In May, Donald Trump released a list of 11 potential Supreme Court nominees, a group of, as Trump described them, “great conservative judges, great intellects, the people that you want.” But it seems that the Republican nominee for president wasn’t totally content with just those 11. On Friday, Trump released a list of 10 more candidates he would consider nominating to the Supreme Court, should he win the presidency in November....
The Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday the University of Iowa was justified in firing its longtime dean of students for mishandling a high-profile 2007 student sexual assault case. In a 7-0 decision, the court affirmed the district court’s 2012 dismissal of Phillip Jones’ claims that he was defamed and wrongfully terminated by UI President Sally Mason. The court’s decision is a reminder for practitioners to advise their clients to be proactive in sexual abuse and harassment investigations....
Drug Sentence Affirmed In US v. Bravo, No. 10-1380, the court affirmed defendant’s sentence for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, where 1) the record as a whole indicated that the district court was aware of its discretion to vary from the Guidelines range and it did not commit error under Rita; and 2) under plain error review, even if the court assumed the district court erroneously presumed the Guidelines to be reasonable and such error was plain, defendant failed to show there was a reasonable probability that he would have received a more favorable sentence without the presumption....
With no known immunity, COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, can strike anyone. And while it does appear to affect older people with underlying health conditions more harshly than younger, healthier people, that is not always the case. In America right now, that means anyone could be facing the prospect of an expensive medical emergency. For many people, the fear of an astronomical hospital bill inspires more fear than the disease itself, which also means many people may put off seeking care....
The Armed Career Criminal Act requires that a person who was convicted of three violent felonies, or serious drug offenses, and then commits an offense violating federal firearms law, is deemed an armed career criminal and requires a sentence of at least 15-years imprisonment. While it may seem straight forward, many issues arise that bring into question whether a defendant should qualify as an armed career criminal. Three Qualifying Convictions, or Two?...
In 2016, two women sued the city of Fort Collins, Colorado, alleging the city’s ban on women going topless in public was discriminatory. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the federal judge’s finding that the ordinance was unconstitutional in February 2019. In September, after spending more than $300,000 defending the law, the city of Fort Collins decided it would not appeal the 10th Circuit’s ruling. Time for a topless parade?...
Warning: this post in our series on when to hire outside counsel may not be for you. That’s because – if you are a general counsel – it involves a decision that no self-preserving general counsel would want to consider. The decision is whether to outsource your own job. It may be impossibly hard to admit, but sometimes the company is better off outsourcing general counsel completely. On the bright side, that outside counsel could be you....
Most Americans want term limits for Supreme Court Justices, according to a recent poll by Reuters and Ipsos. Two thirds of the country supports imposing term limits on the Justices, which would require a constitutional amendment. Support for the limits is bipartisan, with just a slim 17 percent wanting to maintain the status quo. Presumably, that 17 percent consists entirely of America’s lawyers. Of course, the public is wrong and the lawyers are right....
For four federal criminal defendants in the Southern District of California, the United States Supreme Court just took away a little major victory they had scored on behalf of all federal criminal defendants in that federal district. In the United States v. Sanchez-Gomez case, a unanimous Supreme Court reversed the holding of the Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc, that the Federal District Court for the Southern District of California’s policy to shackle criminal defendants’ hands and feet was unconstitutional....
The U.S. Supreme Court does not have a code of conduct, but the Chief Justice is considering one. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. has discussed the possibility with colleagues, but it is barely a work in progress. Justice Elena Kagan told lawmakers at a budget hearing that it is in a very preliminary stage. The news came out as the House of Representatives has been debating whether Supreme Court Justices should abide by the same code that applies to all other federal judges....
A rather run-of-the-mill libel case has become the subject of vehement debate after a conservative federal judge sitting on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals called the press biased against the Republican Party and proposed that it was time for the Supreme Court to overturn New York Times v. Sullivan, the landmark ruling that has governed libel cases for over a half-century. “Nearly all television—network and cable—is a Democratic Party trumpet,” wrote Senior Judge Laurence Silberman....
It’s Friday, which means my ability to take anything seriously is absolutely nearing it end. I’m running on fumes here. Fortunately, eight federal inmates, including three infamous convicted murderers, have supposedly filed a handwritten motion to intervene in the Silicon Valley anti-poaching class action lawsuit. You know, the one where CEOs of major tech companies sent emails back-and-forth, agreeing not to poach each other’s staff? The one that reached a settlement agreement for pennies, despite the smoking gun evidence?...
Hamilton v. Lanning, No. 08-998, concerned an objection by a Chapter 13 bankruptcy trustee to confirmation of debtor’s plan because the proposed payment amount was less than the full amount of the claims against debtor, and because she had not committed all of her “projected disposable income” to repaying creditors. The Supreme Court affirmed the Tenth Circuit’s affirmance of the bankruptcy court’s rejection of the objection, holding that, when a bankruptcy court calculates a debtor’s projected disposable income, the court may account for changes in the debtor’s income or expenses that are known or virtually certain at the time of confirmation....
The case of Vernon Madison was just argued before the Supreme Court again. However, this time, there might be a bit of a catch 22, or perhaps, a catch 8, seeing as how the Court is one justice shy of the full 9. Nevertheless, for the death row inmate suffering from dementia, the novel legal questions his case has presented has stumped scholars and justices over the past few years. The big question boils down to whether a person with dementia, who cannot remember his crime(s), should be executed....
Employers cannot simply reject a faulty request for medical leave filed under the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Third Circuit ruled on Monday. Rather, employers have a duty to inform their workers about their request’s deficiency and allow them an opportunity to correct it. The case came after Deborah Hansel, a nurse’s assistant at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Pennsylvania, requested medical leave for a then undiagnosed condition. After taking days off, the hospital fired her....
When President Trump nominated Joel Carson to the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, it was a practical decision as much as a political one. Carson, a part-time magistrate judge, was also a principal attorney at a law firm specializing in oil, gas, and energy law. There is a lot of that in the Tenth Circiut, which includes resource-rich states such as Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming....
There’s no such thing as a free lunch and apparently no free dinners either – at least not unsolicited fax invitations for dinner and a business show. The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals said that an unsolicited fax for a free dinner may have violated the Junk Fax Protection Act of 2005. Although a trial judge ruled the invitation was not a prohibited advertisement, the appeals court said it was close enough because the dinner had a business purpose....
The Court is back from its two week recess and the Justices sure did all their homework over the break, dropping six new decisions on Monday. Tomorrow, they’ll sit down and decide what workload to pick up next. One of the petitions they’ll consider, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, could have a far reaching impact on affirmative action in education. It would also give the Court a chance to revisit its 2013 ruling in the case, one which was largely criticized for ducking the suit’s central issue....
When students in the 2004 film “Mean Girls” get out of control, their principal, Mr. Duvall, tries forcing them to play nice. “I don’t care how long it takes,” he says, “I will keep you here all night.” His admin, Joan, quickly corrects him by saying “We can’t keep them past four.” “I will keep you here ’til four,” Mr. Duvall laments. This movie scene may give students a false sense of security....
In an action brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act’s retaliation provision, district court judgment against plaintiff is affirmed where: 1) the plain language of 29 U.S.C. sec. 215(a)(3) includes internal complaints as protected activity; and 2) unwritten, purely verbal complaints are not protected activity under the statute as the FLSA’s use of the phrase “file any complaint” requires a plaintiff employee to submit some sort of writing. Read Kasten v....
