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In capital habeas proceedings, a circuit court’s order requiring the petition to be granted is reversed where petitioner did not establish that defense counsel prejudiced petitioner by providing him ineffective assistance at the penalty phase of his trial, because petitioner failed to show a reasonable probability that the jury would have rejected a capital sentence after it weighed the entire body of mitigating evidence against the entire body of aggravating evidence....

The Eighth Circuit is “weighing in” on a lawsuit brought by the family of a South Dakota teenager accused of cheating in a 4-H pig-showing competition in South Dakota, reports The Associated Press. The family of White Lake teenager Bayley Kroupa says she was humiliated and denied due process when she was banned from 4-H competition in 2011 for an alleged ethics violation. They are suing and seeking $850,000 in damages....

If you’re thinking about starting a business partnership, it’s important to have a partnership agreement in place to spell out each party’s duties, financial obligations and legal liability. Some states even require a partnership agreement to be filed along with business formation documents. You can even complete these business formation documents from home with simple, DIY options customized for your state. Here are five clauses every partnership agreement should include:...

Break out your tape measure. Subject to a few exceptions, Arizona has banned you from filming the police on the job if they are within eight feet of you. Supporters of the law say it will help keep people safe and let the police do their jobs without interference. Critics say it would jeopardize the public’s right to know what the police are up to (and we all know what Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin did to George Floyd, because we saw it on the video)....

Kentucky Attorney John Berry was irked when the Kentucky Legislative Commission excluded the public from a hearing about allegations against Senate President David Williams, but allowed Williams to stay. The Commission later dismissed the complaint against Williams. Berry complained in a letter to the Commission that the whole situation was shady. The Commission whined to the Kentucky Bar Association, which then warned Berry that his conduct violated the Kentucky Rules of Professional Conduct....

For the second time in two years, it has become really clear that even astronomical sums of money doesn’t guarantee happiness and marital bliss. Bill and Melinda Gates, one of the richest couples in the world, announced this week that they are divorcing, ending a 27-year marriage. While Bill stepped down from leading Microsoft years ago, the couple has used that fortune to build one of the largest charitable giving organizations in the world....

Perry Mason, Patty Hewes, Ally McBeal, Jack McCoy, Lt. Daniel Kafee, and, of course, Atticus Finch are just a few of fiction’s most famous attorneys. But Cellino and Barnes? Yes, two of New York’s most famous personal injury attorneys (for you New Yorkers, that jingle) could be headed toward theatrical immortality – or infamy – because of their acrimonious business divorce. The play Cellino v. Barnes premiers this Saturday in Brooklyn....

The drive to vaccinate the world against COVID-19 took a hit earlier this month when American and European regulators announced a pause in administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Out of more than 7 million doses distributed in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suspects that, so far, eight women developed a severe blood-clotting disorder, causing two suspected fatalities. Researchers have yet to prove a direct link between the J&J vaccine and the blood clots....

Yes folks, that’s the same Citizens United, and they’re at it again: litigating their way to through the courts, hoping to upset established campaign finance law. As we blogged about last week, their target is an amendment to the Colorado Constitution and a state law, which together require disclosure of donors who fund electioneering communications. The communication at issue here, “Rocky Mountain Heist,” is ironically a documentary film that seeks to shine a light on money in Colorado politics....

After reading appellate decisions all day, we appreciate a novel dismissal theory. The courts, however, don’t always share that appreciation. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals clarified on Thursday that a defendant won’t prevail in his Speedy Trial Act appeal when the defendant’s own motions delay his trial. Two of Richardson’s co-defendants in that case pled guilty, but the district court dismissed the indictment without prejudice due to a violation of the Speedy Trial Act....

The Eighth Circuit decided two criminal matters, one immigration case and another concerning social security disability benefits. In US v. Bolden, No. 08-3835, the court of appeals affirmed defendants’ drug conspiracy convictions and sentences on the grounds that: 1) the district court did not abuse its discretion in erring on the side of caution by dismissing a juror when the juror had contact with an interested third party whose identity was known to the juror; 2) evidence that a defendant acted as a source and facilitated a transaction was sufficient for a conviction under the distribution statute; 3) given that defendant did not object to the drug quantity findings at sentencing, and that the evidence at trial supported amounts close to those in the presentence investigation report upon which the district court relied, the findings were adequate under the circumstances; and 4) the evidence at trial showed that defendant recruited members of the conspiracy and directed those members to distribute drugs....

In what the U.S. Supreme Court called a ‘fundamental flaw’ in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, the high court said the ‘provocation rule’ cannot be used to hold police liable for excessive force. Reversing the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the unanimous court said that the circuit’s “provocation rule” was a “novel and unsupported path to liability.” When police had not used excessive force, the rule allowed courts to hold them liable anyway if they provoked victims to act in ways that brought a forceful response....

The Brown family of Lehi, Utah first became known to most Americans through the TLC reality television series Sister Wives. The show (which still airs) documents the lives of members of the Browns, a polygamist family made up of husband-patriarch Kody Brown, his four wives, and their eighteen children. The Browns claimed that part of their impetus in participating in the show was to help dispel fears and prejudices about polygamist families and to quell controversy....

Journalists in the Ninth Circuit may have an easier time accessing government data after an appeals panel held that search query results fall under the scope of the Freedom of Information Act. The panel concluded that government agencies must turn over gun tracing records requested by the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) the same way they would a paper record. CIR wanted to report on how often guns formerly owned by law enforcement agencies end up in the hands of criminals....

A handful of New Orleans-area homeowners are having their day in federal court today, in a closely-watched lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers that could open the door to recovery for thousands of additional damage claims against the federal government, for destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. What the Katrina Plaintiffs Say. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit being heard this week, in federal court in New Orleans, are six New Orleans and St....

Rookie justice Brett Kavanaugh has just released his first bit of Supreme Court authorship, writing the unanimous opinion in the Schein v. Archer and White matter. And yes, it is perhaps one of the most boring decisions to expect this year. As Justice Kavanaugh makes clear on every single page of the brief, sub-ten page, order, when parties to a contract agree that an arbitrator gets to decide issues of arbitrability, then, unsurprisingly, an arbitrator, and not a judge, gets to decide whether the action should be in court or arbitration, even if the correct answer seems obvious....

While SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh has already faced one of the most hotly contested and contentious confirmation hearings in Supreme Court history, the hearing isn’t over yet. The Senate Judiciary Committee has requested that Christine Blasey Ford testify before the committee this coming Monday. The conservatives on the committee are hopeful that there will be no further delays. Ford, a professor of clinical psychology at Palo Alto University, has come forward as the anonymous letter writer that accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault when the two were in high school....

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action involving a deadly shooting by police, the district court’s award of $136,687.35 in attorney’s fees to plaintiff (following $1 nominal damages awards on two claims) is affirmed where: 1) the legality of state-sanctioned force resulting in death constituted an important legal issue; and 2) the award would likely deter the officer from future unconstitutional conduct. Read Mahach-Watkins v. Depee, No. 08-15694 Appellate Information...

President-elect Joe Biden nominated a familiar name for U.S. Attorney General on Wednesday, January 6: Merrick Garland. A former prosecutor for the Department of Justice, Judge Garland has significant experience to bring to the role, including a stint as principal deputy associate attorney general beginning in the 1990s. Judge Garland takes over a DOJ that has been criticized for being overtly political in recent years under William Barr. According to reports, morale at the department has also suffered, and there have been many high-profile resignations in recent years....

In an Americans with Disabilities Act action alleging that Plaintiff teacher was transferred between positions based on her arthritis, summary judgment for Defendant is affirmed, where Plaintiff failed to raise a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Defendant regarded her as disabled. Read Milholland v. Sumner Cty. Bd. of Educ., No. 08-5568 Appellate Information Argued: April 28, 2009 Decided and Filed: July 2, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Rogers...