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In a petition for review of the BIA’s final order removing petitioner from the U.S., the order is affirmed where the BIA did not err in determining that petitioner’s conviction for attempted kidnapping under California Penal Code section 207(a) was an aggravated felony because it was categorically a crime of violence. Read Delgado-Hernandez v. Holder, No. 08-70789 Appellate Information Submitted September 1, 2009 Filed September 9, 2009 Judges Per Curiam...

Denial of Summary Judgment Title IX Action Against School Reversed In Doe v. Flaherty, No. 09-2535, an action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. section 1983 and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, alleging that the former principal of a high school failed to prevent plaintiffs’ minor child from engaging in a sexual relationship with her basketball coach, the court reversed the denial of summary judgment for defendants where defendant’s reasonable investigation of the information that came to her attention uncovered no evidence to substantiate the suspicions, and given the stringent standard for supervisory liability in this context, no reasonable jury could find actual notice on those alleged facts....

“Hot dog, yep that’s me. I’ve got no shame in my game.” No shame and no liability. We’ve covered Ex-Judge Wade McCree’s extra-judicial activities before: sending a topless pic to a married bailiff, and even worse – carrying on a six-month affair and impregnating a witness in a felony child support case. Oh yeah, and he falsely drummed up felony charges against her, according to the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission....

Judge Posner, clearly exasperated by the procedural muck that was made out of a relatively routine easement case, killed the landowner’s dreams of establishing a prescriptive easement to a public road in the Seventh Circuit. “The duration of this litigation,” he vented, is inexplicable and inexcusable – for it’s a pretty simple case!" The case involved a landowner and the elements for valid easement for access to a public road. The plaintiff in question owned a parcel of 40 acres in Southwestern Indiana....

In an action claiming that defendant-school district failed to provide plaintiff with a free appropriate public education as required by the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA), judgment for plaintiff is reversed where: 1) there is no plausible way to read the definition of “transition services” in an amendment to the IDEA as changing the free appropriate public education standard; and 2) the district court erred by addressing claims that plaintiff had failed to exhaust....

In a suit brought by two sheriff deputies under 18 U.S.C. section 1983 alleging a violation of the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment when the sheriff invited a Christian group to speak at a number of mandatory employee meetings, grant of plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment on the Establishment Clause claim is affirmed as the religious group’s presentations during mandatory employee gatherings gave, at the least, the appearance of endorsement by the sheriff’s department, and thus, defendants violated the Establishment Clause....

Something about Cheez-Its makes you want more. Now the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals is giving plaintiffs something more. In Mantikas v. Kellogg Company, the appeals court is giving them another crack at the cracker maker. The plaintiffs say the “whole grain” claim on the Cheez-It box could mislead customers to think the crackers are made mainly out of whole grains. The appeals panel basically said, well yeah and pass some of that to the trial court....

In US v. Rigas, No.09-1344, the Third Circuit faced a challenge to the district court’s denial of defendants’ motion to dismiss a Pennsylvania indictment for conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and other charges, who were already convicted of conspiracy under the same statute in New York, stemming from the collapse of defendants’ company Adelphia Communications Corporations, a cable television provider. As stated in the decision: “[section] 371 contains three key components....

In a petition for review of the National Park Service’s decision to permit the continued use of motorized rafts and support equipment in Grand Canyon National Park, the petition is denied where: 1) certain Park Service policies challenged by plaintiffs did not prescribe substantive rules, nor were they promulgated in conformance with the procedures of the Administrative Procedure Act; and 2) a subsequent management plan was not arbitrary and capricious for failing to remove motorized uses in the Colorado River Corridor immediately....

Twenty-nine years after the film about Jake LaMotta’s life was released, the daughter of Frank P. Petrella, who penned two screenplays and co-authored a book about the late boxer, brought suit, alleging copyright infringement. Twenty-nine years. In that time, witnesses died, alleged agreements disappeared, the transferred rights to the original works were renewed by Pamela Petrella, and MGM Grand invested heavily in the movie, signing distribution agreements with online and broadcast video providers....

Obamacare lives on. The Affordable Care Act survived another major U.S. Supreme Court challenge on June 17, as justices rejected the latest Republican effort to kill the law by a 7-2 vote. The action marked the third time the court has turned back Republican attempts to repeal it. The court upheld Obamacare 5-4 in 2012 and 6-3 in 2015. Justices: Plaintiffs Lacked Standing In rejecting the latest effort, the court considered an argument from 18 states and two individuals who sought to throw out the law in its entirety....

Why do these things always happen on a Friday? Last week, the Supreme Court dropped the bombshell that it was reviewing the Sixth Circuit’s same-sex marriage case. Today, the Court announced that it would hear the appeal of Richard Glossip and two other death row inmates in Oklahoma scheduled to be executed in the next few months. The petition is noteworthy because the inmates are challenging the legality of the lethal injection process itself....

Last night, shortly after the State of the Union address, Justice Samuel Alito spared Herbert Smulls’ life. Unfortunately, the mercy was short-lived, and he will be executed, likely some time before midnight tonight. Why was the stay granted initially, and what is so troubling about his execution? The issues are not novel: an all-white jury, plus execution drugs made in secret by a compounding pharmacy. The latter issue, though not dealt with today, is repeating itself across the country and raises important issues of cruel and unusual punishment....

Well, this was predictable. We are speaking of vaccine scams, the latest effort by the nefarious thieves who see the coronavirus as a golden opportunity to exploit people’s fears. Coronavirus scams have taken a variety of forms – so many that it’s hard to keep track – as COVID-19 has spread across the country. There have been the snake-oil salesmen pedaling bogus “cures," stimulus-payment and unemployment fraud, investment scams, and fake-charity scams....

District court’s conviction of defendants for conspiracy to violate the Animal Enterprise Protection Act (AEPA), 18 U.S.C. section 43 (2002) and other crimes, arising from animal rights activists’ claims of animal abuse committed by a research corporation located in the United Kingdom, is affirmed where: 1) defendants’ convictions for conspiracy to violate the AEPA is affirmed as the AEPA is neither unconstitutional on its face nor unconstitutional as applied; 2) there was sufficient evidence to convict defendants on all charges involving interstate stalking, and 3) the judgment of the district court is affirmed in all other respects as there were no flaws in the jury instructions....

Conviction for drug crimes is affirmed where: 1) there was sufficient evidence to support defendant’s conviction; and 2) the district court did not abuse its discretion by admitting the prior bad acts evidence of defendant’s previous firearms sales, as the evidence at issue was relevant and highly probative as to knowledge and intent. Read US v. Mercado, No. 08-1017 Appellate InformationAppeal from the United States United States District Court for the Southern District of New York....

All of the remaining Democratic presidential candidates favor increasing taxes on wealthy people. So why, then, do most of them seem to think that the “wealth tax” plans espoused by Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont are bad ideas? First, a brief primer: Unlike the income tax, the primary mode that the U.S. government has used for more than a century to tax individuals, a wealth tax could —theoretically, at least — be levied against rich people who don’t make a nickel all year....

A federal appeals court ruled that workers had no case against Taco Bell for violating lunch breaks. In Rodriguez v. Taco Bell Corp., the plaintiffs complained the employer violated wage laws by making them eat onsite if they bought food at employee discounts. The restaurant chain didn’t want workers to abuse the discount privilege by taking food outside. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said there is nothing wrong with that....

Better late than never, though we’re sure the Court would’ve rather the issue of gay marriage had been addressed never. Avoiding the issue might’ve been possible, had the circuit courts stayed in concert. Now, the Supreme Court may not have a choice. A few months back, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that the Sixth Circuit could force the Court’s hand if it upheld gay marriage bans. Yesterday afternoon, it did just that, upholding bans in four states, calling RBG’s bluff and putting SCOTUS in for all its chips....

Martin Shkreli likely won’t be remembered for committing securities fraud, even though he was just sentenced to seven years in a federal prison for exactly that. Not surprisingly, the public is celebrating his federal prison sentence. Naturally, he plans on appealing to the Second Circuit. Shkreli rose to infamy when he, and his pharmaceutical company, made the decision to raise the price of a lifesaving drug by over 5,000 percent. Seemingly overnight Shkreli became the “pharma bro” and a household name to be hated....