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Appeals Posts
Marijuana May Be Headed for a Showdown Out West
Jan 4, 2018
Marijuana May Be Headed for a Showdown Out West
Today, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a one-page memo to all U.S. Attorneys that announced a sharp reversal on the DOJ’s approach to marijuana prosecutions. Under the Obama administration, the DOJ issued a memorandum in 2013 (the “Cole memo”) that basically provided a safe harbor to the marijuana industry in states that legalized recreational marijuana….
Supreme Court to Decide Whether Prosecutors Can Use Pleas to Skirt Constitution
Aug 11, 2017
Supreme Court to Decide Whether Prosecutors Can Use Pleas to Skirt Constitution
While the endless portrayal of jury trials in media might indicate otherwise, trials are actually quite rare in the U.S. criminal justice system. With 97% of federal cases ending in pleas, the Atticus Finch conception of American justice has been largely confined to books. Ordinarily, when an accused enters into a plea agreement, he waives…
Why Banning Criminals from the Web Doesn’t Work
Jul 21, 2017
Why Banning Criminals from the Web Doesn’t Work
A few weeks ago, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in Packingham v. North Carolina, 137 S. Ct. 1730 (U.S. 2017) invalidating a state law outlawing registered sex offenders from accessing websites which could facilitate offender-minor direct communication. While the majority opinion and concurrence seems grounded in, and specific to, sex offender restrictions, the…
Cell Tower Location Data Privacy Decision Reversed
May 18, 2015
Cell Tower Location Data Privacy Decision Reversed
Last July, we reported on United States v. Davis, an Eleventh Circuit decision in favor of privacy rights. In that case, a three-judge panel held that cell phone users have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their cell phone location data. If the government wants to collect the data, it must first obtain a probable-cause…
Fifth Circuit Rules Only a Seaman Can Commit Seaman’s Manslaughter
Mar 26, 2015
Fifth Circuit Rules Only a Seaman Can Commit Seaman’s Manslaughter
A recent decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Court serves as a good reminder that criminal statutes say only what they say, and that it is up to the legislature to revise statutes to expand their scope if the legislature cares to do so. The opinion, United States v. Kaluza,…
Bureaucracy Unlimited
Mar 17, 2015
Bureaucracy Unlimited
This article first appeared on FEE.org – you can access this version at https://fee.org/freeman/detail/bureaucracy-unlimited Big Gov and Big Biz. Are they holding hands, shaking hands, or boxing? It depends on the day and the issue. But while Big Biz hardly seems like a sympathetic character, Big Gov always has the upper hand. Remember Arthur Anderson? Perhaps…
SCOTUS Rules No Felony for Throwing the Little Ones Overboard
Feb 27, 2015
SCOTUS Rules No Felony for Throwing the Little Ones Overboard
This week, the United States Supreme Court resolved some fishy matters on which prosecutors sought to base a federal felony conviction. The case, Yates v. United States, arose from a offshore inspection of a commercial fishing vessel in the Gulf of Mexico. During the inspection, a federal agent found that the ship’s catch contained undersized…
Court Reins In Prosecutorial Overreach in Insider Trading Cases
Feb 25, 2015
Court Reins In Prosecutorial Overreach in Insider Trading Cases
In an effort to reinstate powers stripped from them by the Court of Appeals in U.S. v. Newman and Chiasson, prosecutors have sought a rehearing of the landmark Second Circuit decision which severely curtailed the scope of insider trading cases. The case is one which has already seen a dramatic reversal, so it is perhaps…
The Crisis of New Jersey Courts and the Challenge to Judicial Recall
Nov 25, 2014
The Crisis of New Jersey Courts and the Challenge to Judicial Recall
At the very core of judicial independence is the notion that courts and judges decide matters in accordance with the evidence and legal precedent, independent from political power or outside controls. The question of whether a bipartisan and independent judiciary is still alive and well in New Jersey has been called into question recently, as…
The Road to True Threats is Paved with Intimidating Intentions
Sep 24, 2014
The Road to True Threats is Paved with Intimidating Intentions
Recently, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals considered the dividing line between free speech guarantees and the state’s authority to criminalize threat speech. In United States v. Heineman, the court held that the government must prove specific intent in true-threat cases: to obtain a conviction, prosecutors must prove not just that the defendant intended to…
