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In an action under the Torture Victim Protection Act and the Fifth Amendment based on plaintiff’s detention at a U.S. airport and subsequent removal to and alleged torture in Syria, the dismissal of the complaint is affirmed where 1) plaintiff insufficiently pleaded that the alleged conduct of defendant U.S. officials was done under color of Syrian law; and 2) in the context of extraordinary rendition, allowing a Bivens action against policymaking federal officials would have the natural tendency to affect diplomacy, foreign policy, and the security of the nation....

We hear all the time about unemployment benefits for laid-off workers. But what about unemployment benefits for business owners? If you owned an unlucky small business (or you owned a business during an unlucky time such as the COVID-19 outbreak), are you out of luck when it comes to unemployment? In normal times, you would only be eligible for unemployment benefits if your small business: Paid you a regular salaryPaid unemployment taxes on your salary However, the coronavirus outbreak has us living in a time that is anything but normal, and new policies have been created to provide more self-employed individuals with unemployment compensation....

In baseball, stealing signs has always been an accepted part of the game. If a runner on second base can figure out that a curveball is coming next by decoding a catcher’s signs, it’s OK if he relays that information to the batter by, say, touching the bill of his cap. In fact, that’s considered good, smart baseball. But if a team uses electronic technology to steal signs, that’s a no-no....

On February 1, former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filed a class-action lawsuit against the NFL in federal district court in Manhattan. Flores, who is Black, claims that the NFL discriminated against him and other minorities in hiring, retaining, and compensating head coaches and others in team leadership positions. You cringe when you read the statistics from his complaint: Only one of the NFL’s 32 teams employs a Black head coachOnly four employ a Black offensive coordinatorOnly 11 employ a Black defensive coordinatorOnly eight employ a Black special teams coordinatorOnly three employ a Black quarterback coachOnly six employ a Black general managerThere are no Black owners of any NFL teams Flores’ lawsuit seeks more than just money....

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action based on a prisoner’s suicide, summary judgment for defendants is reversed where: 1) a reasonable jury could find that defendant police officers were liable for their deliberate indifference to plaintiff’s serious medical need; and 2) defendant city could be found liable for failure to properly train the officers. Read Conn v. Reno, No. 07-15572 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted October 20, 2008 Filed July 24, 2009...

In a breach of contract action by employees of foreign suppliers to a U.S. retailer based on a code of conduct included in Defendant’s supply contracts specifying labor standards suppliers must meet, the dismissal of the complaint is affirmed where the code of conduct did not create a duty on the part of Defendant to monitor the suppliers, and did not provide Plaintiffs a right of action against Defendant as third-party beneficiaries....

Shin v. Holder, No. 06-73782, involved a petition for review of the BIA’s order finding petitioners ineligible for 8 U.S.C. section 1182(k) relief because they never possessed valid immigrant visas and were not “otherwise admissible” within the meaning of the statute. The court of appeals granted the petition, holding that section 212(k) expressly made relief available to non-citizens, like petitioners, who were deemed inadmissible for lacking a valid immigrant visa at the time of entry and were not inadmissible for any other reason....

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected a request for an en banc rehearing of a case challenging a Fremont, Nebraska, housing ordinance. The law requires people to prove they’re in the country legally before they can rent an apartment. In a four-sentence order issued Thursday, the Eighth Circuit denied the petition for a rehearing of the case en banc, reports the Lincoln Journal Star. The case challenged a 2010 ordinance approved by Fremont voters requiring potential renters to pay a $5 fee for an occupancy license and show proof of being in the country legally....

The Supreme Court decided Miller v. Alabama on Monday, holding that the Eighth Amendment prohibits a mandatory minimum sentence requiring life without parole for juvenile homicide offenders. While a judge can still sentence a juvenile to life without parole, the Court expects such sentences to be few and far between. The case is the latest in a series of rulings that have relaxed the maximum penalties for juvenile offenders: In 2010, the Court ruled that juveniles convicted of non-homicide offenses couldn’t be sentenced to life without parole, and in 2005, the Court banned the death penalty for persons who were under 18 when they committed an otherwise-capital offense....

“Every vote counts,” as they say. But is every vote really counted, and how? The State of Georgia is one of five states that rely entirely on electronic voting machines to decide elections, machines that are distressingly easy to hack to guarantee a specific candidate always wins. Those voting machines were subject to a legal challenge prior to the 2018 state elections, but, despite finding ample evidence that it was unlikely that votes cast on the machines were being counted properly, U....

Contrary to what was reported at the time of her death, Aretha Franklin did have a will. In fact, she had three of them, all handwritten, the most recent of which was jotted in a spiral notebook found under cushions in her living room couch. So, are any of these wills valid? And if so, which ones? Where There’s a Will … According to the AP, two wills from 2010 were found in a locked cabinet after a key was located, and the other, dated March 2014, inside a spiral notebook under cushions....

A federal appeals court rejected a lawsuit by a Republican state senator who said his party leaders retaliated against him for challenging them. Illinois State Sen. Sam McCann, upset with the party and its choice for governor in the primaries, had announced that he would run as a third-party candidate in the general election. That same day, the senate minority leader kicked him out of the Republican caucus. In McCann v....

Indiana has a sex offender registry. That’s not surprising. Most states do. But the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that Indiana’s sex offender registry violates due process. That is surprising. So where did Indiana go wrong with its registry? The state’s registry erroneously listed some registered sex offenders as “sexually violent predators,” Reuters reports. Indiana adopted its sex offender registry in 1994. Now, registration is required after conviction for 21 different offenses, (including some non-sex offenses such as murder, voluntary manslaughter, and kidnapping)....

Will Washington ever do anything about assault weapons? That is a question on many people’s minds following the two recent mass shootings in Georgia and Colorado. To answer it, maybe the first step is to look back to the time when Washington did do something about assault weapons, the Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) of 1994, and then ask another question: How well did it work? A Law With Many Weaknesses The reviews on the effectiveness of the AWB are decidedly mixed....

This post was modified on Nov. 15, 2022. Co-parenting can be challenging at any time of year, and the holiday season can pose its own unique challenges. While holiday parenting-time (visitation) should be included in your divorce decree or parenting-plan, changes may be necessary during the holidays as circumstances change and children grow. How do you agree to modify your holiday parenting-time without asking a judge, while also not violating your existing court order?...

Two weeks ago, we posted about Mary Shepard, the 69-year old gun-toting woman who challenged Illinois’s concealed carry law. She, together with the Illinois State Rifle Association, was successful in her challenge, and as a result, Illinois was the last state to deem bans on concealed carry a violation of the Second Amendment. According to Shepard and the Illinois State Rifle Association, passage of the law was not enough. The time limits imposed by the Firearms Concealed Carry Act to allow the state to implement an application process and training program (180 days) plus 90 days to process applications, was a continued ban on the right to concealed carry....

Federal courts are beginning to open their doors for certain socially-distanced proceedings, including grand juries. However, the postponement of jury trials remains indefinite, and some federal courts are proceeding more cautiously than others. For example, a federal judge in Washington suggested they may not have jury trials until 2021. While the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts have issued guidelines for reopening, courts are approaching the matter piecemeal. Questions about fairness, particularly in criminal trials, as well as the safety of those in the courtroom make it difficult to anticipate when jury trials will begin again....

In a lonely dissent, Justice Sotomayor explained that she believes her colleagues made a mistake in not taking up the matter of Edmund Zagorski. Zagorski became the first person to be executed in the electric chair in five years in this country, and that was due to the fact that the lethal injection couldn’t be proven to be painless, given the recent troubles we’ve all seen and read about. In short, while lethal injection was once believed to be a painless process, it is now understood to feel like being burned alive from the inside out while drowning and suffocating (for as long as 18 minutes)....

If you’re planning to kick off the New Year by filing a disability discrimination claim in a Second Circuit Court of Appeals feeder court, make sure your claim isn’t time-barred. Last month, the Second Circuit clarified the receipt requirements of the 90-day filing limitation for equal employment claims in Tiberio v. Allergy Asthma Immunology of Rochester. The claimant in the case, Lorrie Tiberio, was hired by Allergy Asthma Immunology of Rochester, (AAIR) in 2007....

In plaintiff’s age discrimination lawsuit against his former employer, district court’s grant of defendant’s motion for summary judgment is affirmed as no reasonable jury could find that plaintiff’s age was the real reason behind his termination, rather than his performance deficiencies. Read Senske v. Sybase, Inc. , No. 09-1610 Appellate Information Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division Decided December 3, 2009...