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It looks like Todd J. Broxmeyer’s legal luck ran out in 2010. In 2008, a jury found the former high school field hockey coach guilty of producing child pornography and transporting a minor across state lines with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, among other crimes. The victims in the case were teenage girls who Broxmeyer coached. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed three of Broxmeyer’s convictions in 2010, but upheld his 30-year sentence for attempting to produce child pornography this week....

US v. Green, No. 08-4088 concerned a consolidated appeal of defendants convicted of drug related crimes involved a family-based drug distribution network and money laundering scheme. In rejecting defendants’ various claims, the court affirmed the convictions finding that, inter alia, there was sufficient evidence to support the convictions beyond a reasonable doubt, and that the district court did not clearly err in finding that the search of one of the defendant’s residence and the area under his bed, was a permissible protective sweep....

Diabetic drivers, wear your medical alert bracelets. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that two East Chicago police officers did not act unreasonably in roughing up and arresting a diabetic driver who was suffering from a hypoglycemic episode. Jerome Clement was an insulin-dependent Type 1 diabetic. His blood sugar periodically dropped, which could cause Clement to phase out, fall to the floor, and flail his arms in a non-combative manner....

There’s officially a second Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) challenge vying for Supreme Court review. Monday, Edie Windsor filed a petition for certiorari with the Nine seeking the return of more than $300,000 in estate taxes that she was forced to pay after her spouse died, reports the Huffington Post. Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer were together for 44 years. They got engaged in 1967, and were married in Canada in May 2007....

In Flitton v. Primary Res. Mortgage, Inc. No. 09-4108, the court affirmed the district court’s order awarding plaintiff $367,689.00 in attorney’s fees as a prevailing party in a Title VII lawsuit, holding that 1) the district court correctly concluded that plaintiff’s successful retaliation claim and her unsuccessful discrimination and punitive damages claims were interrelated; 2) the district court’s assessment of her overall level of success was not an abuse of discretion; and 3) the district court conducted a thorough review of plaintiff’s attorneys’ billing entries and reduced the fee award based on the inadequacy of eleven specific entries....

Over the past year, various Republican-led states have steadily curtailed abortion rights. Arkansas, Idaho, South Carolina, Texas, and Wyoming have all introduced new restrictions that would ban most abortions. “Fetal Heartbeat” Act Gets Injunction for Being Unconstitutional In the case of South Carolina, the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. This typically happens approximately six weeks after the mother’s last menstrual period—which is before many would even realize that they are pregnant....

The Supreme Court has a bold docket this year. Civil rights isn’t a topic for the timid, but the Court has taken on several civil rights cases this term. In October, the Court heard oral arguments about the continued need for affirmative action in public universities. In March, the justices will mull constitutional protections for same sex couples. On February 27, the Court will consider whether the Voting Rights Act is still necessary....

Rapid flu tests are a quick way for doctors to diagnose whether a patient may potentially have the deadly H1N1 flu virus. However, a rapid flu test misdiagnosis contributed to the near death of a girl in Florida. CNN reports that 9 year old Hayli Murphy almost died because doctors failed to discern that she was suffering from an H1N1 viral infection (also known as swine flu). When she went to the hospital back in September, a rapid flu test came back negative so doctors sent her home....

A pair of patent appeals were argued before the High Court this week, each with potentially massive ramifications for IP litigators. One involves a challenge to a part of the inter partes patent review process established by the 2011 America Invents Act, while the other challenges the whole inter partes review process. Both appeals strike a chord within the tech and intellectual property communities as each is attacking a process designed to stem and discourage patent trolls from filing lawsuits....

Vetting a U.S. Supreme Court nominee should include checking baseball stats. For example, it would be bad precedent to nominate a judge who cheated while playing or gambling on baseball. But what about a baseball fanatic, the kind that goes into debt to buy season tickets? Brett Kavanaugh isn’t that bad, sort of – especially since a season ticket to the Washington Nationals is only $500. But do you really want a Supreme Court judge to take off work early to catch a game?...

District court’s grant of defendant’s petition for habeas relief from his death sentence is vacated and remanded as the district court erred in its analysis of the performance prong of Strickland and this error alone requires a reversal. However, defendant is entitled to an evidentiary hearing to develop the record in support of his ineffective assistance of counsel at the penalty phase claim. District court’s conviction of defendant is affirmed where: 1) defendant’s Batson claim is rejected as it lacks merit; 2) defendant’s ineffective assistance of counsel at the guilt phase claim is rejected; and 3) defendant’s Brady claim is rejected as there can be no Brady violation where the prosecution did not have custody of the bus ticket and where it would not have provided exculpatory evidence....

In a petition for review of a BIA order withdrawing Petitioner’s appeal from the Immigration Judge’s denial of her motion to reopen removal proceedings, the petition is granted, where Petitioner did not choose to withdraw her appeal, but was involuntarily removed from the United States. Read Madrigal v. Holder, No. 08-3132 Appellate Information Argued: March 12, 2009 Decided and Filed: July 9, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Daughtrey Counsel For Petitioner:...

A 16-year-old girl in foster care was not mature enough to be allowed to get an abortion, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled. The young woman, referred to as Anonymous 5 in the opinion, became a ward of the state earlier this year after suffering years of emotional and physical abuse at the hands of her biological parents. Citing her foster parents’ strict religious views, Anonymous 5 requested a judicial bypass from the court for an abortion when she was 10 weeks pregnant – but to no avail....

Last Tuesday, New York Times op-ed contributor and University of Chicago law professor William Baude floated a fantastic contingency plan in the event the Supreme Court strikes subsidies for residents of states without state health care exchanges. If the Court affirms the (now-vacated) three-judge panel opinion of the D.C. Circuit, Baude said, the Obama Administration could just ignore it. Yeah, not really, though. It’s a lovely idea, but as Noah Feldman – also a law professor – wrote in the Chicago Tribune, it “is based on the kind of technicality that makes people hold their nose when they smell a lawyer coming,” namely, the notion that Court orders bind only the parties to the suit and no one else....

Jury instructions that impermissibly merged first-degree murder’s mens rea elements violated due process, the Ninth Circuit ruled last Friday. As a result, they invalidated the 1990 murder conviction and death sentence of Billy Ray Riley based on faulty jury instructions. The guilt-phase instructions advised the jury that if it found premeditation, it has found deliberation. Those are two separate elements, however, and the state needed to prove each one, according to the Ninth....

In a Telecommunications Act challenge to an order issued by the Nebraska Public Service Commission setting the rates that competitors must pay to lease elements of plaintiff’s local telephone network in Nebraska, judgment for defendant is affirmed in part where: 1) plaintiff did not show that the Commission’s deaveraging method violated the general requirements set out in 47 C.F.R. section 51.507(f); and 2) plaintiff’s claim that the Commission’s order would discourage all competition in out-of-town areas lacked merit....

To the victor, go the spoils, as they say. And one of the spoils of being victorious in political elections is the ability to draw, or re-draw, geographical voting boundaries. Known as “gerrymandering,” this practice is often used to break up voting districts of opponents while packing your own, in the hopes of ensuring future electoral victories. But how far can this process go? Apparently, as far as the victors want to take it, according to the Supreme Court....

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court’s judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) on two claims in a racial profiling case this week, finding that the plaintiff had not offered evidence to support his claims. In 2008, Edward Henry filed a civil rights action against two Albuquerque police officers, Jacob Storey and Amy Fangio, after the officers mistakenly stopped and handcuffed Henry for driving a stolen vehicle....

Oral arguments were held this week in a trademark dilution suit filed by the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. against the Boy Scouts of America. If you thought the cookie-selling tactics were intense, this rivalry will knock your merit badges off. The Boy Scouts began removing gender-specific language from some marketing materials following its 2017 decision to allow girls into its programs. The organization is still called the Boy Scouts of America, but the best-known program is now “Scouts BSA,” which refers to members simply as “scouts....

Since the retirement of Justice Kennedy was announced, the nation’s been patiently waiting to find out who President Trump would nominate. Yesterday, in the evening, President Trump announced that Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals was his pick. Interestingly, as speculated by the ABA back in November, Trump added Judge Kavanaugh to the short-list of nominees as a sort of enticement to Justice Kennedy. Kavanaugh was a former clerk to Justice Kennedy, and the White House did release a statement claiming Kavanaugh would be a frontrunner for the nomination (which was believed, at the time, to be designed to help ease Justice Kennedy’s potential apprehensions about retirement)....