In a civil enforcement lawsuit involving computer hacking brought under the Securities Exchange Act, district court judgment denying plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction is vacated where nothing in the Supreme Court's jurisprudence or prior decisions of the present court expressly imposes a fiduciary-duty requirement on the ordinary meaning of ...

District court judgment denying qualified immunity in a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 false arrest action is vacated and remanded where defendant had probable cause to arrest plaintiff as it was reasonable for him to believe that a crime had been or was about to be committed.

[Editor's Note: For a ...

Federal corrections officers' convictions for obstruction of justice and other crimes are affirmed where: 1) defendants' challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence was properly rejected as their actions were within the category of conduct proscribed by 18 U.S.C. § 1512; and 2) the instructions to the jury did not ...

Petitioners, aliens who were found to pose a special danger to the public under 8 C.F.R. § 241.14(f) and detained pursuant to 8 U.S.C.S. § 1231(a)(6), challenged their continued detention and were granted writs of habeas corpus by the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. Respondents, a U.S. ...

In this case, the petitioner, Ismail Malik, brought a § 1983 lawsuit for damages against the District of Columbia, the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), and TransCor America, charging that they violated his rights under the Eighth Amendment. The substance of Malik’s complaint was that, from July 2 through July ...

Here the Court held that a prisoner who has been detained by the INS but who was in BOP custody was not eligible for civil commitment as a “sexually dangerous person” under 18 U.S.C. § 4248 of the Adam Walsh Act.

Although this case was decided more than a year ...

This case is noted for Judge McAuliffe's caustic criticism of the Government’s abuse of its power to make charging decisions in an effort to control the sentencing process, calling it "inconsistent with fundamental notions of justice and fairness".

This unpublished decision is a rare but noteworthy exposition of one judge’s ...

Here, finding that the Government’s evidence in support of Al Rabiah’s indefinite detention was “surprisingly bare” and that his alleged confessions of terrorism “defy belief,” the Court granted his petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

No one will probably ever really know how many real terrorists were held at ...

One of the unexplained curiosities of the American legal system has long been the distinction between published and unpublished decisions. Even though the vast majority of decisions issued by the Federal courts are issued as the “unpublished” variety, under the rules of most Federal courts they may not be cited ...

This decision is a follow-up to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Munaf v. Green, 553 U.S. ___, 128 S.Ct. 2207 (June 12, 2008) (“Munaf III”). In Munaf III, the Supreme Court addressed the claims of two American citizens, Mohammad Munaf and Shawqi Omar, both of whom had voluntarily traveled to ...

Here, a panel from the Ninth Circuit has held that the Bureau of Prison’s (BOP) policy on early release is invalid. For years, the BOP has categorically prohibited prisoners with certain prior convictions from participating in its special drug abuse prevention programs which afford early release benefits pursuant to the ...

On remand from the Supreme Court of the United States, the matter is remanded to the district court for further proceedings in light of the Court's decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal to decide whether plaintiff can seek leave to amend his deficient complaint.

Here the Court, sitting en banc, held by a slim 6-5 vote that a prison guard can be sued for damages by a non-violent prisoner who was forced to give birth while shackled to the hospital table. However, the majority also held that the director of the Correction Department was ...

In a case arising from the NBA gambling scandal involving former referee Tim Donaghy, judgment ordering defendant to pay restitution to the NBA under the Victim and Witness Protection Act is affirmed where: 1) the NBA was a victim of defendant's offense as it was directly and proximately harmed by ...