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In US v. Arita-Campos, No. 09-2368, the Seventh Circuit faced a challenge to a conviction of defendant for illegal re-entry after being deported in violation of 8 U.S.C. section 1326(a), claiming that the 1994 order of deportation could not serve as the basis for the underlying offense as it was entered in absentia. In order to collaterally attack an underlying deportation order, it is the defendant’s burden to satisfy the three requirements contained in section 1326: (1) that the alien exhausted any administrative remedies that may have been available to seek relief against the order; (2) the deportation proceedings at which the order was issued improperly deprived the alien of the opportunity for judicial review; and (3) the entry of the order was fundamentally unfair....

Challenge to Utah Sex Offender Statute In Doe v. Shurtleff, No. 09-4162, an appeal by a registered sex offender living in Utah from the district court’s order allowing enforcement of a Utah statute requiring all sex offenders living in Utah to register their “internet identifiers” and the corresponding websites with the state, the court affirmed the order where 1) Utah’s law provided sufficient safeguards so as to negate any potential fears of public disclosure of plaintiff’s identity; and 2) the statute was not an impermissible ex post facto law....

A lawsuit filed on behalf of thousands of migrant children detained by federal immigration officials was granted class action status last week, allowing the case against the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to continue. The lawsuit claims that the ORR is contravening federal laws enacted to protect migrant children by promptly reuniting them with their parents or loved ones in the United States while their immigration cases are heard. “ORR has implemented the sponsorship process in an opaque and arbitrary manner, lacking sufficient notice and opportunity to be heard,” according to the lawsuit, “and designed to stymie – rather than facilitate – the release of detained immigrant children....

The Tenth Circuit en banc has concluded, in its opinion in Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. v. Sebelius, that a for-profit corporation has Article III standing, and rights under the Free Exercise Clause and the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). The plaintiffs, the store owners, all alleged that this violated their Christian beliefs. Among the required services were devices (including drugs like the morning-after pill) – their use of which is contrary to their faith....

Supplemental Security Income Benefit Case In Hulsey v. Astrue, No. 09-2838, plaintiff’s appeal from the judgment of the district court upholding the Social Security Commissioner’s decision to deny her application for supplemental security income benefits under Title XVI of the Social Security Act, the court affirmed where, even assuming for the sake of argument that plaintiff was unable to perform some unskilled work, the Appeals Council’s conclusion that plaintiff could perform housekeeping work was supported by substantial evidence....

Justice Neil Gorsuch likely won’t ever reach Notorious RBG levels of fame unless he magically becomes seen as cool. However, the novice supreme jurist seems to be stepping up to the plate for repeated Gins-burns. All joking aside, Supreme Court commentators have noticed that Justice Ginsberg has been rather quick to redirect rookie Justice Gorsuch’s questions away from the originalist and textualist positions he appears to take. According to the New Yorker, after Justice Ginsburg did so at the Gil v....

A woman walks down the street. She is hit by a car, and flung onto the car’s hood, where she sustains additional injuries. The car was insured by State Farm. There are good reasons not to call an opponent’s argument “ridiculous,” which is what State Farm calls Barbara Bennett’s principal argument here. The reasons include civility; the near-certainty that overstatement will only push the reader away (especially when, as here, the hyperbole begins on page one of the brief); and that, even where the record supports an extreme modifier, “the better practice is usually to lay out the facts and let the court reach its own conclusions....

UPDATE 7/18/2019: Prosecutors announced on Wednesday, July 17, that they were dropping the case against Spacey. Prosecutors blamed Spacey’s accuser’s refusal to testify about his cellphone, which has gone missing. Spacey’s legal team maintained that phone contained crucial evidence that would prove the actor’s innocence. Our original story about the criminal case starting to fall apart is below: It was a new twist in a case that is becoming stranger by the day....

You might feel fine today, but COVID-19 can turn things around quickly. In a matter of days, you may be in serious danger. You can stock up on the things you need if you become infected — food, Tylenol, prescription drugs, etc. — but what if you become hospitalized and critically ill? While it’ s difficult to think about, getting your affairs in order during a pandemic is probably a good idea....

Imagine walking through your local zoo only to witness a leopard attack a visiting child. Horrifying, right? Well visitors at a Wichita zoo were treated to just that last week after a first grader hopped a fence separating visitors from the leopard’s enclosure. The unnamed student was on a school field trip at the Wichita zoo when the leopard attack occurred, reports The Wichita Eagle. The location of his chaperones is unclear, but the paper reports that the boy walked up to the fence surrounding the enclosure after climbing over a 4-5 foot railing about 8 feet away....

A reminder of your upcoming dentist appointment, a notification that a package has arrived for you, a text from a family member, all in one place: Your mobile phone. Most of us receive dozens of messages a day, some more relevant to our lives than others. One man, John Salcedo, felt a single promotional text message from his former attorney’s law firm was enough to warrant a claim under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)....

Michael Lewis’ nonfiction book The Big Short, published in 2011, chronicled the 2008 financial crisis as seen through the eyes of some of the people involved in it, including the hedge fund managers who “shorted” (bet against) the market. In one chapter of the book, Steven Eisman, one of Lewis’ sources, meets Wing Chau, the owner of an investment firm that managed collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). CDOs were investments comprised of portions of thousands of subprime mortgages; they were a key vector for the financial collapse....

In the 448-page report from Robert Mueller, a single word was ominously missing. The word was “collusion.” For President Trump, it was also a vindication. “No collusion” has been the president’s mantra since the special prosecutor began his investigation two years ago. When Attorney General William Barr described the report before its release, he reinforced that conclusion. Mueller, according to new reports, was not happy about that. Prosecutorial Rift The New York Times reported that Mueller wrote a letter in late March objecting to Barr’s early description of the Russian investigation....

The Heisman Trophy is awarded to the top college football player in any given year. The bronzed man signifies the best of the best and the award not only comes with prestige for the athlete and his alma mater, it also helps boost a player’s draft number when turning professional. Heisman Trophy winner and University of Southern California standout Reggie Bush was no exception. Winning the award by a huge margin, Bush was a first round draft pick for the New Orleans Saints....

A safe deposit box in a bank would seem to be the safest place in the world to store your valuables. But as a New Jersey man recently discovered, not only are safe deposit boxes not safe; there are no laws or regulations in place to compensate customers if their stored property is missing or destroyed. Philip Poniz was a collector of valuable rare watches and stored his cache, valued at more than $10 million, in a safe deposit box inside his local Wells Fargo bank....

June is typically the Supreme Court Justices’ busiest month. It finds them finishing up their most divided and controversial decisions, holding extra opinion days, and releasing opinions at a much higher pace than the rest of the year. But when it’s done, so are they. Unlike the rest of us, the Supreme Court Justices get the summer off. That doesn’t mean they don’t keep busy, however. Here’s a quick overview of how some of the Justices spend their summer vacation:...

Presidential elections in the U.S. are not decided by popular vote. Instead, electors from each state cast ballots for their state’s chosen candidate in the Electoral College. Each state is assigned a number of electors based on its population. There is a total of 538 electors, and a presidential candidate needs at least 270 electoral votes to win the election. Most states apply a winner-takes-all approach, with all of a state’s electoral votes going to the candidate who wins the state’s popular vote....

Super Bowls are known for big beer ads and campaign launches. But an opening salvo in this year’s Big Game has ignited a legal battle between two beer behemoths. Bud Light’s insinuations that Miller Lite and Coors Light brew their beers with corn syrup has everyone embroiled in the conflict, including corn farmers, and even garnered an injunction from a federal judge blocking Bud Light and owner Anheuser-Busch from using the words “corn syrup” in ad campaigns until the ongoing litigation is complete....

According to a judge out of Pennsylvania’s federal Eastern District Court, UberBlack drivers are not employees under the FLSA, nor under Pennsylvania’s state laws. The ruling granting Uber’s motion for summary judgment is the first of its kind in holding that under federal law, Uber drivers are independent contractors and not employees. Although the court acknowledged other holdings contrary to their own, it found that Uber’s model did not fit the employer/employee mold as we know it today....

District court’s sentence of defendant to life for distributing cocaine in a controlled buy is vacated and remanded in light of Kimbrough, but his conviction is affirmed where: 1) although the district court erred in admitting evidence of other bad acts under the intricately related doctrine, the evidence was admissible under Rule 404(b), and the prejudice resulting from the government’s broader use of the evidence did not substantially outweigh its probative value; and 2) defendant’s cumulative effects doctrine claim is rejected as he waived his challenge to the aiding and abetting jury instruction....