News

Since AEDPA was passed in 1996, it’s become harder and harder for habeas petitioners to win even the most glaring of constitutional violations. See Stephen R. Reinhardt, The Demise of Habeas Corpus and the Rise of Qualified Immunity: The Court's Ever Increasing Limitations on the…

Today, commonsense won the argument in Parrish v. United States, No. 24-275 (June 12, 2025), holding that a civil litigant who files a notice of appeal after the original appeal deadline but…

Brad Bondi, the brother of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, has lost his bid to lead Washington's attorney bar association after an unusually closely-watched election that drew record turnout from the U.S. capital's 120,000 lawyers.…

And in en banc news, the D.C. Circuit will not reconsider its…

Los Angeles sheriff's deputy Trevor Kirk is convicted of a federal felony for using excessive force by a jury, but the new administration petitions the court to reduce his offense to a misdemeanor. It does, and the officer is sentenced to…

Perpetrators of cryptocurrency theft and extortion are convicted and ordered to pay $83,000 restitution. Oops! The gov't requested restitution for the victims in amounts equal to the value of the crypto when it was stolen, not its much-higher value at the time of sentencing. District…

Navy investigators get a warrant to seize—and only seize—a sailor's phone. They search it anyway and find the bad things, but the district court suppresses the evidence. On appeal, the prosecution pleads "good faith" reliance on a defective warrant.…

Allegation: Grand Rapids, Mich. police are on the lookout for an adult white woman with a ponytail who is suspected in a stabbing. They surround and draw their guns on an 11-year-old Black girl with no ponytail, whom they handcuff and place in a squad car while she screams and cries.…

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Case v. Montana, No. 24-625 (June 2, 2025) (cert. granted), to decide “whether law enforcement may enter a home without a search warrant based on less than probable cause that an emergency is…

A Schrödinger’s motion that has vexed habeas practitioners: How long must a case gather dust in state court before I can seek federal habeas? Well, an Indiana man convicted of murder files a petition for post-conviction relief in state court, which proceeds to do absolutely nothing with the…