The defendant in this case was charged with violating 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9), which makes it a crime for any person "who has been convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, to . . . possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition." However, under ...

Here the Court unanimously held that the exhaustion requirements of the Prison Litigation Reform Act are applicable to all inmate lawsuits regarding prison life, regardless of whether the suit involves general circumstances or particular episodes.

This decision, which received virtually no press coverage whatsoever, deals with the so-called “exhaustion” provision ...

The defendant was convicted of various drug crimes, including selling crack cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 860. At sentencing the district court imposed a 286-month term of imprisonment, calculated as follows. The court found, by a preponderance of the evidence, 20 kilograms ...

Here the Court affirmed its rule that Apprendi does not require the jury to determine the precise amount of drugs in every case unless the quantity alleged threatens a penalty that is higher than the statuory maximum.

In this case the defendant pled guilty to bank robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a) and hw was then sentenced to life imprisonment under the Federal "three strikes law" - 18 U.S.C. § 3559(c). The defendant appealed, arguing that the application of the three strikes law violated Apprendi. ...

In this case he defendant was charged with resisting arrest following a traffic violation, and one of the specific charges was the possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. At sentencing, the district court imposed a 4-level enhancement for possession of a firearm in connection with a felony offense ...

Here the Court held that where a defendant in a drug case entered a pre-Apprendi plea to a “generic crime of possession of a drug with intent to distribute,” he retained the right to have the jury determine the identity and quantity of the drugs.

This is an intriguing decision ...

Here the Ninth Circuit joined with the 4th, 8th and 11th Circuits in holding that the new rule of criminal procedure announced in Apprendi does not apply retroactively on initial collateral review, even when the judge determines the drug quantity.

Although a number of district courts have ruled to the ...

This is an interesting case in which the Fifth Circuit tried to tip-toe past one of those incendiary topics that the Courts would very much prefer to pretend does not exist: namely that, even in this era of allegedly standardized “by-the-numbers” sentencing, different judges can and will impose dramatically different ...

Among the many issues raised in this RICO and VICAR prosecution of two alleged members of La Cosa Nostra, were two claims based on Apprendi v. New Jersey, which the Court summarized and disposed of as follows:

"First, Marino says that several acts for which he was not indicted, and ...

One of the defendants in this case contended that the prosecutor's use of four peremptory challenges to eliminate Italian-American surnamed individuals from the jury violated the constitutional guarantee of equal protection, as established in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986). More specifically, he claime that the district court's failure ...

This case is a harsh reminder of the heavy burdens of proving that contingent fees paid to a Government witness affect a defendant's right to a fair trial, as the Court reviewed the procedural safeguards which protect against the dangers of such testimony.

To us, the bounty-hunter mentality of using ...