In this case, the Fifth Circuit held that the District Court (Judge Ivan Lemelle of the E.D.La.) had committed plain legal error when it sentenced the defendant, Corey Wooley, to an above-Guidelines sentence of 30 months in prison, based on the District Court’s belief that the defendant needed drug treatment ...

In 2010, Mohamed Mohamud, a Somali-born American citizen, was arrested after attempting to set off a car bomb at a Christmas tree lighting in Portland, OR. The bomb was actually a fake that had been supplied to Mohamud by the FBI as part of a sting operation. Mohamud was charged ...

In this decision, the Seventh Circuit took issue with the disturbing practice of too many sentencing judges who tend to impose indiscriminate, vague and sometimes pointless discretionary conditions of supervised release that have little, if anything, to with the statutory goals of sentencing as stated in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) ...

In this landmark decision, the Supreme Court has finally resolved the ongoing debate about whether the police may, without a warrant, search the digital information stored on a cell phone seized from a person who has been arrested; and, in a resounding victory for privacy rights in the digital age, ...

The Federal bank fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1344, imposes a sentence of up to 30 years in prison for anyone who “knowingly executes, or attempts to execute, a scheme or artifice –

(1) to defraud a financial institution; or

(2) to obtain any of the moneys, funds, credits, assets, ...

In Latif v. Holder, 686 F.3d 1122 (9th Cir. July 26, 2012) (“Latif I”) (P&J, 08/06/12), the Ninth Circuit vacated a ruling by District Judge Brown that had dismissed a Federal lawsuit brought by 13 Plaintiffs, all of whom were U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, challenging their unexplained inclusion ...