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Petition for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) denying Pakistani petitioner’s application for asylum, withholding of removal and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) is denied where: 1) BIA’s factual determination that petitioner failed to file his asylum application within one year and the board’s decision that he does not qualify for a time extension are unreviewable; 2) BIA’s denial of petition for withholding of removal and protection under the CAT is sufficiently supported by the record to establish that petitioner had not suffered past persecution or the likelihood of future persecution....

In a class action claiming that a telephone company’s offer of a “free” phone to anyone who signed up for its service was fraudulent to the extent the phone company charged the new subscriber sales tax on the retail value of each “free” phone, denial of defendant’s motion to compel arbitration is affirmed where an arbitration clause’s “premium” payment in the event of an arbitral award in favor of a customer did not prevent the clause from being unenforceable under California law....

It has been long established that smoking cigarettes is bad for you. And, since second-hand smoke is also bad for you, there are a lot of restrictions on where you can smoke. Vaping, on the other hand, doesn’t affect other people, since the “smoke” is just evaporating water and odorless. But, vaping does involve nicotine and can still have negative effects on the person vaping. Additionally, many are worried that e-cigarette companies are targeting teens....

First-year law students struggle through civil procedure because it’s a necessary evil. No one actually cares about general jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction, Pennoyer v. Neff, or International Shoe. Civ Pro, in essence, is the broccoli on the aspiring lawyer’s educational plate. Things change, however, when we graduate from the halls of academia to the real world. Suddenly, jurisdiction is interesting because it can make or break a case – and the amount a lawyer ultimately bills – as it did in today’s Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals opinion....

In plaintiffs’ class action suit against the defendant-union for violating the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act in obtaining their personal information in the union’s efforts to unionize CINTAS, the largest domestic employer in the industrial laundry industry, district court’s order denying a motion by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTW)to modify a protective order that restricts access to certain records is affirmed as NRTW lack standing to request modification of the protective order because the records are not judicial records....

In an action alleging medical negligence by physicians who treated a prisoner, the dismissal of the complaint is affirmed in part where plaintiff’s claims against certain doctors were untimely; but reversed in part, where the complaint stated a claim that certain doctors exposed plaintiff to undue suffering or the threat of tangible residual injury. Read Scott v. Ambani, No. 08-1671 Appellate Information Submitted: March 5, 2009 Decided and Filed: August 18, 2009...

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that twins conceived after their father’s death were not entitled to his Social Security benefits. In the opinion – reversing a prior Third Circuit Court of Appeals decision that granted benefits to the posthumously-conceived children – the unanimous Supreme Court noted that the Social Security Administration’s interpretation of the survivor benefit statute “is better attuned to the statute’s text and its design to benefit primarily those supported by the deceased wage earner in his or her lifetime....

Almost three decades have passed since the nation’s highest court declared that peremptory strikes on the basis of race are a violation of equal protection. In little less than a week, SCOTUS will revisit the issue of racism in jury selection again. The Supreme Court’s review of Foster v. Humphreys is the latest case to highlight what some have called a double standard of justice against blacks in American courts even with the ruling in Batson v....

The US Supreme Court announced Monday that it will start highlighting changes to publicly released opinions. The changes will be highlighted in the text of the opinion and both the old and new material will be visible to readers by placing their cursor over the brightened sections. This may not come as particularly earth-shattering news, but it is construed by some as a small concession by the Highest Court in response to complaints regarding the court’s lack of transparency....

There are some things you just don’t say in court – or else. Like, you can’t tell a judge he or she is wrong. Instead, you say: “I repectfully disagree, your honor.” The same is true outside the courtroom, especially in litigation. You can’t just put people down and threaten them with gutter-talk. Here are a half-dozen statements that will get you disciplined: Inappropriate Litigation Behavior Thanks to Adam Leitman Bailey, we have a ready list of to-not-dos....

Last week, a federal district court in Missouri joined a chorus of state courts in striking down the state’s ban on gay marriage. In doing so, that court set aside precedent from 2006 that many regarded as a controlling opinion on same-sex marriage bans: Citizens for Equal Protection v. Bruning, an Eighth Circuit opinion upholding Nebraska’s ban. Judge Ortrie D. Smith of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri distinguished Bruning by classifying it as a political right-of-access case, rather than a case about a fundamental right to same-sex marriage....

District court’s sentence and conviction of defendant for multiple crimes related to a fraudulent telemarketing scheme is affirmed where: 1) the evidence presented at trial was sufficient to support the jury’s verdict that defendant acted with knowledge of a telemarketing company’s fraudulent activity and with the specific intent to defraud telemarketing company’s victims; 2) district court did not clearly err in applying the manager-or-supervisor enhancement as supported by evidence of defendant’s involvement and control over the scheme; and 3) defendant failed to overcome the presumption that his below-guidelines sentence is reasonable....

In a prosecution for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, denial of defendant’s motion to suppress is affirmed where: 1) the police officers acted in objective good faith reliance on a warrant; and 2) defendant has not rebutted that presumption, and the defendant has not shown that the affidavit was so lacking in indicia of probable cause as to make entirely unreasonable a belief that probable cause existed. Read US v. Elst, No....

Sentence for drug crimes and firearms possession is affirmed where: 1) the district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to compel the government to a file a substantial assistance motion under U.S.S.G. section 3553(e) as defendant failed to meet his burden of showing that the government acted with an improper motive in refusing to file the motion; and 2) the government was not judicially estopped from arguing that defendant had not provided substantial assistance....

In an Indian tribe’s appeal from the district court’s denial of the tribe’s Rule 60(b) motion to reopen the judgment in a matter in which the tribe had been denied fishing rights under the Treaty of Point Elliott, the order is affirmed where recognition proceedings and the fact of the tribe’s recognition had no effect on the establishment of treaty rights at issue in this case. Read US v. Washington, No....

Maetta Vance, the only African-American working in her department, sued her employer Ball State University, under Title VII, alleging a racially hostile work environment because of the actions of her co-worker Saundra Davis. Vance began her employment at Ball State University in 1989 as a substitute server and made her way up the ranks until 2007 when she became a full-time employee. While she worked at Ball State, Saundra Davis, a white woman, allegedly created a racially hostile work environment by giving …...

There have been no shortage of entities filing lawsuits related to the ongoing opioid epidemic: the City of San Francisco, several counties in West Virginia, the States of Florida and Ohio, and even the Cherokee Nation. And now you can add Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, West Virginia, and Wisconsin to that list. Those five states joined at least 39 others in litigation against Purdue Pharma, claiming the drug manufacturer illegally marketed and sold its opioids, escalating a nationwide epidemic of addiction, abuse, and overdoses....

This post was updated on March 25, 2022 If you want to hire a lawyer to draft a will or trust, what questions should you ask before taking that step? Having an estate plan in place helps ensure that your final wishes are carried out after you pass away. Beyond writing a will, estate planning attorneys can help you with tax, financial, and business planning. So what questions do you need to ask before hiring an estate planning lawyer?...

US v. Janvier, No. 08-5978, involved defendant’s appeal from the district court’s order revoking his term of supervised release due to his use of drugs, and sentencing him to five months’ incarceration and an additional period of supervised release. The court of appeals reversed, holding that the district court lacked jurisdiction because no warrant or summons was issued before the end of the supervised release term. In re: WestPoint Stevens, Inc....

Trying breach of fiduciary duty claims against 16 individual defendants sounds like a lengthy process, but a federal judge in Pennsylvania thinks that it can be done in 17 hours. Total. Last week, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals refused to order the judge to grant the litigants more time to make their cases, ruling that inadequate time challenges are better argued after a trial. The Lemington Home for the Aged is a non-profit nursing care facility in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania....