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In Berry v. Astrue, No. 09-35421, plaintiff’s appeal from the Social Security Administration’s denial of his claim for disability insurance benefits, the court vacated where the ALJ needed to allow plaintiff to prove his contention that drug testing requirements made it physically impossible for him to perform his past relevant work. In Towery v. Schriro, No. 08-99022, a capital habeas matter, the court affirmed the denial of petitioner’s habeas petition where 1) the court was unpersuaded by petitioner’s argument that a witness’s false testimony was crucial to the prosecution’s case; 2) the prosecutor was not obligated to do more than he did to make the defense aware of the witness’s prior testimony and the manner in which it was used; and 3) an independent and adequate state default rule applies and federal habeas review was barred regarding alleged judicial bias....

US v. Faulds, 09-3245, concerned a challenge to defendant’s convictions for distributing and possessing child pornography. In affirming the convictions, the court rejected defendant’s double jeopardy violation claim in holding that the Blockburger test is implicated only where the same act or transaction constitutes a violation of two distinct statutory provisions, and here, defendant’s two convictions are based on different acts that occurred over a period of more than a month....

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals quite possibly made it easier for the public to access what some litigants had thought were court sealed documents. The nexus of all the controversy began in 2013 during the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge lawsuits involving allegations of defective Integrated Power Modules that caused the Chrysler vehicles either to fail starting or stall while driving. The Center for Auto Safety, a Washington lobbying group intervened and moved the court to unseal the documents Chrysler submitted – petitioning, in effect, that the “good cause” test that the lower district court was in error, and that Chrysler should be forced to show “compelling reasons” to keep the documents under wraps....

Capital Habeas Matter In Cole v. Roper, No. 09-1213, a capital habeas matter, the court affirmed the denial of the petition where 1) the state court’s factual findings regarding the three proffered similarly situated jurors in response to petitioner’s Batson challenge were accorded a presumption of correctness; 2) with the strong expert testimony already in the hands of the state at the time of trial, it was unlikely that petitioner suffered any prejudice from counsel’s failure to call more favorable expert or lay witnesses; and 3) evidence of petitioner’s disposition to make a well-behaved and peaceful adjustment to life in prison was relevant mitigating evidence but counsel’s failure to offer such evidence was not constitutionally deficient....

The Confrontation Clause guarantees a defendant the right to face his accuser face-to-face. A witness’s appearance, eye contact, and voice all affect her credibility in front of the jury or finder of fact. A clear view of the witness, therefore, is essential to a fair trial. On the other hand, no right is absolute, even in this pantheon of liberty that is America. In Maryland v. Craig, the need to protect child victims justified the use of a one-way closed circuit television to present testimony to the court....

What Are Miranda Rights? You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Why Are Miranda Warnings Important? What Is the Vega v. Tekoh Case About? What Did the Supreme Court Say? How Does Vega v. Tekoh Affect My Fifth Amendment Rights?...

You know how it’s super-funny when one of your clients sends someone an envelope full of fake anthrax spores, except that it’s not actually funny because it’s illegal? Today’s Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals appellant clearly did not get that memo, but still found a way to prevail before the court. America Haileselassie sent the Bettendorf, Iowa Police Department an envelope containing white powder and a letter reading: “Detective Bryan Payton; You are a Dead MeaT; I will kill you all You son of a Bitch!...

On Sunday, December 1st, 2013, a handful of amendments to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure are scheduled to go into effect. The most significant change entails consolidation of Rule 28. Here’s a summary of the changes: How do you feel about the new changes? Tweet your musings @FindlawLP. Related Resources: AMENDMENTS TO THE FEDERAL RULES OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE (Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals) FRCP 58 Compliance is Not Optional: Posner (FindLaw’s Seventh Circuit Blog) High Court Addresses Relation Back Issue Under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FindLaw’s Supreme Court Blog) You Don’t Have To Solve This on Your Own – Get a Lawyer’s Help Civil Rights Block on Trump’s Asylum Ban Upheld by Supreme Court...

In 2003, Marcus Middlebrook shot Nicole Bell in the face, ordered her to walk into the nearby river, and then drove away. Bell lived to tell the tale, and a jury convicted Middlebrook of three offenses the following year. Middlebrook appealed, claiming that his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated because the jurors were exposed to extraneous influences. According to Middlebrook, the violation denied him the right to an impartial jury....

Can justice be blind when there is an elephant in the room? It hardly seems possible in a case from Indiana, where an appeals court affirmed a burglary conviction as a “violent felony.” An Indiana burglary includes “outdoor, fenced in areas,” the court said in United States of America v. Perry, resulting in a sentence enhancement. Jason Perry complained because, coupled with firearms violations, he got 360 months for his crimes....

Making SCOTUS history, Justice Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed and sworn in over the weekend and is expected to start working immediately at the High Court. How about that? They voted on a Saturday! With the October 2018 term underway, clearly Kavanaugh plans to hit the ground running, which may hopefully be able to prevent any cases from going to a deadlock; after all, there have only been a couple arguments so far....

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that a law prohibiting the administration of hormone therapy to Wisconsin inmates diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder, (GID), was unconstitutional. The Wisconsin legislature passed the law, called the Inmate Sex Change Prevention Act, in 2005 to assuage public outcry surrounding news reports that state tax dollars were funding prisoners’ sex changes. Three transgender inmates sued to challenge the law after their hormone therapies were reduced in 2006....

In a securities fraud action for misleading plaintiffs in connection with the sale of a closely held corporation to a publicly traded acquirer, the dismissal of the complaint is reversed where the non-applicability of the “Delaware carve-out” in the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act is a prerequisite to the district court’s removal jurisdiction. Read Madden v. Cowen & Co., No. 07-15900 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted November 21, 2008 Filed August 7, 2009...

It seems like there’s another data breach every day. We share quite a bit of our personal information online (and off), and when hackers and unhappy accidents potentially expose that data, it can be scary. And some data breaches can be scarier than others. Take the American Medical Collection Agency, for instance. AMCA is a billing and collections company for medical service providers, working with laboratories, hospitals, and physician groups. That gives them expansive access to personal, financial, and health data of millions of patients, and a data breach last month has left an ever-expanding list of patients’ data exposed....

The Obama Administration has just asked SCOTUS to reject a lawsuit filed by the states of Oklahoma and Nebraska which both seek to block Colorado’s recently approved law legalizing recreational pot use by adults. The two states argue that marijuana is being smuggled across state borders and the drugs threaten the health and safety of their children. Even with the rejection of the suit, a rather large legal gap would still continue to widen between the illegal status of marijuana in the eyes of the federal government, and its increasingly legal status in many states....

The Ninth Circuit, for all of its progressive leanings, remains a nostalgic lot. Circuit judges have yet to exchange their traditional robes for more slimming looks, and, notably, still subscribe to the quaint notion that police officers must support their affidavits for search warrants with probable cause. This week, the Ninth Circuit considered the issue of police officers’ qualified immunity in seizing evidence with a lawfully, fully executed (but invalid) search warrant, while reiterating that a police officer’s intuition is not probable cause for a search warrant....

In the midst of a FOIA battle, South Dakota’s Argus Leader newspaper argued before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals panel to reverse a ruling blocking the newspaper from receiving data on how much the federal government pays to stores that redeem food stamp benefits. The Argus Leader filed the case against the U.S. Department of Agriculture – which administers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps – after the department refused the newspaper’s Freedom of Information Act request for SNAP payment information....

Who could’ve predicted this? Perhaps anyone who has been watching the string of executions that have been carried out over the past few months – a series of cruel and unusual science experiments using novel combinations of drugs often sourced from unregulated compounding pharmacies. Isn’t this exactly why death row inmates are fighting for access to information on drugs and the execution team? And so it goes again: witnesses say that the inmate spent the next two hours gasping for air before finally succumbing to the drugs....

It is well-documented how notoriously difficult it is for student borrowers to discharge federal student loans. For students who take out private loans, however, the news may be getting better. On Thursday, July 15, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals sided with student borrowers in a class-action lawsuit, holding that private student loans can be discharged in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The Second Circuit joins the 5th and 10th Circuits in interpreting bankruptcy law to allow the discharge of private student loans....

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments last week in a freedom of information case involving a University of Illinois policy which afforded greater weight to admissions applications from well-connected students. In case you haven’t heard, the University of Illinois has been in a bit of a pickle over the last two years for unsound admissions practices. Now, the University wants the Seventh Circuit to protect it from releasing records that would reveal the extent of the scandal....