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Supremely Improbable
FEATURED
July 30, 2024
Supremely Improbable
By: James Trusty
President Biden’s pronounced objectives for Supreme Court “reform” are improbable, politically lifeless under a particularly lame duck presidency, and motivated by transparently November-driven calculations. But even if the proposed changes are doomed from the start, they push public discourse on a couple of issues that are red meat for the democrats. The stated reforms are superficially simple ones: 1) to “clarify” that “there is no immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office,” 2) to limit SCOTUS appointments to 18-year terms, and 3) to create a mandatory/enforceable ethics code on the high court. Some context for this agenda is in order. The “clarification” push flows directly, albeit inaccurately, from the recent immunity decision in Trump v. United States….
Presidential Immunity Ruling Stirs Sound and Fury
July 5, 2024
Presidential Immunity Ruling Stirs Sound and Fury
By: James Trusty
The immediate and eventual impact of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision in Trump v. United States is both considerable and dramatically misrepresented. The initial consequences include likely delay to the January 6 prosecution out of D.C. and the setting of hearings—in D.C., Georgia and south Florida—where the judges will be required to make factual findings as to whether the evidence supporting the indictments reflect “official…
The Challenging Terrain of White-Collar Sentencing
June 3, 2024
The Challenging Terrain of White-Collar Sentencing
By: James Trusty
Federal judges are required to balance a number of factors whenever imposing sentence, including specifically enumerated areas that largely stem from the broader philosophical categories of General Deterrence, Specific Deterrence, Retribution/Punishment, Restitution and Victim Impact, and Rehabilitation. In determining the presumptively reasonable range of potential sentences, federal practitioners consult their always-handy U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which create a sentencing range grid based upon the offense characteristics…
The Foreclosure Crisis: Don’t Believe Everything You Read
October 22, 2010
The Foreclosure Crisis: Don’t Believe Everything You Read
By: Ifrah Law
Legal pressure is mounting against the firms involved in the nationwide foreclosure crisis. In the wake of reports that possibly fraudulent court documents were used to fast-track home foreclosures, a federal Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force is investigating possible criminal violations committed by banks and mortgage companies. We need to ask: What laws are available to prosecutors? After all, people can do plenty of things…
FTC Getting Serious About Full Disclosure in Endorsements
October 20, 2010
FTC Getting Serious About Full Disclosure in Endorsements
By: Ifrah Law
The Federal Trade Commission is taking steps to show that it is quite serious about enforcing the so-called blogger disclosure rules that it issued last year. The rules say, essentially, that when someone endorses or reviews a product or service, the person must disclose any relationship with the company that produces the product. So if a blogger gets a free item from a manufacturer, the…
A New Turn for Washington State’s Online Poker Law
October 15, 2010
A New Turn for Washington State’s Online Poker Law
By: Ifrah Law
After the unanimous rejection by the Washington State Supreme Court of a lawsuit that attempted to overturn the state’s draconian ban on online poker, proponents of the game now say that they’re going to go to the state legislature and try to get the law repealed, rather than pursue the challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court. On Sept. 23, 2010, the state court rejected the…
Banned From the Internet: A Term of Probation That Is Overly Restrictive
October 11, 2010
Banned From the Internet: A Term of Probation That Is Overly Restrictive
By: Ifrah Law
The following opinion article by Ifrah PLLC founding partner A. Jeff Ifrah and associate Steven Eichorn appeared in the National Law Journal on October 11, 2010. Banned from the Internet Prohibiting a defendant on probation from conducting any business online is overly restrictive and not reasonably related to legitimate sentencing goals. By A. Jeff Ifrah and Steven Eichorn The Internet is becoming the town square for…
Too Little, Too Late for Defense Argument?
September 28, 2010
Too Little, Too Late for Defense Argument?
By: Ifrah Law
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit is considering whether the government’s belated disclosure of potentially exculpatory evidence deprived criminal defendant Amit Mathur of a fair trial. The fact that Mathur’s counsel received some of the evidence after the government’s case in chief and declined to use it in Mathur’s defense makes it unlikely that Mathur will obtain the new trial he seeks….
