Court adopted a "balancing approach" to determine that a search of one's garbage was proper, even though the garbage was located within his home's curtilage; although a number of judges dissented.

This en banc decision is noted for its discussion of the current law on the scope the Fourth Amendment's ...

Court revisited an "unorthodox" form of appeal waiver provision that some prosecutors have recently been attempting to use and held that the appropriate remedy was to sever the invalid provision from the rest of the agreement.

One of the issues discussed in this case was how an appellate court should ...

Case held that there is no Fifth Amendment violation if the sought information adds a minor or negligible amount to the Government's intelligence.

One of the issues discussed in this case was how an appellate court should proceed when it determines that a provision in a plea agreement waiving a defendant's right of appeal is invalid and therefore unenforceable. The particular form of plea agreement that was used in this case was one ...

This is a significant case dealing with the requirements of the law (18 U.S.C. § 3553(f)) and of the Guidelines (U.S.S.G. § 5C1.2) that, to be eligible for a "safety valve" sentence reduction, the defendant may not have more than 1 Criminal History points.

The defendant in this case pled ...

Court vacated a conviction under 8 USC § 1324(a)(2) due to a lack of evidence that defendant's actions were "in furtherance of" a violation of the law.

Once again the Eleventh Circuit declined to determine whether the defense of sentencing entrapment was a valid defense, although it did call that defense a "defunct theory" and noted that most other courts had rejected it as a defense.

This was a typical drug-sting operation in which no real drugs ...

Court upheld a special condition of supervised release that the probationer "be subject to search of his person and property by probation.".

United States v. Germosen, 139 F.3d 120 (2nd Cir. 1998) (Judge Winter)
United States v. Paccione, 992 F.Supp. 335 (S.D.N.Y. 1998) (Judge Motley)

Using the pragmatic philosophy that ...

Here the Court held that the district court had erred in sentencing the defendant under § 2J1.3(a) rather than § 2J1.3(c)(1) by concluding that his perjury conviction was not committed "in respect to a criminal offense" as used in § 2J1.3(c)(1).

In rendering its decision, the Court relied heavily on ...

Case held that under 1991 version of the Guidelines, the taxpayer is not entitled to take a credit for legitimate but previously unclaimed deductions, while under the 1995 version of the Guidelines such credits are permitted.

Here the Court observed that the current version of U.S.S.G. § 2T1.1, as amended ...

Court adopted a "balancing approach" to determine that a search of one's garbage was proper, even though the garbage was located within his home's curtilage; although a number of judges dissented.

United States v. Germosen, 139 F.3d 120 (2nd Cir. 1998) (Judge Winter)
United States v. Paccione, 992 F.Supp. 335 (S.D.N.Y. 1998) (Judge Motley)

Using the pragmatic philosophy that the end always justifies the means, the frontal assault on the Bill of Rights continues, slowly but inexorably; and, as always, it ...

Here the Court held that a Rule 35(c) motion is one of the types of motions for reconsideration which suspend the running of the 10-day period in FRAP 4(b), and thus extended the time for filing a notice of appeal until that motion was decided.

The Court also held that ...

Court held that even if prosecutor had probable cause to refuse to file a § 5K1.1 motion, but failed to prove that case by a preponderance of evidence, it could not refuse to file the promised motion.

This case is noted for its brief discussion of a recurring problem: Perhaps ...

Court held that defendant was not sufficiently prejudiced by unavailability of trial witness to establish that a pre-indictment of delay of eight years violated his due process rights.

Case held that post-sentencing diagnosis of leukemia was not newly discovered evidence that would justify a new trial and did not give sentencing court any inherent power to modify previously imposed sentence.

This is an important Guidelines departure case which proves the wisdom of Lord Acton's observation that "all power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely." It also shows the dangers of letting prosecutors act like Avenging Ayatollahs by permitting them to exercise, through their charging powers, absolute power to implement their ...

Maybe the reason that it took this decision more than a year and a half to get published was that everyone (except Judge Vazquez) was somewhat embarrassed about the prosecution of this case. The decision is worth noting however because it is another gem by Judge Vazquez who never seems ...

This is an important Guidelines departure case which proves the wisdom of Lord Acton's observation that "all power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely." It also shows the dangers of letting prosecutors act like Avenging Ayatollahs by permitting them to exercise, through their charging powers, absolute power to implement their ...

QUOTE OF THE WEEK - A medley of comments about the enormous powers the prosecutors have to control sentencing through their charging decisions:

In Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 445 n. 10 (1970) the Court observed that: "In more recent times, with the advent of specificity in draftsmanship and ...

In this case the Supreme Court issued an important decision involving the proper venue for money laundering cases. The money laundering alleged in the indictment occurred entirely in Florida. The currency purportedly laundered derived from the unlawful distribution of cocaine in Missouri. The defendant was not alleged to have transported ...