Today’s case is not about drugs or medical devices. It is about popcorn, a perfect prompt (or as good as ours ever get) for a rant about movies. We are working our way through the Oscar nominees, in anticipation of the upcoming Academy Awards. (Pre-apocalypse, we hosted an annual Oscar party, featuring good food, good wine, and just enough wagering – and cheating – for a bit of hostility.) As we watch this year’s slate, we long for the days … Read the rest
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The nation’s immigration courts are breaking under the cumulative weight of a byzantine statutory scheme, chronic understaffing, and insurmountable case backlogs. The noncitizens appearing before them face a host of daunting challenges — language barriers, financial strain, lack of legal assistance, and years-long delays — before they can entertain any hope of resolving their immigration status. Against this rather bleak backdrop comes the low-profile case of Santos-Zacaria v. Garland, which the Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday. In … Read the rest
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The Supreme Court heard oral argument on Monday in the case of Louis Ciminelli, an executive convicted of federal wire fraud in connection with bid-rigging to secure a $ 750 million New York state contract. The trial court informed a federal jury regarding a “right to control” theory of fraud, and the jury convicted Ciminelli. At argument, Justice Neil Gorsuch remarked at the “radical agreement” among all that the right-to-control theory was flawed, but there was less consensus as … Read the rest
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Can the Biden administration issue guidelines setting priorities in the enforcement of immigration law? Do states have standing to challenge these guidelines? And if the guidelines are unlawful, does the Administrative Procedure Act give lower courts the power to vacate them — a universal remedy that goes beyond the parties to the case? These are the three questions before the Supreme Court in United States v. Texas, set to be argued on Nov. 29. Legal scholars have addressed … Read the rest
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The Supreme Court announced on Thursday afternoon that it will weigh in on what it means to commit identity theft. After holding their private conference a day early because Friday is a federal holiday, the justices released a one-sentence order list that added one new case to their merits docket for the 2022-23 term: Dubin v. United States.
The defendant in the case is David Dubin, who was convicted of Medicaid fraud. As the dispute comes to the … Read the rest
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On Tuesday, the court heard argument in Jones v. Hendrix, a case that exemplifies the Gordian knot that is the federal habeas corpus statute.
As I discussed in my case preview, the underlying problem the case presents is weighty: The petitioner, Marcus DeAngelo Jones, was convicted at trial of being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) and sentenced to more than 27 years’ incarceration. Two decades into his prison term, … Read the rest
In a letter to key members of Congress on Wednesday, the Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO) detailed efforts underway to modernize the Judiciary’s electronic case management system, including replacing Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER), the public interface for accessing court records.
Judiciary News – United States Courts… Read the rest
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The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to block the execution of an Oklahoma man with schizophrenia, rejecting a claim from his legal team that he does not understand the reason for his execution. Benjamin Cole is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday.
The court turned down Cole’s last-minute appeal in a brief order with no recorded dissents. Justice Neil Gorsuch did not participate in the decision. Gorsuch likely recused himself because he was a judge on … Read the rest