This is an interesting decision in which a divided panel from the Fourth Circuit held that a police officer’s uncorroborated visual speed estimate did not provide probable cause to initiate a traffic stop for speeding.. Predictably, the dissent argued that the decision would result in gloom and doom, rampant lawlessness ...

This case is noted for Judge Bright’s important dissent in which he sharply criticized the calculation of loss under the fraud Guidelines, charging that they produce “astronomical sentences” that have “little connection to criminality".

The defendant in this case, John Anthony Spencer, was convicted at trial of ten counts of ...

In this Sentencing Memorandum, Judge Rakoff explained his reasons for imposing a below-Guidelines sentence of two years on Rajat Gupta, a former Goldman Sachs director, who was convicted at trial of several counts of insider trading. That two-year sentence represented a significant departure from the advisory Guidelines range of 78 ...

This case is noted for Judge Bright's dissent in which he argued that an 18 year sentence for child pornography was both excessive and erroneous because it was not sufficiently based on a careful assessment of the sentencing requirements of § 3553(a).

Donna Mary Zauner pled guilty to production of ...

Here the Court reversed Judge Adelman’s decision voiding, on First Amendment grounds, all charges against a white supremacist who was convicted of soliciting the commission of a violent crime against a juror in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 373.

This case has a long and complex history, going back to ...

This decision is noted for its extended discussion of the criteria for eligibility for a downward departure based on a defendant’s “cultural assimilation,” under U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2. By virtue of Guideline Amendment 740, which became effective as of Nov. 1, 2011, aliens convicted of illegal reentry into the U.S. following ...