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Religious and private schools in Kentucky did not go back to in-person classes this week due to a decision by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that sided with Governor Andy Beshear. Earlier this month, the governor issued an executive order prohibiting in-person classes at all Kentucky schools from November 23 through December 13. The state’s attorney general, Daniel Cameron, along with Danville Christian Academy, filed for a temporary restraining order exempting religious and private schools on November 20....

Crack Sentence Vacated in Part In US v. Johnson, No. 09-50292, the court affirmed in part defendant’s sentence for knowingly and intentionally distributing at least 50 grams of a mixture containing cocaine base, holding that, although defendant may have been initially a) confused by the terms of his plea agreement, or b) confused by a specific question directed to him by the court, neither constituted plain error. However, the court vacated in part where due process prohibited setting a condition of supervised release that “either forbids or requires the doing of an act in terms so vague that men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application....

In a case involving convictions which represented the first criminal convictions for a stock option backdating practice that was widespread in the late 1990s, former Brocade CEO’s conviction is reversed due to prosecutorial misconduct in making a false assertion of material fact to the jury in closing argument. Other defendant’s conviction is affirmed because sufficient evidence existed to convict her, but her sentence is vacated because it improperly included an obstruction of justice enhancement for which reprehensibility lay primarily with her lawyer....

Conviction for firearms possession is affirmed where: 1) the arresting officers’ questions fell within the public safety exception to Miranda, and thus defendant’s statements in response were admissible; 2) the district court did not err in determining that defendant voluntarily consented to the search of his vehicle as defendant’s intoxication did not render his consent to search his vehicle involuntary and unknowing. Read US v. Watters, No. 08-3696 Appellate InformationAppeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas....

Yesterday, the Supreme Court issued an opinion, or rather, a non-opinion, in one of the term’s most important cases, Zubik v. Burwell, a challenge to Obamacare’s contraception mandate procedures. In a brief, per curiam opinion, the Court remanded seven cases it had chosen to decide just months before – without deciding any of the constitutional issues at hand. Accompanying orders tossed six more cases back to the appellate courts, where the judges will now have to grapple with the issues the Justices avoided, with little instruction other than to play nice and seek out compromise....

It’s rare these days to find someone who doesn’t have their mobile phone on hand, whether it’s in their pocket, their purse, or just within arm’s reach. However, keeping these devices close might also mean anyone can know where you are, any time. Reports earlier this year of mobile carriers like Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T selling their customer’s location data to third parties caused severe backlash for many of these companies....

This time around the recession didn’t spare anyone. Not the bankers on Wall Street, not the Joes on Main Street, and not the Bravo reality TV stars Teresa Giudice and husband, not so regular Joe. The couple will be auctioning off their personal property at an August 22 at 12 p.m. (EST) auction at their Towaco, New Jersey, home. The $1.8 million dollar home (contrary to Teresa statements on her reality show The Real Housewives of New Jersey) is in foreclosure....

In case there’s been some confusion, operating just about any type of vehicle while intoxicated generally counts as driving under the influence. In Pennsylvania, a drunk Amish man found slumped over asleep in his horse & buggy provides yet another illustration of this rule. In some places, states use phrases like “operating a motorized vehicle,” while others use “operating a wheeled vehicle.” Some states have added riding a animal while intoxicated as part of the DUI law....

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently revived the wacky robocall class action case against Facebook that was thrown out in late 2017 by the lower federal district court. Apparently, Facebook found the one person in the world who wasn’t on Facebook and decided to send him text message alerts that his Facebook account had been compromised. Notably, it’s alleged that the system that repeatedly contacted the plaintiff was automated, and even after the plaintiff clearly notified Facebook to stop contacting him, it persisted....

In plaintiff’s suit against defendant for breach of its duty to defend and indemnify arising from antitrust lawsuits brought against plaintiff, summary judgment for defendants and dismissal of all of plaintiff’s claims is affirmed as there are no allegations made against plaintiff in the antitrust complaints or amended complaints based on principles of successor liability, and the antitrust cases do not state claims that potentially or arguably fall within the purview of the asset purchase agreement duty to defend....

Media outlets are often accused of promulgating fake news these days. The Second Circuit case of Rich v. Fox News Network, LLC laid out what may be the most egregious example of actual fake news to date. In 2016 a botched robbery led to the death of Seth Rich, a young Democratic National Committee staffer. After his death a group of fringe conspiracy theorists speculated that he had been responsible for the release of documents to WikiLeaks and that he had been killed in reprisal....

In an Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) action claiming a wrongful demotion, judgment for Plaintiff is reversed where a plaintiff bringing an ADEA disparate-treatment claim must prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that age was the “but-for” cause of the challenged adverse employment action. Read the full decision in Gross v. FBL Fin. Servs., Inc., No. 08-441. See the case docket. Appellate Information: On writ of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth CircuitArgued on March 31, 2009Decided on June 18, 2009...

In plaintiff’s suit seeking reinstatement of her long-term disability benefits, judgment of the district court is affirmed in part, vacated in part and remanded where: 1) district court’s judgment with respect to benefit plan’s termination of plaintiff’s benefits and its claim for partial reimbursement is affirmed; and 2) district court’s imposition of an equitable lien on plaintiff’s Social Security benefits and its denial of attorney fees to the benefits plan are vacated and remanded....

In an action for breach of contract and tort involving a lease to county land, district court judgment is affirmed where: 1) defendant did not breach a fiduciary duty to disclose during lease negotiations with the county that he had previously discovered, removed and attempted to sell fossil remains from the lease lands as the parties were dealing at arm’s length, the county knew remains had been found in similar situations and defendant could reasonably expect the county to make its own investigations and protect its own interests; 2) the court did not err in dismissing county’s claims for constructive and actual fraud; 3) the court did not err in dismissing the claim for rescission of the lease agreement based on unilateral mistake of fact as the county made no attempt to determine whether there had been any discoveries on the land; 4) the county’s failure to comply with the public hearing requirement did not provide a basis for rescinding the lease; 5) the county is estopped from rescinding the lease based on its failure to comply with the South Dakota statute on leases; 6) the tort claims of trespass and conversion were properly rejected as defendant entered the land with the then-current lessee’s permission and an action for conversion will not lie after a lease is signed; and 7) in the absence of an underlying tort, the county cannot state a claim for civil conspiracy....

Petition for review of an order denying asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture is denied where: 1) the agency’s adverse credibility determination, based on material inconsistencies between plaintiff’s asylum application and hearing testimony, is supported by substantial evidence; and 2) substantial evidence supports the agency’s finding that plaintiff failed to show failed to show past political persecution, and failed to show a well-founded fear of future persecution....

As the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals describes it, “This case began with an angry bill collector, metamorphosed into a discovery dispute, and now serves mostly as another reminder about the importance of preserving your best arguments in the proper administrative forum rather than trying them for the first time in an appellate court.” Robert Madrid worked for Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), collecting overdue bills for the electric utility....

Convicted murderer Steven Avery became famous after the Netflix documentary about his case, “Making a Murderer.” The publicity gained some sympathy for his nephew and co-defendant Brendan Dassey, who confessed to participating in the murder of Teresa Halbach. Avery, however, is a different story. He raped and killed the woman, then burned her body in a fire pit. Denying a motion that could have set up another appeal, a judge cut him off....

We’ve all seen the odd protesters at the Supreme Court building. They stand on the sidewalk, often holding racist, homophobic, or anti-Semitic signs, and we politely ignore them, as they are so far from the building that it is easy to rush past them on the way to watch Justice Thomas fall asleep during oral arguments. Conveniently ignoring the protesters is going to become a lot more difficult now, however, as D....

The Seventh Circuit simply forgot about a case, for over five years. In a surprising ruling issued by Judges Easterbrook and Kanne last Thursday, the court admitted that it had misplaced court filings, then forgotten about them for more than five years. The case was lost for so long that one of the three judges originally on the panel, Judge Terence Evans, passed away before it was rediscovered. The case, involving investment adviser’s fees, was on remand from the Supreme Court when it vanished among the clutter....

In an Indian tribe’s action seeking injunctive relief from Michigan’s policy of taxing transactions involving the tribe and from Michigan’s reliance on an informal refund process to sort those immunities out on a case-by-case basis, judgment for Defendant is reversed, where the questions presented covered a myriad of hypothetical transactions and were too abstract and unsupported by specific facts. Read Keweenaw Bay Indian Comm. v. Rising, No. 08-1585 Appellate Information...