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Guest v. Hansen, No. 08-4642, involved a wrongful death action based on a snowmobile crash on defendant college’s property. The court of appeals affirmed summary judgment for defendant, holding that 1) an administrator of an estate may represent an estate pro se, so long as the estate has no other beneficiaries; and 2) even assuming arguendo that the college had the ability to control off-campus social activities, it was under no obligation to do so....

On Friday, January 3, two D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panels heard oral arguments regarding important separation of powers issues. The first involves a congressional subpoena of former White House counsel Don McGahn. The Committee on the Judiciary in the House of Representatives is seeking testimony from President Trump’s former aide, who has so far refused to comply with the subpoena. The second involves redacted grand jury materials in Robert Mueller’s report....

US v. Allen, 09-5178, concerned a challenge to the district court’s denial of defendant’s motion to reduce and modify his sentence for his convictions for possession and intent to distribute over five grams of cocaine base and other related crimes. In affirming the denial, the court held that the district court properly concluded that it lacked the authority in proceedings under section 3582(c)(2) to sentence the defendant below the bottom of the amended Guidelines range or to entertain a challenge under Booker to the court’s calculation of the original Guideline range....

Noise pollution and a lawsuit filed by a pedestrian led to a Chicago Uber driver’s series of chilling threats on Facebook. Fortunately, the mass murder and mayhem he threatened never came to pass but, following his conviction for making interstate threats to injure others, he says that he shouldn’t be punished for what he says were flights of fantasy not intended to be taken seriously. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals waxed poetic about social media in the case of US v....

This post was updated on April 12, 2022. To many Americans, the idea of free handouts is … well, un-American. But might that sentiment be changing? Around the country, a variety of programs have emerged to provide monthly payments – no requirements, no strings attached – to low-income people. A nonprofit group in San Diego became the latest city to join the growing list on April 6, when it announced plans for a project to provide $500 monthly payments to qualified recipients later this year....

The Honeywell Autolite factory in Fostoria, Ohio, once employed more than 1,000 people; that was nearly 10 percent of the town’s population. Then, following a string of factory closures in the area, the spark plug plant started to close down. Today, there’s only a handful of workers at the plant and not much they can do about it. For Honeywell retirees, it’s even worse. They had counted on health insurance benefits, but a federal appeals court said the company doesn’t owe them any....

It looks like Theflyonthewall.com is one of the few out there today enjoying a legal victory over the big banks. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Theflyonthewall.com in a case that involved a “hot news” tort. According to the Wall Street Journal, TheFly republished news headlines from various other sources, including Wall Street banks. The banks claimed that their intellectual property rights were being infringed upon....

Appeal from Bankruptcy Court Contempt Order In In re: C.W. Mining Co., No. 10-4028, creditors’ appeal from an order of the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel affirming a contempt order of the bankruptcy court, the court affirmed where 1) given a facially plausible motion, creditors were not denied due process because they were afforded adequate notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard; and 2) creditors’ argument that Local Rule 9013-1(c) is unconstitutional was not previously raised; and 3) the bankruptcy court did not exceed its authority by voiding the actions taken by creditors in violation of the automatic stay....

The Supreme Court released only one opinion this Monday, but it’s a significant one. In Zivotofsky v. Kerry, the Court held 6-3 that the President does not need to follow a law requiring the State Department to label, on passports, that American children born in Jerusalem were born in Israel. That seems like a minor issue, but it has significant implications, beyond even the conflict between Israel and Palestine over who controls the Holy City....

Deceased inmate’s father’s civil rights suit Jones v. Muskegon County, 09-2125, concerned a challenge to the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants, in a deceased inmate’s father’s action raising a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 claim and state law claims for gross negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress against members of the medical staff, corrections officers, and the county, for his son’s death while incarcerated at the county jail....

Judge Sam Benningfield, of White County, Tennessee, made national headlines this spring, again over the summer, and is doing it one more time this fall. For the most part, it’s all related to the same idea he had that was so wild it violated the Constitution. Benningfield, back in May, issued an order that gave inmates 30 days credit in exchange for undergoing a birth control procedure. For male inmates, it involved a vasectomy, for female inmates, it involved a placement of the Nexplannon device, a birth control device that is implanted in the arm and lasts for three years....

Across the Twitterverse, people are … atwitter about Justice Antonin Scalia’s upcoming appearance on Piers Morgan Tonight. After all the Supreme Court scuttlebutt following Jan Crawford’s article about Chief Justice John Roberts’ Affordable Care Act switch, some may be hoping that Nino will pull back the curtain on the Court’s individual mandate drama. That’s unlikely. Justice Scalia is appearing on the show with Professor Bryan A. Garner, the co-author of his new book, Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts....

In a police officer’s gender and employment discrimination and retaliation suit against the City of Chicago and her supervisor, jury verdict for defendants is affirmed as plaintiff’s claims are without merit and city and supervisor presented sufficient evidence to provide the jury a reasonable basis to find in their favor, and the verdict was not against the manifest weight of the evidence. Read Lewis v. City of Chicago Police Dep’t, No....

Iowa inmates aren’t entitled to compensation for being held beyond their proper release, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week. If the lawsuit had gone the other way, Iowa taxpayers may have had to dole out millions of dollars in settlements. The inmates in the suit contended they were held too long under rules set forth by an Iowa Supreme Court decision in 2011. But the Eighth Circuit affirmed the lower court ruling – which held the inmates weren’t entitled to compensation – on the basis of qualified immunity....

It’s not often that we get to say “Duh” to a court opinion but the ruling in this case seemed pretty obvious from the beginning. The Stricker Family called 911 to request help for their overdosing son. The mother, Susan Stricker, was unable to tell the dispatcher what her son had taken. When the paramedics arrived, per department policy, they waited for police to arrive and secure the scene before entering....

If Overstock.com continues to loose market value, at least it won’t be alone. To start the month, the stock market dove more than 750 points before rebounding to an overall loss of 459 points for the day. Investors were scared off by tariff wars and problems in technology companies. It was bad for Overstock.com, too, but not as bad as the allegations in a new stockholder lawsuit. A new class action claims the company defrauded shareholders by using blockchain technology as “a thinly veiled strategy to take advantage of the Bitcoin Frenzy....

Petition for review a BIA’s affirmance of IJ’s denial of a Polish citizen’s requests for continuance and voluntary departure denied for lack of jurisdiction Pawlowska v. Holder, 09-3790, concerned a Polish citizen’s petition for review a BIA’s affirmance of an IJ’s denial of her requests for a continuance and voluntary departure, on the ground that she participated in a sting operation conducted by the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the FBI, and the Social Security Administration to fraudulently obtain permanent resident status....

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a federal habeas grant in a controversial rape shield law appeal on Wednesday. The Cincinnati-based court issued eight opinions in the matter, with the plurality concluding that Michigan state courts did not unreasonably restrict testimony regarding an alleged rape victim’s sexual history. In July 2000, Lewis Gagne and Donald Swathwood went to the home of Gagne’s ex-girlfriend, P.C. After a day of considerable smoking and drinking, P....

Denial of social security disability claims reversed In Spiva v. Astrue, 10-2083, the court reversed and remanded the district court’s affirmance of a denial of plaintiff’s application for social security disability claim as, an ALJ is required to determine whether, despite his limitations, the applicant for benefits can do his previous work, and here, the ALJ made no finding concerning what jobs plaintiff might be capable of doing besides his previous job at Walmart, and how many such jobs might be available in the Milwaukee area....

Conviction for various crimes committed in furtherance of a typical Ponzi scheme is affirmed where: 1) the evidence was sufficient to support the convictions; and 2) the district court did not err in certain omissions in the instructions given to the jury in co-defendant Moore’s trial. Read US v. Griggs, No. 06-4211 Appellate InformationAppeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, South Bend Division.Argued: February 9, 2008Decided: June 24, 2009...