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White-Collar Sentencing Under the Amended Guidelines: Fewer Steps, Same Dance
FEATURED
November 12, 2025
White-Collar Sentencing Under the Amended Guidelines: Fewer Steps, Same Dance
By: Robert Ward
For years, the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s Guidelines Manual has guided courts through a three-step process to determine the sentence to be imposed. At a high level, that process looked like this: First, the court would calculate the guideline range based on relevant offense conduct and related factors, along with the defendant’s criminal history. Second, the court would consider the Sentencing Commission’s policy statements or commentary relating to “departures” from the guidelines as well as the defendant’s specific personal characteristics. Third, and finally, the court would consider the statutory factors set out in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) in determining the sentence to be imposed (whether within the guideline range or varying in either direction). As of November 1, 2025, this three-step…
Personal Information Flo-wing out of Control
October 20, 2025
Personal Information Flo-wing out of Control
By: Lauren Scribner
In September, a nearly $60 million settlement was reached in Frasco, et al v. Flo Health, Inc., Meta Platforms, Inc., Google, LLC, and Flurry, Inc. The case,[1] a class action filed in 2021, alleged inter alia that Flo Health Inc. (“Flo”), a popular women’s health tracking application estimated to have over 38 million monthly users, invaded the privacy of its users by sharing personal and…
New Laws for AI Developers: California’s Fork in the AI Regulatory Road
October 16, 2025
New Laws for AI Developers: California’s Fork in the AI Regulatory Road
By: Steven Hess
AI Regulation and The Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act Artificial intelligence (“AI”) products have become an increasingly significant aspect of U.S. innovation, growth, and development. Generative AI is being used to predict the structure of proteins and other biomolecules in pharmaceutical research,[1] to simulate wargames for the U.S. military,[2] and to drive an estimated hundreds of billions of dollars of growth in sectors from…
Impeachment Trial of Federal Judge Raises Issue of ‘Kickbacks’
September 16, 2010
Impeachment Trial of Federal Judge Raises Issue of ‘Kickbacks’
By: Ifrah Law
The impeachment trial of U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr. is continuing before a U.S. Senate committee. Porteous, a federal judge in New Orleans, is accused of four counts of corruption. Each count is referred to as an article of impeachment. The first article of impeachment involves what some have described as a “kickback” scheme. Porteous, as a state court judge before he was…
Why Did Craigslist End ‘Adult Services’ Section?
September 6, 2010
Why Did Craigslist End ‘Adult Services’ Section?
By: Ifrah Law
We noted last May that the popular Craigslist website faced major flak from state attorneys general and from anti-prostitution groups over its “Adult Personals” section, which many say was a thinly veiled venue for prostitution. On September 3, Craigslist abruptly discontinued the “Adult Personals” section and replaced the link with the word “Censored.” Craigslist didn’t state any reason for this step, and many observers are…
Md. Case: An Issue of Medical Judgment or Criminal Fraud?
September 3, 2010
Md. Case: An Issue of Medical Judgment or Criminal Fraud?
By: Ifrah Law
On September 1, 2010, John R. McLean, a former cardiologist based in Salisbury, Md., was indicted by a federal grand jury for health care fraud and for making false statements to Medicare and Medicaid. McLean is charged with performing operations to insert stents – devices to treat coronary disease – in the arteries of patients who did not need them according to accepted medical practice,…
A Conservative Argument For Legalizing Online Gambling
August 16, 2010
A Conservative Argument For Legalizing Online Gambling
By: Ifrah Law
Conservative columnist Michelle Minton just wrote an interesting op-ed piece for Forbes.com on why Republicans, and by extension, conservatives in general, should favor legalized Internet gambling. Minton’s arguments come in the wake of the recent passage by the House Financial Services Committee of a bill that would legalize Internet gambling, including online poker, in the United States and set up a federal regulatory framework for…
Lesson From Ex-Congressman’s Plight: Follow Rules, Come Clean
August 13, 2010
Lesson From Ex-Congressman’s Plight: Follow Rules, Come Clean
By: Ifrah Law
Federal prosecutors often take very seriously the prohibitions on illegal lobbying and on withholding the truth from the FBI. That’s one of the lessons that former U.S. Rep. Mark Siljander probably learned last month when he pleaded guilty to two federal charges relating to his alleged ties to an Islamic charity claimed to have funded money to international terrorists. When Siljander was indicted in January…
