Here the Court ruled that prisoners can bring civil rights suits alleging constitutional violations arising from intra-prison disciplinary sanctions, since such claims relate to conditions of confiement and not the length of the prisoner's sentence.

The sole issue addressed in this appeal is whether Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 ...

Here the Court held that carrying firearms as the loot of a robbery, where they were not brandished or used to threaten anyone or to effectuate the robbery, did not qualify as using the guns "in relation to" a crime of violence.

Here the Court held that the mandatory detention provisions of 8 USC § 1226(c) could not be applied retroactively to an alien convicted 19 years before the statute took effect and who was was released from custody 13 years before such date.

In her decision, Judge Barry also recounted the ...

Here the Court joined most of the other Circuits in holding that the "termination provisions" of the PLRA contained in 18 USC § 3626(b)(2) do not violate the Separation of Powers doctrine of the Constitution.

This case dealt with a federal injunction that established a maximum population cap at the ...

Reversing a panel's decision, the Court reinstated a conviction for a violation of the Hobbs Act, and held that the Government need only show "a realistic probability of an effect, or some actual de minimis effect, on commerce to sustain a conviction. The Court also expressly overruled its decision in ...

After the daughters were subpoened to testify against their father at a grand jury, they refused to testify on the ground that to do so would violate their deeply held religious beliefs. They contended that their religion, Orthodox Judaism, prohibits them from providing testimony to be used against their father. ...

Although the Court recognized in theory the possibility of a downward sentencing departure based on sentencing entrapment (due to increasing the quantity of drugs), the Court held that this was not a case where the Govt. overcame his predisposition.

This case marks formal judicial approval of The Return of the Leper Colonies to America. In Alabama, any inmate who tests positive for HIV is automatically placed in segregation, where they are unable to participate in the many educational, vocational, rehabilitative, religious and recreational programs and activities that are available ...

This case involved a motion by Indiana officials to terminate a federal injunction regarding overpopulation at the Pendleton Correctional Facility. The prisoners argued that subsection (e)(2) requires an automatic stay as a matter of law and thus represents an unconsitutional suspension of judicially ordered relief. The majority agreed, and refused ...

Here the Court rejected a claim that the Government had deliberately elicited incriminating statements from the defendant, and in the process reviewed in detail the Supreme Court cases dealing with its Massiah Rule.

In this suit brought by individuals who sought to use marijuana for medicinal purposes, the Court rejected a broad series of constitutional challenges to the validity of the Controlled Substance Act.

The Court specifically rejected challenges based upon the Commerce Clause, the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, the Equal protection Clause, ...

It’s an old story; and, as this case proves, there is virtually nothing that a defendant can do about it. The defendant in this case was convicted of armed bank robbery. The Guidelines called for a sentence of 168 months or 14 years in prison. At the initial sentencing, District ...

In this revealing decision, Judge Justice refused to vacate a consent decree over Texas prisons, finding that many of the living conditions in the Texas prison system still constituted per se violations of the Eoghth Amendment.

One day we may look back at this 228 page masterpiece by Judge William ...

The defendant argued that the district court erred in increasing his offense level two increments for obstruction of justice. The probation officer preparing Cataldo's PSI recommended the enhancement because he believed Cataldo had failed to acknowledge a 1983 "arrest" in Massachusetts for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon when ...

One of the issues in this case dealt with the defendant’s claim that the district court erred by refusing to confer judicial immunity on a witness crucial to his defense. That claim, of course, highlights one of the most renowned inequities in criminal law, namely the difference between the prosecution ...

Here the Court held that the Driver's Privacy Protection Act violated the Tenth Amendment in directing state officials to admininister a federal program regulating use of personal information contained in the State's motor vehicle records.

Citing Printz v. U.S., 521 U.S. 98 (1997), the Court noted that the Supreme Court ...

In this case the Court did agree that the Vienna Convention does give the defendants a private right to enforce its provisions and thus standing to redress any grievances, but the court held that those rights did not extend to invoking the exclusionary rule which it said was "generally not ...

The Court also expressly overruled its decision in U.S. v. De Parias, 805 F.3d 1447 (11th Cir. 1986), to the extent that it implied that the Government must prove some "adverse" effect on commerce. Citing the plain language of the statute, the Court stated "The Act's language is broad, and ...

QUOTE OF THE WEEK - Following an epic trial that lasted 159 days and included the testimony of 349 witnesses, Judge William Wayne Justice concluded in 1980 that the prisoners housed in the Texas Department of Corrections (TDC) prison system had provided "a rare glimpse behind the walls that so ...

In this case, during closing argument, the prosecutor misstated a defense witness’ testimony on a crucial point and did so while purporting to quote the witness’ testimony. The critical issue in this drug case was whether the defendant had any connection to a large stash of drugs found in a ...

Here the Eleventh Circuit held that a district court may not look behind drug convictions that qualify as serious drug offenses under the armed career criminal statute to justify a downward departure under the Guidelines.

In this case the district court agreed that the defendant was as armed career criminal ...

Here the en banc Court described in detail the Circuit split on the meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1), which limited the scope of Federal habeas review of state court judgments which involved an "unreasonable application" of established law.

In this case the Court addressed the meaning of 28 U.S.C. ...