Posts

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an order of the District Court. The District Court denied class certification to a group of plaintiffs who were challenging the marketing practices of Synapse Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Inc. Synapse is the largest marketer of magazine subscriptions in the United States. The Third Circuit ruled that none of the appellants were current Synapse customers and lacked standing to seek the remedy they were pursuing on behalf of the class....

In a capital habeas matter involving whether Pennsylvania’s fugitive forfeiture rule provided an adequate basis to bar federal habeas review of petitioner’s claims, grant of his habeas petition is vacated and remanded where a state procedural rule is not automatically “inadequate” under the adequate state ground doctrine (and therefore unenforceable on federal habeas review) because the state rule was discretionary rather than mandatory. Read Beard v. Kindler, No. 08-992 Appellate Information...

Does Illinois law treat a citation served on a judgment debtor as a lien on the value of the debtor’s bank account? Absolutely, according to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. When William Porayko entered bankruptcy in August 2009, he had more than $10,000 in a checking account at TCF Bank. Travis Crowell staked his claim on that money. Crowell obtained a $73,000 judgment against Porayko in October 2008; that same month Crowell served Porayko with a citation to discover assets....

Who doesn’t want to start their morning by watching a person in a three-piece suit whiz past on an electric scooter reminiscent of the early 2000s Razor era? “Late for a meeting!” they may shout back as they whisk themselves down the block and into an office building. “What did I just see?” you may think to yourself. If you haven’t experienced this yet, take note: Scooters are not just for kids anymore....

Can a state require that the boards of publicly traded companies include women? A California case that could answer that question went to trial on Dec. 1 in Los Angeles Superior Court. Three years ago, then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed the nation’s first law requiring women on those boards even though he admitted that it might not survive legal challenges. So did an analysis by the state assembly, which concluded that a quota system “may be difficult to defend....

In US v. De La Torre, No. 09-3029, the court of appeals affirmed defendant’s drug possession conviction, on the grounds that 1) 18 U.S.C. section 841(a)(1) did not require the government to prove a defendant knew the precise nature of the controlled substance he possessed, so long as he knew he did in fact possess a controlled substance; and 2) the inadmissibility of statements made to Pretrial Services as to the issue of guilt did not restrict the government from using such statements to impeach a defendant’s trial testimony....

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals breathed new life into a Ten Commandments lawsuit in May. The lawsuit, brought by a group of atheists and agnostics, known collectively as the Red River Freethinkers, sought to remove a Ten Commandments display from public property in Fargo, North Dakota. The group claimed that the monument violated the First Amendment rights protecting against government establishment of religion. Initially, the group sued the city of Fargo in 2002, asking the city to remove the granite marker from city property....

Younger generations are going to look back at these mortgage foreclosure cases with nothing but utter confusion. It seems in every case, a mortgage is passed around more than a certain illicit substance at Snoop Lion concert. In this case, Glen Llewellyn was a bit miffed after a series of mortgage holders and services reported naughty things to the credit agencies regarding his defaulted/not-defaulted loan. (He refinanced while the loan was being sold to someone else, the money got lost for a bit … it happens)....

McDonald’s has a new item on its menu: artificial intelligence. No, you can’t order a burger, fries, and some AI on the side. Instead, AI will tell you what else is on the menu based on time of day, the weather, and trending items. That’s how McDonald’s is changing the menu. AI will soon be ready to serve you. Ready to Serve Before you know it, fast-food places will have facial recognition software and know your usual before you order....

Like many law grads, Michael Headlund hasn’t had the easiest time, economically. Though he graduated back in 1997, he’s had the same experience as recent grads, with over $100,000 in student loan debt and no hope whatsoever of paying it off. Ten years ago, he filed for bankruptcy after The Educational Resources Institute (TERI) and Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) demanded payments far beyond his means. TERI ended up settling for a payment plan, but PHEAA fought to prevent partial or full discharge of his remaining $85,000 or so in debt....

Can a football game suspension be a civil rights violation? The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that a Nashville student can proceed with his civil rights claims against school administrators who punished him with a 10-day suspension that caused him to miss two weeks of his high school football season. Christian Heyne, a former Hillsboro High School football player, sued Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) in 2009 to challenge a 10-day suspension....

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in the case of Moore v. Texas, a challenge to the standards Texas uses to determine whether inmates are too mentally disabled to be executed. In this case, Bobby James Moore was sentenced to death in 1980 for the murder of a grocery store clerk. A court later ruled that Moore was too mentally disabled to be executed, based on modern medical standards. Texas’s highest criminal court, however, reversed that determination....

Can you feel it? Only 19 more days until the Court returns for its Big Fall Conference. The BFC will determine the fate of thousands of cert. petitions, including the growing pile of same-sex marriage appeals. But the Obamacare cases may have to wait a bit. The D.C. Circuit, which ruled against federal Obamacare subsidies, granted en banc review, delaying that case’s inevitable request for Supreme Court review. And the religious exemption cases are marching forward in the Tenth Circuit, with religious parties not satisfied with the latest revision to federal contraceptive coverage exemption paperwork....

When the Americans With Disabilities Act was signed by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990, the New York Times hailed it as “the most sweeping anti-discrimination measure since the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” The law banned discrimination against millions of people who were born with disabilities and also provided protections to people with temporary disabilities or recovering from alcohol abuse or illness. Has it fulfilled its promise? As the ADA observes its 30th anniversary in 2020, it’s worth our while to look back at its history and the impact it has had on people’s lives....

Petition for review of a denial of Chinese national’s application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture is affirmed where: 1) IJ and BIA correctly determined that petitioner’s conviction qualified as an aggravated felony because loss to the victims exceeded $10,000 and he was thus removable as an aggravated felon and statutorily ineligible for asylum; and 2) the IJ and BIA applied the correct legal standard in determining that petitioner’s conviction qualifies as a particularly serious crime....

There are plenty of lies that fly back and forth between the characters on ABC’s “How To Get Away With Murder,” but sometimes the legal lies get overshadowed by the deceitful ones. Episode 4 focused on a more white-collar criminal issue – insider trading – but much of the legal facts were swapped out for plot-convenient lies. Plainly put, “Let’s Get to Scooping” was trading in legal B.S. for much of the episode....

Conviction for assault and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence is affirmed where: 1) the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendant’s motion for a mistrial as even assuming arguendo that the court’s comment during voir dire was potentially prejudicial, there was no evidence that the trial’s overall fairness was impacted by the court’s passing comment; 2) the evidence was sufficient to support defendant’s conviction for assault with a deadly weapon and knowingly discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence; 3) the court carefully reviewed the evidence concerning the victims’ prior bad acts, and the court did not err in excluding some of the incidents as cumulative; and 4) the court did not err in refusing to allow defendant to impeach a witness with a prior statement as the statement was on a collateral matter and was not admissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 613(b)....

Defendant’s drug distribution conviction is affirmed where: 1) a rational trier of fact could have found the buyer-seller rule inapplicable; 2) defendant and his business partner agreed to the essential terms of the planned transaction; and 3) the evidence was sufficient to establish that defendant knowingly used a telephone to facilitate the distribution of cocaine. Read US v. Mincoff, No. 08-50058 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted April 14, 2009 Filed July 31, 2009...

The Roman Catholic Church has been embroiled in controversies surrounding allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of priests for years. In a recent Second Circuit opinion, the Arch Diocese of Albany won a small victory, though on purely procedural grounds, reports the Times Union. The Claim Michael Shovah initiated an action in Vermont federal court, against the Arch Diocese of Albany, and a former priest, alleging that he was transported from New York to Vermont and was sexually abused....

Anna Nicole Smith. Long has she been gone, but never will she be forgotten, especially not to those of us who have to deal with her legal legacy: Stern v. Marshall. The Supreme Court held that non-Article III bankruptcy courts could not enter final judgment on unresolved state law counterclaims. Now, the Court will decide whether these Stern claims can be waived, implicitly or explicitly. And if non-Article III courts’ jurisdiction doesn’t interest you, we’d bet that the jurisdiction of an Article III court to review the sufficiency of a government agency’s statutorily mandated duty sure will!...