If the sun and surf weren’t good enough, things just got a little better in America’s youngest state. The world’s number one legal website (you’re looking at it) now offers Hawaii’s revised statutes and constitution online, for free. So if you need to know who can sell used cars in Honolulu, what can happen if you steal cable on the Big Island, or are just wondering who owns the state’s subterranean minerals, FindLaw has you covered....
In Monopoly, few players get to pass go and collect $200 without paying some dues along the way. President Trump is one of the few, and sometimes plays by his own rules. His lawyers are trying to bypass the federal appeals courts to take their case against “Dreamers” directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices are considering the request, but some 700,000 immigrants may be asking, “What’s the rush?”...
Waiting for Robert Mueller’s report was like standing in line for the release of the next iPhone. And like some Apple products, to some it was disappointing. We’re not talking about how the report was not an full-on indictment of President Trump. That’s politics, and Congress can deal with that. No, the un-sung problem was that the Mueller report was not searchable. In a data-driven world, that’s just wrong. Not Searchable Twitter definitely did not like it....
The Supreme Court’s October Term opened this week, and two criminal cases headlined the first day of oral arguments. The first case, Kahler v. Kansas, involved whether a state can abolish the insanity defense to criminal crimes; and the second, Ramos v. Louisiana, asked whether criminal jury verdicts need to be unanimous. This was the last chance for attorneys from both sides to convince the justices, and although final decisions are still pending, oral arguments, and the questions justices ask during them, can give insight into which way the Court may be leaning....
In a disorderly conduct prosecution, an order requiring defendant to be shackled at his pretrial appearance is vacated and the matter is remanded to a district judge outside the Eastern District of California to conduct an evidentiary hearing regarding the present shackling practice, to determine whether the action was moot. Read US v. Brandau, No. 06-10512 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted April 15, 2009 Filed August 21, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Reinhardt...
So what exactly is a “serious drug offense”? The Third Circuit Court of Appeals tackled the question when it heard the case of Dante Tucker, a Pennsylvania man who was sentenced to 15 years under the Armed Career Criminal Act’s three-strike policy. Back in 2007, Tucker and 21 others were implicated in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine. He later pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a firearm as a convicted felon under 18 U....
Facing the possibility of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, federal, state, and local lawmakers supportive of abortion rights have been scrambling to find legal avenues to protect abortion access in states where restrictions are almost certain to come. City council members in Austin, Texas, are arguing that “decriminalization” could be the way for liberal cities in conservative states to get around abortion rights restrictions. What would this look like?...
When the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated President Obama’s NLRB “recess” appointments in NLRB v. Noel Canning, the question arose: what happens to all the decisions these now-unlawfully-appointed NLRB members made? That’s the first issue the Tenth Circuit had to grapple with in Teamsters Local Union No. 455 v. NLRB (Harborlite). When the union and management at Harborlite couldn’t agree on a new contract, the union members wanted to keep working. The law lets them, but is also allows the employer to conduct a “lock out” and hire temporary replacements until an agreement is reached....
Recent in events in Ferguson, Missouri have prompted questions about the militarization of police: why do SWAT teams need to be armed like they’re going into Kandahar? Last week, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals criticized this militant response in an appeal over police conduct during a drug raid – although “drug raid” is a loose term. In order to serve a search warrant on Ronald Terebesi, who was alleged to possess a small quantity of crack cocaine, “police planned to smash Terebesi’s windows, detonate at least three stun grenades (or “flash bangs”) inside the home, break down the front door with a battering ram, and storm the house with weapons drawn....
A month after the Wisconsin Supreme Court voiced its opinion on two challenges to Wisconsin’s Voter ID law, the Seventh Circuit is set to hear an appeal of a district court’s ruling that the law is unconstitutional. Wisconsin’s High Court ruled in favor of the law, against two different challenges brought by the NAACP and the League of Women Voters, which has some wondering if the Seventh Circuit will follow suit....
In the latest fall out resulting from United States v. Windsor, the ACLU of Wisconsin is challenging Wisconsin state laws that prohibit same-sex marriage. Today, the ACLU filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin challenging Wisconsin laws that prohibit same-sex marriages. The Back Story Two of the named plaintiffs are Roy Badger and Garth Wangemann, a Milwaukee-based couple that has been together for 37 years....
As the opioid epidemic cut a devastating path across the Rust Belt and Appalachia, drug manufacturers, distributors, pharmacists, and doctors all said they were following their rules and regulations. They also all pointed their fingers at each other or at patients. But as Cuyahoga and Summit County, Ohio, prepare for a landmark civil trial against opioid manufacturers, doctors, and distributors, a federal judge recently unsealed data, and none of the major players look good....
Rick Perry may have exited the presidential race, but he scored a win for Texas Republicans in the Supreme Court; the Nine vacated orders to implement a court-designed Texas redistricting plan this morning, reports The Washington Post. Texas was awarded four additional congressional seats after the 2010 Census. Tasked with redesigning the state’s legislative and congressional districts to reflect the adjusted population numbers, the Republican-controlled Texas legislature proposed a redistricting map that — no surprise — favored Republicans....
Under the federal Clean Air Act of 1970, California received a waiver to set stricter fuel emissions standards than those imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency. The legal exemption was based on the state’s ongoing issues with smog in metropolitan areas, and it must be renewed periodically, which happened most recently in 2009. But after years of sparring with the Golden State (over everything from sanctuary laws to homelessness), President Donald Trump threatened to revoke California’s emissions exemption and, as with many of his other threats, the state plans to respond with legal action....
District court’s orders granting defendant-Lloyd’s motion to compel arbitration of a disputed claim based on a set of reinsurance-of-reinsurance agreements and denying plaintiff-Century’s motion to vacate an arbitration panel’s subsequent award in favor of Lloyd’s is affirmed where: 1) district court properly compelled arbitration of the dispute arising from the retrocessional agreements over Lloyd’s failure to pay declaratory judgment expenses that Century had paid to its reinsured under reinsurance treaties; and 2) the district court properly denied Century’s motion to vacate the arbitration award under 9....
If a judge says your argument is “unmitigated poppycock,” you and your client are in trouble. And so it was for Joseph Percoco and his lawyers at his sentencing hearing. Judge Valerie Caproni was not persuaded by their argument; she gave him six years. Percoco was a former aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Now he is a convicted felon with a history of poppycock. “Unmitigated Poppycock” At the sentencing hearing, Judge Valerie Caproni sent a message to the lawyers and to the state capital....
You do not need to look far anymore to see someone with a service animal. However, what you may not realize is that many of these animals are actually emotional support animals (ESAs). Unlike a service dog that may accompany a visually impaired person, ESAs require no formal training. And this decade’s explosive growth in ESA registrations is leading many state lawmakers to pass laws that attempt to curb what they see as people taking liberties with these animals....
In an ERISA action claiming that a health plan administrator failed to assure adequate funding of the plan to pay all submitted medical claims, judgment for defendant is affirmed where plaintiff failed to establish that it was more likely than not that defendant’s breaches caused the under-funding of the plan. Read Holdeman v. Devine, No. 07-4235 Appellate Information Filed July 21, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Ebel Counsel For Appellant:...
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals denied an en banc rehearing petition this week in the Merrill Lynch class action lawsuit. A three-judge panel had previously ruled that the lawsuit could proceed as a class action in the district court. All of the judges on the original appellate panel who participated in the en banc rehearing decision voted to deny rehearing, reports The Wall Street Journal. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f) provides, “A court of appeals may permit an appeal from an order granting or denying class-action certification under this rule if a petition for permission to appeal is filed with the circuit clerk within 14 days after the order is entered....
Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Fla. Dept. of Env. Protection, Inc., No. 08-1151, involved an action challenging the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s approval of permits to restore a portion of beach eroded by several hurricanes. The Court affirmed the Florida Supreme Court’s holding that the approval of the permits did not unconstitutionally deprive plaintiffs of littoral rights without just compensation, on the ground that there could be no taking unless petitioner could show that, before the Florida Supreme Court’s decision, littoral property owners had rights to future accretions and to contact with the water superior to the State’s right to fill in its submerged land....
