Defendant’s wire fraud and money laundering sentence is affirmed in part where the district court did not clearly err in finding that defendant was an organizer of the fraudulent scheme. However, the sentence is remanded where the record included no evidence to support an inference that the foreclosure sales prices at issue were appropriate estimates of what the original lenders received when they sold the loans to the successor lenders....
Last week, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s ruling when they refused to temporarily halt construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, reports The Associated Press. The pipeline would carry Canadian TransCanada’s tar-sands oil from Oklahoma all the way to refineries along the Gulf Coast. The plaintiffs, the Sierra Club, Clean Energy Future of Oklahoma, and the East Texas Sub Regional Planning Commission sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, alleging that their approval of the construction of an oil pipeline violated the National Environment Policy Act (NEPA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), posing environmental hazards....
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals told Westchester County last week that it needs to get serious about compliance with a 2006 decree requiring the County to promote source-of-income legislation to ensure fair housing. The decree evolved from a qui tam action filed by the Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro New York (ADC), alleging that the County submitted false claims to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in order to obtain federal fair housing grant funds....
The Sixth Circuit is now the first federal circuit court of appeals to rule against same-sex marriage, likely setting the stage for what Justice Ginsburg predicted: The necessity for the Supreme Court to take up the issue instead of letting it fall into shadows, as it did last month when it declined to hear same-sex marriage cases from three other circuits. By a 2-1 vote, a panel of the Sixth Circuit said that the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution does allow states to define marriage as being between a man and a woman....
With religious challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate popping up all over the country, the Seventh Circuit has taken a stance – and has even taken it a step further than other courts. The Seventh Circuit has determined that people and their secular, for-profit companies can challenge the contraception mandate on religious grounds, and remanded with instructions to enter preliminary injunctions preventing enforcement of the contraception mandate....
The 9th Circuit recently affirmed a judgment against the town of Colorado City, Arizona for claims by the federal government that municipal entities excessively entangled with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). A Changing Community The Short Creek Community, a religious settlement spread across the Utah-Arizona border, comprises most of the population of both Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah. FLDS members follow the teachings of Warren Jeffs, who has led the church since 2002 (despite being in prison since 2006)....
District court’s judgment affirming a decision denying petitioner’s request for social security disability benefits is reversed and remanded because an ALJ failed to give good reasons for discounting the opinions of petitioner’s treating physicians in violation of 20 C.F.R. section 404.1527 (d)(2). Read Blakley v. Comm’r of Soc. Sec., No. 08-6270 Appellate Information Argued: April 4, 2009 Decided and Filed: September 24, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Suhrheinrich Counsel For Appellant: Julie Anne Atkins, Atkins Law Office, Harlan Kentucky...
In Rossum v. Patrick, No. 09-55666, a murder prosecution, the court reversed the denial of petitioner’s habeas petition where, in light of the anomalous medical and toxicological evidence, the ready availability of an alternative cause of death, the lapse in the chain of custody of the victim’s autopsy specimens, and the failure of petitioner’s attorneys to have a test conducted that could have conclusively contradicted the prosecution’s theory of the case, petitioner made a strong showing that her lawyers’ performance was deficient, and the district court needs to conduct an evidentiary hearing on this issue....
A federal appeals court ruled that employers may not pay women less than men based on prior salaries when hiring for the same job. The decision was a turnaround for the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which last year ruled that employers could consider salary history in hiring. But the full court stepped over that decision by a three-judge panel, and also reversed its own ruling in a related case more than 35 years ago....
In US v. Cisneros-Gutierrez, No. 09-1890, the court of appeals affirmed defendant’s drug and firearm conspiracy convictions, holding that 1) there was no credible evidence that the police were physically intimidating or made any promises in exchange for consent to search a residence; 2) as to the police’s entry into another residence, an objectively reasonable police officer, knowing the information supplied by an informant and observing defendants’ conduct, would conclude that there was danger of removal or destruction of evidence of a crime; and 3) the knock-and-talk that was conducted in this case was a reasonable and proper investigative strategy that did not foreseeably increase the likelihood of the destruction of evidence....
Today, the Seventh Circuit decided three criminal cases involving a first degree murder conviction and two felonious firearm possession convictions. The court also ruled regarding the Social Security Administration’s denial of benefits to a claimant, an immigration case, a train engineer’s claim for injuries, and last but not least, a suit by white firefighters against a city for employment discrimination. In Gray v. Hardy, No. 07-3704, the court faced a challenge to the district court’s denial of defendant’s request for habeas relief for his conviction of first-dgree murder and sentenced to an extended term of sentence of 80 years based on a finding that the murder was exceptionally brutal and heinous....
In Harris v. Ricci, No. 09-2562, the Third Circuit faced a challenge to the district court’s denial of defendant’s petition in habeas proceedings arising from a conviction for murder and a sentence of death, challenging the trial court’s decision to impanel a foreign jury rather than transfer the case to a different venue in light of the pretrial publicity surrounding the trial. In affirming the district court’s denial of the petition, the court held that the defendant has not shown that the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision upholding the use of foreign jurors to ameliorate the effect of the pretrial publicity was contrary to law clearly established by the Supreme Court of the United States....
In a Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) action alleging that Defendant terminated Plaintiff because he took leave under the FMLA, summary judgment for Defendant is affirmed where equitable estoppel did not bar Defendant from raising non-eligibility as a defense to Plaintiff’s FMLA claim. Read Dobrowski v. Jay Dee Contractors, Inc., No. 08-1806 Appellate Information Argued: April 21, 2009 Decided and Filed: July 8, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Boggs...
Non-agricultural, unskilled, foreign workers may obtain visas to work in the U.S., if employers can prove that no U.S. workers will accept the work, under the H-2B visa program. The history of the program is extensive and convoluted, but can be summarized; the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (“INA”) provided the framework for what is now the H-2B visa program. Responsibility for H-2B visa determinations changed departmental hands several times, and had ended up the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”)....
The Ninth Circuit decided one matter concerning a civil rights action against a school district, and another involving an employment discrimination claim. Rutti v. Vermillion, No. 07-56599, was a class action on behalf of all technicians employed by defendant to install alarms in customers’ cars, in which plaintiff sought compensation for the time technicians spent commuting to worksites in defendant’s vehicles and for time spent on preliminary and postliminary activities performed at their homes....
Alex and Eddies’ band is hot over more then just their teacher. They’ve brought suit right now against Alex’s ex wife for violation of the band’s trademark by using their name in her construction and interior design business. Except, it’s her name too. Can someone really be sued for violating a trademark when that trademark is her own last name? If this seems like a ridiculous lawsuit, well, it kind of is....
The Kansas Attorney General’s office filed a notice of appeal in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals last week, asking the court to overturn a district court order and allow the state to proceed with a plan that would cut funding to Planned Parenthood. U.S. District Judge Thomas Marten granted Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri’s injunction to halt a state ban on funding for the organization on August 1. Judge Marten found that the Kansas law unconstitutionally punished Planned Parenthood for advocating for abortion rights....
In a dispute involving disability insurance benefits, district court judgment is vacated in part and remanded where there is a dispute about whether plaintiff can work even with all of his physical and mental problems, and the court failed to weigh all the medical evidence in order to make an independent decision on the issue and also failed to cite authority for throwing out evidence submitted by plaintiff or explain why summary judgment was apt....
What makes a gun a gun? That may sound like a dumb question, but when it comes to “ghost guns,” it is not. Ghost guns are firearms that you can assemble at home, either from parts and kits purchased online or via a 3D printer. They shoot just like traditional firearms. But, unlike traditional firearms, they are not required to display serial numbers. This makes them untraceable and, therefore, more attractive to criminals or those who the law prevents from having guns....
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals held this week that a judge is not required to inform a child pornography defendant that his plea bargain could lead to civil commitment as a sexually dangerous person at the end of his prison term. According to the appellate court, due process and Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure do not require the district court to advise a defendant of the possibility....
