Posts

In an appeal from the district court’s order enjoining plaintiffs in a products liability class action from relitigating in state court the certification of a West Virginia class, the order is affirmed where: 1) the relitigation exception to the Anti-Injunction Act permitted an injunction barring relitigation in state court of a federal court’s denial of class certification; and 2) plaintiffs were collaterally estopped by the federal denial of class certification from relitigating the issue....

Irwin Schiff is famous in certain circles – so much so, that he has his own Wikipedia page. Schiff has been in and out of prison for much of his life due to his leadership in the tax protester movement, with convictions and protests spanning multiple decades. He’s also written a number of books on the subject, each advocating ways (legal and illegal) to avoid paying income taxes. In 2005, Schiff and two associates were convicted of tax evasion and other false filing and conspiracy charges....

Today marks the 100th day since D.C. Circuit Chief Judge Merrick Garland was nominated to the Supreme Court. That is 100 days without formal consideration of his nomination; 100 days without a hearing by the Senate; 100 days with no Senatorial advice and certainly no consent. As Senate Republican leaders continue to refuse to consider Garland’s nomination, Justice Scalia’s former seat might remain vacant for 100 more. The situation is “appalling” in the eyes of the judiciary, according to a federal judge who recently spoke out about the delay....

With only two years left in his presidency, and no apparent Supreme Court vacancies in sight, is President Obama ever going to nominate another justice? Following the president’s remarks on that very topic this week, The Wall Street Journal’s Jacob Gershman did the math, and it looks like Obama may indeed get that chance, at least statistically speaking. According to Gershman, 82 percent of U.S. presidential terms have overlapped with at least one vacancy on the Supreme Court....

Thomas Bader, a licensed Colorado pharmacist, lost his human growth hormone (HGH) conviction appeal before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals this week, but succeeded in getting a $4.8 million forfeiture order overturned. Bader owned and operated College Pharmacy, a compounding pharmacy located in Colorado Springs. (Though the Tenth Circuit never resolved what a “compounding” pharmacy is, PharmWatch.org described College Pharmacy as “one of several [pharmacies] that supply nonstandard products to offbeat physicians who do chelation therapy, mesotherapy, and other dubious treatments....

District court’s denial of plaintiff’s petition for habeas relief is affirmed where: 1) plaintiff’s argument that his counsel was ineffective for failing to introduce the results of the gunshot residue test is forfeited as the argument was not presented in district court; and 2) plaintiff failed to show he suffered prejudice as a result of counsel’s errors on his other claims, and that there was a reasonable probability that but for counsel’s unprofessional errors the result of the proceeding would have been different....

In a case that will undoubtedly have an effect nationwide, the Second Circuit ruled on Friday that the government’s warrantless GPS search of three defendants fell within the good faith exception to the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule. Cases like this one are making their way through the courts all over the country as defendants contest the use of GPS tracking devices, without a warrant, after the Supreme Court’s recent holding in United States v....

In an action by a Philippine island claiming that an American company polluted its waters, dismissal of the action on forum non conveniens grounds is reversed where the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction under the act of state doctrine because none of the conduct by the Philippine government referenced by defendants was essential to any of the plaintiff’s causes of action. Read Provincial Gov’t. of Marinduque v. Placer Dome, Inc....

In Wood v. Detroit Diesel Corp., No. 09-1252, the Sixth Circuit faced a challenge to the district court’s grant of plaintiff-retirees’ motion for summary judgment in their suit under the Labor-Management Relations Act and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), claiming that they were entitled to fully funded, lifetime health care benefits. As satated in the decision: “In the 1993 Cap Agreement, the parties agreed ’to limit [Detroit Diesel]’s contribution toward retiree health benefit premiums’ without providing for an expiration date for the limitation....

A recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision may leave quite a few people wondering just how in the world it is possible that a Domino’s Pizza employee calling a customer the n-word doesn’t lead to civil liability in court. The case involved a customer of Domino’s Pizza who received his pizza pie only to discover that it was burnt. He drove the pizza back to the store so that the pizza makers could make it right....

In plaintiff’s suit seeking overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act against a wholly-owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, district court’s order granting defendant summary judgment is affirmed as the administrative employee exemption applies to plaintiff, and defendant’s cross-appeal is dismissed. Read Smith v. Johnson & Johnson, No. 09-1223 Appellate Information On Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey Opinion Filed February 2, 2010...

Drug-sniffing dogs. Hair analysis. Bite-marks, footwear, and ballistics relating to firearms and projectiles. Even some fingerprint tests. The list of once-unassailable, now-debunked forensic evidence is long. And growing. Cell-Site Location Information, or CSLI, is data compiled based on where your cell phone is when it “pings” towers to receive phone and data signals. The use of CSLI in criminal prosecutions has become so pervasive (and the data available to law enforcement so expansive) that the Supreme Court recently ruled that officers need a warrant to obtain location data from phone carriers....

Is simply being a part of Al Qaeda enough to justify detention at Guantanamo Bay, if the accused has not specifically engaged in armed action against the United States? The question is trying to make it to the United States Supreme Court next Term, with a petition was filed on May 11. And with Justice Kagan likely sitting this one out, the eight-Justice panel might sway in favor of the Obama Administration’s lawyers yet again....

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the Clinton-era “Roadless Rule” today in a 120-page decision. A Wyoming federal court blocked enforcement of the rule, designed to protect 49 million acres of roadless forests and grasslands, after the State of Wyoming and the Colorado Mining Association challenged the law in 2008, reports The Denver Post. The Forest Service initially adopted the Interim Roadless Rule, an 18-month moratorium on road construction in most inventoried roadless areas (IRAs) in March 1999....

California’s prison system has been under scrutiny and the issue of California’s prison overcrowding has finally been addressed by SCOTUS. On appeal from the United States District Court, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a judicial order that would result in the release of up to 46,000 California prisoners. The case stems from two previous federal class actions, namely Coleman v. Brown (1990) and Plata v. Brown (2001). In both cases, the cases involved plaintiffs who were ill: in Coleman, the plaintiffs were a class of mentally ill California prisoners and in Plata, the prisoners had serious medical conditions....

Defendants’ drug conspiracy convictions are affirmed where the prosecution improperly presented, as evidence of defendants’ guilt, testimony that drew generalizations on the basis of ethnicity, but the other evidence against defendants was overwhelming and thus the error was harmless. Read US v. Nobari, No. 06-10465 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted February 10, 2009 Filed July 24, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Clifton Counsel For Appellant: Suzanne A. Luban, Oakland, CA...

Wilmington is suspending and revising its Instant Ticketing Program after the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the program violated due process rights. Last year, the Third Circuit ruled in favor of plaintiffs Christine Dowd, Damon Morris, and Roy Morris, finding that a 2008 New Castle ordinance establishing a civil, “Instant Ticketing Program” for sanitation code violations was “patently an unconstitutional procedure,” according to The News Journal. New Castle County amended the county property maintenance code in 2005 to address the accumulation of rubbish and improper maintenance of exterior structures....

District court judgment dismissing the suit against plaintiff and ruling that the action against the U.S. does not come within the court’s subject matter jurisdiction is affirmed with modifications where: 1) plaintiff’s action was untimely; 2) someone who wants a legal right to use land owned by the U.S. must act to vindicate the claim; and 3) the U.S. need not evict the interloper by force. Read Wisconsin Valley Improvement Co....

Cindy Abbott sued Sangamon County and local law enforcement officers for a slew of civil rights violations after she was tased. The County and the cops claimed qualified immunity – as both are wont to do – and the district court dismissed the claims. This week, the Seventh Circuit reinstated Cindy’s excessive force claims, reasoning that a jury should decide whether a cop was justified in tasering Cindy repeatedly after hitting her car....

In plaintiff’s action against its former employee and his new employer to enforce the terms of the restrictive covenant not to compete, district court’s grant of plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) defendant’s new employer is a dispensable party to the action, and as such, will be dismissed under Rule 21 authority to restore complete diversity; 2) plaintiff, as the same corporate entity that entered into the 2005 Agreement with defendant, may now seek to enforce that agreement against him as its 2007 corporate restructuring was a stock sale rather than an asset purchase and there was no need for an assignment of the non-compete provision; 3) district court did not err in holding that plaintiff had a legitimate business interest in its customer goodwill and defendant’s specialized training and skills as a pyrotechnician; and 4) a grant of preliminary injunction is vacated for failure to comply with the bond requirements of Rule 65(c)....