U.S. Courts News Reporter
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
The Federal Trade Commission has filed an amended complaint in its case against the Growth Cave business opportunity and credit repair scam. The amendment adds two defendants based on information the FTC learned after the original filing.
The amended complaint names LLT Research as a new defendant in the case, alleging that the company served as the corporate structure behind the operation’s PassiveApps product, which defendant Lucas Lee-Tyson started selling in 2024. The amended complaint also adds as a relief … Read the rest
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The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has “relisted” for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available here.
A lot has happened since our last installment. The Supreme Court granted review of one-time relists Garland v. Cargill, involving whether bump stocks are “machineguns” and thus generally prohibited, and Coinbase, Inc. v. Suski, involving whether a court or an arbitrator should decide whether an arbitration agreement that generally delegates the … Read the rest