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Backpage.com has certainly faced quite a bit of public controversy over the past few years, given the website’s popularity for online advertisements for prostitution. In the company’s most recent effort to dodge legal trouble and controversy, it is appealing the order to turn over years of both operational and editorial data. The Missouri state attorney general seeking the information believes that there is some evidence that Backpage “played a direct and active role in creation, soliciting, and promoting advertisements for illegal commercial sex on its website....

Charles Kastner sought disability insurance benefits because he was suffering from a degenerative disc disorder. He claimed that his disorder of the spine constituted a disability under the Social Security Act. An administrative law judge (ALJ) disagreed, concluding that Kastner’s impairments were severe, but did not meet the requirements for a presumptively disabling condition. The ALJ concluded that Kastner had residual capability to perform certain jobs in the economy. After losing a challenge before the district court, Kastner may have found relief in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals....

President Trump reversed federal protections for transgender students last week, abandoning an Obama-era policy that read Title IX as protecting transgender students’ right to use the bathroom that comports with their gender identity. That now-renounced policy was at the center of Gloucester County School Board v. G.G., a high-profile Supreme Court case scheduled for arguments later this month. Now, with significant questions about how the Court will move forward, both sides are urging the Court to hear the case despite the administration’s changes, though one wants the justices to move a bit more slowly....

In a case involving two officers of the U.S. Army Reserve who were deployed to Iraq, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court conviction of conspiracy. On appeal, the defendants raised issues on the insufficiency of evidence to establish participation in the conspiracy, failure to grant a new trial in the interests of justice, and erroneous refusal to grant “use immunity” to a co-conspirator. Let’s have a look at the sufficiency of evidence argument....

Earlier this week, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a settlement agreement on health care coverage between the city of Omaha and a class of city workers, affirming the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska’s approval of the agreement. The class consisted of police officers, city firefighters, civilian employees and their unions. In arguing for the city, attorneys claimed that the court failed to properly apply and interpret the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and as a result, failed to properly address the conflict of interest that arose from having the same attorneys represent both active and retired employees....

In a capital habeas matter, the denial of Petitioner’s petition is affirmed where: 1) defense counsel made an objectively reasonable strategic decision in not investigating further or presenting psychological evidence at trial; and 2) a post-trial examination of the gun Petitioner used did not indicate it was faulty in any material way that would have caused it to accidentally discharge. Read Gardner v. Galetka, No. 07-4104. Appellate Information APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF UTAH(D....

Denial of Disability Benefits Affirmed In Gates v. Astrue, No. 10-1269, plaintiff’s appeal from the decision of the district court upholding the Social Security Commissioner’s denial of her application for disability insurance benefits and supplemental security income, the court affirmed where 1) the medical record supported the conclusion that any depression experienced by plaintiff was situational in nature, related to marital issues, and improved with a regimen of medication and counseling; and 2) the ALJ did not err in not fully crediting plaintiff’s testimony about her mental and physical limitations on her ability to do work-related activities....

Harrington v. Atlantic Sounding Co., No. 07-4272, involved a personal injury action arising out of injuries sustained by plaintiff-seaman. The court of appeals vacated the district court’s order denying defendants’ motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, to stay the district court action and compel arbitration, holding that section 6 of the Federal Employer’s Liability Act did not apply to seamen’s arbitration agreements, and thus the arbitration agreement was not unenforceable as a matter of law, and the district court’s finding that the arbitration agreement was unenforceable due to unconscionability was erroneous....

The highly anticipated decision in Janus v. American Federation was released this morning as the High Court ended the term. Surprisingly, not only did the Court overturn the decision, it overruled the longstanding precedent in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education. In short, the Court ruled that government employees who are not members of a union that nevertheless represents their interests in collective bargaining cannot be compelled to pay fees or costs related to the collective bargaining....

In an employment discrimination action against a school district alleging that the district breached its employment contract with the plaintiff and that it unlawfully used race in its hiring practices, summary judgment for district is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) evidence that an employer followed an affirmative action plan in taking a challenged adverse employment action may constitute direct evidence of unlawful discrimination; 2) plaintiff presented sufficient direct evidence of unlawful race discrimination by showing that there are genuine issues of material fact regarding the district’s affirmative action policies and its actions; 3) summary judgment on another failure to promote claim was proper as she failed to exhaust her administrative remedies; and 4) plaintiff’s state law claims are reinstated for reconsideration....

First, there was “Cops,” a show that followed police officers and aired the most shocking or funny chases and arrests. Then, there was “First 48,” that focused on detectives solving murder cases. Now, for the past three years, there has been “Live PD,” which broadcasts live encounters with officers from eight law enforcement agencies, along with an in-studio host and roundtable of guests. All three have been criticized for linking potentially innocent people to crimes they did not commit or criminal charges that were later dropped or of which they were acquitted....

The United States Supreme Court has rejected the case against Morris County in New Jersey stemming from the county’s refusal to give churches funds for historic preservation of buildings, under a particular government grant program. Notably though, despite concurring in the decision to deny certiorari, rookie Justice Kavanaugh issued a “statement” explaining that the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision “is in serious tension with this Court’s religious equality precedents.” As Justice Kavanaugh made painstakingly clear, the Court’s prior decision in the Trinity Church case makes the Court’s refusal of the Morris County case that much more difficult....

For the school board members in the Chino Valley school district, the practice of opening meetings with a prayer has been ruled a violation of the Establishment Clause. While the district and appellate court did recognize a “legislative tradition” of the use of opening prayers by governing bodies, the courts ruled that the school board meetings fell outside that tradition because students were encouraged to participate and attend. “Adults Free From Coercive Pressures” Notably, what put the meetings within the Establishment Clause, rather than the legislative tradition, was primarily due to the fact that the school children in the district were encouraged to attend, and participate....

In an action alleging that defendant’s use of different base hourly rates violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by denying unionized employees overtime pay, summary judgment for defendant is affirmed where, when an employer changes its shift schedule to accommodate its employees’ scheduling desires, the mere fact that pay rates changed, between the old and new scheduling schemes in an attempt to keep overall pay revenue-neutral, does not establish a violation of the FLSA’s overtime pay requirements....

Friday, a Second Circuit Court of Appeals panel unanimously ruled that it lacked standing to hear a sanctions dispute about terrorism financing allegations. The appeal stemmed from claims brought by victims and families of victims of terrorist attacks committed in Israel between 1995 and 2004. More than 100 families and 700 individuals are seeking more than $1 billion in damages from Arab Bank in the lawsuits, Thomson Reuters News & Insight reports....

In A League of Their Own, Coach Jimmy Dugan, (played by Tom Hanks), chastises one of the Rockford Peaches after a botched play, saying, “Are you crying? There’s no crying. There’s no crying in baseball.” As Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, Jr. stepped up to the plate in Wednesday’s oral arguments about Arizona S.B. 1070, Coach Chief Justice John Roberts offered a similar warning from the bench. Their exchange, (from the Supreme Court transcript):...

In the government’s appeal from the district court’s order granting a new trial in an attempted murder prosecution, the order is reversed where the district court erred in ordering a new trial because: 1) the district court’s jury instructions on intentional conduct were legally correct and did not constitute plain error warranting a new trial; 2) the district court’s use of a general verdict form was not plain error and thus not a basis for ordering a new trial; 3) the district court rested its decision to grant a new trial on clearly erroneous factual findings; and 4) the district court failed to evaluate the entire trial record in ruling on defendant’s motion for a new trial....

Sex Offender Registration Conviction Affirmed In US v. Brewer, No. 09-3898, the court affirmed defendant’s conviction for knowingly failing to register as a sex offender where 1) defendant raised an issue of fact – whether he knowingly violated 18 U.S.C. section 2250 – not an issue of law warranting dismissal of the indictment; and 2) because Congress deliberately chose to impose longer terms of supervised release on persons convicted of certain sex offenses, including Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act offenses, the district court’s imposition of a fifteen-year term was not a substantively unreasonable abuse of discretion in this case....

Sentence of defendant convicted of bank robbery and armed bank robbery is vacated for the lesser included offense as district court erred by imposing separate sentences for each conviction even though it ordered the terms of imprisonment and supervised release to be served concurrently as defendant received concurrent sentences for lesser included offenses in violation of double jeopardy, as well as two separate special assessments constituting impermissible double punishment. Read US v....

Pittsburgh’s second-largest hospital system’s antitrust suit against the state’s largest hospital system and health insurer for conspiracy to protect one another from competition W. Penn Allegheny Health Sys., Inc. v. UPMC, 09-4468, concerned a challenge to the district court’s dismissal of plaintiff’s Sherman Act claims, and consequent refusal to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over state-law claims, in an antitrust suit by Pittsburgh’s second-largest hospital system against Pittsburgh’s dominant hospital system and health insurer under the Sherman Act and state law, claiming that defendants violated sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act by forming a conspiracy to protect one another from competition....