In the government’s appeal of defendant’s sentence in connection with his plot to carry out an attack against the U.S. by detonating explosives at the Los Angeles International Airport on December 31, 1999, the sentence is vacated where the district court committed procedural error in failing to address specific, nonfrivolous arguments raised by the government in imposing a sentence that was well below the advisory Sentencing Guidelines range. Read US v....
Earlier this week the Tenth Circuit reviewed two sections of the amended Utah Sexual Solicitation Statute for First Amendment facial challenges by several escort service businesses. The district court upheld § 1313(1)(c), but found § 1313(2) unconstitutionally vague. The Tenth Circuit, reversed in part, and affirmed in part, holding that the two sections were constitutional and did not infringe on appellants’ First Amendment rights. Appellants argued that issue preclusion should apply because a predecessor sexual solicitation statute, previously held unconstitutional, had similar language....
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed all lower court rulings in favor of a white officer who sued on theories of racial discrimination. The officer successfully showed (or the police academy failed to disprove) that a reasonable theory existed as to why he was passed over for promotion in favor of a non-white candidate. Sergeant Bonenberger worked for the St. Louis Metro Police Department. Upon applying for a job for which he did not meet the listed experiential requirements, a superior co-worker told him “not to bother applying because the job was going to a black female … [and] it was out of his hands....
Under what circumstances can a trademark plaintiff recover profits from an infringer? The answer, it seems, is not so straightforward. Federal circuits are split on whether it is appropriate to require a showing of willful infringement to award profits – to the point that the issue is headed for the Supreme Court. In an amicus brief filed last week, the American Bar Association asked the Supreme Court to consider a more flexible rule for awarding profits in trademark infringement cases....
Is the Ninth Circuit too liberal? Arizona’s governor seems to think so. Recently, he spearheaded an effort to break up the nation’s largest circuit. Is this the beginning of the Twelfth Circuit? According to the Associated Press, Gov. Doug Ducey proposed that Arizona either move “into a different region” or Congress should create another circuit because of the Ninth’s Circuit extreme caseload and very large geographic area. He also alluded to the circuit’s “high rate of cases” overturned by SCOTUS....
Decades before Brown v. Board of Education, which was decided 65 years ago today, a lawyer was toiling in the background to overturn segregation. It was not Thurgood Marshall, who argued the case and later ascended to the U.S. Supreme Court. The mastermind of desegregation in public schools was the lesser known lawyer Charles Hamilton Houston. Known as “the Man Who Killed Jim Crow”, he played a role in nearly every civil rights case leading up to the historic decision....
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a ruling against Coca-Cola in an insurance dispute this week, finding that an Illinois tow-truck insurance statute did not trump an Illinois law that a vehicle owner’s insurance policy is primary over the vehicle operator’s insurance policy unless a statute provides otherwise. S&S Service Company performed occasional maintenance and repair services on a fleet of Coca-Cola delivery trucks regularly kept at the soft-drink company’s bottling plant in central Illinois....
We are told that the Civil War settled the matter. When 11 southern states decided to secede from the union, the result was a horrendous war in which some 620,000 soldiers died. That grim outcome supposedly provided the answer on whether the U.S. would tolerate states that seek to break away from the union. So why, then, are more and more people talking about secession? (At least, it appears that the talk is escalating....
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit on behalf of mentally ill adults last week, which could limit housing options for 4,300 adult home residents who live in New York City, reports the New York Daily News. While the underlying claim in the case may have merit, the court found that the plaintiff, Disability Advocates, Inc., lacked standing to bring the lawsuit. The question before the court was whether Disability Advocates – a private nonprofit organization that provides services to New York State’s protection and advocacy system under the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness Act (PAIMI) – had standing to sue state agencies and officials on behalf of mentally disabled adults for an alleged violation of the “integration mandate” of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and a federal grant nondiscrimination provision of the Rehabilitation Act....
In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action alleging a false arrest, denial of summary judgment based on qualified immunity to defendant-officer is reversed where he had arguable probable cause to arrest plaintiff for criminal contempt and probable cause to commence a criminal contempt proceeding against him. Read Droz v. McCadden, No. 08-0241 Appellate Information Argued: March 9, 2009 Decided: September 14, 2009 Judges Per Curiam Counsel For Appellant: Denise A. Hartman, Assistant Solicitor General, Albany, NY...
Two months after a three-justice panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a provision of South Dakota’s informed consent law, the Court of Appeal announced they will hold an en banc hearing on the matter. The controversial law in question expanded South Dakota’s requirements for informed consent to abortion in 2005. The Court of Appeals upheld the majority of the law’s provisions - such as informing the patient that the abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being - in September....
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that a former employee can pursue her sex discrimination lawsuit against Acosta Sales and Marketing. The ruling is good news for both plaintiff Susan King and women who like equal pay for equal work. Let’s discuss why. In 2001, Acosta, a food broker, hired Susan King as one of its business managers. But there was a problem at Acosta. Based on a salary table that was part of the evidence in King’s sex discrimination lawsuit, all 12 of Acosta’s male business managers started at salaries of at least $40,000; only 5 of the 8 female business managers started at or above the $40,000 mark....
A recent wave of class action lawsuits filed against AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-mobile, represents a combined 300 million customers suing their carriers for allegedly selling private location data to almost anyone. If this sounds familiar, that’s because a recent investigative report exposed the practice of unauthorized disclosure (to just about anyone) via third party services which purchase the information directly from the carrier and sell it to interested parties. While consumers might find some comfort in knowing that emergency services will be able to locate them in case of an emergency, most folks probably aren’t comfortable with their information being purchased by any other interested individuals or businesses....
Yesterday, the Court heard arguments in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, a challenge to UT’s use of race as a factor in admissions decisions. Fisher is one of the most high-profile, contentious cases the Supreme Court will hear this year and oral arguments reflected Fisher’s import. The debate was lively, a bit long, and even controversial, with one Justice’s comments on race eliciting audible gasps from the gallery. Here’s what you need to know....
The California stripper who had $1 million seized by a Nebraska state trooper during a traffic stop will get to keep her mega moola. On Tuesday, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Omaha’s motion to dismiss its own appeal of a federal judge’s order to return the $1 million (plus interest!) to the exotic dancer, Tara Mishra. Why did the government give up the fight?...
In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action by a prisoner alleging that he was beaten by defendant corrections officers and denied medical treatment by defendant nurse, dismissal of the action is vacated where the district court erred in converting defendants’ motion for judgment on the pleadings under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(c) to a motion for summary judgment and dismissing his case without first explaining the procedural requirements for responding to such a motion and the potential consequences of the motion, and without providing him an opportunity to take discovery and to submit evidence to respond to the motion....
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act offers certain protections from predatory lending tactics, including collection actions on student loans. However, it only offers protection from predatory lending by “debt collectors" as defined by the Act. The Eleventh Circuit recently determined that a Pennsylvania-run guaranty agency’s mistaken garnishment of a student’s wages could not give rise to a claim under the FDCPA, since it is not a debt collector. A Primer on Federal Student Loan Guarantors A guaranty agency acts as an intermediary between private student loan providers and the federal government....
Every year, we set aside the third Monday of January to celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his special place in our country’s past as a civil rights leader. But as a symbol, King continues to play an important role in the country’s present and future. The enduring images of the civil rights protests from the 1960s that King and others led inform our views on civil disobedience in the modern American consciousness....
Last week, the Tenth Circuit found no errors in the district court’s decision to deny all of Rebecca’s Christie’s Fourth Amendment challenge to the search of her computer. How nurturing. Christie’s appeal involves several questions, and the government’s cross-appeal as well. The primary question addressed was whether or not the search of her computer, after it had been seized, was in violation of her Fourth Amendment rights, and challenged the warrants leading to those searches....
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that Millennium Bomber Ahmed Ressam’s 22-year sentence was not enough time to fit the crime. A split 11-judge panel reversed and remanded Ressam’s case for resentencing, reports Reuters. After attending terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, Ressam planned an attack on Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) for Dec. 31, 1999. He was apprehended approximately two weeks beforehand while crossing the border from Canada into the United States, reports Reuters....
