Here a divided panel engaged in a lengthy debate over whether the application of a special sentencing enhancement for “trafficking” in child pornography under former USSG § 2G2.4(c)(2) required general or specific intent.

It sometimes seems as if the debate over sentencing enhancements for child pornographers grows more heated, more ...

Here a unanimous court vacated a writ of habeas corpus granted by the Sixth Circuit to an Ohio death row inmate, after concluding that the Circuit court failed to give proper deference to the state court decisions as required by 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1).

In July, 1983, an Ohio jury ...

During the last Presidential election, it sometimes seemed as if politicians had adopted a dramatic new and universal campaign tactic. Instead of equating themselves at every opportunity with the past standbys of apple pie and motherhood, they moved en masse to a new phase of attacking the organization known as ...

Ghaleb Nassar Al-Bihani is another of the many detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay who has challenged his detention. A Yemeni citizen, Al-Bihani has been held at Guantanamo since 2002. Following the Supreme Court’s rulings in Rasul v. Bush, 542 U.S. 466 (2004) and Boumediene v. Bush, 128 S. Ct. ...

Defendant's sentence for interstate transportation of stolen property is vacated where the district court failed to make findings in support of its denial of a minimal role adjustment.

[Editor's Note: For a commentary on this decision, see "Role Away," by Steve Statsinger, as posted on the Second Circuit Blog on ...

In an important prison disenfranchisement decision, a divided panel from the Ninth Circuit has held that vote denial claims challenging felon disenfranchisement laws are cognizable under § 2 of the Voting Rights Act (“VRA”) (42 U.S.C. § 1973).

In an important prison disenfranchisement decision, a divided panel from the Ninth ...

The Court upheld as reasonably related to the goals of rehabilitation and deterrence and as no broader than legitimately necessary to serve those purposes a special condiction of supervised release that barred the degendant from entering San Francisco.

The power of the courts to impose ever more restrictive ivory-tower conditions ...

Here the Court upheld 18 U.S.C. § 4248 which permits the civil commitment of "sexually dangerous persons" after release from prison as within the legitimate scope of congressional power conferred by the Necessary and Proper Clause.

In 1999, John Charles Volungus pled guilty in a District Court for the Western ...

Here the Court held that the Psychotherapist-Patient Privilege can be overriden by the so-called Dangerous Defendant Exception.

In 2008, the defendant in this case, Alvin Hardy, who had a history of mental illness, went to an emergency room at the Maine Medical Center, complaining of high blood pressure. While being ...

Here the Court attacked as nonsensical the rigid application of U.S.S.G. § 2G2.2(b)(7), which require automatic sentence increases as the number of pornographic images increase, which it said violates the mandates of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a).

This is another child pornography possession case in which the defendant, Bernard Raby, pled ...