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The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has come out … against further DADT arguments. In a per curiam opinion, the Ninth Circuit announced today that the Log Cabin Republicans’ seven-year-old challenge to the Bill Clinton-era Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) policy was moot now that the policy has been repealed. In determining whether a case has become moot on appeal, an appellate court “review[s] the judgment below in light of the … statute as it now stands, not as it … did” before the district court....

Mens rea doesn’t necessarily factor into a court’s “crime of violence” analysis when applying a Sentencing Guidelines enhancement. In 2003, Raul Zamorano-Ponce pleaded guilty in state court to “rape of a child in the third degree,” a Washington statutory rape violation. The state court sentenced him to a 12-month term of imprisonment. After serving just over half of the sentence, he was released from prison and removed from the U.S....

If you’re not shackled to your desk for the foreseeable future, you may be able to watch the proceedings in two high-profile Ninth Circuit cases from the comfort of your local federal courthouse. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will offer live, remote viewing this week in U.S. v. Jared Lee Loughner and Log Cabin Republicans v. United States. The court will hear arguments in United States v. Loughner on Tuesday, August 30, 2011, beginning at 2 p....

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action alleging that prison officials violated the Eighth Amendment when they denied Plaintiff outdoor exercise during lockdowns, judgment for Plaintiff is reversed, where the lockdowns were reasonable precautions given the violence that had occurred at the prison, and thus Defendants were entitled to qualified immunity. Read Norwood v. Vance, No. 07-17322 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted October 29, 2008 Filed July 9, 2009 Judges...

The Supreme Court has been busy again this week, with two notable cert orders on Monday, three cases in oral argument, and four new decisions. Tuesday, we told you about the Court’s opinion in Filarsky v. Delia. Here’s what you need to know about the week’s other opinions. First up: Mohamad v. Palestinian Authority. In a case previously-linked with the now-delayed Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, the Court ruled that the Palestinian Authority and PLO can’t be sued in U....

Munger, Tolles & Olson better watch your back, President Obama is continuing his raid on your partners. After an MTO partner, Paul Watford, was nominated and confirmed for the Ninth Circuit last year, President Obama doubled-down this year, nominating two more of the firm’s partners to the circuit court bench, per a press release from the White House. While she has Fulbright bragging rights, he does have the edge when it comes to class standing....

Should the Supreme Court get ready for a close-up? On Tuesday, a Senate Judiciary subcommittee heard testimony on Senate Bill 410, the Sunshine in the Courtroom Act of 2011, which would allow cameras in the Supreme Court, an idea that many past and present justices vehemently oppose (to put it mildly). The legislation would mandate television coverage of open Supreme Court and Circuit Courts of Appeals sessions unless a majority of justices indicated that coverage would violate due process....

Ah, the LSAT. Reading comprehension. Logical reasoning. Logic games. Some of us look back on that dear test with fondness. After all, who needs Sudoku when you’ve got ordering games or, gasp, limited options. Yeah, limited options. Good times. Do you remember your first time fighting through one of those games? Did you try to force your way through it without drawing diagrams? You probably got somewhere around 20 percent of the questions right on odds alone....

Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Raymond Kethledge thinks its time for the court to “clean up its law” regarding Federal Rule of Evidence (FRE) 404(b). This week, Judge Kethledge wrote a dissental to the Sixth Circuit’s en banc rehearing denial in United States v. Clay, arguing that there are “significant and recurring issues” on which the Sixth Circuit has intra-circuit conflicts regarding the admission of prior bad acts evidence....

It’s a big week for oral arguments in the Court, with fascinating questions of statutory interpretation in the areas of gun purchasing regulations and criminal restitution. Meanwhile, are two of the court’s liberal justices feuding? And if so, who has more support on the Court? Sometimes, even the most boring opinions can contain hidden gems. In Daimler v. Bauman, the court unanimously held that Daimler can’t be sued in California for something that happened in another country, especially since its only connection to the state is the cars it sells....

Do registered sex offenders have a First Amendment right to sign up for Facebook or follow the president on Twitter? That was the question before the Supreme Court yesterday. The Court heard oral arguments in the case of Packingham v. North Carolina, involving a North Carolina law that makes it a felony for any sex offender on the state’s registry to access social media. During oral arguments, the justices, who remain social media shy themselves, acknowledged the greater role such websites play in the public sphere and seemed incline the strike down, or at least narrow, North Carolina’s social media restrictions....

In a capital murder case, district court’s judgment denying defendant a writ of habeas corpus is affirmed where: 1) defendant failed to rebut by clear and convincing evidence the presumption that the state’s peremptory strikes in jury selection of the guilt phase were race-neutral; and 2) state’s race-neutral reasons for exercising peremptory strikes at the penalty phase was not pretextual, and thus not contrary to clear and convincing evidence or unreasonable....

Sentence for drug crimes is affirmed where defendant’s appeal of the upward departure from his sentencing guidelines range fell within the scope of his valid appeal waiver, and defendant has not shown that the sentence ultimately imposed was illegal or constituted a miscarriage of justice under existing applicable precedent, and thus the appeal must be dismissed. Read US v. Sisco, No. 07-3161 Appellate InformationAppeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri....

Even though teens are smoking less cigarettes over the years, other tobacco or nicotine products like vape pens, JUULs, and other kinds of e-cigarettes are continuing to grow in popularity for adolescents. In 2019, the federal government passed a new law increasing the minimum legal sales age for the retail sale of tobacco products from 18 to 21. And most states also now have laws making the legal age for possessing or using e-cigarettes and tobacco 21 years old....

It was the best of times and the worst of times for Maker’s Mark attorney Edward Colbert last week as he argued that the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals should uphold a 2010 district court order giving the bourbon brand exclusive use of the dripping red wax seal for which its bottles have become known. Defendant-Appellant Diageo introduced Jose Cuervo Reserva tequila bottles with similar red wax seals into the North American liquor market in 2001, prompting Maker’s Mark to file a trademark infringement lawsuit....

Biagio Stragapede was a city water-worker in Evanston, IL until one day when he tripped on some steps. It was not serious, but the city placed him on leave and later terminated him because it said he was a safety threat. He had other problems, too, like driving through an intersection without looking and reporting to the wrong job sites. But the real problem was that Stragapede had recently returned to work from a serious brain injury, and the city didn’t think he could do his job....

In a trademark infringement action, district court’s dismissal of plaintiff’s action is reversed and remanded where the court erred in finding that the prior litigation between the parties collaterally estopped the current trademark infringement action, as the jury in that case had not addressed the likelihood of confusion between the parties’ marks. Read B & B Hardware, Inc. v. Hargis Industries, Inc., No. 07-3866. Appellate InformationAppeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas....

Dismissal of homeowners’ suit against a bank under the Truth in Lending Act affirmed Bonte v. U.S. Bank, N.A., 09-2455, concerned a challenge to the district court’s grant of a defendant bank’s motion to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted, in plaintiffs’ suit against the bank under the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) seeking mortgage rescission. In affirming the dismissal, the court held that the plaintiffs’ failure to respond to defendant’s arguments leads to the conclusion that they have waived any argument that the allegedly erroneous TILA disclosures are in fact material....

Primiano v. Cook, No. 06-15563, involved an action against the manufacturer of an artificial elbow. The court of appeals reversed summary judgment for defendant on the ground that the exclusion of plaintiff’s expert’s evidence was error as plaintiff’s expert, with a sufficient basis in education and experience, testified that the artificial joint “failed to perform in the manner reasonably to be expected in light of its nature and intended function,” which was enough to assist a trier of fact....

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Monday that an Illinois driver can sue the Village of Palatine for giving him a parking ticket. Before you get too excited by the prospect of unfettered parking, keep in mind that the decision doesn’t mean that driver will win. Jason Senne’s vehicle was illegally parked overnight on a public way in the Village of Palatine. Village authorities placed a parking citation on his windshield....