Here a uninamous Court shifted the standard for determining whether police officers are entitled to qualified immunity for 4th Amendment violations by reversing precedent and discarding the rigid two-step process it had developed in Saucier v. Katz.

In this case, the Supreme Court revised the procedures for determining whether police ...

In a conviction for robbery and unlawful possession of a weapon, grant of writ of habeas corpus is affirmed where: 1) Appellate Division's ruling that there was no right of defendant to cross-examine on racial bias because it represented "general ill will" rather than "specific hostility towards defendant" constituted an ...

Conviction for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon is affirmed over claims of error that: 1) the district court erred in concluding that police had reasonable suspicion to stop and frisk defendant pursuant to Terry v. Ohio and in denying defendant's motion to suppress handgun that was recovered ...

Here the Fourth Circuit became the first Federal appellate court to hold that the civil commitment provisions of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act (18 U.S.C. § 4248) are unconstitutional on Commerce Clause grounds.

In an important decision, the highly conservative Fourth Circuit became the first Federal appellate ...

Conviction for unlawfully possessing a firearm is affirmed where: 1) the trial court violated defendant's right under the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment when it prohibited defense counsel from cross-examining a government witness about his swastika tattoos despite the fact that the defendant was a member of a minority ...

Jerry Paull, a 65 year-old, retired minister, who suffered from a broad range of both physical and mental ailments, pled guilty to four counts of knowing possession of child pornography, in violation of the Child Pornography Protection Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2252 et seq. He was sentenced to 210 months ...

[Editor's Note: For a commentary on this decision, see "2nd Circuit: Analysts Bound by Same Liability Presumption as Issuers for 'Fraud on Market'," by Mark Hamblett, as published in the New York Law Journal on Oct. 2, 2008, as follows:

"A federal appeals court has put research analysts on the ...

Conviction for conspiracy to sell stolen property is reversed where: 1) the government failed to prove that the defendant believed that the stolen property was worth at least five thousand dollars; and 2) the government failed to prove the defendant was involved in a conspiracy involving goods that moved in ...

For a commentary on this decision, see "Case Highlights Ineffective Legal Services for Immigrants," by Mark Hamblett, as published in the New York Law Journal on February 21, 2008, as follows:

Judge Robert Katzmann and two of his colleagues claim that too many asylum seekers continue to suffer from poor ...

Judgment of acquittal notwithstanding the verdict for a cocaine-distribution conspiracy is reversed and remanded where there was sufficient evidence to support the jury's determination that the defendant not only had a buyer-seller relationship with the head of the conspiracy but also knowingly and intentionally joined in and participated in the ...

Here the Court hed that because Texas allows defendants to file untimely appeals of state convictions, the clock for the one-year deadline under the AEDPA should not start ticking until after that out-of-time appeal is completed.

In another of its periodic reviews of some of the highly technical and highly ...

Appeal from a conviction for attempted bank fraud is dismissed with prejudice over claims of error that: 1) in December 2006, jurisdiction of defendant's case was in the present court rather than in the district court and therefore his 2006 conviction was a nullity; and 2) that if the district ...

Here the Court found that a defendant, who had been convicted of child pornography, was guilty of violating one of his conditions of supervised release by failing to participate “in a meaningful manner” in his sex offense therapy.

This case is a good example of the growing feeling among defense ...

For some commentaries on this decision, see:

• "Court Orders Release of 17 Innocent Guantanamo Detainees into U.S.," a press release posted on the website for the Center for Constitutional Rights on Oct. 7, 2008;

• "Federal Judge Orders Uighurs in U.S. by Friday," by Ben Winograd, as posted on ...

Petition for review of BIA's final order of removal on the basis of petitioner's conviction for the offense of stalking is denied where the stalking provision of the removal statute (18 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(E)(i)) is not unconstitutionally vague on its face or as applied to the petitioner.

Here Judge Adelman sharply criticized the harsh penalties called for by U.S.S.G. § 2G2.2, and presented a compelling case for the proposition that § 2G2.2 "is not representative of the Commission's typical role or of empirical study".

In his critical analysis of the many flaws that he perceived to exist ...

Petitions for review of decisions canceling removal are granted and orders of the Board of Immigration Appeals are vacated where: 1) a second conviction for simple controlled substance possession under state law is not a felony under the Controlled Substances Act, because the offense of conviction did not proscribe conduct ...

In a decision relating to the availability of immunity in civil rights actions for damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the Supreme Court unanimously held that a California man who had served 24 years in prison for murder based on false testimony from a jailhouse informant could not sue the ...

Conviction for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and possession of two firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime is affirmed where: 1) the district court did not err in admitting evidence seized from the inventory search of defendant's car; and 2) the district court did not err ...

The Chicago Police Department, acting under the Illinois Drug Asset Forfeiture Procedure Act (DAFPA) seized property belonging to the plaintiffs. The DAFPA permits the warrantless seizure of personal property involved in certain drug crimes as long as there is probable cause to believe it was involved in a drug crime ...

Defendants were tried on various counts for their actions while employed at a certain company. The jury acquitted defendants on some counts but hung on others, after which the government again indicted defendants on some of the mistried counts. Defendants contended that the acquitted counts collaterally estopped the government from ...

Conviction for mail fraud and health care fraud is affirmed over claims of error that defendant was denied a speedy trial in violation of the Speedy Trial Act on the grounds that: 1) the pre-indictment delay exceeded 30 days; and 2) the pretrial delay exceeded 70 days.

[Editor's Note: For ...

In this case, the Supreme Court, by a 6-3 vote, moved to further limit the authority of federal courts, in a habeas proceeding pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, to second-guess the decisions of state courts on instructions given to juries on an accomplice’s role in a crime.

The respondent, ...

In another extremely narrow ruling, the Supreme Court unanimously held that a conviction on the charge of "failure to report" to prison is not the kind of prior "violent felony" conviction that triggers a 15-year mandatory prison sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act (18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1)) (the “ACCA”). ...