News

In a case that could have easily sprung from the wild imagination of law school hypotheticals, the Fifth Circuit holds that hitching a ride across the border in a car with 283 pounds of marijuana, is not, strictly speaking, possessing marijuana. The two men could really have been hitchhikers.…

Yesterday, the Supreme Court rejected the government’s broad reading of aggravated identity theft under 18 U.S.C. § 1028(a)(1), which requires a two-year mandatory add-on sentence. See Dubin v. United States, No. 22-10 (…

In 1993, an Arkansas woman is brutally murdered in her apartment while her two young children watch from a closet. A man is convicted, twice sentenced to death due to a reversal. In the days before his scheduled execution, he…

Eleven years ago this month, the Supeme Court held that mandatory life-without parole sentences for all children 17 or younger was unconstitutional. See Miller v. Albama, 567 U.S. 460 (2012). Today, the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth reports that "1,000 individuals who were sentenced…

Washington, D.C., police officer's son after a judge vacated his death sentence and three firearms convictions (…

Two former governors of Alabama from opposite sides of the political aisle published an opinion piece in The Washington Post calling for the state to put an end to executing people who were…

Civil rights lawyer Nancy Abudu has been confirmed to the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, where she will be the first Black woman to sit on the Atlanta-based court (…

Civil rights lawyer Nancy Abudu has been confirmed to the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, where she will be the first Black woman to sit on the Atlanta-based court (…

The Supreme Court will take up yet another dispute involving the oft-litigated Armed Career Criminal Act, this time in relation to frequently changing federal drug laws.

The law at issue in the pair of cases granted Monday imposes a mandatory 15-year minimum for certain firearms offenses…

A San Antonio man, during a traffic stop outside his mother's house, throws his jacket onto a garbage can on her property. Police grab the jacket and find a gun inside. Felon in possession? Suppress the evidence? District court: No suppression Fifth Circuit: Suppression. Tossing an item onto…