A conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm is vacated and remanded for trial where: 1) the trial court reopened proceedings after the parties' summation and after the jury had been charged and had begun deliberating; 2) the government failed to present an adequate legal explanation that ...

This case is noted for Judge Damon Keith's unusually outspoken dissent in which he said he was "outraged," and "embarrassed" that his colleagues would affirm a state trial judge's conviction "without a semblance of evidence".

Raymond Tucker, the petitioner-inmate in this case, was convicted at a bench trial in a ...

Here the Court affirmed Judge Lynn Adelman’s important prior ruling to the effect that the Sixth Amendment bars a court from denying, arbitrarily or unreasonably, a defendant the right to retain counsel of his choice.

In Carlson v. Jess, 507 F. Supp. 2d 968 (E.D. Wis., 2007) (“Carlson I”) (P&J, ...

[Editor's Note: For a commentary on this decision, see "Court of Appeals upholds psychotherapist privilege in garden variety damages claims," as posted on the Second Circuit Civil Rights Blog at http://secondcircuitcivilrights.blogspot.com/2008/08/court-of-appeals-upholds.html on Aug. 13, 2008, as follows:

"An inmate sued corrections officers who allegedly used excessive force against him. The ...

A district judge is not required by 28 U.S.C. §§ 455(a) or (b)(1) to recuse himself from presiding over a criminal trial merely because he previously determined that a defendant was guilty of the same conduct in a parole revocation hearing.

[Editor's Note: For a commentary on this decision, see ...

In this case, a divided panel from the Ninth Circuit has held that the BOP's categorical rule that it will not consider placing inmates in Residential Re-entry Centers (RRCs) until they have six months or 10% of their sentences left violates congressional intent expressed in 18 U.S.C. § 3621 that ...

The issue before the Third Circuit in this case of first impression was whether the Fourth Amendment requires any level of suspicion to justify a search by customs officials of a passenger’s cabin aboard a cruise line arriving in the United States from a foreign port.

Here, treating such searches ...

Drug importation, distribution, and conspiracy convictions are reversed where no evidence was offered that: 1) either defendant knowingly entered a conspiracy with the specific intent to violate the relevant statutes; or 2) defendant charged with aiding and abetting importation had knowledge or intent to violate the importation statute.

[Editor's Note: ...

In this case, an appeal of the denial of a 2255 motion, all parties agreed that appointed counsel violated the court’s CJA plan by failing to seek certiorari despite his client’s request that he do so. At issue here was the appropriate remedy. The government argued that 2255 relief was ...

In a securities-fraud case, judgment setting aside jury's guilty verdict is affirmed where defendant's conducting of "interpositioning" trades was not deceptive or misleading.

[Editor's Note: For a more detailed commentary on this decision, see "2nd Circuit Upholds Acquittal of Trader," by Mark Hamblett, as published in the New York Law ...

Here, in a brief decision that offers little in the way of analysis, the Ninth Circuit held that reasonable suspicion is not needed for customs officials to search a laptop or other personal electronic storage devices at the border.

On July 17, 2005, Michael Arnold, a 43-year old U.S. citizen, ...

Written police reports that memorialize oral statements made by a defendant to an undercover officer do not have to be produced upon demand under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 16(a)(1)(B)(i). A conviction for offenses arising out of a conspiracy to bomb a subway station in midtown Manhattan is affirmed over ...

The question presented in this case was one of first impression in the Ninth Circuit: can an interrogation by law enforcement officers in the suspect's own home turn into such a police-dominated atmosphere that the interrogation becomes custodial in nature within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment so as to ...

After the United States Supreme Court vacated the Court's prior ruling. reported at 469 F.3d 1166 (8th Cir. Dec. 5, 2006), and remanded the case for reconsideration of defendant's sentence in light of Kimbrough v. United States, a divided en banc Couer reversed the district court's earlier judgment and remanded ...

During jury deliberations in this drug case, District Judge William Young was advised by a note from the jury foreman that one “problem juror” was challenging the legitimacy of one of the criminal statutes at issue. The note posed the following question: “Where - if two-thirds of both houses of ...

With scant analysis and even less factual background, a panel from the Ninth Circuit has held that the Government can properly decline to move for an additional one-level acceptance of responsibility sentence reduction under U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1(b) if the defendant refuses to sign a waiver of his appeal rights.

Ignacio ...

This case is noted for Judge Martin’s unusually strong dissent in which she expressed deep outrage over the majority’s conclusion that a deputy sheriff had not used excessive force when he repeatedly used a Taser gun on a handcuffed motorist.

One night in March, 2004, Jonathan Rackard, a deputy sheriff ...