This decision is noted because it addresses two significant, but rarely discussed, issues dealing with the Child Support Recovery Act (CSRA). That statute makes it a Federal crime for a parent who "willfully" fails to pay a known child support obligation for a child who resides in another State.

The ...

Case held that police officers lacked a reasonable suspicion to stop defendant and detain him as he emerged from an apartment on New Year's Eve where officers were prepared to knock pursuant to "knock and talk" technique.

This telemarketing fraud case is noted for several sentencing issues. Six defendants were charged with multiple counts of telemarketing fraud. Four of them pled guilty and were sentenced in accordance with the Guidelines range. Two others went to trial and were convicted; and the district court imposed significant upward departures ...

Here the Court affirmed a lower court decision that the scope of 18 USC § 666 does not extend to assignees of federal funds, since such an interpretation would create an almost limitless statutory reach beyond a commonsense interpretation.

This is a rare case in which a court put the ...

Although the Court found that the affidavit was deliberately misleading, it held that the district court did not err in not suppressing the wiretap evidence because of the "unlikelihood that the authorizing court would have denied the extensions if it had been given [the true facts]." (Id., at 869).

The ...

This decision slightly amended the Court's previous ruling about the number of days of excludable time that passed - which were not to be counted against the speedy trial clock - from 887 days to a mere 847 days - still more than 2 years.

After the Court issued its original decision in this case, reported at 155 F.3d 470, a motion for rehearing was filed and the Court withdrew that decision. On the rehearing, the Court held that the pre-1997 version of 28 CFR 550.50 should apply to the facts of this case, not ...

This telemarketing fraud case is noted for several sentencing issues. Six defendants were charged with multiple counts of telemarketing fraud. Four of them pled guilty and were sentenced in accordance with the Guidelines range. Two others went to trial and were convicted; and the district court imposed significant upward departures ...

This decision by Judge Weinstein is a good example of the extremes to which the courts must go if they wish to escape the rigidity of the "sentence-by-the-numbers" Guidelines and show a degree of compassion towards a defendant based on his or her circumstances. In this case the defendant was ...

This decision by Judge Weinstein is a good example of the extremes to which the courts must go if they wish to escape the rigidity of the "sentence-by-the-numbers" Guidelines and show a degree of compassion towards a defendant based on his or her circumstances. In this case the defendant was ...

Here the Court granted a broad, in camera application of the Government to compel a cable company to release information about its subscribers, which the Court said raised "ephermal puzzles" that it then declined to address.

The spirit of "consistently according law enforcement officials greater latitude in performing their duties" ...

The Ninth Circuit, the largest Court of Appeals in the country, never ceases to surprise. In this case, it affirmed a conviction for "bank robbery" under the Federal bank robbery statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2113, based upon an attempted break-in of an automated teller machine (ATM) located in an Albertson's ...

The defendant appeals the denial of his pretrial motion to suppress evidence as the product of an unlawful entry into his apartment. The district court ruled the entry was lawful because the officers were attempting to execute an arrest warrant for a person other than Lovelock and reasonably believe that ...

Here the Court struck down a Washington State prison regulation that prohibited the receipt by prisoners of gift publications, holding that the regulation had no rational relationship to penological concerns and violated the First Amendment.

This is a rare prison case in which the Court invalidated a Washington State prison ...

In this case the Seventh Circuit joins all the other Circuits to have ruled on the issue and held that the Federal Anti-Gratuity Statute does not require exclusion of evidence obtained through the Government's promises of immunity or lower sentences.

The Court stated: "Section 201(c)(2) is a criminal statute, not ...

Following reversal of a gun conviction based on Bailey, the majority held that the district court had erred in requiring the defendant to choose between the status quo of the elimination in its entirety of the priginal plea agreement.

This case presented the question of the applicable remedy when a ...

The Court stated: "The only issue before us is the propriety of the district court's sentencing of Sacko as an armed career criminal by virtue of his previous conviction for statutory rape under Rhode Island law. The Rhode Island statutory rape statute punishes a person over the age of eighteen ...

Here the Third Circuit held that the registration and notification provisions of New Jersey's "Megan's Law" did not violate the sex offenders constitutionally protected privacy interests, stressing the public's interest in protecting itself.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK - A look at the "feel-good" sex-offender registration and notification laws known as ...

Here the Court held that fraud and money laundering counts should not be grouped under USSG § 3D1.2 particularly § 3D1.2(d) because they measure monetary harm differently - a decision that reflects deep inter-Circuit division.

In this case the Second Circuit delved into one of those mysterious provisions of the ...

Here the Court rejected a claim that the Sixth Amendment right to counsel was violated when Federal officials arranged for the defendant to be placed in a holding cell with cooperating witnesses.

Defendants Mapp and Moore were convicted of various racketeering offenses after trial. Moore contended that the district court ...

In this case the Supreme Court held that "When federal officers have probable cause to believe that an automobile contains contraband, the Fourth Amendment does not require them to obtain a warrant prior to searching the car for and seizing the contraband." (Id., at 563-64). The rationale for this rule ...