Appeals

Federal district courts near the southwest border are bracing for a potential increase in cases, as the Trump administration pledges to prioritize immigration enforcement over other criminal matters (view full article).

Chief judges of trial courts in southern Texas and California said preparations include working to ensure they have space available to process more defendants and interpreters on-call and closely monitoring border numbers.

President Donald Trump on Monday named his one-time defense attorney and current White House counselor Alina Habba to be the interim top federal prosecutor in the District of New Jersey (view full article). 

Habba, who turns 41 Tuesday, takes over the interim post from John Giordano, whom was sworn in as New Jersey’s interim U.S. attorney earlier this month. 

In state court news, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has elected to use its "extraordinary superintendence powers" and hold that about 27,000 defendants who pleaded guilty to DUI from 2011 to 2019 are entitled to a conclusive presumption of "egregious government misconduct" and to the suppression of the breathalyzer results if they seek to withdraw their plea—thanks to an investigation that uncovered "a history of intentional withho

The Alabama Constitution of 1901 was enacted with the specific purpose of establishing white supremacy. To accomplish this goal, the 1901 constitution, among other things, contained a provision disenfranchising anyone convicted of a crime of moral turpitude. After the Supreme Court held that provision unconstitutional in 1985, the state enacted a new constitutional amendment that disenfranchised only those who committed felonies involving moral turpitude. So we're good now? Eleventh Circuit: Yeah, this is fine.

It's generally a crime to possess a machinegun. If you affix a "bump stock" to a semiautomatic rifle, it functions essentially like a machinegun. So, do you now have a "machinegun"? ATF: yes. District court: yes. Sixth Circuit (en banc) (2021): We are evenly split and cannot decide. What do you want us to do? Sixth Circuit (three-judge panel, 2023): Um, since our full court can't decide this, and a bunch of other judges are all over the place, and the same question is before us yet again, let's just go with the rule of lenity. Not a machinegun.

Indiana’s Sex Offender Registration Act’s provision requires those who are registered out of the state to also register in-state. People affected: this law violates the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on ex post facto laws, our right to travel under its privileges and immunities clause, and right to equal treatment under the equal protection clause. Seventh Circuit (2021, en banc): Indiana's sex-offender registration law does not violate the right to travel. Neither does it violate the Ex Post Facto Clause.

If you're a criminal defense lawyer and your drug-smuggling client "sent around $90,000 to an attorney in Jamaica, who then wired it to a realtor in New York City, who then sent it to a Ugandan diplomat . . . , who wired the money" to you to send to the mother of his child, you just might be conspiring to launder money. So found a Baltimore jury. Attorney: this is a silly legal theory.

Twenty-year-old Ohio man runs an online chat roomwhere he urges others to help him create a militia group and revolt against tyranny. The group is infiltrated by FBI informants, and the man is eventually arrested and convicted of attempted kidnapping based on a scheme to lure a police officer to a secluded area and rough him up to gain notoriety and new members.

Harahan, La. police captain is written up for numerous infractions including false statements and conduct unbecoming, and the district attorney places the captain on the "Giglio list" of liars and bad cops, an averred death knell for his career. Cop: I need to appeal so I can get off the Giglio list but the DA gives me no process, violating my Fourteenth Amendment right to due process. District court: Agreed. The cop's claim can proceed because cop has an interest in working his occupation and being on the list jeopardizes that. Fifth Circuit: Working an occupation? How is that a liberty?

Hammond, La. cop who also works on a DEA task force is convicted of stealing money and property from arrestees and sentenced to over two years in prison. But wait! One of the jurors failed to disclose that he knew the officer's wife: They went to a high school dance together and kept in touch on social media. Fifth Circuit: Possibly this calls for a new trial. The district court should hold an evidentiary hearing.