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Raphael L. Donnell was convicted of conspiring to distribute ecstasy. His career offender sentence enhancement was upheld on appeal to the Eighth Circuit, but while the appeal was pending, King v. United States was decided by the same circuit court. King would have nixed the sentence enhancement, but his attorney didn’t notice the opinion because it was handed down after briefing in Donnell’s case, but before his sentence was affirmed....

There is only one place in the Golden State than harvests oysters, and soon, there may be none. Shucks. Kevin Lunny and his family purchased the state’s only oyster farm, then known as Johnson’s, and renamed it Drakes Bay in 2005. At the time of the purchase, they knew about the possibility of the lease of federal land expiring seven years later. Time’s up, and that notice of possible closure was a major part of the majority’s holding in denying a preliminary injunction....

Mohammed Khalid was the youngest person ever prosecuted on terrorism charges in the United States. He started engaging in radical Islamic chat rooms when he was 15 from his family’s apartment in Baltimore. He was arrested when he was 17 and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to support terrorists. In Kahlid v. Sessions, authorities wanted to deport the young man. The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals had different ideas for him....

Dismissal of an action by the wife and children of a covert-status former CIA employee, following the district court’s exclusion from evidence of classified information covered by the state-secrets privilege, is affirmed where: 1) plaintiffs’ rights of access to the courts were not compromised by the government’s refusal to provide plaintiffs’ counsel with secure facilities that would allow counsel to prepare an opposition to the government’s assertion of the state-secrets privilege as plaintiffs have no right to use material that is alleged by the government to contain state secrets in order to participate in the district court’s review of the bona fides of the government’s allegation; and 2) plaintiffs have established no infringement of their right to communicate with counsel....

On a January morning in 2007, the Avina family was asleep in a mobile home when Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents approached the front door, armed with a search warrant. The agents banged loudly on the door and yelled “police.” They waited briefly, and then used a battering ram to break through the front door. The agents entered the Avinas’ home with their guns drawn. The agents were actually looking for suspected drug trafficker Luis Alvarez, but they accidentally got a warrant for the Avina residence due to a note-taking error....

This post was updated on December 20, 2022. Since over 36% of Americans rent their homes, dealing with landlords is a common occurrence. For the most part, landlords keep the property in good condition to attract prime tenants. However, some landlords neglect their rental property and put their renters at risk for potential harm. So, what do you do if you are hurt at the rental property where you live? You may have a claim for compensation if you suffer a physical injury or financial loss due to your landlord’s negligence....

Petition for Review of BIA Order Granted In Javhlan v. Holder, No. 06-71565, a petition for review of a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) denying petitioner’s applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture, the court granted the petition where the IJ erred in relying only on petitioner’s unexplained detention in Mongolia to find that there was no past persecution, particularly in light of the frequent harassment and serious threats the Secret Police agents made to petitioner’s life and safety....

In Greer v. Comm’r of Internal Revenue, No. 09-1420, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rejected petitioner’s challenge to the district court’s denial of her request for relief under the innocent-spouse and equitable-relief provisions of the tax code. The Court took the opportunity to decide that the appropriate test to be used in determining whether a taxpayer had a reason to know of an understatement, or to suspect a possible understatement resulting from disallowed deductions or credits is the “knowledge-of-the-transaction” test, as derived from Price v....

In a personal injury action claiming that defendant manufactured a defective oil tank, judgment for plaintiff is affirmed where: 1) the district court appropriately declined to allow the jury to assign a percentage of fault to a nonparty to the suit; 2) the jury instruction did not foreclose the jury from considering the third party’s conduct as an intervening event; and 3) defendant failed to show how it was prejudiced by the district court’s exclusion of an expert report....

Fourth Amendment cases usually cover the big issues of search and seizure law: Can cops come in your house without a warrant? (Not usually, but maybe.) Can they use thermal imaging cameras to look inside your house from across the street without a warrant? (Nope.) Do cops need a warrant to use drug sniffing dogs on your car? (No again, and those drugs sniffs don’t even count as searches.) Those can all feel very invasive – the kind of thing the Fourth Amendment is designed to protect against....

If you’ve ever run into the so-called ‘sovereign citizen’ theory of the law, you know that it is, well, complete BS. The sovereign citizen movement is based on a strange interpretation of common law, the Uniform Commercial Code, and maritime law, which followers believe allows them to avoid taxes and pretty much all legal authorities. It’s a movement based out of conspiracy, confusion, and a paranoid view of reality. It’s just nuts....

What’s an appropriate sentence for a defendant who pleads guilty to possessing over 7,100 images of child pornography? While the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to answer that precise question this week, it ruled that a one-day sentence and a $100 fine landed on the lax side of the child pornography sentence spectrum. Rufus Robinson paid for a subscription to a site that hosted child pornography, including images that involved the bondage, torture, and rape of prepubescent children....

In this week’s ‘More Perfect’ recap, our weekly look into NPR’s new Supreme Court podcast, we’re looking at the ‘imperfect plaintiffs’ behind some of the Supreme Court’s most important cases. Actually, we’re looking at just two imperfect plaintiffs, John Lawrence and Tyron Garner. That’s Lawrence as in Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court case that overturned state bans on sodomy. It’s a case that starts with police bursting in on Lawrence and Garner, disrobed in their apartment, and ends with one of the most important gay rights victories ever....

Author and philanthropist Greg Mortenson beat a fraud lawsuit over his best-selling book Three Cups of Tea last month in federal court, but the plaintiffs in the case aren’t finished. Thursday, attorneys for Mortenson’s riled-up readers in Montana and California filed a notice of appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, reports The Associated Press. The plaintiffs claim that Mortenson intentionally made up facts to drive books sales and donations to his charity, the Central Asia Institute (CAI)....

District court’s conviction of defendant for transporting child pornography and sentence to 180 months’ imprisonment followed by a lifetime term of supervised release is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) district court’s imposition of an unconditional lifetime ban on Internet access is vacated as the ban involved a greater deprivation of liberty than is reasonably necessary; 2) district court did not commit plain error in imposing defendant’s mental health condition of supervised release; and 3) defendant’s “no minors” condition is vacated as it is an impermissible delegation of authority to the Probation Office and thus constitutes plain error....

Conviction and sentencing of a defendant for bribery is affirmed where: 1) district court’s error in allowing the government to present summary charts to the jury was harmless error in that it did not have a substantial and injurious effect on the jury’s verdict; 2) the evidence presented at trial was sufficient to find defendant guilty of bribery beyond a reasonable doubt; and 3) district court did not commit clear error in calculating the amount of loss in determining defendant’s offense level....

In a prosecution of defendant for attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity and for using the Internet to attempt to transfer obscene material to a minor, district court’s exclusion of prosecution’s Rule 413 evidence of two prior instances of similar conduct, is reversed and remanded as the record causes doubt whether the district court fully appreciated the legal relation between Rules 413 and 403. Read US v....

Millions of women have had abortions, but their stories are largely private; few share their experiences with the general public, and almost none with the Supreme Court. But as the High Court prepares to hear arguments over Texas’s extremely restrictive abortion regulations, 113 women in law have submitted a virtually unprecedented amicus brief detailing their own experiences with abortion. The goal, the brief explains, is to “inform the Court of the impact” abortion rights have had “on the lives of women attorneys, and, by extension, on this nation....

Petitioner’s petition for review of the BIA’s order denying his petition to reopen is denied where: 1) the record reflected that the BIA fully considered the evidence submitted by Petitioner; and 2) Petitioner’s challenges to the BIA’s factual assumptions could not be recast as constitutional claims falling under the jurisdictional safe-harbor of 8 U.S.C. section 1252(a)(2)(D). Read the full decision in Alzainati v. Holder, No. 07-9565. Appellate Information: APPEAL FROM THE BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS PETITION FOR REVIEWFiled on June 17, 2009...

What Are the new Gun Control Laws in California? Gun Manufacturers Are Held to New Standards of Conduct Gun Manufacturers Can’t Make ‘Abnormally Dangerous’ Firearm-Related Products Is more suitable as an assault weapon instead of for self-defense, hunting, or recreation Is designed where it can turn legal firearm-related products into illegal firearm-related products Is marketed to minors or others prohibited from accessing firearms Gun Manufacturers Are Liable for Marketing to Minors It uses characters that look like kids or cartoon characters Offers brand-name merchandise (i....