What happens when you are filthy rich and have lots of time on your hands? You sue your trustees of course, for breach of fiduciary duty. What happens when you lose the lawsuit? You have to pay your trustee’s attorney’s fees. In a recent 7th Circuit case, the heirs not only lost their claim, but now owe attorney fees exceeding the amount they were suing for. Sometimes, you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth....
This week the Second Circuit declined to review en banc a case involving the withholding of federal grant funds to so-called “sanctuary" cities and states. In New York v. DOL, the full Second Circuit left in place a unanimous decision upholding the Trump Administration’s policy of withholding Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants to enforce certain federal immigration policies. The decision not to review is noteworthy because it leaves in place a split among federal appellate courts, and also because of the unusually unrestrained language the court used in the accompanying opinions....
Conviction for Defrauding Lenders Affirmed In US v. McKanry, No. 10-1027, the court affirmed defendant’s conviction and sentence for conspiring to defraud lenders, lying to a U.S. postal worker, mail fraud, and wire fraud where 1) it was reasonable for the jury to convict defendant of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud; 2) a reasonable jury could infer defendant, an experienced real estate professional, was aware these bogus payouts were meant to deceive the lenders; and 3) the district court did not err by basing its loss calculation upon the fraudulent transactions for which defendant was acquitted or not charged....
In the government’s appeal from the district court’s suppression of a firearm obtained from defendant’s hotel room as fruit of a warrantless search and seizure, the district court’s order is affirmed where the hotel did not actually evict defendant, and thus, he maintained a reasonable expectation of privacy in his hotel room. Read US v. Young, No. 07-10541 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted November 18, 2008 Filed July 14, 2009...
Happy 2022! We hope that you had a relaxing and reinvigorating holiday season. In the midst of our revelry, thousands of new laws went into effect across the country. Here is a roundup of some of the bigger ones. California The Golden State’s stringent new police licensing law went into effect. The law raises the minimum age for new officers to 21 and will require in four years that all new officers have at least an associate’s degree....
People get carried away on Facebook. But when is a rant no longer a rant? The Third Circuit re-examined its First Amendment jurisprudence to redefine the boundaries of true threats and came to a reasonable conclusion: Objective intent is enough (pun intended). Facebook Threats Anthony Elonis was estranged from his wife, and as a result of his depression and inappropriate behavior was fired from his job. What followed was a campaign of Facebook rants that included references including, but not limited to, his estranged wife’s “head on a stick,” an elementary school shooting, detonating explosives, and killing his wife, cops, kids, co-workers, along with FBI agents....
In a Bivens action alleging that plaintiff was unlawfully arrested pursuant to a Bush Administration policy illegally using the federal material witness statute to detain suspected terrorists, the denial of defendant’s motion to dismiss on qualified immunity grounds is affirmed in part, where plaintiff did not alleged adequate facts to render plausible defendant’s personal involvement in setting the harsh conditions of his confinement. However, the order is reversed in part where: 1) defendant was acting in an investigative rather than a prosecutorial capacity in detaining plaintiff; and 2) plaintiff’s right not to be arrested as a material witness in order to be investigated or preemptively detained was clearly established....
As protesters pull down statues across the world, many people are wondering about the legal consequences of removing these monuments. The likelihood of being charged with a crime for taking part in removing statues depends on the case, but the short answer is that you can be arrested and charged with a crime for removing statues or otherwise defacing them. What Could I Be Charged With? Depending on the exact circumstances of the situation, the charges for defacing and removing statues can vary....
About a year and a half ago, the Supreme Court ruled in Johnson v. United States that the so-called residual clause in the Armed Career Criminals Act was unconstitutionally vague. That clause, which covered any crime involving “a serious potential risk of physical injury to another,” was too vague to put the public on notice of what conduct was prohibited, the Court found. And that ruling has had legs, upending many sentences under the federal three strikes law....
The Eighth Circuit decided three cases today, one of which concerned Iowa’s anti-spam law, and was discussed separately here. The other two were an Americans with Disabilities Act action and a criminal matter. In Lors v. Dean, No. 09-1382, plaintiff brought an Americans with Disabilities Act action claiming that defendant employer removed plaintiff from a team leader position based on his disability (diabetes). The district court granted summary judgment for defendant....
New York is scheduled to become the latest city in the U.S. to ban foie gras from its restaurants later this year. Two Hudson Valley duck farmers who claim to produce “virtually all of the foie gras” in the U.S., however, have other ideas. If you need a refresher, foie gras is a pricey mousse delicacy that comes from the fattened livers of ducks and geese. Its buttery and rich flavor is beloved by gourmands, but it is also controversial because the process used to create it involves force-feeding the birds using a funnel known as a gavage....
What a difference a new trial makes. Well, not for Dean Skelos and his son. The former New York Senate Majority Leader and son Adam Skelos were convicted of corruption charges – again. After a faulty jury instruction in their first trial, they got another chance. Different jury, same verdict. “Official Act” The first time around, the Skeloses were convicted of extortion, wire fraud and bribery. Their convictions were part of house-cleaning in New York politics that also brought down former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on bribery charges....
In a case involving a subpoena to turn over certain documents exchanged in an arbitration, judgment directing third party to produce the documents and issuing a stay pending defendant’s appeal is affirmed where: 1) paragraph 6 of the agreement between defendant and third party provides that materials from the arbitration may be disclosed in response to a subpoena; and 2) even if the agreement had purported to block disclosure, such a provision would be ineffectual as contracts bind only parties and no one can agree with someone else that a stranger’s resort to discovery under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure will be cut off....
In a suit against a county by a wireless communications services provider for violation of various provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 when the local Board of Zoning Appeals denied plaintiff’s application for a conditional use permit to construct a wireless communication facility on property owned by co-plaintiffs, district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants is affirmed where: 1) the Minutes met the “in writing” requirement under the Act; 2) Board’s decision rejecting the permit for noncompliance with section 1514 is supported by substantial evidence; and 3) plaintiffs’ claim of unreasonable discrimination fails....
Attending a deposition in his divorce case, Gordon James King lost it. He started yelling about a no-contact order against him, then pushed his way around his counsel to attack the attorney on the other side. “What are you going to do now you fat little f*#@?” he shouted. A knife-fight later, King was in custody – and we’re not talking child custody. As every family law practitioner knows, sometimes family law becomes criminal law....
Following one of the two most anticipated oral arguments of the year last week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two opinions Monday that don’t contain the sexiness of, say, the Affordable Care Act or same-sex marriage, but do make a lot of difference for those interested in executive regulatory power (yes, both of you!). Both of the opinions in Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Association and Department of Transportation v. Association of American Railroads were unanimous, but they garnered some explanatory concurrences – and concurrences complaining that the Court didn’t go far enough....
How many people would file Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) claims if they feared that losing their lawsuits meant paying litigation costs? The FDCPA provides that consumers who win lawsuits against debt collectors may recover their litigation costs from the defendants, but that consumers who lose these cases must pay defendants’ litigation costs only if the consumers sued in bad faith or for purposes of harassment. This term, the Supreme Court will decide whether a plaintiff’s good faith cuts off the defendant’s right to fees, and how the FDCPA and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (FRCP) 54(d) cost-awarding provisions interact with one another....
After more than 50 hours of deliberation, a jury in California convicted Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes of four criminal fraud charges on Monday, January 3rd. Holmes, a longtime name in Silicon Valley, founded Theranos on the promise of revolutionary blood-testing technology. But it seems that despite warnings from her own employees that the technology did not work, Holmes continued to solicit investors. In 2003, 19-year-old Holmes dropped out of Stanford University’s chemical and electrical engineering programs to found Theranos, Inc....
For the first time since his contentious confirmation hearing, Justice Brett Kavanaugh came out to talk publicly about … technology? He spoke at a judicial conference about how technology would force a re-examination of important laws in the future. The newest Justice touched on free speech, privacy, and war powers. Justice Kavanaugh did not speak about pending charges that he violated ethics rules in his confirmation hearing. It looks like he’s ready to move on....
In a murder prosecution, denial of petitioner’s habeas petition is reversed where defense counsel’s failure to move to suppress petitioner’s confession constituted ineffective assistance because counsel’s stated reasons for not filing the motion were patently erroneous, and because the detailed, taped confession petitioner gave to the police was highly damaging. Read Moore v. Czerniak, No. 04-15713 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted March 10, 2005 Filed July 28, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Reinhardt...
