Here the Court rejected a broad constitutional challenge broght by police officers to the provisions of the Gun Control Act (18 USC § 922(g)(9)) that prohibit persons convicted of domestic violence from possessing firearms.

In its decision, the Court expressly rejected "the notion that the firearms ban may be irrational ...

Here the Fifth Circuit held that the district court erred in failing to group the defendant's drug-related counts and his money-laundering counts for sentencing purposes, since it had the effect of impermissibly double counting the same offense behavior.

In this case the defendant argued that the drug related counts and ...

The principal issue before the Court in this case was whether the government violated a cooperation agreement and a separate plea agreement by charging and securing the conviction of Defendant-Appellant Roy Edward Cantu for conspiracy to participate in a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations ("RICO") enterprise in violation of 18 ...

The Court stated: "we join the Sixth and Seventh Circuits in holding that deportable status may not be a ground for downward departure from the applicable guideline range for aliens who are deportable. See United States v. Gonzalez-Portillo, 121 F.3d 1122 (7th Cir. 1997); United States v. Ebolum, 72 F.3d ...

In its previous decision, reported at 129 F.3d 906, this case was remanded back to the district court for a determination whether the Government had proved the drug was crack for sentencing purposes, even though the defendant had earlier admitted it was crack. It was acknowldged that the Government's expert ...

here the Court held that a witness who asserts an illegitimate claim of privilege and refuses to answer questions at trial is not sufficiently "available" for cross-examination to satisfy the requirements of the Confrontation Clause.

The Court held that if a witness refuses to answer questions, the district court must ...

In this case the Tenth Circuit held that a would-be civil rights plaintiff's conviction for resisting arrest does not necessarily prevent him, under the rule of Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994), from maintaining a 42 USC § 1983 action alleging that the arresting officers used excessive force, The ...

Here the Court established an important distinction between an "acquiesence" to a search and a "consent" to a search, holding that the defendant's acquiesence in the face of a police badge was not a valid unequivocal consent.

United States v. Worley, 193 F.3d 380 (6th Cir. 1999) (Judge Jones)
United ...

As this case shows, the courts continue to struggle over the issue of whether they have the authority to intercede when the Government refuses to file a motion for a sentence reduction based on a defendant’s “substantial assistance” pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 5K1.1 and that refusal is alleged to be ...

Here the Court affirmed it decision in U.S. v. Banuelos-Rodriguez, 173 F.3d at 742, that a district court has the authority under the Guidelines to grant a sentencing departure based on a disparity of plea bargaining practices in different districts.

This is another one of those cases dealing with the never ending efforts of the Government to expand the scope of the Hobbs Act (18 U.S.C. § 1951(a)) beyond its statutory confines. In this case the defendant was convicted of two counts in connection with the attempted burning of an ...

The Court started this decision by stating: "Under Sandin v. Conner, segregative confinement in prison implicates a liberty interest protected by the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution only if it 'imposes atypical and significant hardship on the inmate in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life.' ...

Here the Court sharply limited a broad interpretation of the Supreme Court's use of "atypical and siginficant hardships" as used in Sandin v. Conner, and noted that it should be compared to the most restrictive conditions that exist.

The Court started this decision by stating: "Under Sandin v. Conner, segregative ...

Some comments from Justice Black about the parallels between the indefinite detention of illegal aliens by the INS and the practices of some of the most hated and notorious dictatorships in history.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK - Some thoughts on the perpetual detention of unwanted aliens.

“No society is free ...

The Court stated: "The Second Amendment provides that '[a] well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.' U.S. Const. amend. II. The link that the amendment draws between the ability 'to keep ...

This is a case that evokes memories of Edward Everett Hale’s famous short story, “The Man Without a Country.” For those who have forgotten that memorable tale, the full text is available in the Internet at http://simsim.rug.ac.be/schole/mwcintro.html - and it is well worth rereading. It was first published in the ...

This case deals with a common sentencing problem: How does one fight the prevalent practice of using “estimates” or “averages” at sentencing hearings to determine the amount of drugs, or money, or losses that should be attributed to a defendant? We all know that you can’t just accuse the judge ...