U.S. Courts News Reporter
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The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that a federal anti-bribery law does not make it a crime for state and local officials to accept a gratuity for acts that they have already taken. Writing for a six-justice majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh explained that state and local governments already regulate gifts to officials, and so the federal law “does not supplement those state and local rules by subjecting 19 million state and local officials to up to 10 years in … Read the rest
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Two days after Special Counsel Jack Smith asked the justices to decide quickly whether former President Donald Trump can face criminal charges for conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 elections, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case that could affect the charges against Trump even if the court ultimately rules that he is not immune from prosecution. The justices on Wednesday agreed to weigh in on the use of a federal law – also at issue … Read the rest
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For decades, the Supreme Court has steadily narrowed the scope of the federal criminal wire fraud statutes, and Thursday’s decision in Ciminelli v. United States is no exception. The court held that the federal criminal wire fraud statutes do not incorporate a “right to control” theory of fraud. The court referenced both federalism and overcriminalization concerns in narrowing the scope of the wire fraud statutes, pushing federal prosecutors to be more precise in articulating fraud cases against suspicious state … Read the rest
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There is no dispute that the Facebook messages Billy Raymond Counterman sent to local Colorado musician Coles Whalen made her feel afraid. For years, Counterman sent increasingly menacing messages in which he suggested that he had seen Whalen – who is identified only by her initials in court documents, but who has discussed the case on her website – while driving and made comments such as “Die” and “Fuck off permanently.” Whalen told a family member that she was
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The federal aggravated identity theft statute imposes a two-year sentence for any person who, “during and in relation to” certain enumerated felonies, “knowingly transfers, possesses, or uses without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person.” On Monday, the Supreme Court will consider the reach of this statute in Dubin v. United States.
As background, petitioner David Dubin was convicted of health care fraud — an enumerated felony. Dubin was the managing partner of a psychological services … Read the rest
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A lawyer’s legal advice is privileged. A court cannot order the lawyer or the client to disclose it. But a lawyer’s nonlegal advice is not privileged. What happens when advice is partly legal and partly nonlegal and the two parts cannot be untangled? In such dual-purpose situations, does the privilege protect all the advice or none of it?
On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear opposing answers to that question in a case known as In re Grand Jury… Read the rest
By: Andrew Serwin, Kristi Kung, Bethany J. Hills, Christine Lentz
With the mounting mental health crisis intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, the telemental health industry has exploded in recent years. According to recent estimates, as many as 325,000 health and wellness apps are available for download, and 10,000-20,000 apps have been designed specifically for mental health. Many of these programs require clients to record their symptoms, which has led to reports of privacy concerns, because these companies may profit from … 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