The blues are like the waves of the sea. You can’t really beat them; you just have to roll with them. That’s the secret, the soul source of how to deal with those dog days. Like B.B. King and all the blues men said, you have to play through the hard times. That includes those soul-sucking bar exam blues. From prep time to the end time, just roll with them. Here are some tips to help you get there....
It’s not that the case came from the Deep South, but Judge Robin Rosenbaum knew the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals was in deep trouble. As she wrote in her long dissent in Evans v. Georgia Regional Hospital, the Eleventh Circuit majority was about 50 years behind the times. Now the U.S. Supreme Court will decide if it’s time to bring the appeals court up to date. The question is whether an employer may discriminate against a person based on sexual orientation....
Could the Supreme Court’s next major civil rights case be about … pooping? Possibly. The debate over where transgender students should be allowed to use the bathroom could soon come before the Supreme Court. Arguing that “time is of the essence,” Fourth Circuit Judge Paul Niemeyer recently urged prompt appeal to the Supreme Court after the Fourth declined a petition to rehear the case en banc. Of course, while the bathroom is the battlefield in this particular fight, the conflict implicates much more than the potty....
Defendants’ convictions and sentences for securities and wire fraud are affirmed in part where: 1) there was sufficient evidence of guilt on a challenged wire fraud count even though the victim did not testify; 2) defendant failed to overcome the presumption of reasonableness of his within-guidelines 330-year sentence; 3) neither defendant pointed to the admission at trial of any inadmissible hearsay; 4) an indictment need not charge aiding and abetting in addition to the substantive offense; and 5) defendant was not entitled to a Franks hearing because he did not allege that an affiant in support of a search warrant lied in the affidavit....
Defendant’s tax fraud conviction is affirmed where: 1) the district court properly included defendant’s unpaid state taxes in the tax loss computation on which his term of imprisonment and his restitution order were based; 2) defendant was not entitled to an imputed deduction for his unpaid state taxes; and 3) the district court properly applied the sentencing enhancement because defendant’s actions obstructed an IRS audit. However, defendant’s sentence is vacated per a separate unpublished memorandum....
As children, we’re encouraged to do the right thing. Make a mistake? Admit it. Tell a lie? Confess. Hurt someone? Apologize. As adults, all that do-good nonsense becomes a thing of the past. We can’t be forced to incriminate ourselves. We should never admit fault at the scene of an accident. While the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals admires a business that strives to do right by its customers, it acknowledges that the law is governed by the adult-world CYA rules....
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments this morning in Lee v. Tam, the much-anticipated case over trademark registration, free speech, and disparaging names. The Slants, an Asian-American “Chinatown dance rock” band, had its trademark rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The Slants’ name, the PTO explained, was the sort of “scandalous, immoral, or disparaging mark” for which the Lanham Act denies trademark protection. That decision eventually led the Federal Circuit to strike down the act’s “disparaging marks” provisions as unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination....
The police got a tip: There are guns stashed in an abandoned Nissan Maxima in the yard behind a certain house on Enfield Street. Fair enough. Hartford cops JohnMichael O’Hare and Anthony Pia went to the address to look for the guns, but ran head-first into Seven, the family’s St. Bernard. Long story short, they shot Seven multiple times in front of K.H., a then-12-year-old girl, leading to the dog’s death....
Charles Lee Gillenwater, II is either reality-challenged or Mel Gibson. The court, psychiatrists, and his counsel believe the former. He’ll now have the opportunity to prove it’s the latter. From the record, it seems that Gillenwater worked construction for Caesar’s casino, and while working there, blew the whistle on OSHA violations involving asbestos. Since then, he alleges that the lawyers, Democrats, President Obama, and members of his cabinet are all involved in a plot to silence him....
A federal appeals court affirmed probation conditions for a sex offender, including a requirement of supervised visitation with his one-year-old child, based upon his conviction of having sex with a teenager. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeal said the conditions were reasonable, given the offender’s history of inappropriate contact with minors. Jason Brandon Schultz had been convicted of sex assault for his consensual relationship with a 14-year-old girl when he was 23 years old....
The Obama Administration submitted notice to the Ninth Circuit on Friday that the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy would officially end on September 20. The administration completed the certification to start the 60 day enactment clock on the repeal of legislation last week. The administration had hoped that providing the certification would put an end to the Ninth Circuit’s role in the matter, but the court refused to stand down. Administering a dose of what you might call “Rolling Stones justice,” the court issued a new order specifying that the military may not discharge, punish, or investigate service members for “don’t ask, don’t tell” violations for the duration of the policy....
CWCapital Asset Mgmt. LLC. v. Chicago Properties, LLC., No. 09-3506, concerned a challenge to the district court’s dissmissal of plaintiff’s suit against a defendant-commercial landlord and a mortgagor, claiming that the plaintiff-mortgage servicer is contractually entitled to the money the defendant received from its tenant for unpaid rent in the settlement of a suit. In reversing, the court held that the servicer can sue in its own name as the suit relates to a loan that’s servicing, and even if the servicer is not a real part in interest in this case, there is still no need to dismiss under Rule 17(a)(3)....
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in a case that involves the strange, interesting intersection of free speech rights and, well, credit cards surcharges. New York, along with several other states, prohibits merchants from charging costumers a surcharge for using credit cards. But New York also allows merchants to offer discounts for paying in cash. So, if your groceries cost $20, the store cannot charge you $2 more for paying with a Visa....
Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner wants you to know that “Jesus was a heretic” and “heretics have religious rights.” But that heretical tangent doesn’t apply to plaintiff Omar Grayson, who Posner is quick to identify as “not a heretic.” Instead, Grayson is an Orthodox African Hebrew Israelite of Jerusalem. He’s also a former inmate of the Big Muddy Correctional Center in Illinois. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals found that such distinctions constitute religious discrimination....
Bel-Nor is a small town in northeastern Missouri, but it is also a stage for greater consequences. In Willson v. City of Bel-Nor, the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals said the city’s sign ordinance was unconstitutional because it over-regulated content. It could ban a “Welcome Home” banner, a “Happy Birthday” balloon, or an ATD Security sticker on a window, the appeals court noted. The regulation was so broad, it troubled free speech advocates far beyond the boundaries of the small town....
In a tragedy at Indiana’s Camp Henry F. Koch, a young Girl Scout was killed by falling tree while she and others were hiking through the campground. The 11-year-old suffered fatal head and abdominal injuries and was pronounced dead at a local hospital. “They were there to have a good time,” Perry County Sheriff Alan Malone said as he choked back tears at a press conference. “We’re prepared for everything, but when you actually roll up on a scene – it’s hard, it’s tough....
The Seventh Circuit has important cases up and down the pipeline to the Supreme Court, all dealing with sensitive issues that pit people on either side of lines drawn in the proverbial sand. Recently, the Seventh Circuit put to rest a case that has been litigated for 28 years, and denied an en banc rehearing – with the next step almost certainly being a bid for cert. review. NOW v. Scheidler, et al....
In a petition to confirm a Swedish arbitral award against the government of Azerbaijan, dismissal of the petition for lack of jurisdiction is reversed where the district court erred by holding that foreign states and their agents are entitled to rights under the Due Process Clause. Read Frontera Resources Azerbaijan Corp. v. State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan, No. 07-1815 Appellate Information Argued: October 27, 2008 Decided: September 28, 2009 Judges...
Merrick Garland isn’t just President Obama’s nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court; he’s one of the Court’s most successful feeder judges, sending 42 of his clerks on to Supreme Court clerkships. That’s more than half of the 71 clerks Garland has had since joining the federal bench in 1997. And even those who don’t go on to clerk for the Supreme Court often retain a close and supportive relationship with Garland, former clerks say....
Lee v. Lampert, No. 09-35276, involved a prosecution for sexual abuse of a child. The court of appeals reversed the grant of petitioner’s habeas petition, holding that 1) there is no actual innocence exception serving as a gateway through AEDPA’s statute of limitations to the merits of a petitioner’s constitutional claims in original petitions; and 2) the Schlup exception never applies to federal statutes of limitations because AEDPA created such limitations later....
