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In a prosecution for first-degree intentional murder as a party to a crime, district court’s denial of defendant’s petition for habeas relief is affirmed over claims that: 1) a state appellate court’s application of Strickland to the facts of petitioner’s case was unreasonable because the court applied the wrong standard under Wisconsin law to determine whether he was entitled to a felony-murder instruction; and 2) a state appellate court’s factual determination that counsel had discussed a felony-murder instruction with him was unreasonable....

The matriarch of Patriarch Partners, the private equity firm, has lost her bid to halt SEC administrative proceedings over her alleged defrauding of investors. Lynn Tilton, founder of Patriarch, will have to go through lower SEC administrative channels first and exhaust those proceedings before getting any type of review by the federal appellate court. The ruling is no surprise given the increase in the of SEC court proceedings following the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010....

Officers who killed two pit bulls during a drug raid in 2013 have qualified immunity, the Sixth Circuit ruled recently. The dogs were shot multiple times as police in Battle Creek, Michigan, executed a search warrant. Afterwards, the dogs’ owners sued, alleging that the pooch killing was an unconstitutional seizure of property under the Fourth Amendment. It’s a mixed ruling for fans of man’s best friend. Though the Sixth ruled that unreasonably shooting a dog is a Fourth Amendment violation, it found the shootings reasonable here, given testimony that the dogs were barking and had lunged at officers....

Well, here’s a first. President Obama has taken a step up in the world and become a Supreme Court blogger. Welcome to the club, Mr. President! Facing increased Republican opposition to a speedy (or any kind, really) Scalia replacement, the president took to the pages of SCOTUSblog this morning, explaining his commitment to appointing a new justice and giving us a glance into just what he’s looking for in the next member of the Supreme Court....

In Schreiber v. Moe, No. 09-1337, the Sixth Circuit faced a challenge to the district court’s decision to grant in part, summary judgment in favor of the police officer in plaintiff’s 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action. As stated in the decision: “Moe learned from the 911 dispatcher that a caller claimed to have heard screaming and believed that Sarah was being beaten by her parents. The caller climed to have heard on the telephone the altercation as it was occurring....

Many families have some kind of familiar morning routine. The parents might get up, get the kids ready for school or the day’s activities, strap them into their car seats and drive off. The Miami Herald reported that one Florida family’s early morning routine turned into tragedy this past Sunday when Hector Serrano took his three children with him to drop off his wife, Mirian, at her hospital job. On the way home, while stopped at a red light, their minivan was rear-ended by a Chevrolet Trailblazer driven by Gabriel Delrisco, crushing the minivan “like an accordion....

How much influence should a federal judge have over a criminal defendant’s defense strategy? A Utah man is asking the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn his conviction for disrupting an oil and gas auction, arguing that his trial judge erred in shutting down his civil disobedience defense. Tim DeChristopher was sentenced in July to two years in prison and ordered to pay $10,000 in fines after disrupting an oil and gas auction for land near Utah’s national parks....

In a drug and firearm prosecution, a denial of defendant’s motion to dismiss the indictment under the Speedy Trial Act is affirmed in part where defendant’s defense was not hindered by the delays that occurred. However, the ruling is reversed in part where the district court failed to make a record upon which adequate findings could be based with respect to defendant’s Speedy Trial Act claim. Read US v. Toombs, No....

By now, many have heard of Judge Boyce F. Martin’s ignominious departure from the Sixth Circuit bench. The former chief was forced into retirement after a travel expenses reimbursement scandal, one that ended with him agreeing to retire quietly and pay back all of his travel expenses, even those that were undisputed. Nonetheless, Chief Judge Alice Batchelder referred the case to the Justice Department, which decided against bringing charges. It’s been a dark end to a long and notable legal career....

You’ve been anxiously awaiting delivery of those high-end, noise-cancelling headphones that you found online for half price, the perfect holiday gift for your music-loving squeeze. The delivery service gives you a time, and so you rush home from work that day, eager to tastefully wrap the gift. But there’s nothing there. Nothing on the front step. Nothing in the front hallway. Nothing left with a neighbor. If something like this has happened to you, you’re far from alone....

According to television shows and movies, underage drinking is a regular thing. The popular series Riverdale has tons of episodes featuring an underage person or young adult drinking alcoholic beverages. Remember when Veronica opened her own nightclub, La Bonne Nuit? So if underage drinking seems like a normal part of the teenage experience, is the consumption of alcohol by minors really that big of a deal? What about possession of alcohol by a minor (also known as “minor in possession” or “MIP”)?...

At least 15 of the nearly 100 people who died when powerful tornadoes struck six states on Dec. 10 were workers who were ordered to keep working despite the known threat. The most tragic of the incidents occurred at Mayfield Consumer Products, a candle factory in southwestern Kentucky, where nine workers died while on the job. Survivors said they asked to go home as the forecast grew increasingly dire but were either told to keep working or felt they could be fired if they left....

Throughout the past eight years, President Obama has worked slowly but surely to bring greater diversity to the federal courts, the president assured law students at the University of Chicago Law School earlier this month. But when it came time to picking his third Supreme Court nominee, he told the crowd, “at no point did I say: ‘I need a black lesbian from Skokie in that slot.’” Why not? Obama’s comment came after an audience member cited the lack of minority and LGBT perspectives on the Supreme Court....

If you’re not happy with your homeowners’ association (HOA) or housing development, you may be able to sue. When you moved into a condo or housing development, you may have been asked to read and sign an elaborately worded tome called “Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions” (CC&Rs). These governing documents are typically set by the board members and board of directors. Sometimes the management company sets the rules or enforces them....

The Second Circuit decided one case concerning the intersection of federal Indian law and tax law, and another involving attorney discipline. New York v. Golden Feather Smoke Shop, Inc., No. 09-3942, involved an appeal from a preliminary injunction prohibiting the sale of untaxed cigarettes other than to members of the Unkechauge Nation for their personal use. The Second Circuit certified the following questions to the New York Court of Appeals: 1) Does N....

Company bumbles. Consumers complain. Lawyers sue. That’s a quick reference to the latest class actions filed against Apple after the iPhone maker admitted that it purposely slowed own older phones with software updates. Before the company could get a handle on the bad press from the “throttling scandal,” lawyers filed class actions from coast to coast. Who knows how it will all end, but here’s a possible preview: Case dismissed. Appeal....

The Supreme Court granted writs of certiorari in eight new cases this week; five of those cases matriculated from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. As usual, the Supreme Court is facing a year flavored by opinions from the country’s largest circuit. The Ninth Circuit is commonly regarded as the most liberal of the circuit courts of appeal, but does that mean that it’s wrong? If Supreme Court reversal is the standard by which we measure right and wrong, then it is....

In an action by an insurer seeking a declaration that it had no liability to plaintiffs under a general liability policy, judgment for defendants is reversed where the MCS-90 endorsement in the policy was intended to impose a surety obligation on the insurance company, and thus when an injured party obtains a negligence judgment against a motor carrier, an insurer’s obligation under the MCS-90 endorsement is not triggered unless: 1) the underlying insurance policy (to which the endorsement is attached) does not provide liability coverage for the accident; and 2) the carrier’s other insurance coverage is either insufficient to meet the federally-mandated minimums or non-existent....

Anthony Zeno moved from Long Island to Pine Plains, New York when he was 16. He enrolled at Stissing Mountain High School, a racially-homogenous school where minorities represented less than five percent of the student population. While at SMHS, Anthony — who the Second Circuit Court of Appeals described as “dark-skinned and biracial (half-white, half-Latino)” — endured three-and-a-half years of “racist, demeaning, threatening, and violent conduct” from his peers. Anthony reported the bullying....

Roger Stone, the now-famous political consultant accused of lying to Congress, obstruction of justice and witness tampering involving Robert Mueller’s investigation into the 2016 election, is slated for trial on November 5. We haven’t heard much lately from Stone himself regarding the charges or his defense, however, because the district court judge has imposed a gag order on Stone after he published several ill-advised and inflammatory social media posts about the presiding judge....