US v. Navas, No. 09-1144, involved a drug conspiracy prosecution in which the district court suppressed narcotics seized by law enforcement officers during a warrantless search of a trailer. As Circuit Judtge Wesley noted in the the court of appeals opinion: “This appeal concerns a trailer, unhitched from its cab and parked in a warehouse. The district court held that a warrantless search of the trailer ran afoul of the Fourth Amendment....
In a prosecution for witness intimidation and possessing a firearm in furtherance of that offense, a denial of defendant’s request for a new trial is vacated and remanded for an evidentiary hearing where: 1) under Brady, the government was required to disclose evidence materially favorable to the accused; and 2) defendant never had a sufficient opportunity to make a showing of whether certain evidence at issue was material by demonstrating reasonable probability that had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different....
It’s never a dull day in the Second Circuit, and cases at varying stages of litigation are progressing through the courts. Today we look at an atheist group’s challenge to the inclusion of a steel cross in a 9/11 museum, the ACLU’s appeal of a phone data ruling and the Department of Justice weighs in on the Aereo case that the Supreme Court will hear in April. Atheists Challenge 9/11 Steel Cross An activist group of atheists, American Atheists, continues to challenge the inclusion of a steel cross in a 9/11 museum....
Let’s take a quick break from all of the super-serious crack case law for a moment, shall we? Meet Case Western Reserve University School of Law Professor Raymond Ku, the former Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and former co-Director of the Center for Law, Technology, & the Arts. He filed a lawsuit against the university and its dean, Lawrence E. Mitchell, earlier today. You might remember Dean Mitchell from his (paraphrasing) “law school is worth it because jobs don’t matter and besides, just wait for the baby boomers to die” op-ed....
Cameron v. N.Y., No. 08-5937, involved an action for false arrest and malicious prosecution. The court of appeals reversed summary judgment for defendant-officers, on the grounds that 1) prosecutors’ opinions as to probable cause and complaining officers’ credibility are irrelevant in virtually all cases involving claims of malicious prosecution; and 2) the introduction of such evidence was not harmless because it provided strong external validation for propositions that otherwise would have come in only from the defendants’ mouths....
Over 50,000 Californians will have Code for America to thank for clearing their criminal records. In the absence of personal action in the wake of the Golden State’s marijuana legalization, Los Angeles and San Joaquin counties are using the nonprofit tech organization’s algorithm to identify old pot convictions that are eligible to be cleared under new weed laws. So, what does that mean for your criminal record? A Few Joints and Criminal Justice “Frankly, very few people took the legal action required to clear their records,” according to L....
There are all kinds of defenses you could claim for certain crimes. Some are pretty basic, like “you got the wrong guy,” or “it was an accident.” Some are a bit more complicated and depend on the nature of the crime and the victim. The “heat of passion,” which argues that a person in a sexual relationship was so blinded by jealousy that they couldn’t help but commit a crime like assault or murder....
In Sheridan v. NGK Metals Corp., No. 08-4373, the Third Circuit faced a challenge to the district courts’ grant of defendants’ motion to dismiss in two putative class actions against multiple defendants, alleging negligence in connection with beryllium exposure and seeking a medical monitoring trust fund based on their increased risk of developing chronic beryllium disease (CBD). In affirming the dismissal, the court held that with respect to one of the suits, the plaintiff cannot prevail because under Pohl, the threshold increase in risk to establish a medical monitoring claim under Redland Soccer remains at sensitization, a point along the exposure-to-disease continuum that plaintiff has not reached....
On June 15th, organizations across the world will participate in World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD). The participating organizations will not only be teaching people what is abuse of older people, but they will also be teaching the public how to identify and stop it. Other global organizations to note include the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA), the World Health Organization (WHO), and United Nations initiatives. On a national scale, the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA) and the Department of Health and Human Services are also tackling this social issue....
Marcia Coyle, a long-time Supreme Court reporter and the author of a great book on the Roberts Court, sat down earlier this week with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her chambers. This interview went a bit deeper than a lot of recent interviews, and covered a broad range of topics, with Ginsburg’s statements on these five topics standing out to me the most: the death penalty, Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissents, gay marriage, law school, and the “Notorious RBG” fan club....
In an action claiming that defendants violated the U.S. Constitution and New York law when they successfully petitioned the family court of New York for an order temporarily removing plaintiff’s child from her custody, dismissal of the action is vacated in part where: 1) the family court issued a superseding order returning plaintiff’s child to her custody, and the family court proceedings were eventually dismissed, so plaintiff was not a “state-court loser” under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine; and 2) in addition, her claims did not “invite district court review and rejection” of a state court judgment....
The benefits of doing pro bono work are clear. Lawyers who volunteer their time and expertise by taking on cases for a cause get a lot in return, not least of which is the satisfaction that comes from helping someone who truly needs it. Pro bono work can change a life—or many lives—for the better. Sometimes this work involves taking on everyday legal issues for clients who otherwise couldn’t get representation in our legal system....
In plaintiff’s action against a police officer under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 and state tort law for being shot by the officer on New Year’s Eve while responding to reports of gunfire shots in the area, denial of defendant’s motion for summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity is affirmed where: 1) because plaintiff has produced adequate evidentiary support for her version of events and because plaintiff’s version of events must be accepted as true for purposes of interlocutory appeal, the jury must decide whether plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated; and 2) in light of the competing inferences one might draw from the facts and their effect on the question of whether the officer’s actions were objectively reasonable, a jury should find the facts that determine whether the officer is entitled to qualified immunity....
In Buck v. Thomas M. Cooley Law Sch., No. 09-1508, the Sixth Circuit faced a challenge to the district court’s dismissal of plaintiff’s lawsuit against her former law school under ADA and breach of various implied contracts, on the ground that the complaint was barred by res judicata. As stated in the decision: “The allegations regarding defendant’s treatment between 2002 and her second dismissal by the law school in 2006 are part of the same transaction - alleged misconduct and discriminatory animus by defendant towards her as a law student - as the allegations giving rise to her first lawsuit....
In plaintiff’s breach of employment contract case against his former employer over stock option purchase dispute, district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of plaintiff is affirmed as the employment contract unambiguously allows plaintiff to exercise all of the shares he accumulated during his 25-month tenure with the company, and as such, he is entitled to exercise option to purchase 138,900 shares of the company stock, not 34,722 shares. Read Lewitton v....
In a petition for review of a final order of the BIA affirming the decision of an Immigration Judge which denied petitioner’s application for asylum, the petition is granted in part where petitioner’s activity as a nurse in China did not amount to “assistance or participation” in persecution which would render her ineligible for asylum or withholding of removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act’s “persecutor bar.” However, the petition is denied in part where petitioner failed to sustain her burden of demonstrating that it was “more likely than not” that she would be tortured in China....
In an action seeking uninsured motorist benefits for plaintiff’s children who were injured while joyriding in a truck belonging to a construction company owned by the fifteen-year-old driver’s father (the teen had no permission to drive the vehicle), dismissal of the complaint is affirmed where the truck was not an uninsured vehicle for purposes of the policy under either Kansas law or the policy’s relevant language. Read Long v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins....
In an action for unlawfully opening a prisoner’s legal mail, the denial of Defendants’ motion for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds is affirmed, where there was an issue of fact as to whether prison staff opened certain items, and whether they acted in disregard of prison regulations. Read Merriweather v. Zamora, No. 08-1570 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted: December 5, 2008 Decided and Filed: June 24, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Gibbons...
In a petition for review of an order removing petitioner from the U.S., the petition is denied where, because the statute of conviction by its own terms was a state law “relating to a controlled substance” and petitioner’s conviction involved heroin (a controlled substance as defined in 21 U.S.C. section 802(6)), the BIA correctly found petitioner removable. Read Mielewczyk v. Holder, No. 07-74246 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted February 2, 2009...
The federal district court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania just issued a nationwide injunction ruling that the Trump administration rule that would have rolled back the birth control mandate in the Affordable Care Act cannot be enforced. In short, the Affordable Care Act required employers to provide birth control coverage, and the Trump administration’s rule would have created a loophole for religious organizations to be exempted from this ACA requirement....
