In a decision that shows the impact of the Supreme Court rulings in Gall and Kimbrough, the Eighth Circuit emphatically upheld a sentence of probation, after concluding that the district court's decision was procedurally sound and reasonable.

Johnette Lehmann had a prior conviction as a felon, which prohibited her from ...

Here, after requesting briefs on the issue of whether Congress had violated the rights of the Judiciary when it enacted 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1), the Court ducked addressing that issue; although two of the judges suggested there were possible problems.

While neither the facts nor the outcome of his habeas ...

For a summary of this decision, see "2nd Circuit Finds Deputies Immune From Suit for Bad Search," by Mark Hamblett, New York Law Journal, Oct. 25, 2007, as follows:

"Uncertainty over the law on third-party consent searches means that police who responded to a potential domestic violence problem are shielded ...

Here rthe Court held that under the circumstances of this case, the district court's reliance on the simple fact of population density to impose a non-guidelines sentence constituted legal error and rendered the defendant's sentence unreasonable.

For a summary of the holding in this amended decision, see "Mindful of 'Booker,' ...

Sebastian Boucher was arrested on a complaint charging him with transportation of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(1). At the time of his arrest, customs agents seized a laptop computer from Boucher which allegedly contained some images and videos of child pornography.

However, when Government agents began ...

Here, on remand from the Supreme Court, a divided panel affirned a state prison inmate's conviction for sexual abuse of his minor stepdaughter, after concluding that the conviction was properly supported by hearsay statements of stepdaughter after she had been uncooperative in testifying at trial, since the stepdaughter's prior statements ...

Here the Court reversed the 7th Circuit's grant of habeas relief on the grounds that no clearly established Federal law justified the defendant's claim that he received ineffective assistance of counsel due to his lawyer's participation by speaker phone.

In this unanimous, per curiam decision, the Supreme Court reversed a ...

Here the Court vacated a gun conviction on the grounds that the police lacked reasonable suspicion to stop the defendant in his car, since the stop was based solely on a tip from an anonymous 911 call that was not sufficiently corroborated.

This is a surprising Fourth Amendment case in ...

This case is noted for Judge Merritt’s dissent in which he sharply criticized the federal courts for engaging in "guidelineism”, or “guidelinitis” when imposing sentences, or the inability of the courts to break the habit of relying on the Guidelines only.

This secision is noted for Judge Merritt's passionate dissent ...