The New Mexico Supreme Court is considering whether to license legal technicians to meet the demand for lower cost legal services. Lawyers, naturally, are arguing both sides of the issue. Some say legal technicians can fill the gap in access to justice for those who cannot afford attorneys fees. Other attorneys are not exactly excited about losing business to people who haven’t passed the bar exam. But that’s what supreme courts are for, right?...
A denial of a request for habeas relief by a defendant convicted and sentenced to death for raping and murdering a six-month-old baby is affirmed where: 1) defendant’s claim that the prosecutor improperly commented on his failure to testify during the guilt phase is procedurally defaulted and defendant cannot excuse the default through the ineffectiveness of counsel because he cannot show that counsel’s failure to object to this one comment – thereby drawing attention to it – was deficient; 2) defendant’s claim that the penalty instructions violated Caldwell v....
The back and forth between the Trump administration and federal courts on immigration policy seems never-ending. Every time the administration issues new immigration enforcement rules, someone sues, a court blocks the rule, the appeals begin, and then maybe the Supreme Court allows it or doesn’t, in whole or in part. It can be hard to keep track of which rules are actually in force. For instance, this week the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to enforce a new rule on asylum seekers....
For Khalid Khowaja, it seemed like being a Muslim and an FBI agent wasn’t a good fit. In a discrimination lawsuit, he said other agents treated him differently because of his religion. One supervisor yelled Arabic holy phrases at the office, and another said he was “not our typical agent.” But in Khowaja v. Sessions, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of his lawsuit. In the end, Khowaja apparently didn’t get along well with others....
In US v. Robinson, No. 09-3451, the court affirmed defendant’s methamphetamine manufacturing convictions and sentence on the grounds that 1) a loaded .22 revolver’s proximity - within six feet - to saleable quantities of methamphetamine, digital scales, and pills used to manufacture methamphetamine coupled with an officer’s expert testimony regarding the use of firearms in methamphetamine trafficking could lead a reasonable trier of fact to conclude that defendant possessed that weapon to protect his methamphetamine trafficking activities; 2) defendant waived his Confrontation Clause rights; and 3) the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting evidence based on the reasonable probability that the exhibits had not been altered prior to testing....
Conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm is affirmed where: 1) the district court did not abuse its discretion in declaring a mistrial during defendant’s first jury trial; 2) defendant ineffective assistance of counsel argument fails as he did not make the requisite showing of prejudice; and 3) the district court did not err during the second trial by admitting into evidence the witness’s statement to the officer....
The 5th Circuit recently confirmed that there are limits on liability for pharmacies in a case where a Walgreens customer who accidentally walked away with the wrong prescription caused a fatal car accident. According to the opinion, Walgreens staff allegedly gave the man a bottle containing glyburide metformin, a diabetes medication that can cause dangerously low blood pressure in those who do not have diabetes. Even though the label carried someone else’s name and prescription, the man apparently ingested the drug....
Crowdfunding is one of the hottest new phenomena. Unfortunately, with how easy it is to raise money, many scammers have made off with countless people’s money. One of the most notorious of these scams involved a seemingly sweet story about a homeless veteran who gave a couple his last $20 for gas. In return, as the story went, the couple wanted to reward the stranger for his kindness, so they setup a GoFundMe page to solicit donations to help him....
If you’re a worm farmer, there’s some good news for you. Under a decision by the Sixth Circuit, you don’t have to pay overtime to your workers if they’re growing worms. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that employers pay workers overtime for time worked in excess of 40 hours. However, a number of exceptions to this rule exist under 29 USC. secs. 207, 213. One of these exceptions is for “farming in all its branches,” generally known as the “agricultural exception....
The Tenth Circuit will expedite its review of U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Shelby’s decision to quash Utah’s same sex marriage ban. The need for an expedited review follows SCOTUS’s unanimous decision to put a hold on Judge Shelby’s decision. The reasoning behind the High Court’s quick decision is to let the lower courts delve into the constitutional issues of a state’s power to limit marriage to a woman and a man, suggests SCOTUSblog....
Happy Constitution Day! On Tuesday, September 17, 1787, after spending a sweltering summer indoors debating the foundations of a new government, the 39 delegates of the Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution of the United States of America. Here are a few things you may not know about one of the most important documents in American Law: 1. Neither Thomas Jefferson Nor John Adams Signed the Constitution Jefferson missed the 1787 Constitutional Convention because he was in Paris acting as an envoy for the United States, while Adams was in London performing his duties as minister to Great Britain....
Navigating a bend in environmental law, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals heard two water pollution cases on the same day. In Kentucky Waterways Alliance v. Kentucky Utilities Co., environmental groups claim a utility company polluted Herrington Lake. In Tennessee Clean Water Network v. Tennessee Valley Authority, the plaintiffs say the defendant contaminated the Cumberland River. Arguments in both matters turned on the question of “point source” pollution. It was a rare occasion when lawyers walked into court on separate cases but found themselves on the same page....
The only thing I know about NCIS is that my mom loves it (the TV show, that is). And I love to see Mark Harmon working a steady job. Investigate All the Things NCIS, in case you don’t know, is the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. For some reason, a special agent at NCIS (Steve Logan, not Mark Harmon) decided he would investigate online criminal activity by anyone in Washington state, whether or not connected to the military....
Yankton Sioux Tribe v. US Army Corps of Eng’rs., No. 08-2255, involved an action by the Yankton Sioux Tribe challenging the validity of land transfers by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the State of South Dakota. The court of appeals affirmed summary judgment for defendant, holding that 1) the fee-patented lands at issue were outside the “external boundaries” of the reservation before they were acquired by the Corps; and 2) allotted lands still held in trust became lands “located outside the external boundaries” of the Reservation when fee simple title was acquired by the Corps for the Fort Randall Dam project....
In a petition for review of the BIA’s order dismissing petitioner’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel and denying his applications for relief under former Immigration and Nationality Act section 212(c) and the Convention Against Torture, the petition is granted in part where the failure of the Immigration Judge and BIA to consider evidence of country conditions constituted reversible error. However, the petition is denied in part where the Attorney General did not have authority to waive the grounds for petitioner’s removal....
Labor Day is coming up. And while you may be considering whether to give your employees the day off, you may also want to consider some of the laws that resulted from the Nineteenth Century labor movement. As the boss, you want to take good care of your employees and pay them what’s fair. Generally speaking, you’re not going to get into trouble for paying your workers too much. But paying them too little will land you in legal hot water....
We were pretty sure that the Supreme Court would step in after the Tenth Circuit’s ruling in the Hobby Lobby case led to a circuit split over whether corporate personhood gave those corporations religious rights, especially in light of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Earlier this week, the Sixth Circuit joined the fracas, and agreed with the Third Circuit, holding that a corporation “is not a ‘person’ capable of ‘religious exercise’ as intended by RFRA....
College can offer students a variety of career prospects, opportunities for growth, and a future of lifelong learning … if the institution keeps its promises. It might seem easy enough to write off misleading claims by a university with a “that’s life, kid.” But the cost of a college education is skyrocketing, and children are taking on tens of thousands of dollars in debts to sometimes not even finish a degree....
There has been plenty of discussion over whether the Paycheck Protection Program is getting to the right businesses. The PPP, which Congress enacted as part of the CARES Act, provides money for small businesses to continue paying employees during the quarantine. If a business uses the loan to pay employees, the loan is forgiven. Congress initially set aside $349 billion before adding over $300 billion more in April. There have been allegations of businesses abusing the program....
In Atlantic Nat’l Trust LLC v. Mt. Hawley Ins. Co., No. 09-35716, an action seeking insurance proceeds arising from a fire, the court dismissed defendants’ appeal from the grant of plaintiff’s motion to remand, holding that the court lacked appellate jurisdiction to review a federal district court order remanding a case to state court based on a ground colorably characterized as a “defect” for purposes of 28 U.S.C. section 1447(c)....
