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When the Supreme Court deadlocked on President Obama’s immigration reform plan, it marked a major defeat for the president. The four-to-four tie left in place a Fifth Circuit ruling halting Obama’s immigration reforms, essentially bringing an end to a program that would have prevented the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants – and which the president had hoped would be one of his signature achievements. But less than a month later, the government is asking for a second chance, petitioning for a rehearing once the court gets its ninth justice....

In a petition for a writ of mandamus directing the Secretary of Labor to promulgate lower limits for the amount of dust and silica in the air in mines, the petition is dismissed where Petitioner failed to exhaust his administrative remedies under the Mine Act. Read In re Howard, No. 08-5799 Appellate Information Argued: April 29, 2009 Decided and Filed: July 6, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Rogers Counsel For Petitioner:...

Utah was the 18th state to recognize same-sex marriage – for a total of 18 days, according to The Wall Street Journal. In what has been a very busy month, with a dizzying array of motions and orders, the Utah same-sex marriage case, a/k/a Herbert v. Kitchen, has made its way from district court, to the Tenth Circuit, to the Supreme Court, and back to the Tenth. And while the state of Utah has said that it won’t recognize the gay marriages that were legally performed during those fateful 18 days, the federal government had something different to say about the matter....

In a First Amendment challenge to a New York City regulation banning new parades on Fifth Avenue, summary judgment for defendant is affirmed where 1) the rule did not seek to regulate messages or distinguish between different types of speech; and 2) plaintiff lacked standing to challenge the provision of the rule establishing punishment for violations because the “chill” on those that might spontaneously join plaintiff’s marches was purely conjectural....

Denial of petition for writ of habeas corpus in a murder case is affirmed where the state’s expert’s testimony that petitioner was a “slinger” and a “banger” was cumulative of other evidence suggesting he was violent and involved in the drug trade, and the testimony did not have a substantial and injurious effect on the jury’s verdict. Read Jackson v. Norris, No. 08-1037 Appellate InformationAppeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas....

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had cancerous growths surgically removed from her lung Friday, and she is expected to recover fully after a few days in the hospital. In a press release, the U.S. Supreme Court said the nodules were discovered after the Justice fell and broke her ribs in November. The nodules were malignant, but there was “no evidence of the disease elsewhere in her body.” It is the third time Ginsburg has battled cancer....

In an action seeking a declaratory judgment that plaintiff’s acquisition of the vericheck.com domain name did not constitute trademark infringement or cybersquatting, judgment against plaintiff is vacated and remanded where the district court’s factual decision that the “VeriCheck” mark was a distinctive, legally protectable mark under the ACPA and federal trademark law was based in part on reasoning contrary to federal trademark law and based in part on reasoning that could support the district court’s conclusion....

Once in a while, a case matters more to the lawyer than to the client. That is no doubt the case in Jaworski v. Master Hand Contractors. The defendant appealed a $340,000 judgment, but the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. Unfortunately for defense counsel, the appeals court also said it was the lawyer’s fault. Add to that an attorney’s fee sanction, and you’re having a really bad day....

In an action challenging the USDA’s enunciation of its position in the Federal Register that there was no specific federal humane handling and slaughter statute for poultry, plaintiffs’ appeal is remanded with instructions to dismiss the matter where plaintiffs could not satisfy the redressability requirement for Article III standing because the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act contained no statutory enforcement mechanism. Read Levine v. Vilsack, No. 08-16441 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted October 7, 2009...

Hydro Resources, Inc. v. EPA, No. 07-9506, involved a petition for review of the EPA’s “final land status determination” expressing its judgment that petitioner’s land qualified as “Indian land.” The court of appeals granted the petition, holding that the EPA’s interpretation cannot be reconciled with the Supreme Court’s explanation of 18 U.S.C. section 1151(b)’s plain meaning. In US v. Sanchez, No. 09-2239, the court of appeals affirmed defendant’s marijuana possession conviction, holding that defendant’s daughter had actual authority to consent to the police’s home visit and the officers properly relied on her consent, and thus the district court properly denied defendant’s motion to suppress....

A new amendment to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines could mean less jail time for your client. Vacating a sentence for illegal reentry and remanding, a Ninth Circuit panel held on Monday that a November 1, 2012, amendment to the Sentencing Guidelines clarified, rather than altered, existing law in providing that a probation revocation sentence served after deportation should not be used to calculate a “sentence imposed.” In 2007, Moises Vasquez Catalan was convicted of possession for sale of a controlled substance in violation of California law....

With how far the music world has come over the last few decades – where most music is now purchased digitally rather than in a tangible medium like a record or CD – some consumers are often left wondering whether they can get any value out of their old digital files, or whether they’re as worthless as that old pile of 8-tracks you certainly haven’t been holding onto for any reason in particular....

The Eighth Circuit recently denied review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) decision which decided that a lawful permanent resident may be deported on the basis of a drug paraphernalia statute that was related to a controlled substance. Though the Eighth Circuit aligned itself with many other circuits, the Supreme Court today granted cert to determine whether the government must prove the connection between a state drug paraphernalia conviction and a federally controlled substance....

“My dear Holmes,” I said, eyeing the cert. petition warily. “What could this be? Hasn’t the estate lost to Mr. Leslie Klinger already?” “Correct, Watson,” said Holmes. “There can be no doubt that the Estate of Arthur Conan Doyle, in an opinion by Mr. Posner, was thoroughly rebuffed. You’ll recall, I hope, the facts of that matter.” “Was it not true that the original four novels and first 46 stories were no longer protected by copyright, but the final 10 were?...

Conviction of defendant-police officer for stealing from evidence locker of the police department is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) the government failed to prove an element of a wire fraud charge, specifically, that the defendant transmitted or caused to be transmitted a wire communication; 2) district court did not err in finding sufficiency of the indictment under FRCP 7(c)(1); 3) the court did not abuse its discretion in the exclusion of evidence about possible previous robberies as irrelevant; 4) district court did not err in refusing to give a proposed jury instruction as defendant was not entitled to a theory-of-defense jury instruction where the proposed instruction was not an accurate statement of the law and defendant’s recantation defense is unsupported by evidence in the case....

A conviction for conspiracy to distribute illegal drugs is affirmed where: 1) the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying the defendant’s motion for a bill of particulars; and 2) defendant’s Brady claim is rejected where, despite the government’s failure to disclose certain impeachment evidence, defendant in fact effectively cross-examined the witnesses at issue about inconsistencies between what they had said to police and what they testified to....

In an action seeking a declaration that plaintiffs possessed certain water rights, dismissal of the action for lack of jurisdiction is affirmed where defendants did not waive immunity from suit and were thus entitled to sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment. Read Wagoner Cty. Rural Water Dist. No. 2 v. Grand River Dam Auth., No. 08-5120 Appellate Information Filed August 24, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Tacha Counsel For Appellants:...

Like dreaming about winning the lottery, every starry-eyed law student thinks about being a Hollywood lawyer – if not for a career, at least for a minute. The fame, the fortune, the after-parties; it would be fun but it’s not going to happen. The reality is, you don’t become a celebrity attorney by dumb luck. You need years in law school and years more in practice, and then some luck. Until then, here are the top law schools for aspiring entertainment attorneys:...

There are a lot of legal categories under the topic of the unlawful killing of another person: first-degree murder, second-degree murder, felony murder, and that doesn’t even start on the issue of manslaughter. What is manslaughter anyway? While it’s not as serious as a murder charge in terms of legal penalties, manslaughter charges still arise after someone’s death. The difference in the definition of manslaughter, especially when compared to murder, lies in the defendant’s state of mind when the homicide took place....

Judicial clashes can be pretty amusing, particularly because we expect judges to be stoic and unflappable. But clearly there has been some flapping on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Last August, a split Second Circuit panel upheld a high school field hockey coach’s 30-year sentence for attempting to produce child pornography. Circuit Judge Reena Raagi wrote the majority opinion, explaining that the sentence, which fell within the Guidelines range, was reasonable because “no limitation shall be placed on the information concerning the background, character, and conduct of a person convicted of an offense which a court of the United States may receive and consider for the purpose of imposing an appropriate sentence” within the prescribed range....