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In November, 2007, a state trooper named Ben Campbell began to harass a woman named Joanne Smith. When Smith’s adult son, Tom, said he would call 911 and speak to Campbell’s supervisor, Campbell left without issuing any tickets. This incident sparked a series of harassing activities that eventually rose to the level of a civil rights complaint. On April 1, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed and vacated in part a district court’s order dismissing the case....

Why? California’s Sexually Violent Predator Act (SVPA), which allows the state to initiate civil proceedings to hold a certain sub-species of violent sexual predators in a state hospital if the state proves “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the defendant is likely to “engage in sexually violent behavior” due to a mental disorder. Of course, much like criminal proceedings have a right to a speedy trial, the civil confinement procedures are supposed to kick in quickly as well....

In an action seeking an order compelling officials of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to approve a spousal immigrant visa petition, and to set aside the agency’s revocation of a previously approved immigrant worker visa petition, dismissal of Egyptian petitioner’s action is affirmed where the court correctly concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to review revocation of petitioner’s I-140 immigrant worker visa, as the Secretary of Homeland Security has the discretion to revoke the approval of the petition and is not subject to judicial review under 8 U....

Last week, a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by atheists, who sued to have the phrase, “In God We Trust” removed from U.S. coins and currency, according to The Huffington Post. The case was brought by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, alongside 19 other plaintiffs all represented by Michael Newdow, an attorney and atheist. The parties sued the U.S. Treasury Department and government officers a few months ago. The plaintiffs claimed that in placing the phrase “In God We Trust” on national currency, they were being discriminated against as non-believers and that this was ultimately a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment....

Rod Blagojevich may not be the hot news topic that he once was back when he got convicted for trying to sell former President Obama’s Illinois senate seat (vacated when he was sworn in as POTUS), as well as his other corruption charges. But the recent rejection of his appeal by the U.S. Supreme Court put the disgraced politician in the headlines, hopefully just one last time before he’s released in half a decade....

Biodiversity Conservation Alliance v. Bureau of Land Mgmt., No. 09-8011, involved several environmental and citizens’ groups challenge to a 2003 Bureau of Land Management resource management plan amendment allowing natural gas development in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin. The court of appeals affirmed summary judgment for defendants on the ground that the Bureau reasonably concluded that phased development was impractical and would not meet the project’s purposes, and this ground is an adequate basis for the Bureau’s decision....

In a breach of contract action claiming that plaintiff-county was overcharged for certain drugs in violation of pharmaceutical pricing agreements between the Secretary of Health and Human Services and drug manufacturer defendants, dismissal of the complaint is reversed where plaintiff was an intended direct beneficiary of the agreements and thus had the right to enforce the agreements’ discount provisions against the manufacturers and sue them for reimbursement of excess payments....

Threatening witnesses is a bad idea, even if you hang out with mobsters. And Robert Simels should have known that. He is, after all, an attorney. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Simels’s witness tampering conviction in August, two years after his 2009 trial for bribing and threatening witnesses to prevent them from testifying against a client’s drug gang. Vaughn, who had been a member of Khan’s paramilitary “Phantom Squad” in Guyana, secretly recorded five meetings with Simels at which Simels discussed bribing and threatening potential witnesses....

In an action challenging a Department of Health and Human Services regulation preventing hospitals from recovering certain bad debts from Medicare beneficiaries, summary judgment for defendant is affirmed where the Medicare statutory scheme is clear on its face and does not allow for the exception plaintiffs sought to the statutory reduction in Medicare reimbursement for bad debt. Read Detroit Receiving Hosp. & Univ. Health Ctr. v. Sebelius, No. 08-1920 Appellate Information...

The holidays are here, and like many workers you may be wondering whether you get time off for any religious holiday. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer for everyone. Instead, whether you get time off may depend upon your employer’s policies, any employment contract, or a collective bargaining agreement. Still, if some employees do get time off for a holiday like Christmas, other employees may be wondering whether they get similar time off for their own religious holidays....

When Facebook stumbled out of the gates at its initial public offering, early investors had to take a slow-but-steady approach to profitability. A share was worth about $38 then; it trades for $189 today. That’s a substantial return, but not what investors originally expected. And that’s why there is still ongoing litigation about that frenzied day in May 2012. But now it’s between the insurance companies who split responsibility for an unprecedented settlement....

It’s too late for spoiler alerts, so here’s how Avengers: Endgame ends – with the credits. Sorry, I’m a legal writer, not a movie critic. Not much of a comic either. So here’s what you should know: Like Thanos, a big corporation or even a small business may have the power of the universe at its fingertips, but all that technology can’t redeem a villain. See how that works? Villainous Culture Uber, despite its game-changing app, was another villain in the universe....

Claim of actual innocence to overcome procedural default Houck v. Stickman, 05-4580, concerned a challenge to the district court’s denial of defendant’s request for habeas relief from his convictions for kidnapping, aggravated assault, and related offenses. In affirming, the court held that defendant has not satisfied the Schlup requirement to open the actual innocence door to allow his procedurally defaulted claims to be considered on the merits as, even taking into account evidence of defendant’s affidavits, he has not demonstrated that no reasonable juror would convict him after considering the newly supplemented record....

At its core, the law is about language. We carefully draft laws to address precisely the issues we want, then painstakingly analyze them to determine what facts fit under that umbrella. Entire cases have been decided based on the meaning of a single word. So it makes sense that much of the most exciting technology emerging for the legal industry is in the realm of language analytics. There are all kinds of buzzwords attached to this, including “natural language processing” and “technology-assisted document review....

US v. Mundy, 07-4112, concerned a challenge to a conviction and sentence of defendant for possessing 500 grams or more of cocaine with intent to distribute and for possessing with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine in a protected area. In affirming the convictions, the court held that the PPD Live Stop Policy sufficiently standardized criteria regulating the scope of a permissible inventory search, including searches of closed containers, and the officer’s search adequately complied with those criteria....

The Tenth Circuit didn’t have any cases making jurisprudential history this week, though it has managed to stay in the news. One item can have serious repercussions for Oklahoma consumers, while the other seems immune from sequester cuts. Back in July, the Tenth Circuit, in a 2-1 ruling, held that the EPA was correct in rejecting Oklahoma State’s plan to deal with the Clean Air Act’s regional haze provisions. Specifically, the EPA rejected Oklahoma’s plan to limit sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants operated by the Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company....

One of the most legendary rock songs of all time, “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin, might just be a copy-and-paste job. That’s the claim of the heirs of Randy Craig Wolfe (aka Randy California), a legendary guitarist in his own right, a protege of Jimi Hendrix who formed the band Spirit when he was still a teenager and was a pioneer in the psychedelic rock category. Spirit released the instrumental interlude “Taurus” two years before “Stairway to Heaven....

In a Railway Labor Act (RLA) action challenging the validity of a Restructuring Participation Agreement reached between plaintiff flight attendants’ former employer and their union, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where: 1) the relevant RLA provisions, 45 U.S.C. section 152, First and Seventh, do not provide a private cause of action; 2) the RLA preempted plaintiffs’ state law claims; and 3) plaintiffs failed to adduce sufficient evidence of a material factual dispute on their fair representation claim to defeat summary judgment....

Notice and opportunity to withdraw motion before accepting a voluntary dismissal with prejudice Michigan Surgery Inv., LLC v. Arman, 10-1612, concerned a challenge to the district court’s dismissal of plaintiffs’ suit with prejudice after the plaintiffs had moved for voluntary dismissal without prejudice under Rule 41(a)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, in a dispute between doctors and investors for control of an outpatient surgery center. In reversing the court remanded the case in concluding that, the district court did not give the plaintiffs notice of its intention to dismiss with prejudice, along with an opportunity to withdraw the request for voluntary dismissal....

It’s not every day that an attorney wants a pay cut. It’s even more rare when they say it out loud. But nowadays many millennials say they would take less money in exchange for less work. About 25 percent would do it for more time off. That’s what a new survey says anyway. Mostly, the millennials are saying they want a break. When it comes to telling the boss to cut their pay, that’s another story....