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David Sheridan entered into a plea agreement in which he agreed to plead guilty to distributing child pornography. At his sentencing hearing, Sheridan did not object to the court’s calculation of a Sentencing Guidelines range of 360 to 480 months; instead, he just requested a sentence not exceeding the 180-month mandatory minimum. The proposed downward variance was primarily based on Sheridan’s age — 53 at the time of sentencing — and the criticism that several courts have leveled at the child pornography Guideline ranges....

The Eighth Circuit decided one criminal matter and one involving alleged employment discrimination based on race. In Lake v. Yellow Transp., Inc., No. 09-1392, the Eighth Circuit reversed a grant of summary judgment for defendant-employer in a race discrimination matter. The court held that 1) plaintiff was not required to disprove defendant’s reason for firing him at the stage of the analysis where plaintiff needed to show that he met his employer’s legitimate expectations; and 2) there were material factual disputes over plaintiff’s attendance and availability record, and whether defendant applied its policies equally....

When you think of organic food, you probably associate it with dirt. After all, one of the selling points of organic food is that the soil used to grow it is clean dirt devoid of chemicals. It’s even the law. The Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 sets out the requirements that must be met before a farming operation can qualify as organic and it says this about the role of dirt: “An organic plan shall contain provisions designed to foster soil fertility primarily through the management of the organic content of the soil....

When a criminal defendant is declared mentally incompetent, it is not the same thing as an insanity defense. When a defendant pleads a defense of insanity, they are asking a jury to render a verdict that attributes liability to their mental condition. When a defendant is declared incompetent, they never see a jury, and can have their trials delayed until they become competent. A person who has been declared mentally incompetent does not escape liability, nor trial, but merely suffers a delay in being processed through the justice system....

More and more places are accommodating people with service animals, recognizing the essential function many of these animals play in the owners’ lives. At the same time, stories of emotional support pigs, squirrels, and, yes, kangaroos, have many business owners and public service providers becoming skeptical of people’s service animal claims. But let’s say the service animal is legit, and your issues are legal. Can you bring your service animal to a courthouse or into a courtroom?...

Yesterday, we brought you first half of the tale of Clay County’s most corrupt — eight individuals who allegedly conspired to fix elections, were convicted, and now, years later, are being set free on the basis of erroneous evidentiary rulings. In addition to the prejudicial evidence of pandemic drug cultivation and dealing throughout Clay County over the past few decades, which bore no direct connection to the voter fraud at issue, the court also made numerous other mistakes with evidence directly related to the charged offenses....

In an Establishment Clause challenge to religious displays in a contract postal unit operated by a church, summary judgment for plaintiff is vacated where the Establishment Clause requires no more than that the postal counter be free of religious material, and that visual cues distinguish the space operating as a postal facility from the space functioning as purely private property. Read Cooper v. U.S. Postal Serv., No. 07-4825 Appellate Information...

In 2006, Deputy James Carroll and other officers from the Greater Rochester Area Narcotics Enforcement Team executed a “no-knock” warrant for Sherry Carroll’s home. Deputy Carroll, who was in charge of securing the entryway, was the first to enter the house. That’s when he saw a dog growling, barking, and “quickly and aggressively approaching.” Once the dog had advanced to within a foot of him, Deputy Carroll fired one shot from his shotgun at the animal’s head and killed him....

The D.C. Court of Appeals has issued an emergency rule allowing recent law graduates affected by COVID-19 to practice law without passing the bar. The court declined to issue any widespread or lasting changes, however, writing that “now is not the time to decide whether to make long-term, sweeping changes to its bar-admission process." Those granted diploma privilege must still take and pass the bar exam at some point to retain their license....

Lee Boyd Malvo was 17 when he and 41-year-old John Allen Muhammed were arrested for murder in connection to the “D.C. Sniper” killings of 2002. The two men terrorized residents of the D.C. metropolitan area for three weeks before they were caught - killing ten and critically injuring three. The shootings were random, swift, and carried out with bone-chilling precision. When police captured Malvo and Muhammed, they discovered the shooters had modified the trunk of a Chevrolet Caprice to serve as a “rolling sniper’s nest....

London v. RBS Citizens, N.A., No. 09-1516, involved a judgment debtors’ 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit against their bank for freezing their checking account, including some of which were Social Security benefits, in response to a citation filed by their judgment creditor. In affirming the district court’s dismissal of the complaint for failure to state a claim, the court held that the bank may not be held liable under section 1983 because the plaintiffs did not allege any action by the bank that was taken under color of state law....

A Planned Parenthood victory dance over an abortion law lasted shorter than most White House jobs, as a federal appeals vacated an injunction in Arkansas. The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals said Planned Parenthood didn’t show that the state’s law was a substantial obstacle to women seeking abortion services. The law required that doctors who provide miscarriage pills must have hospital privileges in the event of complications. “This common sense law will help ensure that medication abortions are conducted in a safe, responsible manner and with appropriate protections for women,” said Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge....

The Wisconsin teen behind a Facebook sex scam, Anthony Stancl, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Stancl, 19, pleaded no contest to two felony charges over posing as a girl on Facebook to collect naked pictures and blackmail his male classmates for sex. He accepted a plea deal of felony charges of repeated sexual assault of a child and third-degree sexual assault in exchange for prosecutors dismissing 10 other charges, as previously discucssed....

Former Peloton instructor Daniel McKenna’s wrongful termination lawsuit contains several claims we’d expect to see in an employment action: He says he was fired with no explanation.He claims he was retaliated against for taking medical leave.He argues the company forced him to get a COVID vaccine. But McKenna’s complaint for $1.8 million includes another allegation we haven’t seen since about the mid-1800s: He says one company exec exhibited hostility toward him for being Irish....

Petition for Review of BIA Removal Order In Garcia-Carbajal v. Holder, No. 09-9558, a petition for review of a BIA order of removal, the petition is dismissed where petitioner did not raise the ground for review to the BIA, and petitioner did not exhaust his administrative remedies as the BIA did not: 1) clearly identify a claim, issue, or argument not presented by the petitioner; 2) exercise its discretion to entertain that matter; and 3) explicitly decide that matter in a full explanatory opinion or substantive discussion....

Former President Bill Clinton’s grand jury testimony will always be remembered for existential musings on a two-letter word. Years later, cases can still turn on what the meaning of “is” is. Case in point: This Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals immigration removal case also employs the what-is-is argument. Juan Gutierrez is a 70-year-old native and citizen of Mexico who entered the United States sometime between 1969 and 1971. In October 2001, Gutierrez received a Notice to Appear, charging him with being removable as an alien who was present in the United States without being admitted or paroled....

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action alleging that defendants-officers permitted plaintiff’s partner to abuse her, summary judgment for certain defendants is affirmed in part where plaintiff failed to show a genuine issue of material fact as to whether defendants enhanced the risk of violence by making explicit assurances to the perpetrator. However, the ruling is reversed in part where plaintiff raised a genuine issue of material fact as to whether defendant-officers implicitly but affirmatively sanctioned the abuse....

It seems like only yesterday we were parsing the Supreme Court healthcare decision while drinking a quad-shot latte. Now, only 30 days separate us from First Monday and the Supreme Court’s 2012 Term. Where, oh where, did our summer go? In case you’re not already buzzing with anticipation from your own coffee habit, there were two new grants in Friday’s Supreme Court orders: Standard Fire Insurance Co. v. Knowles and Descamps v....

Barnes-Wallace v. San Diego, No. 04-55732, concerned an action claiming that the Boy Scouts’ lease of public lands for its headquarters, accompanied by the Boy Scouts’ prohibitions on atheism and homosexuality, was unconstitutional. The Ninth Circuit certified the following questions to the California Supreme Court: 1) Do the leases interfere with the free exercise and enjoyment of religion by granting preference for a religious organization in violation of the No Preference Clause in article I, section 4 of the California Constitution?...

In Weyerhaeuser Company v. United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the government designated 1,500 acres of forest in Louisiana as a critical habitat for dusky gopher frog. But the Supreme Court ruled the government might have gone too far and ordered the lower court to take a closer look at the “critical habitat” in this case. In a way, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tried to leapfrog the rules....