This is a significant prison rights case which held, inter alia, that the petitioners had pleaded with sufficient particularity to survive a motion for summary judgment in a civil rights suit for damages.

This case is particularly noted for its extensive review not only of First Amendment retaliation claims, but ...

Citing Reno v. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, 142 L.Ed.2d 940 (1999), the Court held that it was without authority to withdraw its previous mandate in this case and reconsider issues under 8 USC § 1252(b)(9).

Here the Court approved the Government's motion to withdraw the concolidated appeals filed in this case, subject to stipulated settlement agreements reached by the parties.

Here the Sixth Circuit joined the Second, Fifth, Ninth and Tenth Circuits in holding that materiality is not an element of 18 USC § 287, in part because it would set up an incongruous "heads I win, tails you lose" dichotomy.

The defendant argued that materiality is an element of ...

Here the Court held that the district court erred in not transferring venue of a garnishment proceeding to a different district, pursuant to 28 USC § 3004(b)(2), after it was requested, holding that the statue is mandatory.

Among other rulings, the Court stated: "When Government agents intercept communications pursuant to Title III, "[t]he statute does not forbid the interception of all nonrelevant conversations, but rather instructs the agents to conduct the surveillance in such a manner as to 'minimize' the interception of such conversations." Scott v. United ...

Here the Court held that the defendant had not "knowingly and voluntarily" waived his rights to a revocation hearing, despite being represented by counsel, and rejected the Govt's contention that a lesser burden applies to such waivers.

The Court observed: "Rule 32.1 provides that a person in custody for violating ...

Here the Court approved the quashing of a subpoena in an ongoing criminal investigation on the grounds that its sole purpose was to obtain discovery for a parallel civil qui tam proceeding where discovery was barred.

While the Court did express some misgivings about whether 18 USC § 3731was actually ...

Here the Court held that, as a matter of law, a person who favors the legalization of marijuana is "incapable of finding a defendant guilty of a drug crime" and thus he must be excluded from the pool even without asking whether he could be impartial.

In this case, a ...

This case is particularly noted for its extensive review not only of First Amendment retaliation claims, but also for it review and excellent analysis of the most significant Supreme Court decisions dealing with prison lawsuits in general. It explores in detail the three elements of a retaliation claim: (1) that ...

In the only published decision to date from a Court of Appeals, the D.C. Circuit held that a former felon's possession of a firearm is not a "crime of violence" that triggers the possibility of pretrial detention under the Bail Reform Act.

This case has nothing to do with the ...

Here the Court rejected a broad series of constitutional challenges to 18 USC §§ 922(g)(8) and 922(g)(9), generally affirming the district court's decision reported at 986 F.Supp. 66.

The Court noted that § 922(g)(8) makes it a crime for a person who is sibject to a judicial anti-harassment or anti-stalking ...

Here the Court held that the fact that the defendant raped a sleeping woman, the resulting lack of "force" that was used "almost necessarily" took the case out of the heartland of rape cases, thus justifying a downward departure at sentencing.

The defendant in this case sneaked into a stranger's ...

Here the Court held that a district court has the authority, under the Victim and Witness Protection Act, to order restitution for the costs of court-appointed counsel and to order surrender of savings bonds to satisfy the restitution order.

Here the defendant, an inmate, was convicted of sending threatening communications to two persons, and the sentencing court imposed the six-level enhancement set forth in U.S.S.G. § 2A6.1. At his sentencing hearing, defense counsel argued that the defendant had taken no action in furtherance of the threats contained in his ...

Here the Court announced a relatively mild policy of sanctions for defense attorneys who fail to file briefs, causing appeals to be dismissed, without ever addressing what rights might accrue to the defendants whose rights have been prejudiced.

In this case, the Second Circuit considered the cases of four attorneys ...

In this case the defendant was tried on a charge of bank robbery. The Government sought to present a handwriting expert's testimony regarding a match between the stick-up note used by the robber and the defendant's handwriting. The defense in turn sought to rebut a bank teller's identification of the ...

United States v. Paul, 175 F.3d 906 (11th Cir. 1999) (Judge Hatchett)
United States v. Hines, 55 F.Supp.2d 62 (D.Mass. 1999) (Judge Gertner)

These two cases present a range of diverse judicial thinking on the issue of the admissibility and reliability of handwriting evidence under Fed.R.Evid. 702, particularly as interpreted ...

This case is noted for its discussion of two significant issues: when does a court's refusal to grant a defense request for a continuance constitute error of a constitutional magnitude; and when and to what extent does a defendant have the right to have prospective jurors questioned as to possible ...

This case is noted for its discussion of two significant issues: when does a court's refusal to grant a defense request for a continuance constitute error of a constitutional magnitude; and when and to what extent does a defendant have the right to have prospective jurors questioned as to possible ...

Last week the Department of Justice released its first comprehensive study on the rapidly growing number of emotionally disturbed people in America's prisons and jails. That report is available on the Internet at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/mhtip.pdf and it indicates that America's prisons now hold more than 283,000 mentally disturbed inmates - or ...

United States v. Paul, 175 F.3d 906 (11th Cir. 1999) (Judge Hatchett)
United States v. Hines, 55 F.Supp.2d 62 (D.Mass. 1999) (Judge Gertner)

These two cases present a range of diverse judicial thinking on the issue of the admissibility and reliability of handwriting evidence under Fed.R.Evid. 702, particularly as interpreted ...