America’s favorite pastime may be up for debate, but one thing is for sure: The Ninth Circuit is going to hear a case that challenges an antitrust exemption that’s been on the books for almost a century. In a case that is pitting the city of San Jose, California, against Major League Baseball (“MLB”), San Jose will not let up on its dream of luring the Oakland A’s to the self-proclaimed “Capital of Silicon Valley....
A district court ordered a special condition on a defendant’s sentence for supervised release: a restraining order to not to have contact with his girlfriend or her family. He challenged this restriction based on it being unnecessarily restrictive and unreasonably related to the sentencing goals set out in 18 U.S.C. Section 3553(a). During a domestic violence disturbance, police discovered that Jeremiah Wroblewski violated several conditions of his supervised release terms for a firearm possession....
Youth doesn’t necessarily make a computer whiz, but it can help. After all, social media is driven by the younger generation. Snapchat and Instagram weren’t meant for people who look old in selfies. Perhaps that’s why older lawyers and judges are sometimes loathe dealing with technology? Or maybe it’s a generational thing, like the difference between rock and roll, hip hop, and rap. In any case, it’s a problem when your judge knows less than your teenager....
Judge Diane Wood must be over it with coercive police interrogations. Writing for the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, she reviewed a complaint by teenagers who allegedly confessed to murdering their uncle. Calling out the cops facing civil liability in the case, Wood sets off every so-called “confession” in parentheses. “Even though William and Deadra ‘confessed,’ if a trier of fact could conclude that the officers knew that the confessions were false, then the officers are not entitled to qualified immunity for their actions,” the court said in Hurt v....
In an action for action for breach of contract and bad-faith denial of an insurance claim, district court judgment is reversed and remanded where: 1) the court erred in holding that plaintiff’s insurance claim was barred under the insurance policies’ notice-of-loss provision, as plaintiff and defendant received notice of loss on the same day and thus plaintiff complied with the provision; and 2) the court erred in granting summary judgment for defendant on plaintiff’s bad faith denial claim based on its analysis of the claim under Iowa law as the court failed to view the evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiff....
Well, that didn’t take long: Sam’s body turned up in the landfill, and now Hannah is on a quest to get everyone to think Annalise killed him (which they do). The investigation puts everyone a little on edge. In the meantime, the gang has to defend a client who’s accused of hiding drugs in a shipping container. Let’s just say you shouldn’t learn your Fourth Amendment law from this episode....
A conviction for bank robbery is affirmed where: 1) the district court did not commit plain error in admission of an eye-witness identification from a photograph array, as defendant failed to file a suppression motion before trial and failed to object at trial, and defendant cannot now cure by showing good cause; 2) district court did not err in allowing introduction of defendant’s prior conviction for bank robbery and guilt-by-association evidence as their probative value was not substantially outweighed by unfair prejudice; and 3) it did not err in applying an obstruction of justice enhancement where, under U....
District court’s conviction and imposition of life sentences on defendants for conspiracy to burglarize pharmacies and to distribute controlled substances, the use of which resulted in four deaths plus a serious bodily injury to a fifth user of the defendants’ drugs, is reversed and remanded as, district court’s jury instruction regarding the term “results from” was an error that was not harmless because the evidence regarding the cause of the serious injury of the one victim and the deaths of the others, though strong enough to justify a verdict of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, was not conclusive....
Defendant’s conviction for filing false tax returns is affirmed where the district court did not deny defendant the right to self-representation because it reasonably believed that he waived his right to self-representation after the jury was dismissed, and it allowed him to resume representing himself as soon as he reasserted his desire to proceed pro se at his sentencing hearing. Read US v. Miles, No. 08-5128 Appellate Information Filed July 13, 2009...
The last five years have not been good for Wells Fargo, one of the nation’s “Big Four” banks. The institution has been wrapped up in legal issues since it was discovered that millions of accounts were created without customer consent. In 2017, due to the decreased profitability brought by the accounts fraud scandal, Wells Fargo decided to close more than 400 of its approximately 6,000 branches.In 2018, the Federal Reserve mandated Wells Fargo to keep its assets below $1....
Most animal organizations warn people not to gift animals for Christmas without carefully considering the long-term commitment involved. During the pandemic, however, these warnings too often went unheeded. “Pandemic pets” were returned and abandoned in mass numbers, a development that many people didn’t see coming. And, unfortunately, law enforcement doesn’t have much sway to stop it. Reasons People Are Giving Up Pets in 2021 Some people adopted an animal to meet their own emotional needs and stave off boredom....
As you’ve no doubt read before, Wisconsin state officials are investigating Governor Scott Walker’s office for violations of campaign finance laws. The allegations – which came to light through the Seventh Circuit’s inadvertent disclosure of documents – were that the Wisconsin Club for Growth, a political advocacy organization, had illegally coordinated with Governor Scott Walker’s anti-recall efforts. At the same time a criminal investigation against “John Doe” targets was ongoing, Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board launched its own investigation and subpoenaed documents from the Club for Growth....
In a tale of secret engagements and ignoring professional rules, a recent decision by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals put one Wisconsin inmate’s marriage plans on hold. John Nigl, who has been incarcerated since 2001 on a 100-year sentence for intoxicated homicide, requested permission to marry his former prison psychologist, Dr. Sandra Johnston. Unsurprisingly, prison officials (and the courts) were not inclined to approve the marriage. The Line Gets Crossed Nigl met Johnston in 2013 when Johnston was employed at Waupun Correction Institution as a prison psychologist....
US v. Williams, 09-3521, concerned a challenge to the district court’s conviction of a defendant for fraudulently overbilling Medicare, Medicaid, and several private insurance companies as an employee of a psychiatric medical practice, and a sentence of 12 months of probation and a restitution order in the amount of $822,459.21. First, the court rejected defendant’s challenge to the district court’s deliberate-ignorance jury instruction and, dismissed defendant’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim as it was premature....
Today’s Supreme Court opinions list is more disappointing than Ke$ha’s new album. Vanity Fair cleverly quipped that SCOTUS “[c]ruelly” tricked the nation into reading about arbitration. True indeed. The opinion list consisted of a pro-business arbitration decision, a bench-slapping of the Ninth Circuit’s approach to Armed Career Criminal Act sentencing, and an odd free speech for government funding case. (If you’re waiting for the affirmative-action, marriage equality, or Defense of Marriage Act cases, they have yet to be released....
In a murder prosecution, a grant of petitioner’s habeas petition is reversed where: 1) there was insufficient evidence to show that certain state witnesses had a motive to fabricate petitioner’s guilt; and 2) the district court did not give proper weight to the credibility of the uncalled witnesses, the interplay between the uncalled witnesses and the actual defense witnesses called, and the strength of the evidence presented by the prosecution in determining the prejudice caused by defense counsel’s allegedly ineffective performance....
Every part of the United States has been affected by the opioid crisis. The physical, financial and emotional harm suffered by dependent painkiller users are obvious. Counties and local governments incur costs as well: emergency transportation, community outreach and treatment, for example. Local governments have been leading the way in pursuing settlements against opioid makers and distributors, combining forces with private lawyers to first sue drug companies. Now, after two years a bellwether trial in federal district court in Ohio involving Cuyahoga and Summit counties (along with thousands of other counties, municipalities and tribes) is scheduled for October....
Legally, domestic abuse or intimate partner violence is defined as a felony or misdemeanor violent crime committed by a current or former spouse of the victim, an intimate partner, or another member of the household. Domestic abuse is not just physical abuse, such as attempted use of physical force or the threatened use of a deadly weapon. It also includes financial, sexual, and emotional abuse. Domestic violence is a violation of human and civil rights and victims deserve to feel as safe and secure as possible....
If the U.S.Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals were a trial court, Brendan Dassey would be a free man now. The appeals court split over the case, voting 4-3 that Dassey’s murder confession was voluntary. The dissent said the 16-year-old’s confession came through a “perfect storm” of interrogations. “No reasonable state court, knowing what we now know about coercive interrogation techniques and viewing Dassey’s interrogation in light of his age, intellectual deficits, and manipulability, could possibly have concluded that Dassey’s confession was voluntarily given,” Judge Illena Rovner wrote in Dassey v....
Consumers read news stories all the time about various product recalls, often issued voluntarily by manufacturers in concert with government agencies. But when a company fights a recall, the situation ends with the rare step of the federal government issuing a mandatory recall. That happened last week when the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) ordered Zen Magnets and Neoballs off of shelves nationwide. Adult Fidgets Hazardous to Children Zen Magnets LLC makes Zen Magnets and Neoballs, products marketed as small “rare-earth” magnetic balls....
