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What else happened at the Supreme Court this week? As we reported yesterday, a case that’s going to be of significance to patent trolls and the people who fight against them. But there were two other opinions released yesterday, dealing with more the more prosaic topics of bankruptcy and whistleblowing. (“Patents aren’t prosaic?” you’re asking. The answer is “no.” They’re very exciting.) Anna Nicole Smith’s bankruptcy case, Stern v. Marshall, yielded a new bit of law when it comes to bankruptcy....

McQueary v. Conway, 09-5807, concerned a challenge to the district court’s denial of plaintiff’s request for fees following dismissal of the lawsuit as moot after Kentucky repealed the challenged provisions of a Kentucky law, placing limits on protests at military funerals (six months after district court’s grant of plaintiff’s motion to enjoin enforcement of the law on a preliminary basis). Plaintiff had challenged the validity of the Kentucky law, claiming that the law violated his free-speech rights....

Over the past few years, the nation has watched, with little amusement, while a circus of immigration reform efforts have played out in Arizona. Frustrated by what they call the federal government’s failings in curbing illegal immigration, the state passed its own set of laws, in the legislature and via referendum, most of which have since met their demise in the courts. Arizona’s laws have been criticized as improperly motivated, and preempted by federal law, but last June, a divided panel upheld Proposition 100, which denies bond to illegal immigrants accused of serious crimes, as a proper means of ensuring that the state can enforce its laws against those prone to flee....

A Los Angeles-based attorney has been accused of fabricating fictional clients to file lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act against small businesses across Southern California. Why? According to a complaint filed with the State Bar of California, good old-fashioned extortion. Searching for Answers Another attorney, David Michaels, reported Simon Soo Kil Chang of K&C Law Firm to the state bar in 2018, claiming Chang had shaken down over 200 business owners over ADA violations as small as faded paint on an accessible parking spot....

In a petition for review of the BIA’s order denying petitioner’s request to terminate proceedings and his request for cancellation of removal, the petition is dismissed where petitioner’s conviction was one related to a controlled substance under 8 U.S.C. section 1227(a)(2)(B)(i), and thus the circuit court lacked jurisdiction over the petition. Read Bermudez v. Holder, No. 08-72133 Appellate Information Submitted October 15, 2009* Filed November 10, 2009 Judges Per Curiam...

District court’s grant of petition for writ of habeas corpus is reversed and remanded where: 1) the court properly determined that petitioner exhausted his Strickland claim in the state courts and that this claim was not procedurally defaulted by Pennsylvania’s bar against the relitigation of “previously litigated” claims in PCRA proceedings; 2) petitioner’s claim is governed by the test for ineffective assistance of counsel enunciated in Strickland; 3) the court erred in reviewing petitioner’s claim de novo as the state courts adjudicated petitioner’s claim on the merits and federal habeas relief is subject to the standards prescribed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act; and 4) the court improperly rejected the Magistrate Judge’s finding that petitioner had not demonstrated prejudice as required by Strickland....

In 2015, a new anti-puppy mill law took effect in Chicago that changed the landscape for pet stores. The law prohibits pet retailers from sourcing animals from anywhere except government run animal shelters, or animal control, or non-profit pet rescues, or pet shelters. Basically, pet stores are no longer able to source animals from pet breeders. The law was not passed to put the squeeze on pet stores, but rather to protect consumers and save tax payers money as the city spends $500,000 annually to euthanize animals (some of which are adoptable)....

If you’re trying to decide whether to file a client’s claim in state court or federal court, one option you should weigh is whether the claim could be time-barred in one of your choices. Today’s Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals case presents a tough lesson in how that choice can affect the outcome of a case. Ryan Bonneau was 34 when he filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against his former teachers, principal, and school district in federal court, alleging that the teachers had beaten him from 1986 to 1988 while he was an elementary school student....

Caregivers who provide companionship services to disabled patients living in the caregiver’s home are not entitled to overtime pay, the Eighth Circuit ruled on Tuesday. The case arose after workers for United Cerebral Palsy of Central Arkansas sued, arguing that keeping patients in the workers’ homes “requires additional worktime that should be compensated as overtime.” The Eighth Circuit disagreed, finding that such work constituted providing companionship services in a “private home” and was thus exempt from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act....

In the realm of criminal cases not filed, Jussie Smollett’s was about a 6.7 on the Richter scale in the celebrity crime world. Now it is sending aftershocks through the Chicago prosecutor’s office. Attorney Kim Foxx is under fire over an alleged conflict of interest in her decision not to prosecute the actor. If you haven’t been watching the show (and we don’t mean Empire), Smollet was indicted and then un-indicted on 16 felony counts for allegedly staging his own beat-down....

Like many father-daughter duos, Sarah Smith and Tim Smith do a lot of things together. Take for instance, the law. The pair entered law school, joined the same study group, and took the bar exam together. Now they’re waiting for test scores and hoping they will celebrate together. ‘Phenomenal Experience’ The Smiths are cut from the same cloth in another way: they are both optimists. Or maybe they just like the law a lot....

In what is sure to turn heads, a decision out of Colorado’s Federal District Court has just ruled that the state’s sex offender register scheme is unconstitutional. The court not only found that the scheme violated the Constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment, but it also violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process protections. Fortunately, before the entire state goes into panic mode locking their loved ones indoors, the ruling only applies to three particular individuals that have been harmed by Colorado’s registration process....

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action challenging Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol under the Eighth Amendment, judgment for Plaintiff is vacated where Baze v. Rees, 128 S. Ct. 1520 (2008), addressed the same risks identified by the District Court, but reached the conclusion that they did not rise to the level of a constitutional violation. Read Harbison v. Little, No. 07-6225 Appellate Information Argued: January 20, 2009 Decided and Filed: July 2, 2009...

Wrongful Death Action Against Bureau of Indian Affairs In Hart v. US, No. 10-1604, a wrongful death action under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), asserting that a Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement officer failed adequately to supervise, secure, and detain plaintiff’s son after his arrest for federal sex crimes, resulting in his suicide, the court affirmed the dismissal of the complaint where a federal law enforcement officer’s on-the-spot decisions concerning how to effectuate an arrest – including how best to restrain, supervise, control or trust an arrestee – fell within the discretionary function exception to the FTCA absent a specific mandatory directive to the contrary....

On Monday, the Supreme Court heard its first oral argument of the October 2014 term. The facts of Heien v. North Carolina are straightforward. Vazquez was driving Heien’s car; Heien was sleeping in the back seat. A police officer thought Vazquez looked “stiff and nervous” as he drove by, so the officer followed him. The officer noticed one of the car’s brake lights was out, so the officer pulled Vazquez over, issued a citation for the light, and asked for permission to search the car....

For some reason, Anita Hansen wanted to go into a Hollister store. You know Hollister: the Abercombie & Fitch brand designed to make everyone think they’re a hip surfer dude. Anyway, for some reason, Anita Hansen wanted to go into this place – maybe to figure out what that smell was – but she couldn’t get in. Hansen is disabled, and says she couldn’t get into the store because there are steps leading to its front entrance (Abercrombie wants you to think you’re entering a hut or something)....

Mumia Abu-Jamal could finally receive a new sentencing hearing in his 1981 Philadelphia cop murder conviction. In orders issued this morning, the Supreme Court denied Pennsylvania’s writ of certiorari in the case, the state’s last-ditch effort to keep Abu-Jamal’s original death sentence. Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther, was sentenced to death for first-degree murder in the 1981 shooting of Daniel Faulkner, a Philadelphia police officer. The case has bounced through the courts for almost 30 years as judges contemplated whether the jury instructions for Abu-Jamal’s sentencing were flawed....

District court’s judgment, involving land title insurance policy dispute, is reversed where: 1) the district court erred in granting Commonwealth’s motion to dismiss as in order to except expressly from ALTA 9 Endorsement coverage a right of refusal or other restrictions noted in paragraph 1(b)(2) of the Endorsement, an insurer must list those restrictions specifically in Schedule B: and 2) Commonwealth bore the burden of detecting the restrictions stated in the Declaration, and had to list those restrictions explicitly as exceptions to avoid covering loss from them....

Remittitur — the R-word — is one of the most dreaded terms in Black’s Legal Dictionary. This week, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals dropped an R-bomb in an excessive force lawsuit, reducing a punitive damages award by $200,000. The reason? The defendant cop’s behavior was reprehensible, but not reprehensible enough to warrant a $300,000 punitive damages award. James Payne is a decorated Vietnam War veteran who suffers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of his military service....

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) does not the authority to bring court actions to collect disciplinary fines. FINRA is a “self-regulatory organization” as a national securities association registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that is responsible for conducting investigations and commencing disciplinary proceedings against [FINRA] member firms and their associated member representatives relating to compliance with the federal securities laws and regulations....