landscape in 1997 to determine the rights of a pretrial detainee. When Brandon Blackmon was 11 years old, he was taken into custody as he was awaiting trial on rape charges. Weighing only 96 pounds, and standing just 4 feet 11 inches tall, Blackmon made attempts at suicide and self-harm....

Attorneys for indicted Pennsylvania State Senator Raphael J. Musto are asking the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to review a recent ruling finding that he is healthy enough to stand trial on corruption charges, The Citizens Voice reports. Musto, who is 83 and battling liver disease, claims that he is too sick to take the stand in his defense, and that the stress of a trial could kill him, according to The Associated Press....

Where does the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals draw the line for freedom of religion in prison, when religious freedom involves allowing a violent offender to espouse religious views that perpetuate violence? That’s a broad question and foreseeably, the question could touch on a number of religious philosophies and ideologies. That’s why it’s such an important question. And interestingly, the First Amendment isn’t always the law of choice for prisoners who want to fight for their right to religious freedom....

In the highly politicized and partisan world we live in, it can be comforting when the Chief Justice of United States Supreme Court publicly states that there is no such thing as a Trump judge or Obama judge, or Bush judge or Clinton judge. Roberts basically said that there are just judges, and that we should all be thankful for the fact that the judiciary is independent. His comment was in response to President Trump putting California’s Northern District judge, Jon Tigar, on blast, calling him an “Obama judge,” after he enjoined the new anti-asylum policy that was announced....

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued opinions in two high-profile criminal appeals last week. First, the court reversed Sergey Aleynikov’s source code theft conviction last Thursday. A jury convicted Aleynikov in December 2010 of stealing trade secrets and transporting stolen property in interstate and foreign commerce, reports The Wall Street Journal. The court issued a single paragraph in Aleynikov’s favor, stating, “Upon due consideration, it is hereby ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the judgment of conviction is reversed on both counts and the matter is remanded to the district court for entry of a judgment of acquittal....

The Eighth Circuit just got a little saucier with a stripper, a drug bust, and $1 million dollars in cold hard cash at the center of it all. A former California stripper is slated to get more than $1 million in cash returned to her after Nebraska state troopers seized the bills during a traffic stop in 2012. Nebraska troopers seized Mishra’s stripper savings last March, when Rajesh Dheri – the man who was carrying Mishra’s junk in the trunk money in the trunk – was pulled over for speeding en route to New Jersey....

In Tennessee, domestic violence suspects can be held for 12 hours without bail if the suspect is considered a continuing threat to the victim’s safety. Henry County takes that policy one step further. It automatically detains domestic-assault defendants for 12 hours. While Henry County’s method of applying the Tennessee bail statute was based on a misinterpretation of the law, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that the County’s mistake didn’t violate a defendant’s the Eighth Amendment right to bail because there is no right to speedy bail....

Defendant’s drug distribution sentence is affirmed, where Defendant was not eligible for a sentence reduction under Amendment 706 to the Sentencing Guidelines because, in light of the grouping rules under U.S.S.G. section 3D1.4, Amendment 706 did not lower the applicable guideline range. Read the full decision in US v. Leniear, No. 08-30199. Appellate Information: Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Alaska. James K. Singleton, Senior District Judge, PresidingArgued and Submitted on March 12, 2009 Seattle, WashingtonFiled June 18, 2009...

The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled recently that the government did not breach the terms of a plea agreement that it entered into with a defendant whom it had indicted on several counts of fraud. Those terms, the defendant argued, limited the number of victims allowed to testify at sentencing. The defendant in this case was Vernado Malone. In 2013, a grand jury indicted Mr. Malone on several counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft....

Sanctions Order Affirmed In Arnold v. ADT Security Servs., Inc., No. 09-3565, plaintiffs’ appeal from the district court’s order (i) granting defendant’s motion to compel further discovery responses and requiring plaintiffs to pay $10,988.00 in attorneys’ fees and a $100 per day fine and (ii) denying their motion for reconsideration and their motion to stay the imposition of sanctions, the court affirmed where 1) the district court did not clearly err in finding that defendant had attempted to confer with plaintiffs in good faith; and 2) plaintiffs failed to show, with clear and convincing evidence, that defendant engaged in a fraud or misrepresentation that prevented them from fully and fairly prosecuting their case....

When the Baltimore Orioles go into overtime, the workers in Camden Yards don’t exactly celebrate. That’s because the men and women who sell you your peanuts and crackerjacks don’t get paid overtime. Those workers sued in 2011, alleging that the lack of overtime ran afoul of federal labor laws. But the Second Circuit disagreed last Monday, ruling that the concession workers were exempt from overtime protection. Maryland Sportservice Inc., a subsidiary of Delaware North Companies Sportservice, operates the concession and vending stands throughout Camden Yards, selling food, beverages, and merchandise throughout the ballpark....

In a capital habeas matter, the denial of Petitioner’s petition is affirmed, where Petitioner was not prejudiced by any of his counsel’s alleged errors during the sentencing phase of his trial, because there was no reasonable probability that the sentencing judge would have reached a different result in the absence of the alleged errors. Read Bible v. Ryan, No. 07-99017 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted March 26, 2009 Filed July 1, 2009...

Between June and September of 2018, hackers diverted around 500,000 British Airways customers to a fake site that collected their names, addresses, payment information, and other personal data. Now, Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office has announced they intend to fine the company nearly $230 million for failure to comply with the European Union’s data privacy regulations. According to the New York Times, the fine represents roughly 1.5% of British Airway’s annual revenue....