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Secured creditors had a big win in the Supreme Court this week. The Court ruled 8-0 Tuesday that debtors may not obtain confirmation of a Chapter 11 cramdown plan that provides for the sale of collateral free and clear of the bank’s lien, but does not permit the bank to credit-bid at the sale. In the opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia outlined the Bankruptcy Code’s three alternative standards for determining if a Chapter 11 plan is “fair and equitable” to an objecting class of secured creditors....

“Caveat emptor” comes before “respondeat superior” in any legal dictionary. Everybody knows “let the buyer beware,” but “let the master answer” takes a little more explaining. In Barbato v. Greystone Alliance, LLC, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals sort of put it this way: If you buy debts and have debt collectors do the dirty work, you are responsible for their collection practices. That would be caveat emptor, respondeat superior....

Today, the Ninth Circuit didn’t portray Green Day as “American Idiot[s];” instead, they affirmed a lower court’s ruling in their favor, reports Reuters. At issue was Green Day’s use of Dereck Seltzer’s street art, used in a four-minute video backdrop to one song in Green Day’s 2009-10 21st Century Breakdown Tour. Seltzer claimed copyright infringement and violations of the Lanham Act. The district court granted Green Day’s motion for summary judgment and awarded attorney’s fees....

District Court judgment dismissing plaintiff’s challenge to her ERISA plan administrator’s denial of her claim for long-term disability benefits is affirmed where: 1) defendant acted within its discretion in denying long term disability benefits to plaintiff as its decision was supported by substantial evidence and was not arbitrary and capricious; and 2) defendant fully and fairly reviewed plaintiff’s benefits claim by reasonably taking up each and every aspect of the claim, and plaintiff’s arguments disputing the full and fair review were without merit....

Historically, software developers have frequently shared, modified, and copied code in the name of faster development and timely bug fixes. However, how much code can someone copy before they run afoul of intellectual property laws? Although copying some code is a common practice, copying word for word can have embarrassing results. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but sadly that defense doesn’t stand up in an intellectual property case....

On Monday the Supreme Court sent a case filed by a police officer against prominent Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson back to the lower courts - admonishing the Fifth Circuit for making a ruling without guidance from the Louisiana Supreme Court. The officer, named John Doe in the lawsuit, filed suit following a severe injury he sustained at a BLM protest in 2016. Mckesson organized the demonstration to protest the shooting death of Alton Sterling, which took place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana....

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a petition for rehearing this week in a lawsuit challenging Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s pink underwear policy. Barring Supreme Court intervention, that means the Ninth Circuit’s panel decision ordering a new trial in the case stands. In accordance with Arpaio’s jail rules, Vogel was forced to “dress out,” change into the prison uniform and pink underwear. Vogel, however, refused. When the dress out officer summoned four additional offers to hold Vogel down while his clothes and underwear were changed, Vogel yelled that he was being raped....

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff gets peeved whenever the Securities and Exchange Commission settles a case with a mega-bank for minor bucks. In 2009, Judge Rakoff blocked an initial SEC settlement with Bank of America over misleading disclosures because “the settlement did not resolve who was responsible for the violation,” reports The New York Times. In November, Rakoff similarly blocked an SEC settlement with Citigroup over a mortgage-bond deal because the SEC didn’t provide the court with facts “upon which to exercise even a modest degree of independent judgment....

Joshua Vasquez and Miguel Cardona were upset when a new law required them to move. They sued because they had no other suitable housing, but a trial judge threw out their case. And in Vasquez v. Foxx, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the trial judge. It may have been a hardship for the plaintiffs, but it wasn’t a hard case for the appeals court. Vasquez and Cardona are sex offenders, and the law said they can’t live within 500 feet of child-care homes....

Federal law mandates sentence enhancements for defendants convicted of crimes while on pretrial release from other federal charges. In a case of first impression, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals this week considered whether the sentence enhancement law allows a district court to impose a sentence that exceeds the statutory maximum for the underlying crime. The statutory maximum sentence for possession of ammunition by a felon is 10 years. The sentence enhancement maximum for a pretrial release felony is also 10 years....

Matthew Wayne Henry got swept up in the do-it-yourself spirit, but the fruits of his labor were more likely to be featured in Soldier of Fortune than on Etsy or Pinterest. Henry converted a .308 caliber rifle into a machine gun. After the cops got wind of his project, Henry was convicted of knowingly and unlawfully possessing a machine gun, among other machine-gun-related crimes. Henry appealed, claiming that he had a Second Amendment right to rapid firepower....

Just in time for Cinco de Mayo, federal officials filed suit against an Albertons store for banning employees from speaking Spanish. It is more than a legal problem for the grocery store chain, which employs about 280,000 people in the United States. Only the San Diego store is in trouble for the Spanish-language ban, but it is a practical problem as well. About 32 percent of the border community there is Hispanic....

The U.S. Supreme Court has opened up sports betting across the country, but the game is far from over. No sooner than the court ruling came out, opponents were lining up to take the battle to Congress. Meanwhile, politics made strange bedfellows out of fantasy leagues, casinos, tribes and states that are rolling out the red carpet for bettors. Observers said the decision will revolutionize spectator sports, even as professional and amateur leagues scrambled for position....

Lawrence DiCristina hosted Texas Hold’em poker games, in the back room of his business, twice a week from December 2010 to May 2011. He was charged with, and found guilty of, violating the Illegal Gambling Business Act (IGBA), and conspiracy to conduct an illegal gaming business. Although a jury found DiCristina guilty, the district court dismissed the indictment and acquitted DiCristina. On appeal, the Second Circuit reversed. The main issue before the court was whether poker fell under the ambit of the IGBA....

While the Supreme Court prepares to consider whether a University of Texas affirmative action policy violates the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection clause, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals is deciding whether it will uphold Michigan’s ban on affirmative action. The Cleveland-based court heard arguments on Wednesday about Proposal 2, Michigan’s five-year-old, voter-approved ban on university affirmative action, reports The Detroit News. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette asked for en banc rehearing on the issues, claiming that the law was rooted in fundamental American values and ensured that everyone has equal opportunity under the law, according to The Detroit News....

The town of Greece, New York starts town hall meetings with a prayer, and that practice was challenged by two Greece residents who argued that the town was aligning itself with the Christian faith and that the prayers were not secular, but sectarian. The district court found for the Town of Greece, and the Second Circuit reversed, stating “a legislative prayer practice that, however well-intentioned, conveys to a reasonable objective observer under the totality of the circumstances an official affiliation with a particular religion violates the clear command of the Establishment Clause....

It’s sometimes hard to keep up with all the slang terms that come in and out of fashion. However, as one Maryland attorney recently learned, a word’s double meaning can’t always overcome the context. Among other rule violations, Garland Sanderson was disbarred for reportedly calling a social worker a “baby-snatching bitch.” But somehow, Sanderson’s statement isn’t what makes the situation unique. Instead, it was Sanderson’s argument that thanks to hip-hop music, the word “bitch” might not mean what we think it means....

The Fort Collins, Colorado ban on women being topless in public garnered quite a bit of attention when the law was passed, and then again when the law was struck down by the district court. And now, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the district court’s injunction blocking the law, setting up a challenge for the Supreme Court. The law, as the Tenth Circuit and district court saw it, is simple, blatant, and clear gender discrimination....

Appeal by Liquidators of Eurofed Bank In US v. Liquidators of Euro. Fed’l. Credit Bank, No. 09-10116, an appeal by several persons appointed as “Liquidators” of Eurofed Bank by an Antiguan court to assist in the collection and distribution of Eurofed’s assets to its rightful, law-abiding owners, from a forfeiture order in favor of the U.S. government, the court reversed where 1) judicial estoppel barred the government from arguing that Liquidators could not raise their legal claims challenging forfeitability; and 2) a final judgment against the government in a civil forfeiture proceeding acted as res judicata against a criminal forfeiture proceeding with respect to the same property when the claims in the latter proceeding arose from the same transactional nucleus of facts....

In a petition for review of the BIA’s denial of petitioner’s motion to reopen his removal proceeding, the petition is denied where petitioner was statutorily ineligible under 8 U.S.C. section 1229b(b) for cancellation of removal based on his conviction for corporal injury to a spouse, an offense described in 8 U.S.C. section 1227(a)(2), and the petty offense exception in 8 U.S.C. section 1182(a)(2) was inapplicable. Read Vasquez-Hernandez v. Holder, No. 05-74392...