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Defendant’s sentence procedurally unreasonable US v. Peebles, 09-1986, concerned a challenge to the district court’s imposition of a ten-month sentence upon a defendant for violating the conditions of her supervised release. In vacating the sentence and remanding for resentencing, the court held that defendant’s sentence is procedurally unreasonable because the district court did not calculate the appropriate guideline range and because it is impossible to determine with certainty what sentencing range the district court relied on and whether the district court meant to impose a sentence within or above that range....

Defendant’s mail fraud and money laundering convictions are affirmed in part where returning certain victims’ investment in defendant’s scheme was intended to “promote the carrying on,” of the “scheme” at the heart of the mail fraud counts, by discouraging detection of that scheme. However, they are reversed in part where another transaction that fully refunded one investor’s outlay could not be regarded as a crucial element of the “scheme to defraud....

If you have clients who are lucky enough to have millions in the bank and a home in the Virgin Islands, you might want to brush up on a recent tax ruling from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals about residency requirements. Residents of the Virgin Islands pay income taxes to the Virgin Islands Bureau of Internal Revenue (VIBIR) rather than the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Appellants Richard and Lana Vento (the Ventos) filed a joint 2001 income tax return with the VIBIR....

The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a judicial powerhouse (whether you agreed with her or not), has once again put a question mark on the makeup of the Supreme Court. Within days of her passing, President Trump announced that he intended to nominate a woman to replace her. And the name that continues to appear on the shortlist of potential nominees? 7th Circuit Judge Amy Coney Barrett. If nominated and confirmed, the 48-year-old would be the youngest person on the Court - with the potential to shape American jurisprudence for decades....

With President-elect Trump’s inauguration quick approaching, we could soon have a new nominee to the Supreme Court, almost a year after Justice Scalia’s death and after nearly 300 days of Senate Republicans refusing to consider Merrick Garland’s nomination. The Supreme Court would finally be back to a full set of justices, its frequent deadlocked non-decisions a thing of the past. Or not. As Trump narrows down his SCOTUS list, some are suggesting that Democrats should block any or all of Trump’s Supreme Court nominees....

The Supreme Court’s October 2014 term is winding down. There will be no more oral arguments before the Court goes on summer vacation at the end of June, though there is still plenty of controversy as 35 cases are as-yet undecided. Among these are same-sex marriage, the Affordable Care Act, and Confederate license plates. It’s never too late to think about the next term, though. The Court has already granted cert....

On June 15, a federal agency released the first-ever reports measuring car accidents involving driver-assistance technology. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) provided firm numbers —392 accidents involving vehicles with drivers and another 130 with driverless vehicles — over a 10-month period. But instead of providing answers about the safety of the technology, the reports have mostly sown seeds of confusion. Are cars equipped with Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) technology safer than those that are not?...

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the City of Chicago last week in a landmark employment discrimination case. As a result of the 7th Circuit ruling, Chicago must hire 111 black firefighter applicants who were denied jobs years ago by the city and it must pay tens of millions to approximately 6,000 more black candidates, according to The New York Times. The 7th Circuit decision is based on a decade old case that involved a written employment test for prospective firefighters....

Speech is free – unless it’s government speech, in which case, it’s a little less free. The question before the Supreme Court in Walker v. Sons of Confederate Veterans involved ostensibly private speech with elements of government speech. The Texas division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans petitioned to have the state create a license plate with the Confederate flag on it. The state refused, and now we’re at the Supreme Court, with a bunch of justices who aren’t sure whether a license plate is government speech or a public forum....

The Eighth Circuit became the latest appellate court to strike down a state law banning abortions before viability last week. The court threw out an Arkansas law banning abortions after 12 weeks, reiterating the requirement that states may not unduly burden a woman’s right to choose prior to fetal viability. However, unlike its sister circuit to the west, the Eighth did not emphasis the arbitrary or burdensome nature of those bans....

In re: Cmty. Bank of N. Virginia & Guaranty Nat’l Bank of Tallahassee Second Mortgage Loan Litig., 08-3621, concerned a challenge to the district court’s decisions certifying the “settlement only” nationwide class action and approving the class settlement, in a nationwide class action lawsuit alleging predatory home equity lending scheme involving two banks and a company that purchased second mortgage loans from them. Related Resource: Full text of In re: Cmty....

When the Nine return to the bench on Tuesday, the topic du jour will be habeas corpus. The Court will kick off its second week of the October sitting with two habeas appeals: Tibbals v. Carter and Ryan v. Gonzales. In the first case, Tibbals v. Carter, the Court will consider a Sixth Circuit decision postponing convicted murderer Sean Carter’s appeals until he is competent to participate in the proceedings....

RBG. She’s a legend among women’s rights advocates, a cancer survivor, and Nino’s bestie. Now, she’s a Supreme Court bobblehead. The Green Bag, an “entertaining” law journal, has produced 16 Supreme Court bobbleheads since 2003, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the latest jurist to be immortalized in resin, according to George Mason University’s School of Law. Behold the greatness, after the jump. Green Bag image via SBMBlog The Green Bag bobbleheads are known for their detailed symbolism, and the Ruth Bader Ginsburg bobblehead doesn’t disappoint....

In plaintiff’s suit against her former employer for age and sex discrimination and retaliation after she was let go for taking more than six months of leave necessitated by complications with her pregnancy, district court’s grant of defendant’s motion for summary judgment on all counts is affirmed where: 1) district court properly granted motion for summary judgment on plaintiff’s claim that a transfer was motivated by pregnancy discrimination as she has not presented evidence that would support a finding that her employer knew that she was pregnant when he decided the transfer; and 2) plaintiff’s evidence falls short of raising a genuine issue of fact on her claim that defendant’s decisions to terminate her employment and then not to rehire her violated Title VII’s prohibitions against pregnancy discrimination and retaliation....

When Eric Holder announced last month that he was done, finished, outta here, everyone wondered who the next Attorney General of the United States would be. And they also wondered how President Obama would be able to push through someone who was as tough as Holder was on issues that – well, let’s say issues that the new Senate majority might not want the new AG to be investigating so much....

The Masterpiece Cake Shop baker has filed a lawsuit against the state of Colorado alleging that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission has been hostile towards him. Regardless about how you feel about the issues, if you read the Supreme Court case, then you know, the hostility was pretty obvious. After the big Supreme Court decision came back in favor of the baker, he faced a new formal complaint from the commission relating to another cake he refused to make for a person celebrating their gender transition....

Mesle v. Signed Personal Check No. 730, No. 09-55353, concerned claimant’s appeal from the district court’s denial of his motion to set aside an entry of default in a forfeiture proceeding against checks drawn on claimant’s accounts and funds in those accounts. The court reversed on the ground that the district court erred by holding the movant to a standard inappropriate for determining whether an unrepresented lay party’s conduct demonstrated culpability; and made merits decisions as to the movant’s defenses that were premature at this stage of the proceedings, and, moreover, were incorrect....

Under a new rule, the American Bar Association says at least 75 percent of a law school’s graduates must pass the bar exam for the school to keep its accreditation. The rule is virtually in effect now, and mandates that bar applicants pass the exam within two years of graduation. The pressure, however, is really on the law schools. Many lower-performing schools will be on the accreditation chopping block if they don’t raise their bar-pass rates....

Bernard Madoff was arrested in 2008, but the trail of infamy surrounding his Ponzi scheme is far from over when it comes to litigation, and the liquidation of assets related to the fraud. In the latest development, the Second Circuit affirmed the lower courts’ rulings, and we received news that the Bankruptcy Judge presiding over the case passed away over the weekend. Background Understandably, there is a litany of litigation arising from Madoff’s Ponzi scheme gone awry....

One of the biggest trends in criminal justice reform over the last several years has been the election of “progressive” prosecutors in counties across the country. So-called “law and order” or “tough on crime” prosecutors who dominated elections in some of America’s most liberal counties have been sent packing. And on Election Day 2020, activists scored their biggest win yet, electing George Gascón district attorney of Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the country....