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District court’s sentence of a defendant charged with illegal reentry from Mexico while in state custody on a domestic battery charge is vacated and remanded as the district court failed to address defendant’s concurrent-sentences argument, one of his principal arguments, that were not so weak as to not merit discussion. Read US v. Villegas-Miranda, No. 08-2308 Appellate Information Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division....

Just so we’re clear, the Seventh Circuit is a stickler for details. If you file a lawsuit, and then you file an amended complaint, you have to repeat all of your original claims in your amended complaint. Otherwise, you waive the claims. Clearly, we wouldn’t be discussing this unless someone learned this lesson the hard way, so let’s get to discussing his case. Anderson eventually sued USPS for both disability discrimination and reasonable accommodation, in addition to other claims....

Last week, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals stayed U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest’s decision to permanently enjoin enforcement of the National Defense Authorization Act’s indefinite detention provision, reports The New York Times. In a one-page order, Second Circuit Judge Raymond J. Lohier granted the Obama administration’s request for an interim stay until an appellate panel can hear the matter. While the Second Circuit prepares to consider the constitutionality of the controversial provision, here are five things you should know about NDAA indefinite detention....

Earlier this week, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a policy from the Texas Governor’s Office limiting the number of places residents can drop off their ballots for the 2020 Election. Governor Greg Abbott issued the order limiting counties to one ballot drop-off site each at the beginning of the month. “These enhanced security protocols will ensure greater transparency,” he said in a statement accompanying the proclamation, “and will help stop attempts at illegal voting....

The Seventh Circuit threw up roadblocks to halt an injunction that had been issued by Judge Lynn Adelman of Milwaukee that would have allowed persons in Wisconsin to cast their ballots despite having no photo ID. The circuit found that the lower court was “too lenient in loosening a state voter ID law that had already been declared discriminatory,” according to the New York Times. Hold on There a Moment In its opinion, the Seventh Circuit attempted to rein in enthusiasm in place of creating policy....

Should a lawsuit asserting Second Amendment rights be settled in mediation? The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to take action on 13-year-old dispute between Russell and Ann Sallie Nordyke and Alameda County this week. Instead, the court sent the case to mediation, reports the Los Angeles Times. From 1991 to 1999, the Nordykes promoted a gun show at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. After a 1998 shooting, Alameda adopted a law banning firearms on county property....

The privacy of medical records can seem like a tough balance. On the one hand, you don’t want health data like X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans falling into the wrong hands. On the other, if you’re referred from one doctor to another, you might want your new physician to have access to your medical history without lugging an enormous file from one office to the next. In any event, the last thing you want is your private medical information just sitting on a server, “unprotected by passwords or basic security precautions,” free to be seen by anyone with a typical web browser....

Catherine Zeta-Jones embedded “entrapment” into the American collective consciousness when she wore a cat suit to slither through a laser security system in the 1999 not-so-stellar film of the same name. Since then, entrapment has been relegated to common criminals and cable crime dramas. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, (ATF), however, is trying to change that. In September 2007, ATF agents opened an undercover storefront operation under the guise of a functioning tattoo shop....

Gerena v. Korb, No. 09-2594, involved an action arising from an alleged dorm room sexual and physical assault, wherein plaintiffs’ appealed from a dismissal of their action under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(m) for failure to timely serve defendants. The court of appeals affirmed in part on the ground that the district court was within the bounds of its discretion in determining that plaintiffs had neither sought nor received an extension of time to serve defendant university....

In US v. Holy Bull, No. 09-1544, the court of appeals affirmed defendant’s conviction and sentence for sexual abuse of a minor, holding that 1) the testimony of the prior victim revealed a pattern of abuse quite similar to the abuse alleged in the indictment and therefore was properly admitted; 2) the evidence presented at trial was sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant committed sexual abuse of a minor “knowingly,” as required by statute; and 3) the district court clearly included defendant’s history of sexual abuse in its sentencing analysis....

Kick the lout out, they said. They got their wish. No one is going to mourn Donald Sterling’s departure from the NBA. The truth is, it was a long time coming – his racism was an open secret for years, like the time he refused to rent apartments to black people, or the time be brought women to the Clippers’ players’ showers and told them to admire the “beautiful black bodies....

Using a drug-sniffing dog in a completed traffic stop, in the absence of any reasonable suspicion to do so, is unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday in a 6-3 opinion. Officer Morgan Struble pulled Dennys Rodriguez over for veering onto the shoulder, then jerking back onto the road. Rodriguez had a valid driver’s license and no criminal history. After writing Rodriguez a warning ticket, Struble asked for permission to walk his dog around Rodriguez’s car....

In US v. Mayweather, No. 08-50449, the court affirmed defendant’s conviction and sentence for possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, holding that there was a fundamental and dispositive difference between McTiernan and this case – namely, whether, prior to pleading, the defendant was aware of the prospect of making a suppression motion. In US v. Briggs, No. 09-30108, the court affirmed defendant’s convictions for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine and conspiracy to possess a firearm in connection with a drug trafficking crime, holding that there was no evidence that defendant was incapable of understanding his guilty plea....

It was enough to shake a lawyer’s faith in God, if not the legal system. Raphael Golb, a disbarred attorney, committed the heresy of challenging the origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He also faked emails to discredit scholars who said the Essenes, a Jewish sect, wrote the ancient scripture. His evil plot failed, however, and hell soon followed. The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed 10 counts against him for false impersonation in Golb v....

Where to begin the criminal story of Candice A. Davis… She said it should have begun in 2015, when an investigator first testified about working on her case. The prosecutor, however, said the investigator had evidence against Davis from earlier reports. In United States of America v. Davis, the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals said the investigator’s testimony was enough to start the record in 2013. That’s when the video started recording....

That iconic thin brown bag around your store-bought liquor is not in any way a shield from criminal charges when you drink in public. Not only does the illusion that you might be drinking something non-alcoholic from such a bag not exist, but you can be arrested for even opening the bottle in public. Here’s a little wake-up call for those under the spell of the brown bag drinking myth....

The #FreeBritney movement has grown wider over the last couple of years as more people call for the singer to be freed from her conservatorship. However, in late June, a judge once again denied Spears’ request for the conservatorship to be terminated. What happens next, and what are the star’s options? Conservatorships of the Person and Estate Conservatorships appoint one or multiple individuals or entities to manage the affairs of a person deemed unfit to handle their own medical, legal, or financial affairs....

In a recent interview with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas at Pepperdine University, the Justice discussed various topics, including religion on the High Court, his beloved clerks, and of course, he dismissed any notion that he might be retiring anytime – ever. When Pepperdine’s incoming university president asked the Justice what he would want someone to say at his hypothetical retirement party in 20 or 30 years, Thomas immediately dismissed those dates in a swift, but joking, manner....

The False Claims Act allows whistleblowers, or ‘relators,’ to sue contractors who are suspected of fraud in federal contracts. The government can then pick up the suit, or the relator can pursue it herself. In either case, she gets a sizable chunk of any award. But there is a catch. The False Claims Act requires that complaints are filed in camera and kept under seal, with no notice to the allegedly offending contractor....

The Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005 sets a $500-per-fax penalty on unsolicited fax advertisement senders. That amount triples for senders who willfully or knowingly deplete recipients’s ink and paper supplies with their unwanted ads. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner thinks the Junk Fax Act penalties are “draconian,” but he accepts that the law “is what it is.” But that doesn’t mean that he has to agree with class action certification for every Junk Fax Act lawsuit....