In this decision the Second Circuit rejected two interesting sentencing claims by the defendant, Neil Messina, a reputed member of the Bonanno crime family, who pled guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy.

Messina first argued that his below Guidelines 18-year sentence was unreasonable in light of the prosecution’s non-binding ...

In 2010, Congress enacted the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”) ; and ever since then the Republican-led Congress has spent much of its time seeking to repeal piecemeal various provisions of that Act or freezing funds required to implement the Act. (See, e.g., "The ...

On the evening of June 21, 2012, Citalli Flores was stopped by Customs and Border Protection agents as she entered the United States following a day trip to Tijuana, Mexico. When she handed the agents her driver’s license, they (of course) deemed her nervous and said her hands were shaking. ...

This case involves a provision of the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (“PLRA”) which Congress enacted in 1996 to place strict limits on prisoner litigation in the Federal Courts. Until 1996, indigent prisoners, like other indigent persons, could file a civil action in the Federal courts without paying any ...

The facts and sole issue before the Court in this capital punishment case were simple. A Florida jury convicted Timothy Lee Hurst of murdering his co-worker, Cynthia Harrison, in a Popeye’s fried chicken restaurant in 1998. A penalty-phase jury recommended that Hurst’s judge impose a death sentence. Notwithstanding that recommendation, ...

In this consolidated appeal, the Supreme Court addressed whether the Supreme Court of Kansas had erred when it vacated the death sentences of three different defendants in two separate cases. Lacking much of the high stakes drama and constitutional gravitas of recent capital punishment cases, this appeal focused on two ...