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In English v. Romanowski, No. 08-2611, the Sixth Circuit faced a challenge to the district court’s decision to grant a conditional habeas relief on the ground that defendant’s trial counsel rendered him ineffective assistance. Here, the district court erred in granting defendant’s habeas relief on the ground that the trial counsel was ineffective for failing to call a witness, as it cannot be said that it was an unreasonable application of Strickland for the state court to find that defendant failed to rebut the presumption of reasonableness with respect to his attorney’s decision....

It’s a rare occasion when a federal appellate court upholds a grant of habeas corpus. It’s rarer still when the habeas petition centers on ineffective assistance of counsel. Nevertheless, last month, the Third Circuit overturned the district court’s denial of habeas corpus to Dung Bui, a Pennsylvania resident convicted in federal court of growing marijuana. So what exactly happened that led the Third Circuit to this infrequent result? Ineffective assistance of counsel (IAC) is a high bar to meet....

A recently issued opinion from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals is making some rather interesting headlines: The First Circuit Court To Use The Poop Emoji In A Published Opinion. Yes, it is a real court opinion. See Emerson v. Dart. But no, the court did not “use” the poop emoji in the same way you or I would with friends and family. Rather, the court reproduced the poop emoji in a quote posted by one of the litigants to a Facebook group....

Spivey v. Adaptive Mktg. LLC., 09-3619, involved a plaintiff’s suit for breach of contract and unjust enrichment in connection with his purchase of an Atkins diet product. The court affirmed the district court’s grant of defendant’s motion for summary judgment as, the voluntary payment doctrine applies in this case and precludes plaintiff from recovering the payments to defendant as, in the five years during which the charges appeared on plaintiff’s credit card bills, he made no effort to discover the nature of the charge to his credit card and paid it in silence....

It’s really hard to fire people. When you actually find a way to get rid of an employee who isn’t performing well, then you have to worry about a lawsuit, (which your insurer will probably force you to settle). While everything you know to be right and good may not matter in an employment lawsuit, it does still matter in a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judicial misconduct complaint. Today, we have the tale of a complainant who alleged that a district judge mishandled the termination of two former employees and interfered with one of the employee’s efforts to get a new job....

Scientists can’t seem to agree on glyphosate. The popular weed-killer ingredient was deemed “probably carcinogenic” by the World Health Organization in 2015, but the EPA in 2017 said it was “not likely to be carcinogenic to humans.” And then a new study suggests people exposed to large doses of the chemical have a heightened risk for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. But while scientists may not be able to say that glyphosate definitively causes cancer, juries have been happy too....

The Sixth Circuit today batted away a labor suit brought by the Michigan Corrections Organization, a union of prison correction officers, against the Michigan Department of Corrections. The federal appeals court had no trouble affirming the district court’s dismissal for absence of a cognizable federal claim. It took the time, however, to address, and dismiss, some of the plaintiffs’ more novel theories of relief. Several corrections officers claimed that they should be compensated for pre- and post-shift activities, like punching in and walking to their assigned locations....

What will the special of the day today, you ask? Probably something of the meat and potatoes variety, but this was not acceptable to Eric Watkins, former federal prisoner. Watkins was a participant of a Common Fare religious diet program, but he was not given his religious meal. A vegetarian prison meal would have suited him just fine, but he did not get that either. That evening, he ate nothing....

It’s hard to stay happy during the summer. Sure, there’s sunshine, longer days, and vacation, but how can that compensate for the dark void of the Supreme Court recess? For those of you who can’t wait three months to get your SCOTUS fix, we have good news. The Court released the October hearing schedule for the 2012 term this week. Which cases will be heard first? It’s all after the jump....

Can a defendant withdraw from a conspiracy and beat the conspiracy rap? Who bears the burden of proving, or disproving, withdrawal? The circuits are split on this issue. While the Second, Fifth, Sixth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits have said that the burden of proving withdrawal always rests on the defendant, the First, Third, Fourth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuit have held that, once the defendant meets his burden of production that he has withdrawn prior to the relevant limitations period, the burden of persuasion shifts to the government....

A federal appeals court sent both parties packing in a battle over precooked bacon. It was a big deal, too, as bacon prices have continued to climb. In HIP, Inc. v. Hormel Foods Corporation, the litigation was about who owned a process for superheating bacon. Both parties appealed summary judgments dismissing their claims, and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. That’s right, nobody took home the bacon. Superheated Bacon Hormel was working on a process to precook bacon by superheated steam....

One 17-year-old Ohio teen is learning a hard lesson about the difference between a prank call and felonious conduct. Though, if the allegations are true, that lesson might be sorely overdue. The kid is facing 40 felony charges and nearly as many misdemeanors for nearly a dozen swatting calls he made to law enforcement offices across the country. He wasn’t calling his neighbors to ask if their refrigerators were running, he was calling in fake emergencies to police departments with the hope that SWAT and other emergency responders would be deployed to the scene of an emergency that didn’t exist....

It’s probably safe to say that the 2020 general election went far smoother than most people expected. Challenged by the arrival of the coronavirus early in the year, election officials in many states expanded and liberalized the ways in which we could vote. In the end, an astonishing 46% of our ballots were cast by mail. At the same time, fears that mail voting would result in chaos and voter fraud turned out to be unjustified....

Most of us have long since lost the illusion that the Supreme Court is a politically independent judicial body. After all, you have Bloomberg tracking how many times “conservative” justices joined their “liberal” counterparts in close cases. (It was 10 times in 17 cases this term.) So, any notion that a Supreme Court ruling is “good” or “bad” will more likely be based on your personal politics and how they align with the outcome....

Federal corrections officers’ convictions for obstruction of justice and other crimes are affirmed where: 1) defendants’ challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence was properly rejected as their actions were within the category of conduct proscribed by 18 U.S.C. sec. 1512; and 2) the instructions to the jury did not constitute plain error and thus a new trial is not required. Read US v. Perez, No. 08-4131 Appellate InformationAppeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York....

To Texanne McBride-Teahan, life would be unbearable without the three monkeys she relies upon for “emotional support.” But to officials in the city where she lives, Creve Coeur, Missouri, the monkeys are “inherently dangerous” animals that are subject to banishment or severe restrictions. In November, a municipal court there will decide whether she can keep the monkeys. Until then, of course, we can only speculate on what the outcome might be for Ms....

In the wake of mass shootings and acts of terror, we often hear about manifestos, grievances, and calls to action posted online. Prior to going on his rampage, the El Paso shooter posted just such a manifesto to 8chan, an online message board. 8chan subsequently went down for a few hours the day after the attacks and has struggled to stay online since. This is because Cloudflare, a cybersecurity company, terminated its support of the website, as reported by The New York Times....

If you already have an estate plan in place, you might think you’re all set and don’t need to think about estate planning ever again. Most people actually need to update their estate plan every few years because life, finances, and relationships are always changing. Many changes happen over the years, and it is essential that your estate plan stays current to reflect those changes and the impact on your wishes....

In an employment discrimination action, summary judgment for Defendant is affirmed, where Plaintiff failed to submit adequate evidence in the form required by Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(e), and the other evidence in the record did not rebut Defendant’s contention that it was entitled to judgment. Read Alexander v. CareSource, No. 08-3880 Appellate Information Argued: June 16, 2009 Decided and Filed: August 14, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Gilman Counsel...

Regardless of the lure of being featured in an Above the Law wedding post, there are plenty of reasons to avoid marrying a lawyer: We can be both overly precise and utterly evasive, we’re argumentative, and we work terrible hours. One of the few obvious perks of marrying someone with an Esq. suffix is the free legal counsel. Now, following a Ninth Circuit decision last week, that free legal counsel can also yield attorney’s fees awards to supplement a couple’s joint income....