In Bryan v. MacPherson, 590 F.3d 767 (9th Cir. Dec. 28, 2010) (P&J, 12-07-09) (“Bryan I”), a panel from the Ninth Circuit issued one of the most compelling and comprehensive rulings to date on the illegitimate use of Taser guns on everyday citizens by trigger-happy cops. In that ruling, the ...

Here the Court cut back significantly on the scope of Federal prosecutions for “honest services” wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1346, holding that honest-services fraud must be limited to "the paradigmatic cases of bribes and kickbacks”.

Skilling v. U.S., No. 08-1394 (U.S. Sup. Ct. June 24, 2010) (Justice Ginsburg) ...

Here the Court held that, like mandatory restitiution under 18 U.S.C. § 2259, discretionary restitution under 18 U.S.C. § 3663(a)(3) to victims of child pornography also requires proof of proximate causation of damages.

We have from time to time noted that, as prosecutions for child pornography have exploded, a significant ...

Here the Court held that when a state prisoner obtains federal habeas relief and is re-sentenced, a subsequent habeas application challenging the new judgment is not “second or successive,” even if he could have raised that issue earlier.

In another decision involving the still controversial Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty ...

Skilling v. U.S., No. 08-1394 (U.S. Sup. Ct. June 24, 2010) (Justice Ginsburg)
Black v. U.S., No. 08-876 (U.S. Sup. Ct. June 24, 2010) (Justice Ginsburg)
Weyhrauch v. U.S., No. 08-1196 (U.S. Sup. Ct. June 24, 2010) (Per Curiam)

In this trio of decisions, the Supreme Court significantly limited the ...

Here, by a 5-4 vote, Court held for the first time that state and local gun regulations must comport with the Second Amendment’s guarantee of an individual’s right to bear arms, as established in District of Columbia v. Heller.

To the surprise of virtually no one, the Supreme Court has ...

Here the Court reversed a lower court ruling that had denied habeas relief to another Guantanamo detainee, after finding that the Government had changed its legal theories and had presented “no direct evidence” to support its latest theory of detention.

In another embarrassing loss for the Government (and another stern ...