Today the U.S. Department of Labor in the second Trump administration issued a proposed regulation regarding the classification status of independent contractors (ICs). As we noted three days ago in a blog post written in anticipation of the issuance of the proposed new rule, we expected it to be almost a carbon copy of the 2021 regulation issued by the first Trump administration, which was replaced by a 2024 regulation issued by the Biden administration — and it is precisely that, … Read the rest
It’s often said that the ineffective assistance of counsel test is so tough to satisfy that even evidence that a defendant’s attorney slept during trial is insufficient to satisfy the standard. The latest example is Alvarez v. Guerrero, 2025 WL 3719047 (5th Cir. 2025).
In Alvarez, “Juan Carlos Alvarez was sentenced to death for the murders of Michael Aguirre and Jose Varela.” He later appealed, claiming that one of his two trial counsel slept during trial.
A majority … Read the rest