In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action, defendant’s appeal from the denial of summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds is dismissed as moot where the trial already occurred and there was no longer any compelling reason for the court of appeals to deviate from the general rule preventing it from reviewing denials of summary judgment. Read Padgett v. Wright, No. 08-16720 Appellate Information Submitted October 5, 2009 Filed October 14, 2009...
Personal computers contain a significant amount of sensitive information. There could be financial documentation, emails, browsing history, and downloads. Law enforcement, when investigating wrongdoing, often seeks information on the suspect’s computer. However, law enforcement in Pennsylvania cannot compel an accused person to reveal their computer password over their Fifth Amendment objection, according to a recent decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. A Horrible Crime . . . and a Valid Legal Argument?...
In a trademark infringement action by Starbucks Corp. regarding a competitor’s use of the name “Charbucks,” judgment for defendant is affirmed in part where: 1) the district court did not clearly err in finding that the Charbucks Marks were minimally similar to the Starbucks Marks; 2) the Charbucks line of coffee was marketed as a product of very high quality – as Starbucks also purported its coffee to be – which was inconsistent with the concept of tarnishment....
Petition for Review of Aggravated Felony-Based Removal Granted In Teposte v. Holder, No. 08-72516, a petition for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) dismissing petitioner’s appeal of an Immigration Judge’s (IJ) order of removal based on a conviction of an aggravated felony, the court granted the petition where the California offense of shooting at an inhabited dwelling or vehicle was not categorically a crime of violence as that term was defined in 18 U....
This post was updated on December 8, 2020. When Congress passed the Coronavirus, Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act back in March, most lawmakers and the general public thought it was necessary legislation for a temporary problem. But now it’s December, the pandemic is still raging out of control, and many of the programs created as part of the CARES Act are expiring at the end of the year. Millions of Americans remain jobless, and crucial lifelines are about to be taken away if Congress and the White House cannot agree on new aid....
Bank Robbery Conviction Affirmed In US v. Haas, No. 08-4012, the court affirmed defendant’s conviction and sentence for aiding and abetting burglary of a building used in part as a bank, holding that 1) the unambiguous language of 18 U.S.C. section 2113(a) applied to a defendant who took federally insured deposits from a bank-owned and operated ATM located within a store; 2) the district court did not abuse its discretion by excluding evidence about the bank’s FDIC insurance; and 3) defendant’s earlier burglary conviction was a crime of violence....
Utah Governor Gary Herbert can’t withhold federal funds from the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, the Tenth Circuit ruled last week. The governor had instructed Utah officials to withhold $272,000 in so-called “pass-through” federal funds designated for STD treatment and sex education. The move came shortly after conservative activists released video of Planned Parenthood discussing the use of fetal tissue in medical research, leading to a national uproar and attempts in several states to deny funding to Planned Parenthood-affiliated programs....
In the latest lawsuit related to the recent Catholic priest sexual abuse scandals, the Vatican and Bay Area archdioceses will now have to reply to a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco. That case is making headlines due to the big allegations including hundreds of priests who are alleged to have sexually assaulted children. The case also comes on the heels of another significant Catholic priest sexual abuse case filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court earlier this month against nearly every archdioceses in the state....
Indiana has been in the news for the last week, and not for a good reason. Last week, Indiana Governor Mike Pence quietly signed into law the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which in many ways mirrors similar statutes enacted in 19 other states. Gay rights advocates pointed out, however, that the Indiana law differs significantly from other laws in that it may allow “religious freedom” as a defense to discrimination even in civil causes of action, and even allows corporations to discriminate, with the ability to assert religion as a defense....
Until now, Nevada’s Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto has fought vehemently to uphold the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. As recently as last week, on the same day that the Ninth Circuit held that a heightened standard of scrutiny, as well as equal protection principles, applied to gays, the state submitted a brief that reportedly placed gay marriage in the context of bigamy and incest. By Friday afternoon, Masto’s office had backed off via a press release, announcing that in light of the Smithkline opinion, many of the arguments made in the brief were now untenable....
They are growing more than marijuana in Colorado; they are growing pot law. Adding to a growing body of marijuana decisions, the U.S.Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals said a Colorado credit union could not force the U.S. banking system to give it a master account to serve the state’s marijuana industry. In The Fourth Corner Credit Union v. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the appeals court threw out the credit union’s complaint without prejudice....
In a rather interesting jurisdiction case, the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed a lower court’s decision which held that a tribe did not have jurisdiction over a member’s off-reservation criminal conduct. The circuit rule that the tribe essentially held criminal jurisdiction over the defendant inasmuch as it was needed to protect the tribe’s self-governance and internal relations. The case represents a refreshing dip into civil procedure by breaking away from federal and state courts, and into the world of Native American law....
A jury convicted David Swanson of a number of fraud, tax, and money laundering offenses. He was sentenced to 180 months’ imprisonment, which included a § 3B1.1(a) enhancement. Swanson appealed, replacing his trial counsel with new counsel who represented him in his first appeal, at resentencing, in a second appeal, and before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. A focus of Swanson’s sentencing hearing was his objection to the PSR’s use of the 2001 guidelines and whether the variances between that version and the 1998 edition, proposed by Swanson’s trial counsel, mattered....
Facebook had a bad day in court involving its biggest data breach. Add a multi-targeted investigation by federal regulators, and it was a really bad day. It’s nervous time for the tech titans, but legal experts say they’ll survive. Facebook, however, had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. With all the news, its stock fell more than six percent. Cambridge Analytica By now, some people may have forgotten that the social media giant had an epic problem with some 87 million Facebook accounts....
This is not a complicated case. Homaidan Al-Turki is an inmate at Limon Correctional Facility in Colorado. He was in pain. His pain was so severe that he was unable to stand and was vomiting. Mary Robinson, the nurse on duty at the time, refused to treat him, telling him to take it up in writing with the doctor who would be around in the morning. Eventually he passed out, woke up still in pain, and passed two kidney stones....
Challenge to Post-Wildfire Logging In Earth Island Inst. v. Carlton, No. 09-16914, an appeal from the district court’s order denying plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction seeking to enjoin the U.S. Forest Service from conducting post-wildfire logging in the Plumas National Forest, the court affirmed where 1) the Forest Service satisfied the requirement to assess MIS habitat in the project area; and 2) the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding that the Forest Service’s tree mortality guidelines were not enforceable....
When it rains, it really can pour, and if you’re a lawyer caught in a downpour, simply walking from your car to the courtroom could literally washout your case, or at least your case docs. For attorneys, finding the right rain gear can be tricky, as much of the professional looking rain gear just doesn’t cut it when the weather gets really bad. Add the fact that most lawyers now depend on electronic devices (nearly all of which are mortal enemies of water), and you have a recipe for disaster....
In a Due Process and Equal Protection Clause challenge to New York’s felon disenfranchisement laws, judgment on the pleadings for defendants is affirmed where: 1) plaintiffs’ amended complaint failed to allege any facts as to discriminatory intent behind the legislature’s adoption of the state constitutional provision at issue; and 2) there was a rational basis for the statutes’ distinction between felons sentenced to incarceration or serving parole and those sentenced to probation....
The U.S. Supreme Court said two brothers were not jointly and severally liable under a forfeiture statute for conspiring to distribute products used to make methamphetamine. In Honeycutt v. United States, the High Court turned back prosecutors’ claims that both brothers owed $269,751 in the case – even though one of them did not profit personally from the crimes. The justices said the Comprehensive Forfeiture Act, 21 U. S. C. sec....
In a bankruptcy adversary action seeking avoidance of the transfer of a parcel of real property from the debtor to defendant, defendant’s appeal from the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel’s (BAP) affirmance of the bankruptcy court’s ruling that the doctrine of equitable tolling applied to the trustee’s filing of the proceeding is dismissed where the BAP’s order was nonfinal. Read In re: Bender, No. 08-15027 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted September 3, 2009...
