In this case, the Ninth Circuit held that the district court had erred in holding that the use of pepper spray on non-violent demonstrators at an environmental protest against the Pacific Lumber Company was a reasonable use of force. Here, nine environmentalist activists and an organization called the Headwaters Forest ...

Here the Court held that Alaska’s version of Megan’s Law, requiring registration of convicted sex offenders, violated the Ex Post Facto Clause; and it reviewed some of the legal and social issues raised by such statutes.

In this decision, the Ninth Circuit struck down Alaska’s version of “Megan’s Law” on ...

In this case, the Fourth Circuit joined with the Ninth Circuit (and a majority of the district courts) in holding that Apprendi does not apply retroactively to cases on collateral review, thus effectively overruling Darity v. U.S., 124 F.Supp.2d 355 (W.D.N.C. 2000).

This decision is particularly noted for Chief Judge ...

Here the Court rejected a challenge that the Government’s selective grant of immunity to some witnesses, coupled with the introduction of guilty plea allocutions of other witnesses who were not granted immunity, resulted in a denial of a fair trial.

This case deals with an extremely controversial and sensitive issue ...

In this case a resident alien petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus challenging an order of removal issued by the INS on the grounds that he had been convicted of two crimes involving moral turpitude. While that petition was pending, the petitioner sought to be released from custody on ...

This is an interesting decision in which Judge Dalzell raised some significant questions about the continuing validity of the Supreme Court’s decision in Scarborough v. U.S., 431 U.S. 563 (1977), where the Court held that in order to convict a felon of unlawful possession of a firearm under the predecessor ...