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Well, her legal counsel actually issued the “not guilty” plea on Lori Loughlin’s behalf, as she waived her right to appear before a federal court in Boston. Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, are accused of paying $500,000 in bribes to get their daughters into the University of Southern California. While most of the parents involved in the admissions scandal were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud (and many, including Felicity Huffman, have already pleaded guilty), Loughlin and Giannulli are facing some additional charges....

Here’s a defense theory you never want to assert: Your honor, the district court erred in applying an enhancement to my client’s sentence for committing a crime while released because he only conspired to commit a crime. We hope you avoid this argument for two reasons: It’s embarrassing when your client commits a crime while out on bail. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that conspiracy qualifies for a sentence enhancement....

When Kourtney Kardashian married Travis Barker at a Santa Barbara courthouse in May 2022, it was for real. In a secret ceremony, Kardashian, a star in the popular reality TV show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” wed Barker, best known as the drummer for Blink-182. But weren’t they just married in Italy last weekend? And wasn’t there another wedding in Las Vegas last month? After last month’s Grammy Awards, Kardashian and Barker held a marriage ceremony at the One Love Wedding Chapel....

Coombs v. Diguglielmo, 08-1945, concerned a chalenge to the district court’s denial of defendant’s request for habeas relief, claiming that the prosecutor exercised his peremptory challenges in violation of Batson. The court remanded the case for the district court to hold an evidentiary hearing as the trial court failed to conduct a full and complete Batson step three analysis in unreasonably limiting the defendant’s opportunity to prove that the prosecutor’s proffered reasons for striking black jurors were pretextual, thereby improperly restricting the defendant’s ability to prove discriminatory intent....

In a petition for review of the BIA’s order holding that petitioner was subject to removal on the grounds that his criminal conviction for second degree assault under extreme emotional disturbance under Kentucky law was an aggravated felony and that his conviction for reckless homicide was a crime of moral turpitude, the petition is granted: where 1) the BIA erred when it applied the post-IIRIRA definition of “aggravated felony” to petitioner’s case because the issuance of an arrest warrant by the INS which had not been canceled constituted an “action taken” for purposes of triggering application of the pre-IIRIRA definition of an aggravated felony; and 2) neither of petitioner’s prior convictions constituted an aggravated felony under the pre-IIRIRA definition....

In a discrimination and retaliation action brought by an employee, the district court did not err in granting summary judgment in favor of defendant where the plaintiff failed to make a prima facie case of racial discrimination as plaintiff did not show facts giving rise to an inference of discrimination. Furthermore, even if he could establish his prima facie case, defendant nevertheless articulated a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for terminating him and plaintiff failed to point to any evidence supporting a finding of pretext....

Nine-time Olympic medalist Carl Lewis is running again, this time for a New Jersey State Senate. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court decision on Tuesday, and ordered that Lewis’s name be added to the ballot for the November election. New Jersey candidates must satisfy a 4-year state residency requirement. In August, New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno refused to certify Lewis’s candidacy because Lewis had not resided in the Garden State for the requisite time period....

Tucson Shooter Jared Lee Loughner will have another hearing before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday, Nov. 1, this time to determine whether forced medication violated Loughner’s civil rights. The Ninth Circuit will host remote viewing sites at six courthouses for the hearing. Live audio and video feed will be available via a secure connection at the following locations: Image via Wikipedia Richard H. Chambers U.S. Courthouse, 125 South Grand Avenue, Pasadena, California, Mezzanine Conference Room....

The White House has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put the brakes on the execution of Humberto Leal Garcia in an attempt to avoid breaching international law. Humberto Garcia was convicted in 1994 on charges of rape and murder of a 16-year old girl in Texas. He was sentenced to death and is scheduled for execution this week. In an amicus curiae brief, Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli claimed that the execution would “place the United States in irreparable breach of its international-law obligation to afford (Leal) review and reconsideration of his claim that his conviction and sentence were prejudiced by Texas authorities’ failure to provide consular notification and assistance under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations....

The recently filed price-fixing case against Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Division and many other generic drug makers, alleges that the drug-makers conspired to keep drug prices higher. The state attorney generals in 46 states have signed onto the case. The lawsuit alleges that the makers of generic drugs conspired with their competition to keep drug prices high, and even inflate the prices of some drugs by as much as 1,000 percent. Notably though the lawsuit, though filed by state attorney generals, is a civil matter....

Eighty-three ethics complaints were filed against Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he joined the U.S. Supreme Court, but they have been dismissed. Or have they? The U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has twice declined jurisdiction to hear the charges, even after Chief Justice John Roberts asked the appeals court to consider them. Now an attorney has asked the Judicial Conference to review the orders dismissing the complaints. Jeremy C. Bates, a New York attorney, is taking a swing at it....

The most common form of redress for sexual harassment is a check. But what about injunctive relief? Should a court order a business to keep a harasser away from employees? The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently concluded that, in the face of egregious acts of sexual harassment perpetuated by a single employee, a district court abused its discretion when it declined to order injunctive relief to ensure that that harasser was no longer in a position to continue his offensive conduct....

Is the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals saying that fear of heights is a disability, under the Americans With Disabilities Act? In a May 10th decision, the 7th Circuit is certainly not ruling out that possibility in the case of an acrophobic bridge worker who brought an ADA lawsuit against the Illinois Department of Transportation. Okay. Before acrophobics rush to the EEOC with their ADA lawsuits, let’s just set the record straight here; this lawsuit hasn’t yet been decided on the merits....

Davis v. Oregon County, No. 09-2700, concerned an action by a pretrial detainee at the Oregon County jail asserting that defendants violated his rights in failing to ensure his safety after a fire broke out at the jail. The court of appeals affirmed summary judgment for defendant, on the grounds that 1) plaintiff’s allegations regarding the correctional officers’ disregard for the jail’s smoking policy was contradicted by the undisputed facts in the record demonstrating the officers’ sweeps for contraband as recently as five days before the fire; 2) the jail’s inoperable sprinklers and lack of extra fire equipment such as oxygen tanks did not, standing alone, amount to deliberate indifference in light of the officers’ actions in searching for contraband, as well as the fire extinguishers and smoke detectors that were present at the time of the fire; and 3) the conditions at the Oregon County jail were not so dangerous as to violate contemporary standards of decency....

If you buy something, it’s yours to fix, right? Wrong, say many manufacturers. Over the last decade or two, manufacturers in several industries — consumer electronics, automobiles, and farm implements, in particular — have been making it difficult for people to fix their own stuff. They require that repairs be done by the manufacturer or an authorized provider. They refuse to provide replacement parts. Or the proper tools. Or repair manuals....

In plaintiffs’ action against defendants for injuries sustained when she slipped and fell in a puddle of water while walking down a hallway adjacent to the cafeteria at a clinic, summary judgment in favor the defendants is affirmed where: 1) plaintiffs did not proffer any evidence of how long the water hazard had existed before the fall such that an employee would have constructive notice, as required by Ohio slip-and-fall law; 2) the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying plaintiffs’ motion for additional discovery because plaintiffs made no discovery requests until after the defendant had completed its discovery and filed its motion for summary judgment, fifteen months after plaintiffs filed their suit in federal court, and also did not complete their discovery during the sixty days offered by the court....

If you’ve ever thought that courtroom proceedings were too boring and hung up on silly procedural rules, you are absolutely not alone. In fact, your humble writer, a veteran of the legal writing biz, tends to agree with you. The legal field, from law school to the boardroom to the courtroom, is still incredibly elitist. Or at least it was until February 9, 2021: You Went to Law School for This?...

Fruitt v. Astrue, No. 09-6027, involved a motion for attorney’s fees following the district court’s reversal of the Social Security Commissioner’s denial of benefits to plaintiff. The court of appeals reversed the district court’s denial of costs to plaintiff, on the ground that the fourteen-day deadline for a bill of costs under the Local Rules for the United States District Court, Western District of Oklahoma, W.D. Okla. L.R. 54.1, did not establish a time limit for an Equal Access to Justice Act fee request....

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action alleging a false arrest, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where an officer in defendant’s position could have reasonably concluded that probable cause existed to arrest plaintiff for violating a New Mexico child endangerment statute. Read Herrera v. City of Albuquerque, No. 09-2010 Appellate Information Filed December 14, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Briscoe Counsel For Appellant: David Meilleur, Nancy L. Simmons, Law Offices of Nancy L....

A recent ABA profile on Ed Marquette, a blind lawyer with a tech-focused practice, was featured as part of the #MyPathToLaw campaign. In the ABA profile, Marquette discusses how his interest in law came secondary to his in passion for politics. But before he lost his sight, he was interested in becoming a nuclear physicist, which curiously, is incredibly difficult due to the lack of accessibility and accessible mathematics language. But as his passion for politics waned, his interest in the law stayed, which led him back to science and his current intellectual property and tech-focused practice....