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FOIA Order Compelling Disclosure By USDA Reversed In Center for Biological Diversity v. US Dept. of Agr., No. 09-17233, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) appeal from the district court’s order requiring the USDA, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), to disclose the GPS coordinates of wolf depredations to which it had responded, the court reversed where FOIA Exemption 3 applied because Section 8791 of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 exempted from disclosure such geospatial data and applied to this case even though it took effect after the USDA withheld the coordinates....

The United States is a representative democracy, so instead of everyone voting on everything all the time, we vote for elected officials to represent our interests and vote on our behalf. But how do we choose those representatives, and more importantly, how do we decide how many representatives we’ll need and exactly who they’ll represent? This is decided by voting districts, and drawing the lines around those districts has become a hot-button political topic in the past few years....

Recently, the Department of Justice, in coordination with Health and Human Services, announced that it had completed a massive sweep targeting Medicare telemarketing fraudsters nationally and internationally. Of the 24 defendants thus far, there are three doctors as well as chief executive officers. All in all the scam is alleged to have cost taxpayers over one billion dollars. The telemarketing scam targeted the elderly, and basically sought to exploit individual Medicare benefits for kickbacks and durable medical device sales....

Perhaps President Trump’s decision to move his permanent residence from New York to Florida sounds like a good idea to you. Although Trump tweeted that he made his decision because he’s been “treated very badly” by politicians in New York, a person close to the president told the New York Times the primary reason was financial. Unlike New York, Florida does not collect income tax or inheritance tax. Eight other states (Alaska, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming) also do not levy income taxes....

It’s 2019. So by now you should be aware that you cannot discriminate based on race or gender when it comes to employee compensation. The gender pay gap in particular has been a hot-button topic lately, with everyone from Vice to Oracle to Disney facing (and settling) lawsuits based on unequal pay for male and female employees. (It should also be noted that, especially with more nonbinary employees in the workforce, the best practice is to pay everyone with similar experience and doing similar work the same....

A migraine creates an intense, throbbing pain that can be debilitating. An employee suffering from a migraine may have their job performance affected or be forced to miss work altogether. While medical research has not pinpointed an exact cause of migraines, stress can contribute to the frequency and severity of headaches. So, is a stress migraine a disability as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act? The Second Circuit Court of Appeals said no, at least when the employee suffering from migraines did not show he was prevented from performing a broad range of jobs or within a class of work....

Judge April Smith was a busy judge. Unfortunately, she was too busy to do her job. On more than one occasion, she announced in open court that she had to adjourn early to take care of other business. It would not have been a big deal, except it was happening all the time. Finally, lawyers had to say something about it. They reported the judge for leaving early to have her hair and nails done....

Sentence and conviction of defendant on bank fraud related charges is affirmed where: 1) district court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendant’s motion to continue sentencing as defendant’s attorney had sufficient time to prepare for sentencing and as reflected by his conduct; 2) district court’s failure to inform defendant of right to standby counsel did not negate the validity of defendant’s waiver of right to counsel, as defendant had no absolute right to such; 3) district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting expert testimony regarding fiduciary duties of commodities brokers, as any unfair prejudice to defendant was slight and insufficient to outweigh its probative value ; and 4) district court did not err in applying the sentencing enhancements under the Guidelines....

Congress did not pass a major tax overhaul during 2020, but it still made several substantive changes to the U.S. Tax Code. Many of those changes were included in legislation passed to boost an economy that is reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. The new changes to the Tax Code, coupled with regularly scheduled cost of living adjustments, mean that Americans will see some changes to their 2020 personal income tax returns this spring....

The redistricting/gerrymandering case going on in the state of Michigan just got a whole lot more complicated. That’s because the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has allowed eight Republican Congress members to intervene in the League of Women Voter’s lawsuit against the Michigan Secretary of State. The lawsuit alleges that after the 2010 U.S. census, Republican lawmakers unconstitutionally redrew the districts to their advantage. Unfortunately for the plaintiffs in this matter, in addition to the inclusion of the new defendants, the district court dismissed the claims for statewide relief, limiting the case to only specific jurisdictions where the alleged unconstitutional gerrymandering occurred....

On remand from the Supreme Court for reconsideration in light of Jimenez v. Quarterman, 129 S. Ct. 681 (2009), where the Court held that a state court’s grant of a right to file an out-of-time direct appeal resets the date when the conviction becomes “final” under Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, district court’s denial of habeas relief is affirmed where the case at hand is factually distinguishable from Jimenez and thus not controlled by its holding and here, petitioner sought federal habeas relief before the state trial court granted him a new direct appeal....

Many adults who try to achieve justice for being sexually abused as children discover too late that they’ve run out of time to file a claim. In the legal system it’s known as a “statue of limitations,” and it’s at the heart of a novel civil lawsuit that’s been filed in Washington, D.C. against the Boy Scouts of America. The suit’s eight plaintiffs, who contend that they were sexually abused when they were young Scouts, are seeking to get around the statutes of limitation in their own states by arguing that their case should be heard in the nation’s capital....

Muscarello v. Ogle County Bd. of Comm’rs, No. 08-2464, concerned a plaintiff’s suit against multiple defendants asserting various claims based on the U.S. Constitution, the Illinois Constitution, Illinois statutes, and the common law, arising from the county’s decision to amend its zoning ordinances to allow special permits for the construction of windmills used to generate power, and in particular, the construction of 40 windmills adjacent to plaintiff’s property. In affirming the judgment of the district court, the court held that plaintiff’s federal takings, equal protection, and due process claims failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted....

Sad news broke last week that federal appeals court judge, Diana Murphy, passed away. She was reportedly not in good health, and was at home last Wednesday when it happened. Judge Murphy, who was 84 years-old, will be remembered as a legal pioneer. When she was appointed in 1994, she was the first woman justice to sit on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, and was still on the bench until her passing, just on senior status....

Four years ago, in Miller v. Alabama, the Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences without parole were an unconstitutional violation of the Eighth Amendment. Since then, there has been significant debate about Miller’s reach: are automatic life without parole sentences verboten only for offenders sentenced after the Court’s ruling, or should childhood offenders from long ago be given the opportunity of parole? Today (while the rest of Washington took the day off to shovel itself out of the snow) the Court settled the debate, ruling that Miller applied retroactively and that all mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional, whether the sentencing took place five days or 50 years ago....

A recent settlement agreement was reached in the controversial lawsuit over the state of Texas’s recent misguided attempt to conduct maintenance of their registered voters. It was alleged that the state created a false narrative of voter fraud to intimidate Hispanic voters from going to the polls. In short, the state sent county officials questionably-accurate notices that thousands of registered voters were non-citizens and ineligible to vote. However, as the plaintiffs explained, that process would “wrongly target naturalized citizens....

When Justice Scalia died, just over six weeks ago, Senate Republicans immediately announced their opposition to an Obama-appointed replacement. They would withhold their advice and consent until after the Presidential elections, they maintained, even as the President nominated a well-liked, highly-qualified moderate like Merrick Garland. But, Republican resolve might be weakening, and it’s becoming more likely that we’ll see a ninth justice before November. Merrick Garland is a centrist candidate. He leans slightly right on criminal matters, slightly left on the environment, and remains entirely mainstream everywhere else....

In an appeal from a district court’s denial of defendant’s motion to reduce his crack cocaine sentence under Amendment 706 to the Sentencing Guidelines, the denial of the motion is reversed where: 1) defendant’s sentence was based on the Sentencing Guidelines because the parties based their plea agreement on the properly computed guideline range, and the stipulated sentence fell within this range; and 2) contrary to the ruling below, the court had authority to reduce defendant’s sentence under 18 U....

Defendant’s conviction and sentence for distributing more than five grams of crack and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime is vacated and remanded for new plea acceptance and sentencing hearings where: 1) the district court committed plain error in carrying out its Rule 11 duties, which clearly affected defendant’s substantial rights and as such, defendant is entitled to another opportunity to plead to the 18 U.S.C. section 924(c) charge; and 2) defendant’s sentence for distribution of crack cocaine is vacated and remanded as there is reason to believe the district court judge did not recognize his authority to reject and vary from the crack cocaine Guidelines based solely on a policy disagreement with those Guidelines....

District court’s conviction of a defendant for attempted possession of pseudoephedrine with intent to manufacture methamphetamine and related crimes is affirmed where: 1) considering the totality of the circumstances, the district judge was correct in finding that probable cause existed to search the truck because it was reasonable to believe that it contained evidence of, at the very least, an attempt to possess materials needed for making meth, and because probable cause existed, the search of the truck was authorized under the automobile exception to the warrant requirement; 2) a security video of defendant purchasing large quantities of pseudoephedrine in another state in 2005 was properly admitted under 404(b) as it was admissible for whatever bearing it might have on a crucial issue in the case, such as defendant’s intent on the day of his arrest....