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A three-judge panel at the Ninth Circuit has upheld the federal ban on undocumented immigrants possessing firearms. The case, U.S. v. Torres, involved an undocumented immigrant who was arrested for possession of a firearm, a homemade silencer, bolt cutters, and a stolen bicycle. Notably, Torres married a U.S. citizen in 2012, but never applied for citizenship and remained undocumented. He moved to dismiss the charges at the district court on the grounds that the federal ban violated his Second Amendment rights, but was unsuccessful, then lost at trial....

A few hours before the clock struck midnight last Thursday, ushering in the new year, the Supreme Court released its annual year-end report. Unlike other “year in review” retrospectives, the High Court’s look back tends to be a bit dry, focusing on statistics from the federal court system. But Chief Justice Roberts wasn’t willing to let the 2015 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary be just another boring exercise in statistical reporting....

The suspect fled into the yard of a residential home. There were six children present, innocent bystanders not suspected of any crime. Nervous about the suspect, the officers told the children to lie down on the ground and not move. The children did so. The adult watching the children was put in handcuffs, as was the suspect. It was after the handcuffing that a dog approached from the house, looking to go to its owners lying down in the yard....

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, an employer cannot discriminate against – or refuse to hire – an individual based on his or her sex. That includes a prohibition against gender stereotyping. Recently, a South Dakota woman’s transgender discrimination settlement joined a growing trend of cases that say transgender discrimination is applicable to Title VII. But does the settlement jibe with the Eighth Circuit’s precedent? Cori McCreery, 29, was fired in 2010 after telling her employer at Don’s Valley Market in Rapid City, S....

Don’t expect the law to support you if you do something stupid. At least that’s the lesson NFL linebacker Bobby Wagner will have taught a protester during Week 4’s Monday Night Football game between the Rams and the 49ers at Levi’s Stadium in San Francisco. In one of the better hits of the night, Wagner tackled the protester as he raced across the field holding a pink smoke bomb. The protester responded by filing a police report claiming Wagner assaulted him....

Riana Buffin lost her job at the Oakland Airport because she was in jail. She was arrested for allegedly stealing some property; that was her problem. But she couldn’t post bail because she was poor. That was a problem with the system. In Buffin v. City and County of San Francisco, a federal judge said the bail system was unconstitutional. Right to Be Free Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said Buffin, who sat in jail for 46 hours while her family raised bail money, lost her liberty because of her poverty....

In an action against collection agencies under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) for distributing plaintiff’s private information, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed in part where: 1) the FDCPA does not confer a right of action against a third party that received confidential information; and 2) plaintiff had no constitutional right of privacy in the checks at issue. However, the ruling is reversed in part where plaintiff filed her action within the FDCPA’s statute of limitations....

Judge David Hamilton of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has some rather novel advice for lawyers that would likely make his former colleague, Judge Posner, smile ear to ear: Pick up the phone and call (or email) opposing counsel before filing your motion with the court, especially those administrative case management motions. While this cold-blooded calling out in an appellate in-chambers opinion was phrased much more eloquently, in short, Judge Hamilton explains that it is much easier for the court to rule on case management motions if the moving party certifies that the opposing party does not oppose the motion....

In a far away land, an American corporation harms people. It could be a physical attack. Maybe it’s just property destruction. The victims, cognizant of the rampant corruption within their own judicial and political systems, turn to the U.S. for relief. They sue in a federal court under the Alien Tort Statute. Over 200 years old, it’s a brief law: So can the victims in the scenario we described above sue in the U....

A president looking to make his mark on the Supreme Court, the logic goes, should nominate younger jurists for the bench. After all, a Neil Gorsuch, at age 49, is likely to have a few more years of adjudicating before him than, say, a 63-year-old Merrick Garland. That common sense assumption is an accurate one, of course. Younger justices end up serving longer on average, according to a recent analysis by the Pew Research Center....

The makers of one of the most adored exercise bikes ever has just been hit with a $150 million lawsuit due to not having the correct music license in place to stream music alongside its streaming workout classes. Unlike brick and mortar gyms and other public establishments, who should have a public performance license to play copyrighted music, when music is contained in a streaming video, a sync license is required....

What do you do with a questionable appeal of a questionable case from a formerly pro se plaintiff – one who has hired and fired two lawyers, not counting his third lawyer, who now represents him on appeal? Many courts would dismiss his claims in a cursory unpublished opinion, one that would be lost in a stack of unread, non-precedential judgments. Fortunately, Judge Richard Posner wanted to make a point in this opinion, albeit a minor one that has very little to do with the pro se plaintiff....

Government employees have free speech rights when discussing a matter of public concern. Except when it disrupts the workplace. Or when the speech is made pursuant to their job duties. Citizen speech is protected. Official speech is not. It’s a convoluted rule, this standard borne from Garcetti v. Ceballos. How does one determine if speech is made as a citizen or as an employee? As the Wait a Second! blog notes, Garcetti was initially interpreted narrowly (speech is protected unless that speech is mandated by one’s job duties) but has since been broadened by the circuit courts to include pretty much anything that you learn about in the line of duty....

In a case that is about as sad as it comes, the children survivors of a really bad foster home have had a good portion of their cases dismissed due the appellate court’s finding that the social workers charged with overseeing their wellbeing met the requirements for qualified immunity. The appellate court, in holding that the social workers have qualified immunity, was disgusted and explained that their ruling was contrary to logic as “any layperson would think a court justified in throwing ODHS and its caseworkers ‘under the bus....

The Electoral College has become a favorite whipping boy of Democrats who believe it provides an advantage to their Republic rivals. Twice in the last 20 years, Republicans have won the presidency after finishing second in the popular vote – and this year, at least for a day or so after the election, it looked like it might be happening again. We even hear talk these days of getting rid of the Electoral College....

In a massive victory for LGBTQ+ advocates, the Supreme Court has ruled that Title VII the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating based on their sexual orientation or transgender status. The decision came as a surprise to many, given the increased number of conservative justices on the Court and pressure from the Trump Administration to deny protection under Title VII. Perhaps even more surprising, Justice Neil Gorsuch not only joined the majority but also penned the Court’s opinion....

As a legal community, we assume that a litigant’s statements to the Supreme Court are true. The limited number of cases that reach the Court each year are subject to intense media scrutiny, so surely any falsities would be quickly revealed and horribly embarrassing. Whether or not it was an outright lie, a rare piece of faulty information made its way to the Nine in the 2009 case, Nken v. Holder, and the Court based its opinion, in part, on that faulty information....

District court order dismissing plaintiff’s petition to vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel is affirmed where appellate counsel’s failure to raise a claim that he had the right to counsel at the plea-withdrawal stage was not objectively unreasonable or the cause of any prejudice. Read US v. Forbes, No. 07-3130 Appellate InformationAppeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of New York....

Both Utah and Oklahoma will get the same panel of federal judges for their gay marriage appeals as the Tenth Circuit agrees to expedite the cases. Although the judges will be the same, the oral arguments won’t be heard at the same time, The Oklahoman reports. However, briefs will be allowed to be filed jointly. So could a decision bring gay marriage back to SCOTUS? As a reminder of how we got here, the Tenth Circuit agreed to expedite a review of Utah’s same-sex marriage ban back in January....

More questions have been raised about the legitimacy of this year’s election than at any time in modern history. The Electoral College itself has faced political and popular scrutiny like never before. Many Americans take issue with the fact that it isn’t the American people who directly elect a President by popular vote. Rather, the votes that count are through “Electors” who don’t appear on the ballot. In presidential elections, voters in most states actually vote for a slate of nameless Electors who have already pledged to vote for a specific candidate....