Insights < BACK TO ALL INSIGHTS
A Luigi Mangione Death Penalty Trial
FEATURED
April 15, 2025
A Luigi Mangione Death Penalty Trial
By: James Trusty
The Attorney General’s recent announcement that DOJ will seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione raises a host of interesting legal and philosophical issues, and it almost certainly reflects a dramatic about-face from the Biden administration’s approach towards federal prosecutions for death-eligible offenses. Aside from having personally prosecuted three death penalty trials while I was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Maryland and when I was Chief of the DOJ Organized Crime and Gang Section, I spent a number of years on the Attorney General’s Capital Review Committee (“CRC”). The Committee was comprised of a number of “grey heads” who had personally handled death penalty cases and who developed a solid working knowledge of the intricate field of capital litigation. Ultimately,…
Trouble in Paradise: White Lotus Character’s Legal Woes Illustrate Civil Forfeiture’s Overreach
April 14, 2025
Trouble in Paradise: White Lotus Character’s Legal Woes Illustrate Civil Forfeiture’s Overreach
By: Abbey Block
Last Sunday, millions of viewers tuned in to watch the season finale of White Lotus – a widely popular show that centers around the week-long vacation of several ultra-wealthy patrons of the fictional “White Lotus” resort in Thailand.[1] The show follows a dynamic cast of quirky characters as they navigate their opulent getaway. One of those characters in this most recent season was Timothy Ratliff…
Amending Arbitration Clauses – No Notice, Big Problem?
April 8, 2025
Amending Arbitration Clauses – No Notice, Big Problem?
By: Robert Ward
Many websites’ terms and conditions allow online service providers to make changes without providing prior notice to users. Often, the terms state that the user agrees to read the terms and conditions, and that continued use of the website constitutes acceptance of any modification. A recent Fourth Circuit decision highlights the potential risk that such unilateral change-in-terms provisions might pose to another common feature of…
Wild, Wild West: The Legalization of Marijuana Brings Lots Of Regulatory Concerns
February 12, 2014
Wild, Wild West: The Legalization of Marijuana Brings Lots Of Regulatory Concerns
By: Steven Eichorn
The beginning of 2014 has brought many new laws into effect and we have written on a number of them. But few laws have received more mainstream media exposure than Colorado’s legalization of recreational marijuana. Of more importance to us, the legalization of recreational marijuana has posed some interesting problems for regulators. The most obvious effect of the law was to allow the recreational use…
Recent Ruling May Put Dent In Ability of Government to Seize Domain Names
February 10, 2014
Recent Ruling May Put Dent In Ability of Government to Seize Domain Names
By: Ifrah Law
A November 2013 ruling from the United States District Court in a bankruptcy case may create an obstacle for a tactic increasingly popular among federal prosecutors – the seizure of a defendant company’s domain name. The statutes permitting civil and criminal forfeiture in U.S. District Courts – Title 18, United States Code Sections 981 and 983, respectively – both authorize seizure of “property.” In a…
Can Violating Social Media Terms of Use Make You Guilty of Violating the CFAA?
January 29, 2014
Can Violating Social Media Terms of Use Make You Guilty of Violating the CFAA?
By: Ifrah Law
LinkedIn has filed a suit against John Does in response to a spate of “data scraping” perpetrated by unknown individuals, in violation of the website’s terms and conditions.This is the latest federal case in the Northern District of California in which a tech company seeks to enforce its contractual provisions through the criminal statute Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). Starting in May 2013, unidentified…
Healthcare Fraud Recoveries at All-Time High Since 2009
January 27, 2014
Healthcare Fraud Recoveries at All-Time High Since 2009
By: Ifrah Law
Fiscal year 2013 marked the fourth consecutive year in which the Department of Justice has recovered at least $2 billion from cases involving charges of healthcare fraud. Make no mistake: these record-setting yields were no accident. The Obama Administration has prioritized busting healthcare fraudsters since it took office, and for good reason. A 2009 analysis by the AHIMA Foundation, estimated that only 3 to 10…
Charges Against Former Virginia Governor McDonnell Brought on by Whistleblower
January 23, 2014
Charges Against Former Virginia Governor McDonnell Brought on by Whistleblower
By: Ifrah Law
The media coverage of this week’s announcement that federal prosecutors have charged former Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, with illegally accepting gifts from a wealthy Richmond area businessman have largely focused on what the Commonwealth’s first family may have given in return. To be sure, the question of whether and how these gifts corrupted the state government is an important one,…
