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We know this case has just been filed, but it is destined for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Maverick Couch, a 16-year-old gay high school student in Ohio, claims that Waynesville High School violated his free speech rights because administrators wouldn’t let him wear a “Jesus Is Not a Homophobe” t-shirt to school. Couch says the school objected that his shirt – which shows a Christian fish symbol colored-in with a rainbow – was “indecent and sexual,” reports The Cincinnati Enquirer....

US v. Talamantes, No. 10-1212, involved a prosecution of defendant for unlawful reentry after removal following an aggravated felony conviction. The court affirmed the imposition of a sentence of 77 months’ imprisonment, holding that the sentence was not unreasonable and the district court did not abuse its discretion by imposing an increase under Guidelines section 2L1.2(b)(A). In Superior Seafoods, Inc. v. Tyson Foods, Inc., No. 09-2031, the court affirmed the denial of plaintiff’s Rule 60(d)(3) motion to vacate an underlying consent judgment involving a series of trademark-related actions stemming from plaintiff’s sale of a seafood-products business to defendant, holding that, given the facts, and given the equitable requirement that the party seeking relief be free from negligence and fault, the district court clearly did not abuse its discretion in finding equitable relief inappropriate in this case....

When we last saw Crystal Cox, she was celebrating a victory in the Ninth Circuit. Instead of owing $2.5 million for defamation, the Ninth Circuit held that citizens, speaking on matters of public concern, get Gertz v. Welch protections and can’t be held liable for defamation absent proof of negligence regarding the truth of the allegedly defamatory material. It was victory for her. It was a victory for the First Amendment....

In a prosecution for illegal reentry into the U.S., the dismissal of the indictment is affirmed where Defendant’s deportation order was invalid due to the Immigration Judge’s failure to inform Defendant of his apparent eligibility for Immigration and Nationality Act Section 212(c) relief. Read US v. Lopez-Velasquez, No. 07-30241 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted July 9, 2008 Filed June 23, 2009 Judges Before: Harry Pregerson and Stephen Reinhardt, Circuit Judges, and Lyle E....

District court’s classification of defendant as a career offender under U.S.S.G. section 4B1.1 based on his prior convictions in South Carolina for four counts of second degree burglary of a dwelling and one count of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature is reversed and remanded where: 1) defendant’s four prior convictions for violating South Carolina’s second degree burglary statute should have been counted as a single sentence under the Sentencing Guidelines because the four convictions were sentenced on the same day and the four offenses were not separated by an intervening arrest; and 2) defendant’s prior sentence for second degree burglary of a dwelling does not qualify categorically as a crime of violence for purposes of U....

Defendants’ drug convictions and sentences are affirmed where: 1) the government’s application to wiretap defendants’ calls satisfied the necessity requirement; 2) the district court did not err in finding that the government had not intercepted telephone calls on a line for which there was no court order; 3) the government was not required to seal call data content and it timely sealed the wiretap recordings; and 4) the government did not violate the statutory wiretap monitoring requirements of 18 U....

Marijuana Possession Conviction Affirmed In US v. Winn, No. 09-2805, the court affirmed defendant’s convictions for possession with intent to distribute less than 50 kilograms of marijuana and use or carriage of a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking offense, holding that 1) the district court did not abuse its discretion by determining that the government’s allegations were similar in material respects to the circumstances of defendant’s August 2007 arrest; 2) the key final marshaling instruction, which directed the jury how to reach a verdict, correctly recited the elements of the use or carriage offense that was charged in the indictment; and 3) the jury reasonably could infer that defendant discharged, and thus “used,” the firearm in a shootout with individuals in a dispute related to defendant’s trafficking in marijuana....

One of the leading constitutional law scholars in the country, Erwin Chemerinsky, recently wrote a piece for the ABA Journal reflecting on the United States Supreme Court’s 2017 term. Although the year was filled with big decision, he believes the biggest news of the year was the appointment and confirmation of Neil Gorsuch. In addition to the controversial appointment, Chemerinsky explains that the term has seen some unusual interplay between the High Court and the new executive branch, right off the bat....

If you’ve wondered what makes food “organic,” and why you need to pay more for it, you’re not alone. You may have a vague sense that organic food is healthier for you than conventional foods. You might also hope that the lower levels of pesticide and herbicide in organic food production means better health for Mother Earth. But do you really know for sure? And what about those higher price tags?...

A few weeks ago, we got a crash course in recusals and unrecusals, when Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito sold stocks and “unrecused” from two cases being before the high court. While it’s common sense that Federal judges would be required to self-recuse if their financial holdings lead to a conflict of interest, the unrecusal tax break, for when judges sell stock to remove a conflict, was a fun surprise. And as you might expect, courts have adopted conflict screening systems to ensure that these mandated recusals actually happen....

Last year, I was assigned to cover the Tenth Circuit, and it was a glorious time. I mocked the court’s citation of dicta in a terrible concealed carry opinion, laughed when they raged at the Ninth Circuit and a litigious undocumented immigrant, and alliterated when Mr. Cush’s curtilage was invaded by a “knock and sniff.” When assignments were shuffled later that year, I genuinely missed the Tenth Circuit beat. I also apparently missed the part where they redesigned the website to turn it in to a steaming pile of something folks in many 10th Circuit states will be familiar with: horse manure....

The Deflategate scandal is beginning to strike some as getting a little long in the tooth, particularly owing to the fact that the entire scandal revolves around the PSI of a football, but it looks like it will continue on. While probably everyone is tired of this scandal, no one is quite as frustrated as Warren B. Lessing, a 93-year-old WWII vet who reprimanded the Second Circuit for adding grease to a fire....

Anthony Washington and Maurice Edwards were both convicted on federal drug possession charges with intent to sell after police found the drugs in the trunk of a rental car Edwards borrowed from his mother. Trouble is, while it was easy for the jury to tie Edwards to the fourteen bricks of marijuana inside a black duffel bag, Washington’s connection wasn’t so clear. For that reason, the Tenth Circuit last week reversed Washington’s conviction, finding insufficient evidence to tie him to the drugs....

In a corporation’s appeal from the district court’s order holding it in contempt for failing to comply with a subpoena for corporate records, the order is affirmed where a corporation with a sole shareholder, officer, and employee may not refuse to comply with a subpoena demanding production of corporate records under the Fifth Amendment’s “act of production” privilege. Read Account Servs. Corp. v. US, No. 09-3561 Appellate Information Argued: December 10, 2009...

Just in time for Labor Day comes a (relative) success for union organizers. The Seventh Circuit slapped down an auto dealership which threatened its employees against unionizing last Friday. When workers at Libertyville Toyota in Illinois began organizing, the dealership’s owner, AutoNation, called them together to warn them against unionizing, saying that they would face wage cuts and blacklisting if they did. AutoNation is the largest auto chain in the country....

Are bank robberies no longer en vogue? After watching The Town and learning that Charleston, Mass. is allegedly the bank robbery capital of America, we’ve been looking for cases challenging bank robbery convictions in the First Circuit. We have been disappointed. If you’ve been longing for a good bank robbery appeal, like we have, today is your lucky day; the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals just decided a gem of a case....

US v. Leija-Sanchez, No. 09-2672, involved a prosecution for, inter alia, violating 18 U.S.C. section 1959 by arranging and paying for a murder in Mexico. The court of appeals reversed the dismissal of this charge, holding that section 1959 applied to a murder in another nation designed to facilitate the operation of a criminal enterprise in the U.S. In US v. Barnes, No. 09-2052, the court of appeals vacated defendant’s drug and firearm possession sentence, holding that, without any justification for why one co-conspirator was responsible for a greater quantity of drugs than his fellow co-conspirators, the discrepancy in the district court’s factual findings was clearly erroneous....

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that volunteer firefighters can be categorized as employees in a Title VII sexual harassment claim, and that a district court erred in concluding that “remuneration must be an independent antecedent inquiry” when evaluating whether volunteer firefighters were employees. Why does it matter whether volunteer firefighters are “employees?” Because Title VII requires that an employer have 15 employees to be subject to the Civil Rights Act....

The Supreme Court disposed of two more matters on its to-do list this morning, but it only issued one opinion. Today, we have a unanimous opinion in McBurney v. Young and a DIG in Boyer v. Louisiana. Let’s discuss what happened. McBurney v. Young The Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), provides that “all public records shall be open to inspection and copying by any citizens of the Commonwealth,” but it grants no such right to non-Virginians....

Petition for review of the BIA’s denial of petitioner’s requests for cancellation of removal, adjustment of status and voluntary departure is granted in part where the government needed to put forth reliable evidence to show that the petitioner was convicted of a disqualifying controlled substance offense. However, the petition is denied in part where there was sufficient evidence to support the Immigration Judge’s finding that petitioner had possessed a disqualifying controlled substance, and that precluded adjustment of status....