Supreme Court limits “safety valve” in federal sentencing law

Supreme Court limits “safety valve” in federal sentencing law

Share

Justice Elena Kagan’s opinion for a sharply divided court in Pulsifer v. United States resolves an ambiguity in the provisions added to federal sentencing law in the First Step Act of 2018, coming down firmly on the side of the government. The problem involves how to read a “safety valve” in federal criminal sentencing laws, which allows defendants to avoid the often lengthy mandatory minimum sentences scattered throughout the federal criminal code. The safety valve requires the defendant to … Read the rest

Federal court finds the Corporate Transparency Act unconstitutional: Is compliance still required?

Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) as an anti-money-laundering initiative in 2021. Absent an applicable exemption,[1] the CTA requires all entities formed or registered to do business in the US (reporting companies) to report their beneficial ownership[2] to the Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

In National Small Business United v. Yellen, No. 5:22-cv-01448 (N.D. Ala.), the National Small Business Association (NSBA) and one of its members brought a suit in the US District Court of the Northern … Read the rest

Government power, from federal agencies to counties, highlights January session

Government power, from federal agencies to counties, highlights January session

Share

The justices returned to the bench on Jan. 8 for a packed session of oral arguments – starting with immigration policy and the post-9/11 “No Fly List” and ending on Jan. 17 with two cases that could upend the functional power of the federal administrative state.

Monday’s arguments began with two consolidated cases, Campos-Chaves v. Garland and Garland v. Singh, in which the court will consider what kind of notice the government must provide before a noncitizen can … Read the rest

Federal Appeals Court Delivers Coup De Grace in Berkeley Attempt to Ban Natural Gas

On January 2, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit delivered a death blow to the City of Berkeley, California law attempting to ban natural gas, which the Court had last year found was preempted by federal law, with the action last week denying a petition to rehear the case.

While the procedural complexities of this case are more than a little daunting, and instead of reading the more than 60 page amended opinion, nearly everything important … Read the rest

Justices take up abortion case pitting state against federal law

Justices take up abortion case pitting state against federal law

Share

The Supreme Court on Friday afternoon granted a request from Idaho and the state’s Republican-controlled legislature to temporarily put on hold a ruling by a federal district court that would require emergency rooms in the state to provide abortions to pregnant women in an emergency. The justices agreed to weigh in on the question at the center of the dispute: whether the federal law on which the lower court relied trumps an Idaho law that criminalizes most abortions in … Read the rest

Federal Judges Bring Civil Discourse Program to Law Students

Court proceedings put a premium on decorum and civil discourse, but the skills and dispositions that set the stage start long before the attorneys and parties enter the courtroom. That is why federal judges and attorneys collaborated with Duke Law School to bring the Judiciary’s Civil Discourse and Difficult Decisions program to law students for the first time.
Judiciary News – United States Courts

Read the rest

Court grants review in federal employee’s filing deadlines case

Court grants review in federal employee’s filing deadlines case

Share

The Supreme Court on Friday afternoon agreed to take up another case exploring the distinction between deadlines that are jurisdictional – so that courts cannot hear a case if they are not met – and those that are instead simply a limitations period that can be waived or extended.

The justices granted review in Harrow v. Department of Defense, the case of a federal government employee who challenged his 2013 furlough. The case was the only grant on a … Read the rest

Federal Prosecutor Calls for Outside Oversight and Control Over Rikers Island

On Friday, Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, Damian Williams, joined lawyers representing people detained in New York City jails in an effort to strip Mayor Eric Adams’s administration of control over Rikers Island, asking a judge to hand oversight of the troubled jail complex to an outside authority, Hurubie Meko reports for the New York Times. The judge who will decide on a takeover, Laura Taylor Swain of Federal District Court, wrote that the Adams administration had failed to “address Read the rest