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Sometimes, you just don’t know where the road will take you – especially when you take a wrong turn. Bernardino Fuentes-Espinoza found that out when he was driving illegal immigrants across state lines into Colorado. He was caught and convicted of smuggling under state laws. Seven years later, the Colorado Supreme Court threw out his conviction because Colorado’s law was preempted by federal law. His case, Fuentes-Espinoza v. People, will go down as a litigation landmark....

Troy Shaw and two other men were charged with the aggravated battery of Brett King, who was beaten to death. The two men plead guilty and received shorter sentences, in return for testifying against Shaw. As a result of the plea deals, the prosecution amended its charge from aggravated battery (punishable from 6 to 20 years), to murder (punishable from 45 to 65 years). Shaw was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to 60 years in prison....

In Tolliver v. Sheets, No. 08-3177, the Sixth Circuit faced a criminal defendant’s challenge to his conviction for murder claiming that his statements to the police were unconstitutionally obtained and thus improperly admitted at trial, and that his ineffective assistance claim was not procedurally defaulted. In rejecting the defendant’s claims the court stated: “if all of the statements the prosecution used at trial to argue that defendant had lied when speaking to the police had been improperly admitted, this would be a closer case....

In a petition for review of the BIA’s denial of petitioner’s motion to reissue the BIA’s decision and stay his removal, the petition is granted where the BIA may not deem a motion to reopen or reissue withdrawn by operation of law when the government removes a petitioner before the BIA has ruled on the motion. Read Coyt v. Holder, No. 05-77080 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted October 5, 2009...

In US v. Castellanos, No. 09-1456, a prosecution for conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine, the Eighth Circuit affirmed the denial of defendant’s motion to suppress, holding that 1) the government did not raise a new “issue” on remand when it argued the evidence was admissible under the independent source doctrine, but merely formulated a new argument in support of the position maintained by the government in each proceeding; and 2) the district court did not err in relying upon the independent source doctrine when denying defendant’s supplemental motion to suppress....

Whistleblowers cannot represent the interests of the government by bringing a qui tam claim pro se. At least, that was the recent conclusion of a Fourth Circuit panel. “While a pro se plaintiff can squander his own rights," the panel noted, “he cannot waste the rights of other persons or entities." This includes the government’s rights. The case arose when Joseph Wojcicki notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of his belief that SCANA Corp....

Neil Gorsuch participated in his first oral arguments as a Supreme Court justice this morning, in a case involving the judicial review of federal civil service disputes. And if you expected to see a new side of Neil Gorsuch on the bench, well, you might be disappointed. Gorsuch has claimed, loudly and repeatedly, to be a strict textualist, a judge in the mold of Antonin Scalia. And his questions today remained decidedly within that line of thought, as the new justice returned again and again to the plain language of the statute at issue....

It’s accepted legal precedent that jail and prison inmates have fewer Fourth Amendment protections when incarcerated. But what few expectations of privacy they did retain seem extinguished by last week’s Seventh Circuit decision. The court ruled that mass strip searches, during which female inmates were forced to expose themselves, remove tampons and menstrual pads, and viewed by male and female guards, trainees, and civilians, did not fall under the Fourth Amendment....

We recently posted about Judge Posner’s thoughts on the Crawford voter-id opinion he authored. Based on an excerpt from his book “Reflections on Judging,” he seemed to hint that he didn’t agree with the direction the case took – the view that the “law [is] now widely regarded as a means of voter suppression rather than fraud prevention.” Perhaps Judge Posner was not prepared for the interview heard ‘round the world, but he now appears to be tiptoeing back a bit....

The federal government wants the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a ruling that would allow public-broadcasting stations to accept political advertisements, reports The Wall Street Journal. Friday, the Justice Department asked the court for rehearing or en banc review, claiming that the decision in Minority Television Project v. FCC “threatens the noncommercial, educational character of public broadcasting.” In April, the Ninth Circuit overturned a federal ban on political advertising on public television stations....

Neil Gorsuch was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice today, becoming the 113th jurist to sit on the Court. The process began this morning, with a private swearing-in ceremony at the Court, involving Gorsuch’s family and his new Supreme Court colleagues. Gorsuch then crossed the street for a public event in the White House Rose Garden, where he took a second oath administered by Justice Kennedy, for whom he once clerked....

Congratulations are in order to the Nurse Ratcheds of the world. The Third Circuit ruled Tuesday that New Jersey can forcibly medicate institutionalized, mentally ill patients in state custody. The appeal came after Disability Rights New Jersey challenged the forced-medication, arguing that it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the patients’ due process rights. The Third Circuit disagreed, finding that the institutionalized were not discriminated against and had sufficient process available before being medicated....

Racial discrimination in the workplace often results in grievances that are sad or even painful to hear about. That wasn’t the case with the discrimination case brought by police sergeant Michael Miller. In writing his decision, Judge Posner didn’t seem too impressed with Miller’s list of grievances. Miller held a stable position in a detective bureau in Indiana. In 2010, he ran unsuccessfully for Sheriff. He subsequently asked the new sheriff if he could be appointed as warden of the county jail or assistant chief of the police department....

Partial Grant of Petition for Review of BIA Decision In Rizk v. Holder, No. 06-74213, a petition for review of the immigration judge’s (IJ) and Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) rejection of petitioner’s asylum claim on the basis of an adverse credibility determination, the court granted the petition in part where the BIA’s decision did not resolve petitioner’s wife’s appeal. However, the court denied the petition in part where the court could not say that “any reasonable adjudicator would be compelled to conclude” that petitioner was credible....

The Colorado Mining Association and the State of Wyoming are joining forces to ask the Supreme Court to overturn the Roadless Rule, a regulation that bans construction and reconstruction in certain inventoried roadless areas (IRAs). The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals denied en banc rehearing on the Roadless Rule in February; now the Clinton-era law’s fate is in the Supreme Court’s hands. Attorney Paul Seby, who submitted the Colorado Mining Association’s petition to the Supreme Court, told the Denver Post, “Congress never considered banning the multiple use of 58....

The nation’s highest court refused to intervene in a Confrontation Clause case in which a convicted murder pled for relief. This is the latest in Sixth Circuit Opinions where that court has taken its own path with regards to ‘precedent.’ Facts and Procedure Fred Blackston was convicted in Michigan of murder, retried and convicted again. Five witnesses had testified against Blackston in the first trial. Before the retrial, two of the key witnesses recanted statements that had been used to convict Blackston....

Curtis Hardaway’s pro se appeal of the Federal District Court of Connecticut’s sua sponte dismissal of his Title VII lawsuit against the Hartford Public Works Department was surprisingly successful in winning a reversal and remand. The district court dismissed Hardaway’s third amended complaint on a rather significant technicality: he failed to plead facts to show that he satisfied the exhaustion of administrative remedies requirement under Title VII. The Second Circuit reasoned that the district court could not dismiss the case sua sponte as the exhaustion requirement was not a jurisdictional requirement, but rather an affirmative defense....

Here’s a long running tax case that has seen its way through the Tax Court, the Federal District Court and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. The case has a bit of everything for the tax practitioner: tax liens,a notice of deficiency, a foreclosure and a tax protest. For all you non-tax lawyers, let’s try to put this in plain English. From 1990 to 1995, a taxpayer failed to pay his taxes....

We’re only three months into 2014, and the “Benchslappy” Seventh Circuit (so dubbed by Above the Law) has already issued enough benchslaps to warrant a review. And we’re not just talking Judge Posner, but Judge Easterbrook as well. Here’s a little round up of some of the latest benchslaps coming out of the Windy City. Judge Posner’s Benchslaps During Oral Arguments Earlier this month we posted on the Seventh Circuit’s opinion, written by Judge Posner, affirming a district court’s denial of Notre Dame’s motion for a preliminary injunction in a contraception mandate case....

A “stuck” weather system has led to an especially busy tornado season in the Midwest, with over 500 tornadoes reported in just the past 30 days, from Texas to Pennsylvania. And the storm activity has also led to record to record flooding in portions of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma, and seven deaths in Iowa, Missouri, and Ohio. The widespread damage has caught many homeowners off-guard, leaving them to wonder whether their insurance policies cover weather-related damage....