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The holiday season may be a time for giving, but last week the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals was more interested in taking. Last Friday, the Tenth Circuit affirmed a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) decision to revoke a doctor’s controlled substances registration – and deny all pending requests for renewal or modification. It found that the DEA’s decision was not arbitrary or capricious in light of substantial evidence that the doctor was unlawfully issuing prescriptions for controlled substances....

Ward v. Jenkins, 08-2809, concerned a challenge to the district court’s denial of defendant’s request for habeas relief from his conviction for felony theft by contractor and felony bail jumping after taking down payments from customers of his home improvement business without doing any of the work he contracted to do. In remanding the matter, the court held that defendant is entitled to an evidentiary hearing regarding his claim that his counsel rendered ineffective assistance by refusing to file a motion to withdraw his guilty plea....

A Startup in Need Regulatory Law: Your startup will likely be subject to local, state, or federal government regulation, and you’ll want an attorney to respond to complaints or investigations based on violations of any laws; M&A Law: Startup companies often merge with or are acquired by larger companies or scoop up smaller companies themselves, and negotiating for the sale of your company or for the acquisition of another company or its assets without legal counsel is risky business....

Despite the fact that the lawyers and disabled individuals that sue to enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act access provisions are often characterized as bad apples by the media, sometimes, the small businesses that are inaccessible are actually the ones in the wrong. And while that may be an unpopular opinion in the business community, it’s mainly due to the fact that non-compliance is still widespread and ADA access litigation is costly....

Oh no! Peaceful protesters have invaded UC Davis to sit on the campus quad as part of the nationwide Occupy Wall Street protests. Clearly, there is only one response for such a “threat.” Pepper spray. Our knowledge of police officer training is limited to the Police Academy movies - which probably aren’t accurate - so we’re not going to pretend to know what aspiring officers are told about breaking up a peaceful protest....

In a class action alleging that Snapple products were deceptively labeled, district court judgment is reversed where: 1) defendant waived its express preemption argument; 2) implied field preemption does not apply as neither Congress nor the FDA intended to occupy the fields of food and beverage labeling and juice products; and 3) implied conflict preemption does not apply as there is no FDA policy with which state law could conflict since neither the FDA policy statement nor the FDA’s letter regarding the term “natural” have the force of law required to preempt conflicting state law....

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 130 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose, and opioid overdoses are representing an increasing percentage of more than 700,000 drug overdoses since 1999. The opioid epidemic has also unleashed a torrent of litigation: cities, counties, states, and Native American nations are suing manufacturers and distributors seeking liability for what has become a public health crisis. And a recent court ruling in Oklahoma has spurred negotiations to settle all of the opioid-related lawsuits in one fell swoop....

Over President Trump’s objections, a federal judge has said Trump’s accounting firm must turn over records pre-dating his presidency. White House lawyers had argued that Congress crossed the line by attempting to subpoena the president’s records, but the judge said Congress was well within its authority. The House of Representatives is already using the decision to subpoena Trump’s bank records in a separate proceeding. Trump has filed for review in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, where the odds-makers are lining up....

Dismissal of habeas relief as untimely reversed Martin v. Bartow, 09-2947, concerned a challenge to the district court’s dismissal of defendant’s petition for habeas relief from his civil commitment as a sexually violent person based on a 1988 conviction for second degree sexual assault. In reversing, the court remanded the case in concluding that defendant’s petition is not barred by the one-year statute of limitation in 28 U.S.C. section 2244(d)(1), as the district court incorrectly interpreted defendant’s petition to be a challenge to the original 1996 commitment order, rather than to the 2005 order continuing commitment....

Sean Reyes, Utah’s new attorney general, is the first ethnic minority to hold a state position in recent memory. Reyes is a Filipino-American with previous political and legal ties to the Utah community, according to The Salt Lake City Tribune. Reyes was sworn in following John Swallow’s resignation over bribery allegations. Although Reyes has been in office for less than a month, he’s already making waves for representing Utah in the legal drama surrounding the same-sex marriage ban....

In July, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of the Arizona Dream Act Coalition, a group challenging an Arizona law that prohibited some immigrants from getting Arizona driver’s licenses. Yet, the law continues to be enforced against the very people who successfully challenged the law. Read on to find out why, and what they are doing about it. The Arizona Law In 2012, President Obama, by executive order, announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which would effectively let young illegal immigrants to live and work in the United States....

In Kennedy v. City of Cincinnati, No. 09-3089, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit faced a challenge to plaintiff’s contention that his rights were violated under the Due Process Clause when he was denied access to a public pool and other public recreational areas within the city. As the Court stated: “Any competent government official, particularly a police officer, should have realized that he cannot deprive a person, who has not committed a crime or violated some regulation, nor was likely to do so, of access to public grounds without due process of law....

ERISA Action Regarding Withdrawal Liability In Retirement Plan of the UNITE HERE Nat’l. Ret. Fund v. Kombassan Holding A.S., No. 07-4143, an ERISA action claiming that defendant was responsible for the withdrawal liability incurred by a third party pursuant to sections 502(a)(3) and 4301(a) of ERISA, the court affirmed judgment for plaintiff where, in the circumstances presented here, defendant was an alter ego of the third party and was, therefore, responsible for its withdrawal liability....

Does going on a burglary spree once make you “a career criminal” eligible for a harsher sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act? On Monday, the Supreme Court held in Wooden v. United States that the answer was “no.” Read the full Wooden opinion and thousands more with a free trial of Westlaw Edge. Chased by His Past In 1997, William Dale Wooden and a group of friends unlawfully entered a storage building in Georgia and stole items from 10 storage units in the same facility, crushing the drywall between the units to move from one to the next....

Following the Sixth Circuit’s decision in November upholding gay marriage bans in Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, and Tennessee, many felt it was a matter of “when” not “if” the Supreme Court would decide to tackle the issue of gay marriage again. It turns out, the “when” is apparently now. The Court announced this morning it was granting cert. in four cases challenging the constitutionality of the bans in those four states. The decision in the case will likely have historic impact on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage across the country....

The Seventh Circuit recently heard a case involving the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, better known as the creator of our favorite British detectives Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, reports The Washington Post. The question before the court was whether copyright protection, which had already expired, can be extended because the author later “altered the character in a subsequent work.” As Judge Posner explains, it’s all “elementary.” The public was introduced to Sherlock Holmes and Dr....

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that Sony owns the rights to “King of the Road” singer Roger Miller’s 1964 song catalog, reversing a lower court ruling that Miller’s widow owned the renewal rights to songs. Courts had previously ruled that Sony owned the rights to Miller’s songs from 1958 to 1963; this latest Roger Miller music ruling strikes a district court judgment awarding Mary Miller $900,000 in damages....

The 2020 presidential election is seeing plenty of news coverage and discussion, but one lesser spoken-about part of voting are the individual ballot measures unique to every state. Many citizens are voting to revise election practices, government term limits, taxes, and more. Here are some notable ballot measures you may not have heard about. Feeling Lucky? Voters in Colorado, South Dakota, Maryland, and Nebraska are voting to expand legal allowances of gambling and/or sports betting....

Demetra Street knew something was fishy after her husband’s funeral. Her 67-year-old husband, Ivan Street, died of congestive heart failure on Jan. 9, and Demetra paid $2,500 to Wylie Funeral Homes in Baltimore for her husband’s cremation and funeral. The Washington Post reports that his funeral seemed ordinary and pleasant. Demetra sat in the front row near a framed photograph of Ivan that rested next to an urn that supposedly contained his cremated ashes....

When a judge says ’no’ the first time, what do lawyers often do? It’s no joke: they ask again. That’s basically what happened in the latest gerrymandering case to make it to the U.S. Supreme Court. The High Court rejected a petition to stop a new congressional district plan in Pennsylvania – again. Somehow the petitioners didn’t get the message the first time. Foregone Conclusion Justice Samuel Alito last month declined a request from Pennsylvania’s Republican leaders, who wanted to overturn a state supreme court decision requiring them to redraw a congressional map....