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While serving a life sentence at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola for a crime he maintained he didn’t commit, one question plagued Calvin Duncan: How can a non-unanimous verdict by a jury in a criminal case be constitutional? Louisiana voters approved an amendment to the state constitution late last year to bar non-unanimous verdicts; however, the rule does not apply retroactively. After over 20 years and more than two dozen attempts to persuade the Supreme Court to take up the issue, Duncan will finally see his question answered by SCOTUS this fall....

In a Freedom of Information Act action seeking FBI records regarding certain investigations, the District Court’s order allowing the depositions of certain inmates is reversed where the FBI submitted declarations that provided a consistent and uncontradicted showing that it conducted an adequate search for the records requested by Plaintiff, and there was no reason why the depositions might yield additional documents. Read Trentadue v. FBI, No. 08-4207 Appellate Information Filed July 2, 2009...

False Claims Act Action In US v. ConAgra, Inc., No. 09-1163, an action under the reverse false claims provision of the False Claims Act (FCA), alleging that defendants altered thousands of beef and hide export certificates issued by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), rather than obtaining replacement certificates, in order to avoid paying the fees charged by the USDA for replacement certificates, the court affirmed partial judgment for plaintiff where 1) plaintiff effectively invited the district court to bifurcate the original source issue from the merits issues; 2) plaintiff’s substantial rights were not adversely impacted by the district court’s instructional error; and 3) the district court did not abuse its discretion in allowing defendant to cross-examine plaintiff regarding his prior litigation history....

Defendant’s sentence for illegally reentering the U.S. is affirmed where the District Court did not abuse its discretion in declining to order that Defendant’s federal sentence run concurrently with his undischarged state sentence, under the circumstance that he was not eligible for fast-track treatment due to the district in which he was prosecuted. Read US v. Perez-Vasquez, No. 07-6390 Appellate Information Argued: March 10, 2009 Decided and Filed: April 30, 2009...

The Department of Justice filed an emergency motion on July 14 asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a California district court’s worldwide injunction against the enforcement of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The motion accompanied the Obama Administration’s response to the Ninth Circuit’s July 11 order asking whether the government would defend the constitutionality of the policy; the administration claims that the Ninth Circuit is incorrect in concluding that the government must choose whether it will defend the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy because the policy was already repealed by Congress....

In a drug conspiracy prosecution, the denial of Petitioner’s habeas petition is affirmed, where there was no reason to believe that disclosure of allegedly suppressed impeachment evidence regarding a prosecution witness would have so altered the jury’s assessment of the witness’s already suspect credibility. Read Akrawi v. Booker, No. 07-1984 Appellate Information Argued: June 17, 2009 Decided and Filed: July 10, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge McKeague Counsel For Appellant:...

It sounds like nobody in Murdock, Minn. has any interest in letting a church called Asatru Folk Assembly open its doors in their town. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks such things, the Asatru Folk Assembly is a white supremacist group. And even though Murdock (population 265) is located in the middle of rural Red America with a population that’s 95% white, its residents have made it clear that a racially extremist church is not welcome there....

Twelve-year-old Fatima Abdelrahman was preparing to board a flight recently when an airline employee told her she had to remove her hijab, a religious head scarf worn by Muslim women. Abdelrahman and her teammates on the U.S. Squash Junior National Team had passed through security at San Francisco International Airport and were waiting at the gate to board an Air Canada flight to Toronto for a tournament when a boarding agent separated Abdelrahman from the group....

We’ve all heard the confessionals by video game players who sacrificed their jobs, their relationships, or their educations to their gaming obsession. But can video games be truly addictive, like drugs? People who have joined a class-action lawsuit against a game company in Canada say yes. The defendant company, Epic Games, is the creator of Fortnite, an extremely popular third-person shooter game. A Montreal law firm, Calex Legal, has created a class action on behalf of two parents who claim that the game is as addictive as cocaine and has harmed their two children, ages 10 and 15....

Judge John Kane wants the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals to be busier. If you follow the Tenth Circuit docket, you’re familiar with the recurring criminal case topics before the court: drugs and child pornography. For as many appeals as the court hears concerning these crimes, think of all the defendants that simply strike a plea bargain and agree to a waiver of appeal. In his Lafler v. Cooper opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy observed that 97 percent of federal convictions and 94 percent of state convictions are the result of guilty pleas....

Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone of Nev. v. US Dept. of Interior, No. 07-16336, concerned an action claiming that the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) approval of a mining company’s amendment to a plan of operations for an existing mineral exploration project in Nevada violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the National Historic Preservation Act, and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. The court of appeals affirmed summary judgment for defendants in part on the grounds that 1) the BLM did not violate NEPA by approving the amendment without knowing the precise locations of drill sites, access roads, and other project activities; and 2) given the uncertainty of the exploration activities, the BLM imposed mitigation measures designed to adequately protect cultural resources in all phases of the amendment....

A federal appeals court reversed a $1.8 million judgment against Rite Aid, concluding the company lawfully fired a pharmacist who was too afraid of needles to give immunization injections to customers. The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals said Christopher Stevens was fired because he couldn’t do the job. A jury had concluded the company discriminated against the pharmacist because of his phobia, but the appeals court set aside the verdict in Stevens v....

In Chen v. Holder, No. 08-2836, the Seventh Circuit dealt with the BIA’s affirmance of Immigration Judge’s denial of a Chinese national’s application for asylum and related relief, claiming that he has been or will be persecuted because of his family’s resistance to China’s one-child policy and his membership in social groups that include his family and the hei haizi. In granting the petition, the court held that the agency’s analysis of the asylum claim was incomplete as the BIA failed to address petitioner’s claim of past persecution based on imputed political opinion, and BIA also failed to consider the cumulative significance of the hardships visited upon petitioner and his family and the future hardships he would face if returned....

US v. Montgomery, 09-3289, concerned a challenge to the district court’s denial of defendant’s motion to suppress evidence, in a prosecution of defendant for knowingly growing 100 or more marijuana plants. In affirming, the court held that although, medication is one among many factors to consider in the inquiry, the sum of relevant circumstances supported the district court’s credibility-based decision that defendant voluntarily consented to a search of his home....

One of these cases is not like the others. While many parties have challenged states’ gay marriage bans generally, and others have targeted a state’s refusal to recognize other states’ same-sex couplings, the Ohio gay marriage case was especially narrow, focusing on the listing of one’s spouse on his or her death certificate. The plaintiffs, who were seeking recognition of their same-sex marriages (legally entered into in other states) on their deceased loved one’s death certificates, triumphed in the district court....

A stunning case was recently decided by the Tenth Circuit in which the federal court ruled that a convicted sex offender facing an ‘authentic danger of self-incrimination’ cannot be forced by the government to answer questions regarding past sexual crimes. It’s a clear line drawn in the sand. In our view, the decision by the circuit court was the correct one and that the circuit correctly reversed the lower court’s ludicrous finding that the subject’s answers would not present a “real and appreciable risk of incrimination....

You remember Rod Blagojevich, right? The former governor of Illinois who was convicted of corruption for attempting to sell former U.S. Senator Barack Obama’s senate seat? (I wonder what happened to that guy?) Blagojevich and his awesome hair resurfaced in an opinion from the Seventh Circuit on Friday, where the court found there was sufficient evidence to survive summary judgment on a RICO claim against him. The case centers on state legislation imposing a 3 percent tax on casinos....

In a capital habeas matter, a denial of the habeas petition is affirmed where: 1) there was no Supreme Court authority clearly establishing the proper reconciliation of the competing double-jeopardy principles at issue, which was fatal to his claim; and 2) it was neither arbitrary nor capricious for a state court of appeals to retain and exercise its customary appellate authority to correct the trial court’s error in the event the trial court failed to take the required action....

A recent Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision will make life a lot easier for pharmaceutical sales reps. Monday, the appellate court ruled that a drug manufacturer’s off-label use promotions are protected free speech, as long as such promotions are not false or misleading, Reuters reports. Under the Federal Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), drugs must be approved by the FDA for specific uses before they can be distributed into interstate commerce....

Pennsylvania’s hotly contested voter identification law goes to trial today to determine whether the law is enforceable, The Washington Post reports. If enforced, the law could be one of the strictest in the nation, and could serve as a model for other states who could end up disenfranchising voters in the name of preventing voter fraud, reports NPR. In 2012, Pennsylvania’s Election Code was amended to include a photo identification requirement....