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In a recent federal district court case out of the Northern District Court of New York, a federal judge dismissed the case brought by two gun owners and a gun rights advocacy group challenging the state’s public carry licensing scheme. The plaintiffs in the matter, as the court explained, sought to directly challenge established Second Circuit precedent upholding the state’s public carry licensing laws. And while reports indicate that the plaintiffs have not stated whether they plan to appeal, based upon the posture of the argument they’re advancing, it’s rather likely the case was filed in order to be able to file an appeal (or two)....

Denial of Habeas Petition as Untimely Affirmed In Roberts v. Marshall, No. 08-55901, a second-degree murder prosecution, the court affirmed the denial of petitioner’s habeas petition where the record was amply developed, and it indicated that petitioner’s mental incompetence was not so severe as to cause the untimely filing of his habeas petition, and thus the district court was not obligated to hold evidentiary hearings to further develop the factual record, notwithstanding his allegations of mental incompetence....

In a petition for review of the BIA’s denial of petitioner’s application for cancellation of removal on the basis that he failed to prove that he had been continuously physically present in the U.S. for ten years, the petition is denied where: 1) petitioner failed to provide reasonably available corroborative evidence; and 2) petitioner lacked a protected due process interest in the ultimately discretionary relief of cancellation of removal. Read Sanchez-Velasco v....

Prisoners lose most of the pro se appeals that we read, but today, we have a rare example of a prisoner winning in an appellate court. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in an unpublished opinion this week that Michigan prison officials who ignored a prisoner’s documented health needs were not entitled to qualified immunity, and that the prisoner could proceed in his civil rights claim against them. Stephen Hall is a prisoner in the custody of the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC)....

With the High Court still on summer vacation, there are no hard-hitting legal issues before the Court quite yet (unless you count Justice Sonia Sotomayor rounding up kids to hug Hillary Clinton as “hard-hitting”). As a result, we have three important current events from the world of the Supreme Court this week to tide you over until October – or at least, until our next blog post: BuzzFeed, master of the personality quiz, released a new one that will definitely determine which Supreme Court justice you are....

American Booksellers Found. for Free Expression v. Strickland, No. 07-4375 involved a plaintiffs’s suit claiming that Ohio Revised Code section 2907.31(D)(1), that criminalizes sending juveniles material that is harmful to them, is unconstitutional under the First Amendment and Commerce Clause. As the Ohio Supreme Court held: “Scope of section 2907.31(D) is limited to electronic communications that can be personally directed, because otherwise the sender of matter harmful to juveniles cannot know or have reason to believe that a particular recipient is a juvenile....

Civil Rights Action Against Department of Social Services In Tamas v. Dep’t of Soc. & Health Servs., No. 08-35862, an action against the Department of Social and Health Services and nine of its employees alleging negligence and civil rights violations, the court vacated the denial of summary judgment for defendants where the deliberate indifference standard, as applied to foster children, requires a showing of an objectively substantial risk of harm and a showing that the officials were subjectively aware of facts from which an inference could be drawn that a substantial risk of serious harm existed and that either the official actually drew that inference or that a reasonable official would have been compelled to draw that inference....

For Barbara Underwood, her appointment as New York’s acting attorney general must have been a pleasure and a pain. One week, she was sworn in as the first woman to hold the post. The next week, legislators were interviewing other candidates for the permanent job. That’s because the governor named Underwood to replace Eric Schneiderman, who recently resigned in disgrace. Now the legislature has voted to have her fill out his term....

District court’s resentencing of a defendant to 51 months’ imprisonment and an order to pay restitution for the full amount of loss in excess of $6,600,000 for failing to pay $1 million in restitution by the deadline provided in a plea agreement for committing mail fraud is affirmed as the district court’s willfulness finding was not clearly erroneous based on its findings evidencing defendant’s deception and manipulation regarding his finances. Read US v....

The Tenth Circuit revived an older lawsuit, allowing an Oklahoma man to be able to sue the state over their Indian “rain god” license place, which the court then ruled could actually be determined as an endorsement of religion. The case of Cressman v. Thompson actually initially closed with a unanimous decision, but the Tenth Circuit is now releasing a corrected version of the opinion this month. Cressman is a pastor, and while he stated that he was proud of the heritage of the state, he did not find it appropriate nor want the sculpture displayed on the back of his car....

The court has already decided to take on abortion protest laws, and should, after hearing back from the Oklahoma Supreme Court, take on restrictions on medical drug-induced abortions as well. Why not add a third abortion-related case to the docket, especially since at least a dozen states now have laws restricting (or banning) abortions at or after 20-weeks post-fertilization? Back in May, we covered the Ninth Circuit’s unanimous decision in Issacson v....

Anyone else super excited for season four of “Game of Thrones” (premiering April 6)? With all of the power grabbing going on, “Game of Thrones” is the perfect launching pad for lessons for aspiring attorneys. While there are plenty of don’ts (i.e., don’t do anything King Joffrey Baratheon would do), there are also many “dos.”* Here are lessons from some of our favorite “Game of Thrones” characters. 1. Danerys Targaryen – The Power of Being Underestimated Danerys Targaryen knows what it’s like to be underestimated....

Three minutes cost Gary Johnson, the 2012 Libertarian Party candidate for President of the United States, his spot on the ballot in the State of Michigan. Three minutes. Johnson originally ran in the Republican primary. At the last minute, he requested to be removed from the ballot in that primary in order to allow him to run as a Libertarian. Elections officials notified him that he was three minutes too late....

The Eighth Circuit affirmed an administrative court’s ruling of denial of SSI benefits for injuries a soldier sustained while in combat in Iraq. The issue at hand involved whether or not the petitioning soldier was injured enough to be eligible. The outcome of this review should be used as a means to warn injured plaintiffs to follow a medical regimen with painstaking care. In Service of Country Petitioner Marcus Hensley suffered a serious knee injury while deployed in a combat situation in Iraq in 2005....

One of the fundamental rights of being an American citizen is getting your voice heard by voting to elect your representatives. But as of 2019, close to 6 million Americans can’t vote because of their felony records. “Should felons vote?” is one of the most debated issues in American politics. While some say people who do not obey the law should not have a say in how the law is legislated, others argue that individuals with felonies should be allowed to vote since they are subject to all the obligations imposed by the government....

A male Columbia University student can go forward with his lawsuit accusing the college of gender bias in its sexual assault investigations, the Second Circuit ruled last Friday. “John Doe” alleges that the university demonstrated “sex bias in disciplining him for an alleged sexual assault,” in violation of Title IX. Doe had been disciplined and suspended for a year and a half, for coercing a female student to sleep with him, according to the court....

The problems with electronic voting machines have been well documented. “Georgia’s current voting equipment, software, election and voter databases, are antiquated, seriously flawed, and vulnerable to failure, breach, contamination, and attack,” a federal court recently ruled, ordering the state to ditch its old voting machines and have paper ballots ready as a backup in time for the 2020 elections. And in Mississippi, a voter took video of a machine repeatedly changing her vote in the state’s GOP gubernatorial primary runoff....

In re: Baycol Prods. Litig., No. 09-1964, involved a product liability action. The district court reversed the district court’s denial of appellants’ motion to substitute as plaintiffs for their deceased mother, holding that the district court erred in relying upon a California procedural statute when it declared that appellants were not proper parties, rather than relying on Fed. R. Civ. P. 25(a)(1). In US v. Schiradelly, No. 09-3306, the court affirmed defendant’s sentence for larceny and assault, on the grounds that 1) it was clear that the plea agreement’s sentencing recommendation was merely a recommendation; 2) because the sentencing recommendation in defendant’s agreement remained non-binding under Rule 11(c)(1)(B), the district court did not violate the plea agreement; and 3) there was no abuse of discretion in the district court’s decision to depart upward 3 levels based on the circumstances of the offense and the dismissed charges....

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, undaunted by irony, reinstated an employee’s disability discrimination claim against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on Monday. Yes, even the EEOC gets sued. Plaintiff Mary Bullock, a former EEOC administrative law judge (ALJ), has multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus. She sued the commission in October 2006, alleging violations of the Rehabilitation Act. Bullock claimed that the agency retaliated against her for seeking accommodations because of her MS and for alleging discrimination after her requests were ignored, reports The Wall Street Journal....

With credit card identity theft becoming a growing issue of concern, Congress introduced FACTA in 2003. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) imposes some strict rules upon merchants who provide transaction receipts to their consumers. In a recent case before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Expedia Inc was cited for failing to abide by these exacting rules. Several of the rules under FACTA are essentially to prevent credit card identity theft....