Tax Day is on Monday, and hopefully you’ve got all your annual financial ducks in a row. And, if not, maybe this reminder will help you get ready. Filing your taxes can be stressful, but that stress usually comes from the unknown. So here are five of the most frequently asked questions regarding Tax Day, and what you need to know about the filing deadline. 1. What Documents Should You Save for Taxes, Finances?...
Halloween is a time for delightful contrasts. Werewolf Bar Mitzvah. Sexy zombies. Champagne and candy corn. Today, we’re adding the Supreme Court and Halloween to that list with our top four Supreme Court Halloween connections. Don’t think we can find a connection between SCOTUS and All Hallow’s Eve? Then keep reading to find out if this is a trick or a treat. Spooky Justice. A light bulb exploded during oral arguments in Central Virginia Community College v....
Conviction of defendant for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute is affirmed where: 1) the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting co-conspirator’s hearsay statements; 2) district court did not err in admitting evidence seized during a traffic stop of the vehicle in which the defendant was riding based on probable cause; and 3) defendant’s sufficiency of evidence challenge is without merit, as evidence presented by the government would enable a rational jury to find defendant guilty of the possession charge on which he seeks a judgment of acquittal....
Cocaine Conviction Affirmed In US v. Webster, No. 10-1295, the court affirmed defendant’s conviction for conspiracy to distribute at least fifty grams of cocaine base, holding that 1) the fact the arresting officers may not have “known” defendant had been rejected by the court as a reason to invalidate probable cause; 2) the officers were justified in relying on an informant in their probable cause determination; and 3) even though the officers may not have witnessed actual criminal activity between the informant and defendant, there was a “probability or substantial chance of criminal activity,” which was sufficient to support a probable cause determination....
You gathered up all your W-2s, expense receipts, and other tax documents and handed them over to your accountant. Now you’re looking at an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audit and possible fines for filing improperly, late, or not at all. If your tax accountant screwed up, are you on the hook for their mistakes? And if so, do taxpayers have any legal recourse? Tax Return Issues: The Bad News In terms of tax filing penalties, it’s your tax return, so it’s your responsibility....
When it comes to providing equal access to county services, a Wisconsin school district was accused of discriminating against a Catholic school because it refused to provide school bus service to it. Unfortunately for the school, both a federal district court and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeal agreed, the school district’s rule preventing the Catholic school from getting bus service was not discriminatory. As both courts noted, the district already provided bus services to another Catholic school under the same policy....
The Supreme Court has held that the Sixth Amendment’s right to a public trial extends to the voir dire process. But that right doesn’t require a new trial for two Wisconsinites who were convicted after their judge barred the public from voir dire, the Seventh Circuit ruled last week. Why? Lack of objection from the defense attorneys. In a brief opinion penned by Judge Richard Posner, the Seventh ruled that those attorneys “forfeited their clients’ right to an audience by failing to object to the judge’s ruling excluding the audience in whole or part....
It’s getting hard to keep track of all the states that introduced laws requiring voters to produce state-issued photo IDs in order to vote. You can take Arkansas off the list (oh, but you’ll need to add it to the list of voter ID cases that could end up at the U.S. Supreme Court – like the ones out of Texas, Ohio, Wisconsin, and North Carolina). On Wednesday, the Arkansas Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s determination that Act 595, passed in 2013, was unconstitutional....
Every year since 2004, Colorado’s governor has recognized a “Colorado Day of Prayer.” This isn’t terribly unusual in itself; since 1952, Congress has established a “national day of prayer” and most other states do the same thing. But the Freedom from Religion Foundation doesn’t like it. They object to the explicit biblical references in the proclamations, claiming a violation of the Preference Clause of the state constitution (its own version of the Establishment Clause)....
CBS reported yesterday about Carlie Christine, a cheerleading coach at Casa Robles High School in California, who got fired after she appeared in Playboy magazine. Carlie Christine’s termination, although likely justifiable as a legal matter (though the school district appears to be refusing comment at the moment), might lead people to wonder just what kind of off-work conduct could put them at risk of getting fired. Let’s just get it out of the way up-front that posting scandalous, incriminating, and yes, nude, photos of yourself on the Internet for the world-at-large to see are really good ways to get fired and/or not-hired-in-the-first-place....
Just as two heads can be better than one, two witnesses authenticating a recording can be better than one. But should Rule 701 or Rule 702 apply to a government witness when authenticating a suspect’s voice on a recording? The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reiterated this week that a sometime government expert can offer lay witness testimony to authenticate recordings. Georgina Nido, a Spanish-speaking linguist working for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), listened to recordings of Carlos Mendiola’s prison telephone conversations prior to testifying before a jury that Mendiola’s voice was likely the one on several wiretapped calls in which Mendiola and others planned a large-scale cocaine deal....
After Merck took Vioxx off the market in 2004, Jo Levitt sued the company for her cardiovascular injuries. That was in September 2006; she had been taking the pain reliever for seven years. In Levitt v. Merck & Company, Inc., a trial judge said she waited too long. However, the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed. A majority panel said her claims were not barred under Missouri’s statute of limitations....
A federal appeals court said an anti-Muslim group has a constitutional right to identify terrorists in advertisements on public buses. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said King County, which had banned the ads, violated the First Amendment. The group wanted to place an ad with the names and faces of 16 alleged terrorists. In American Freedom Defensive Initiative v. King County, the appeals court gave the plaintiffs a win in a First Amendment war....
Last summer, a three-judge Second Circuit panel ruled that the U.S. government could not force Microsoft to turn over email data stored on overseas servers. They rejected the government’s warrant, issued pursuant to the Stored Communications Act, finding that the act had no extraterritorial reach. It was a landmark ruling, one praised by business and privacy advocates and condemned by those who viewed it as hamstringing criminal investigations. That opinion will stand, for now....
Wallace v. McGlothan, No. 07-4059, concerned a plaintiffs’ medical malpractice suit against a doctor for permanent injury to plaintiff’s eye as a result of negligently performed LASIK surgery. In affirming the district court’s denial of defendant’s motions for judgment as a matter of law, the court held that the evidence was sufficient to show that the doctor’s negligence was the proximate cause of the plaintiffs’ injuries and the doctor has not shown any perjury or discovery violations by the plaintiffs that would warrant reversal....
Lal v. State of Cal., No. 08-15645, involved an action against the California Highway Patrol and certain officers for the shooting death of plaintiff’s husband. The Ninth Circuit reversed the dismissal of the action with prejudice under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b) for failure to prosecute when her attorney failed to meet deadlines and attend hearings, holding that an attorney’s gross negligence constituted an extraordinary circumstance warranting relief from a judgment dismissing the case for failure to prosecute under Rule 41(b)....
Abercrombie & Fitch, and it’s company Hollister, have been involved in litigation around the country concerning its discriminating hiring and employment practices in the name of staying true to its “look policy,” with women who wear the hijab bearing the brunt of the burden. In October of this year, the Tenth Circuit adopted a stricter view of Title VII’s notice requirements for religion-accommodation theory, holding that a claimant “must establish that they initially informed the employer that they engage in a particular practice for religious reasons and that they need an accommodation for the practice....
In a prisoner’s challenge to a prison’s rules regarding contraband and smuggling as applied to a pamphlet he possessed, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed in part where plaintiff failed to administratively exhaust his claim regarding the confiscation of certain papers from his cell. However, the order is vacated in part where: 1) the rules at issue were unconstitutionally vague as applied to plaintiff, both because they failed to give him adequate notice and because they failed adequately to constrain the discretion of the prison officials who had the power to impose them; and 2) the right not to be punished under one set of rules for violations of another was clearly established....
David Furry and Diane Nye claim that Ronald Williams — a substitute USPS letter carrier — hit their station wagon with his postal truck, causing “substantial injuries.” Williams claims that he doesn’t know what the hell they’re talking about, and that the contact between the two vehicles can only be explained as “mystical.” Turns out that’s a valid defense under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Not really, but kind of....
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and self-described “free-speech absolutist,” is now Twitter’s largest shareholder. The day after he announced his purchase, he was appointed to Twitter’s board of directors. After these announcements, political conservatives flooded their Twitter feeds with calls for the reinstatement of former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account. Meanwhile, some Twitter employees lamented that Musk’s views on free speech could weaken their effort to make Twitter a place of healthy, civilized discourse....
