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Alliance for the Wild Rockies v. Cottrell, No. 09-35756, involved plaintiff’s appeal from the denial of its motion for a preliminary injunction. The court of appeals reversed on the grounds that 1) the “serious questions” version of the sliding scale test for preliminary injunctions remains viable after the Supreme Court’s decision in Winter; and 2) plaintiff showed that there was a likelihood of irreparable harm; that there were at least serious questions on the merits concerning the validity of the Forest Service’s Emergency Situation Determination; that the balance of hardships tips sharply in its favor; and that the public interest favors a preliminary injunction....

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a defendant’s life sentence on child pornography charges on Tuesday, finding that the district court did not take sufficient steps in analyzing the defendant’s criminal history before sentencing him as a repeat sex offender. The New York-based court directed the district court to delve deeper into defendant Flay Rood’s criminal history to determine whether his 1991 conviction for sexual abuse of a child qualifies as a triggering offense for a mandatory minimum life sentence as a repeat sex offender....

Somebody’s been naughty. For the first time ever, there is video footage of the Supreme Court chambers and, well, they look the same as they did five years ago. It’s not terribly exciting stuff, with fuzzy footage and audio of someone breathing, except they caught footage of a protestor who interrupted oral arguments and is now being charged with a felony. Meanwhile, in more official business, the Ninth and Sixth Circuits continue their battle for “most reversed circuit” with a pair of reversals each....

After seven months of confirmation limbo, the Senate confirmed Los Angeles attorney Paul Watford for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Monday evening by a 61-34 vote, reports The Hill. Watford will be the second African American on the court. President Obama nominated Watford to serve on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in October. Widely-considered a moderate, Watford is an Orange County native. He attended the University of California at Berkeley (BA, ‘89) and UCLA School of Law (JD, ‘94)....

A settlement was reached in a case against the FAA and an air traffic control staffer in early November, wrapping up claims for a man whose plane crashed into a Wyoming mountain range in 2010. According to The Associated Press, Luke Bucklin, 41, was piloting a plane from Jackson Hole airport when his plane crashed in the Equality State’s Wind River Range in October 2010, killing himself and his three teenage boys....

Ever get mad at your boss? Ever think it was a good idea to log onto Facebook during working hours and complain about said boss? Yeah, us neither. Sara Debord let loose on Facebook about her boss adding money to her paycheck, and saying that he needed “to keep his creapy [sic] hands to himself.” Many of her coworkers, and supervisor, saw the post and disruption ensued. Sara Debord worked at Mercy Health Services of Kansas beginning in 2004, and made no complaints about her boss until her Facebook rants of July 6, 2009....

The thing with gambling is, you never know what you’re going to get – or lose. That’s what happened with George Marcus Hall and property he got gambling. The federal government charged him with running an illegal gambling and money laundering operation, and took away his property. But things got complicated when the local government liened on the property for unpaid taxes. The feds didn’t want to give it all up in United States of America v....

In an appeal from the district court’s order confirming a final arbitral award in favor of petitioner and denying respondent’s cross-motion to vacate, the order is affirmed where: 1) the arbitration panel did not manifestly disregard the law either by failing to give preclusive effect to Ukrainian court judgments that the parties’ dispute was not arbitrable because respondent’s agent lacked authority to execute the agreement giving rise to the dispute, or by failing to require a trial to determine the agreement’s arbitrability; and 2) the agreement was arbitrable as a matter of law because the respondent’s agent had the apparent authority to execute it....

Defendant’s armed robbery conviction and sentence are affirmed where: 1) the absence of defense counsel from a short pretrial conference at which the pre-existing trial date was confirmed and at which nothing else of substance happened did not constitute per se ineffective assistance; and 2) the sentencing court’s incorporation of a “brandished” finding in the presentence report and the court’s statement at sentencing that defendant had “turned and pointed the handgun at [the teller],” which was “an absolutely harrowing experience for the victims,” sufficed to support application of the seven-year minimum sentence provided for in 18 U....

Defendants’ drug possession convictions and sentences are affirmed, where 1) the police had reasonable suspicion to stop Defendants’ vehicle because their license plate was not clearly visible, in violation of Utah law; and 2) the District Court’s determination that Defendants failed to establish their minor participation in the offense was not clearly erroneous. Read US v. Eckhart, No. 07-4022 Appellate Information Filed June 29, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge O’Brien...

Crack Distribution Sentence Vacated In US v. Preaceley, No. 09-2580, the court vacated defendant’s sentence for distributing and possessing with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of a substance containing cocaine base so that the district court could perform an individualized consideration of factors relevant to an assessment of whether Category VI under the Sentencing Guidelines significantly over-represented the seriousness of defendant’s criminal history or the likelihood that he would commit further crimes....

Sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm is affirmed where the district court did not err in determining that defendant’s prior conviction under Arkansas law for possession of a sawed-off shotgun was a violent felony under 18 U.S.C. sec. 924(e)(1), as the offense was similar in kind and in degree of risk posed to the offenses listed in the guidelines. Read US v. Vincent, No. 07-1397 Appellate InformationAppeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas....

Defendant’s conspiracy to manufacture marijuana conviction is affirmed where: 1) there was no two-part interrogation for Miranda purposes because, prior to the recitation of the Miranda warnings, the officers made no deliberate or calculated effort to elicit a confession from defendant, and defendant made no incriminating statements; 2) following a “knock and talk,” defendant told the detectives that he would prefer to talk inside his apartment, and he voluntarily consented to the detectives’ entrance into the apartment; and 3) there was sufficient evidence to convict defendant of the conspiracy....

Police pulled over Terrence Byrd for a traffic violation and learned he was not on the rental car agreement – his girlfriend was. That was not a crime, but then they searched the car and found heroin in the trunk. That was a crime. During arguments in Byrd v. United States, the question was whether the warrantless search violated the defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights. The U.S. Supreme Court, for the moment, didn’t have the answer....

As some SCOTUS pundits have caught on, the High Court seems to be slacking this term. Numerous reports explain that the justices have only issued 17 signed decisions so far through the end of March. For sports gambling enthusiasts, the delay must be maddening. While that number isn’t too far off from the past couple years, it’s a far cry from the 31 the Court issued in 2013. The numbers haven’t been this low since Chief Justice John Roberts became the Chief Justice....

For 10 years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) tried to strip the northern Rocky Mountains’ gray wolves of their Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection. FWS repeatedly failed. Congress, unlike FWS, isn’t bound by the Administrative Procedures Act, so Rep. Mike Simpson (R-IA) and Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) got the job done by creating a new law. The pair attached a rider, Section 1713, to the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011, which removed the wolves’ ESA protection....

Animal welfare advocates have filed two lawsuits challenging the transfer of a pair of Asian elephants from a zoo in Seattle to Oklahoma City, claiming the move violates the state constitution and federal Endangered Species Act. The transfer comes after years of controversy surrounding the fate of Seattle’s elephants. The Seattle zoo, Woodland Park, agreed to end its elephant display last year, following several years of public pressure. Now, the future home of the elephants is subject to contention....

The ADX Florence supermax prison has been described as “the Alcatraz of the Rockies” and “a clean version of Hell.” It’s not surprising that prisoners hope to avoid the secluded facility in Central Colorado. But should transfer to ADX Florence come with due process rights? The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals doesn’t think so. Airplane hijacker Omar Rezaq and 1993 World Trade Center bomb conspirators Mohammed Saleh, Ibrahim Elgabrowny, and El-Sayyid Nosair – all of whom are currently incarcerated in the federal prison system – lost an appeal this week regarding their transfer to ADX Florence....

It’s been a tough time for business owners who want to open exotic dancing businesses. Both the Seventh Circuit and the a New Jersey appeals court handed down decisions that disfavored the legal arguments put forth by business owners who sought to open strip clubs in their respective towns. Boy, can’t someone run an honest nude bar anymore? In a suit against the private firm HMS Host Toll Roads, Bare Exposures alleged that HMS improperly removed advertising fliers that the business had posted throughout a business plaza that HMS maintained and in which Bare Exposures was located....

Last year’s killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer and subsequent protests also brought renewed attention to other high-profile killings of Black people and how police and prosecutors often avoided accountability. And now, recent indictments in the killings of Ahmaud Arbery and Elijah McClain indicate that momentum could be building. While these cases are just getting started, racial justice activists and friends and family of the victims applauded the indictments....