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Federal Judiciary

Decision of the Day

A daily summary of the best (and worst) of federal appellate decisions.

Post Frequency: 0.6/day

Last Entry: June 27, 2008 at 18:06:28

Coming Soon: The Doors Own Salad Dressing?

Posted on March 25, 2008
Manzarek v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co., 06-55936 (9th Cir., March 25, 2008) I usually stay far, far away from insurance coverage disputes. But here?s an interesting insurance case: does St. Paul have a duty to defend the keyboardist from The Doors for using the band?s trademarks on products sold at his concerts? Manzarek and his [...

Tow Trucks in the News Again

Posted on March 24, 2008
Automobile Club of New York, Inc. v. Dykstra, 06-1872 (2nd Cir., March 24, 2008) This month?s decisions have highlighted an unlikely new chapter for the constitutional law books: the law of towing. A few weeks ago, I wrote about this Ninth Circuit decision in which the Court found that a policeman?s decision to tow a car [...

The Case of the Ecstatic Sewage System

Posted on March 21, 2008
U.S. v. Fiasche, 07-1132 (7th Cir., March 21, 2008) You don?t often find jokes in criminal appeals. But leave it to Judge Evans of the Seventh Circuit to find a way to be cute in this decision affirming the district court?s denial of a motion to suppress...

Ninth Rejects RICO Claims Against Companies Who Hire Illegal Aliens

Posted on March 21, 2008
Canyon County v. Syngenta Seeds, Inc., 06-35112 (9th Cir., March 21, 2008) Here?s an interesting approach to the problem of illegal immigration: an Idaho County is trying to use RICO laws to go after employers who hire illegal laborers. Plaintiff Canyon County claims that four local companies have knowingly employed and harbored illegal aliens, and their [...

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Kozinski Proves Once and For All That Blawgs Are Cool

Posted on March 20, 2008
New Hampshire Insurance Co. v. C?Est Moi, Inc., 06-55031 (9th Cir., March 20, 2008) Here?s the opening line from one of today?s Ninth Circuit decisions, authored by Chief Judge Kozinski: We consider the doctrine that?s on everyone?s lips: uberrimae fidei...

Two Significant En Banc Rehearings

Posted on March 18, 2008
Moore v. Quarterman, 05-70038 (5th Cir., March 14, 2008) Fisher v. City of San Jose, 04-16095 (9th Cir., March 14, 2008) The circuits don?t seem to be doing anything interesting today. That?s probably just as well, since all eyes are fixed on Washington for oral argument in the Supreme Court?s groundbreaking Second Amendment case...

Best Case Name Ever

Posted on March 17, 2008
Asset forfeitures are known as “in rem” actions, meaning that the government is proceeding against a thing, not the owner of the thing. So the “defendant” in an asset forfeiture action is the thing being forfeited. This legal conceit always results in interesting case names, such as “U...

Seventh Circuit Refuses to Hold Craigslist Liable for Housing Discrimination

Posted on March 14, 2008
Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights v. Craigslist, 07-1101 (7th Cir., March 14, 2008) In a decision that will interest online content providers, the Seventh Circuit has rejected efforts to hold Craigslist liable for discriminatory housing ads...

En Banc Ninth Refuses to Reconsider Vote Swapping Case

Posted on March 13, 2008
Porter v. Bowen, 06-55517 (9th Cir., March 13, 2008) In a fascinating decision issued last August, a panel of the Ninth Circuit declared that voters have a First Amendment right to enter into vote-swapping agreements. From my earlier coverage: The case arises from various vote swapping websites which sprang up during the 2000 election...

The Bible Shall Set You Free

Posted on March 12, 2008
U.S. v. Lara-Ramirez, 06-2108 (1st Cir., Mar. 11, 2008) I?ve written a few times before about death row inmates who have tried to avoid execution based on the fact that the jury used a Bible during deliberations. That argument did not fly in the Fourth or Ninth Circuits, but a First Circuit panel has just set free [...

En Banc Eighth Limits Georgia v. Randolph

Posted on March 11, 2008
U.S. v. Hudspeth, 05-3316 (8th Cir., March 11, 2008) The en banc Eighth Circuit has just reversed a panel holding in an interesting Fourth Amendment consent case. From my earlier coverage: This Eighth Circuit appeal addresses whether a wife?s consent allowed police to search her husband?s computer after the defendant, then in custody, had refused consent...

A Due Process Right Not To Be Towed

Posted on March 11, 2008
Clement v. City of Glendale, 05-56692 (9th Cir., March 11, 2008) Anyone who has ever had a run-in with the law over vehicle registration - and I?m sure there are plenty of you - will appreciate this decision from the Ninth Circuit. Plaintiff Mary Clement let her car registration expire and instead filed a certificate of [...

Circuit Split: Ambiguous Waivers of Miranda Rights

Posted on March 10, 2008
U.S. v. Rodriguez, 07-10217 (9th Cir., Mar. 10, 2008) I?ve written a couple of times about a crazy California state court decision which held that “I plead the Fifth” is not a clear invocation of a suspect?s Fifth Amendment right to silence...

Eighth Tosses Most Deep Pockets from Blogging Sex Scandal Suit

Posted on March 06, 2008
Steinbuch v. Cutler, 07-1509 (8th Cir., March 6, 2008) Once upon a time, Jessica Cutler was one of the biggest names in the blogging world. An intern to a Republican Senator by day, Cutler spent her nights engaged in all manner of sexual escapades - sometimes for money - with some of the dullest men in [...

It?s Gettin? Hard Out Here for an Expert Witness . . .

Posted on March 05, 2008
Pace v. Swerdlow, 06-4157 (10th Cir., Mar. 4, 2008) . . . When he tryin? to get his money for the rent. When the Cadillac and gas money?s spent, You?ll have a whole lot of clients jumpin? ship. Last week I wrote about an expert witness who got put out of business by the Seventh Circuit for being too [...

Suicidal Maniacs and the Fourth Amendment

Posted on March 04, 2008
Mora v. City of Gaithersburg, 06-2158 (4th Cir., Mar. 4, 2008) Today, a panel of the Fourth Circuit issued an interesting decision rejecting the constitutional claims of plaintiff Anthony Mora, who alleges that police violated his rights by searching his home and seizing his weapons following Mora?s call to a suicide hotline...

Ninth Divides Over the Validity of the Smell Test

Posted on March 04, 2008
U.S. v. Jenkins, 06-50049 (9th Cir., Mar. 4, 2008) Last July, a divided panel of the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court decision to dismiss additional criminal charges filed against a defendant who was already on trial on the ground that the new charges reeked of prosecutorial vindictiveness...

Litigious Softball Parents Get Beaned by the Seventh

Posted on February 29, 2008
Springer v. Durflinger, 06-2168 (7th Cir., Feb. 29, 2008) I often criticize the Seventh Circuit for being harsh with its sanction power. But here?s one case where sanctions may well be deserved: two sets of parents who made a federal civil rights case out of their disagreement with a high school softball coach...

A Remarkable Death Row Habeas Decision from the Sixth

Posted on February 27, 2008
Bies v. Bagley, 06-3471 (6th Cir., Feb. 26, 2008) In a surprising decision, a panel of the Sixth Circuit has held that Double Jeopardy bars a state from relitigating the issue of a death row inmate?s mental retardation. Petitioner Michael Bies is sitting on death row for the kidnapping, attempted rape, and murder of a ten [...

Do Federal Circuit Judges Really Watch South Park?

Posted on February 26, 2008
Baird v. Department of the Army, 2007-3046 (Fed. Cir., Feb. 26, 2008) As Mr. Mackey from South Park would say, “drugs are bad, mmmkay?” It?s not every day that you see a South Park reference in a judicial opinion. And a one-liner in a Federal Circuit decision is even less common...

Circuit Split: Protecting Police under the Public Safety Exception to Miranda

Posted on February 25, 2008
U.S. v. Liddell, 07-1337 (8th Cir., Feb. 25, 2008) Under Miranda, suspects who are questioned while in custody must be advised of their constitutional rights, or their subsequent statements are not admissible. In New York v. Quarles, the Supreme Court carved out a limited exception for threats to public safety...

Three Second Circuit Victories for Agent Orange Manufacturers

Posted on February 22, 2008
Isaacson v. Dow Chemical Company, 05-1820 (2nd Cir., Feb. 22, 2008) Twinam v. Dow Chemical Company, 05-1760 (2nd Cir., Feb. 22, 2008) Vietnamese Association for Victims of Agent Orange v. Dow Chemical Company, 05-1953 (2nd Cir., Feb. 22, 2008) Today, the same panel of the Second Circuit issued decisions in three different appeals involving litigation over Agent Orange, [...

At Least He Was Recycling

Posted on February 20, 2008
U.S. v. Drennon, 06-3399 (3rd Cir., Feb. 20, 2008) From a Third Circuit decision issued today: Drennon robbed Bensalem Bank on October 17, 2005, passing the teller a handwritten note made out on the back of a pay stub bearing his name. He was arrested shortly thereafter...

Fourth Amendment Rights for a Storage Locker Squatter

Posted on February 20, 2008
U.S. v. Murphy, 06-30582 (9th Cir., Feb. 20, 2008) Does a meth manufacturer who is squatting in a storage facility have the same Fourth Amendment rights as a person who is living in a house? That?s the issue that faces a panel of the Ninth Circuit in this criminal decision...

The Seventh is on the Warpath Today . . .

Posted on February 20, 2008
Ridge Chrysler v. Daimler Chrysler, 06-4140 (7th Cir., Feb. 20, 2008) Fresh on the heels of this Posner decision comes an equally vitriolic Easterbrook decision. The plaintiffs are Chrysler dealers who sued after Chrysler tried to exercise a contract provision that would require them to pay for their inventory up front, which would have effectively ended [...

Seventh Trashes Prominent Finance Professor

Posted on February 20, 2008
Emerald Investments Limited Partnership v. Allmerica Life Insurance, 07-1597 (7th Cir., Feb. 20, 2008) The Seventh Circuit is well-known for trashing the reputation of lawyers who have the temerity to make the same minor technical errors that most other attorneys get away with on a daily basis...

This One?s For the Birds

Posted on February 19, 2008
American Bird Conservancy v. FCC, 06-1165 (D.C. Cir., Feb 19, 2008) In a significant environmental ruling, a divided panel of the D.C. Circuit has held that the Federal Communications Commission needs to pay more attention to the impact of communications towers on bird populations in the Gulf Coast...

Interesting Wiretap Decision from the Tenth

Posted on February 19, 2008
U.S. v. Verdin-Garcia, 06-3354 (10th Cir., Feb. 19, 2008) Fans of the HBO series The Wire will appreciate this Tenth Circuit criminal appeal, which involves a massive drug conspiracy that the government pieced together using 3000 wiretapped calls over a three-month period...

En Banc Ninth Addresses Whether ?I Plead the Fifth? Is Ambiguous

Posted on February 15, 2008
Anderson v. Terhune, 04-17237 (9th Cir., Feb. 15, 2008) A little over a year ago, I wrote about a startling habeas decision from the Ninth Circuit involving a defendant?s assertion of his Fifth Amendment right to silence. Under Miranda and its progeny, when a suspect asserts his Fifth Amendment right to silence during custodial interrogation, all [...

Would You Like Your Terror in a Cone or a Cup?

Posted on February 14, 2008
U.S. v. Elfgeeh, 06-0638 (2nd Cir., Feb. 14, 2008) Today?s Second Circuit decisions bring us the story of Aref Elfgeeh, a Yemeni immigrant who used his Park Slope ice cream parlor as a front to illegally funnel more than $20 million to the Middle East...

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