From the court’s description of Kevin Daws, you’d think he was Omar from “The Wire.” On a cold winter evening in rural Henderson County, Tennessee, Daws broke into an acquaintance’s house by jamming a shotgun barrel through the window, then robbed that person at gunpoint. He then went to another acquaintance’s house and tried to stash his shotgun there. Both acquaintances were greeted with death threats if they contacted the police....
When Duane Edward Buck was tried for the murder of his ex-girlfriend and a man he suspected of being her lover, the jury did not struggle to convict him. But they were more hesitant over whether he should be sentenced to death, focusing, according to NPR’s Nina Totenberg, on whether Buck would pose a danger in the future. Buck’s own defense may have tipped the scales, sending him to death row, when it introduced testimony that Buck posed a greater risk in the future simply because he was black....
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is set to hear arguments on the latest installment of a long-running conflict surrounding the works of writer John Steinbeck. Disputes between Steinbeck’s relatives regarding some of his most famous works span decades – a power struggle caught up in contractual agreements and changes to federal copyright law. Film Projects Stall Amidst Conflicting Interests In a time where film remakes dominate box offices all over the country, one might wonder why there hasn’t been a film adaptation of any of Steinbeck’s works since Of Mice and Men in 1992....
Brevity is the soul of wit … and of briefs in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. It seems that the Third Circuit is tired of the lawyers asking for permission to add extra pages to their briefs. Last month, the court issued a standing order warning appellate attorneys against filing motions to exceed the page limitations of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. What prompted this measure? The Third Circuit Court of Appeals noted that motions to exceed the page/word limitations for briefs were filed in approximately 25 percent of cases on appeal, and that 71 percent of those motions asked permission to exceed the page/word limitations by more than 20 percent....
District court’s conviction and sentencing of defendant for possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, 18 U.S.C. section 924(c), and drug other related crimes is affirmed in part, vacated in part and remanded where: 1) one of defendant’s two section 924(c) convictions is vacated and remanded for resentencing as application of the rule of lenity is particularly appropriate in the context of section 924(c) because of its mandatory consecutive sentences and extremely harsh penalties for subsequent convictions; and 2) district court’s denial of defendant’s motion for a mistrial is affirmed as the danger of unfair prejudice from a witness’s testimony did not substantially outweigh its probative value....
Defendant’s cocaine and crack cocaine drug sentence for violating 21 U.S.C. section 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(A) is affirmed where Defendant’s challenge to his sentencing enhancements failed because the District Court applied the statutory minimum, and thus any error in sentencing Defendant was harmless. Read the full decision in US v. Douglas, No. 08-2655, 08-2661. Appellate Information: Appeals from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois.Nos. 04 CR 10074 & 07 CR 10080 – Michael M....
In a drug conspiracy prosecution, the denial of Defendant’s motion to suppress is affirmed where the police had reasonable suspicion to stop Defendant’s vehicle because their extensive investigation had revealed that the location of the vehicle was the site of an anticipated drug delivery. Read US v. Flores, No. 08-3359 Appellate Information Submitted: June 18, 2009 Decided and Filed: July 6, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Gilman Counsel For Appellant:...
Despite significant concerns on both sides of the aisle, it appears election tabulation has gone about as well as expected - for the most part. Delays were expected, and the system handled record turnouts in difficult circumstances reasonably well. Considering the anxiety and emotion our country is experiencing, it could have been much worse. That is not to say it couldn’t have been better. One notable event involves the United States Postal Service failing to account for 300,000 ballots on Election Day, including in still-contested states such as Pennsylvania....
In an action challenging the Social Security Commissioner’s denial of disability benefits, judgment for defendant is affirmed, where 1) the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) did not ignore or contradict plaintiff’s neuropsychological assessment; and 2) the ALJ provided clear and convincing reasons to reject plaintiff’s subjective complaint testimony. Read Valentine v. Comm’r., Soc. Sec. Admin., No. 08-35374 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted June 5, 2009 Filed July 20, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge O’Scannlain...
The Supreme Court of Virginia recently upheld the four-year suspension of attorney Richard Robol, who an Ohio federal court says concealed inventories of gold his former client recovered from a shipwreck. (My colleague says lawyers should take it easy with the nerd references, so I’ll do my best not to make any jokes about Tolkien’s dragon, Smaug. Oops, I guess I just did.) Inventory Harder to Find Than A Shipwreck In 1857, 427 passengers and millions of dollars in gold were lost at sea when a hurricane hit the S....
In a medical malpractice action against doctors at a federally funded health care center, dismissal of the complaint is affirmed where the Federal Tort Claims Act required plaintiffs to seek administrative relief as a prerequisite to federal court proceedings. Read Wilson v. Big Sandy Health Care, Inc., No. 08-5746 Appellate Information Argued: March 10, 2009 Decided and Filed: August 11, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Daughtrey Counsel For Appellant: H. Michael Lucas, Miller Kent Carter & Michael Lucas, PLLC, Pikeville, KY...
The 2017-2018 SCOTUS term has come to an end, and adding to the whirlwind of the last week of the term, Justice Kennedy announced his retirement as well. Though the big retirement news has dominated the headlines, looking back over the High Court’s term, there were some rather significant decisions that will likely have major impacts moving forward. Pundits from multiple news services have chimed in, and SCOTUSblog will be hosting a symposium next week....
Summer Associate Fashion Rule 1: Flying under the radar is fine. Summer Associate Fashion Rule 2: Buy a basic black suit. Summer Associate Fashion Rule 3: Save sandals for the pool. Summer Associate Fashion Rule 4: Dress for work, not the club. Summer Associate Fashion Rule 5: When in doubt, check what other associates are wearing. Related Resources: What California Courts Say About Lawyer Attire (FindLaw’s California Case Law Blog) Business Casual Attire for Lawyers (FindLaw) What’s Appropriate Dress for Court?...
Okay, there’s almost no way this doesn’t get to the Supreme Court. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, also known as ACA or Obamacare) requires health plans to cover contraception, sans co-pay. Employers with religious owners argue that this infringes upon their religious liberty. According to the ACLU, 72 cases have been filed nationwide challenging the “mandate.” Here, we have Autocam, an automotive and medical manufacturer, whose owners, the Kennedys, are Catholic, opposed to birth control on religious grounds, and who believe that some of the drugs covered by the mandate are abortifacients....
District court order dismissing plaintiff’s claim with prejudice for failure to prosecute his complaint is affirmed where: 1) the court properly applied Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b) to the situation where plaintiff timely failed to serve the complaint before the case was removed from state to federal court; and 2) the court did not abuse its discretion in dismissing the case based on a 44-month delay in service as the delay was unexcused....
Gavin Rose, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, was musically unprepared for his appearance at the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Frank Easterbrook, considering the ACLU’s challenge to a Christmas concert at an Indiana high school, asked Rose whether Bach’s “St. Matthew’s Passion” would violate the U.S. Constitution. Rose said he didn’t know the piece and apologized for his lack of musical knowledge. “Oh dear, that is a problem,” Easterbrook said in Freedom From Religion Foundation v....
Denial of petition for writ of habeas corpus is affirmed where the court properly found that plaintiff was not denied access to his attorney in violation of his Sixth Amendment rights, as a state court finding that the limits placed on his phone usage did not unduly interfere with or prejudice his right to counsel was not an unreasonable application of established principles or an unreasonable determination of the facts. Read De la Garza v....
When the Supreme Court rejected two cert petitions over a toxic waste dispute in Arizona, Chief Justice Roberts took part, despite an easy-to-spot conflict of interest. Texas Instruments, the company that made your high school calculator, was a petitioner in that case. Chief Justice Roberts owns between $100,001 and $250,000 in Texas Instruments Stock, yet failed to recuse himself when the petition was considered. Does it matter? Superfund cases like the one at issue here are typically a mess, involving dozens of companies responsible for decades of pollution....
In a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) action claiming that defendant law firm violated the FDCPA by personally serving plaintiff with a summons and complaint during the FDCPA thirty-day validation period, without explaining that commencement of the lawsuit did not affect the rights set forth in the validation notice, summary judgment for plaintiff is affirmed where service of process during the validation period must, at a minimum, be preceded or accompanied by notice to the consumer clarifying that the lawsuit does not in any way alter the information contained in the validation notice....
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court’s decision to “12(b)(6)” a man’s claim that pop star Elton John stole his lyrics for a love song. Guy Hobbs, the allegedly wronged songrwiter, claimed his lyrics referenced the Cold War and a Communist woman with a name starting with “N.” Hobbs sued Elton John in federal court in Illinois, alleging Elton’s 1985 song “Nikita” (which was written by lyricist Bernie Taupin) infringed on a song Hobbs wrote called “Natasha....
