In Smith v. U.S., 508 U.S. 223 (1993), the Supreme Court held that the bartering of guns to obtain drugs constitutes an “active use” of a firearm within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). The Circuits remain divided, however, on the converse scenario - namely the bartering of drugs ...

In a workers' compensation insurance fraud criminal case, after a jury convicted defendant of two counts of mail fraud, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts dismissed the convictions because it found that the two underlying mailings were not "in furtherance" of defendant's fraudulent scheme. The government ...

Sheriff Frank Ainsworth of Copiah County, MS just doesn’t like live rock concerts in his county: in his mind, they produce “excessive noise, profanity and trash.” So, when he heard that the rap group 2 Live Crew was coming to his county, he bluntly told the producers that he didn’t ...

This case is noted for Judge DeMoss' outspoken dissent in which he sharply criticized the majority for converting an innocuous traffic stop into a full blown investigation of the driver and all the occupants.

In this case, the Fifth Circuit, sitting en banc, upheld as reasonable a traffic stop of ...

Here the Court joined all of the other Circuits in concluding that 18 USC §§ 3553(e) and (f) represent the exclusive routes to depart below the statutory minimum - i.e., substantial cooperation under § 5K1.1 or safety valve departures.

Here the Fifth Circuit joined every other Circuit in holding that ...

In Goldings v. Winn, 383 F.3d 17 (1st Cir. 2004) (P&J, 08/16/04), the First Circuit became the first Court of Appeals to address the BOP’s controversial two-year old policy of denying inmates placement in halfway houses for the lesser of six months or the final 10% of their sentences - ...

Here the Third Circuit affirmed that district courts have the authority, at least in principle and under appropriate circumstances, to grant departures under U.S.S.G. § 5K2.0 for substantial assistance that a defendant renders to branches of the Government other than those that engage in prosecutorial activities - so long as ...

The defendant in this case pled guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute of 117 pounds of cocaine and one count of importation of cocaine. His Guideline sentencing range as 108-135 months in prison. Judge Raner Collins of the D.Ariz. obviously felt that sentence was too severe; ...

Here the Seventh Circuit disagreed with the approach taken by the First and Eighth Circuits over inmate challenges to the BOP's new policy of limiting placement in halfway houses, holding that prisoners can use habeas petitions to challenge that policy.

In Goldings v. Winn, 383 F.3d 17 (1st Cir. 2004) ...

Federal prosecutors must have been delirious with excitement when they first learned about this case: with its almost endless supply of defendants all across the country, it had the potential of becoming the mother-lode of all Federal prosecutions. Even Attorney General John Ashcroft, at one of his now-standard pre-conviction, “they’re-already-guilty” ...

Here Judge Koller-Kotelly of the D.D.C. sharply rebuked the Government for its virtual open defiance of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Rasul v. Bush for using subterfuge and a “flimsy assemblage of arguments” to deny any rights to the enemy detainees.

In an unusually stern and hard-hitting ruling, Judge Kollar-Kotelly ...