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Appellate Law and Practice 

Daily summaries of appellate cases from federal circuit courts of appeal. On the weekends, the blog provides appellate practice tips and book reviews.
Post Frequency: 1.8/day Last Entry: December 10, 2008 at 16:15:09 Recent Entries: 612
Go to Appellate Law and Practice, find other Appellate Law blogs, or browse all law blogs.
More Odds and Ends
Posted on March 10, 2008Because of a lack of cases this weekend, and a big queue of unpublished odds and ends, I give you these things. Because it is a holiday in some country, there will be no jokes about tort reform this week....
CA1: age discrimination
Posted on March 07, 2008Torrech-Hernandez v. General Electric Co. No. 07-1341 affirms a grant of summary judgment in an age discrimination case in favor of the defendant. I will get to this later.
CA1: waived arguments on contempt and bail
Posted on March 07, 2008U.S. v. Henry, Nos. 06-1298, 06-1299. This case was originally the subject of an Anders brief. But, new counsel carried the ball. The defendant was originally released on bail, subject to a ?don?t commit any crimes? requirement. He was soon-after...
CA1: sentencing, and car protective sweeps
Posted on March 07, 2008US v. Diaz, No. 06-2378. The court affirms the denial of a motion to suppress evidence obtained in a ?protective sweep? of a car after the defendant was cuffed. The District Court comes up with this silly rationale, such a...
CA1: an international custody battle, with a 14th amendment argument
Posted on March 07, 2008Kufner v. Kufner, No. 07-1523 affirms the District Court?s grant of a petition under the ?Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, Oct. 25, 1980, 19 I.L.M. 1501 [hereinafter Hague Convention], as implemented by the International Child...
CA1: safety burden on defendant under Maine Human Rights Act
Posted on March 07, 2008Warren v. United Parcel Service, No. 07-2197 affirms a jury verdict in a Maine Human Rights Act ("MHRA") case, in which an epileptic employee claimed that he was discriminated against. UPS argued that the ?safety? exception wasn?t properly explained to...
Best comments
Posted on March 05, 2008Yesterday I promised that I would be providing some odds and ends, and I even suggested that I might make a snarky remark about Ted Frank?s spreadsheet. I have to admit that I was having a hard time saying something...
Programming note 2.0
Posted on March 04, 2008In the past week I have been somewhat remiss in my duties to you ? the reader. This is because I have been doing very important things in a very professional matter. So, rest assured, during the coming week not...
CA1: prior inconsistent statements admissible, but error harmless
Posted on March 04, 2008US v. Pridgen, No. 06-2595 (2/29/08). The First holds that yes, it was error to refuse to admit the prior inconsistent statements of a government witness. This was the District Court?s grounds: 1) ?That?s not how you get a prior...
Odds and Ends Part I
Posted on March 04, 2008In an effort to catch up on all the odds and ends, I will divide them into manageable chunks of lawful goodness. Another Twist to the ?Law of the Circuit? Rule. The 9th Circuit, in Bradley v. Henry (9th Cir....
CA1: voluntary guilty pleas, collateral consequences, and young people in jail
Posted on March 03, 2008US v. Ward, No. 06-2354 (2/29/08). The clerk who wrote it explains the plight of a typical poor defendant. He even admits that some people go to ?worse? schools than others, and seems to be sympathetic to his failed attempts...
CA1: En banc rehearing denied in Cerqueira ? so the First really does like racial profiling
Posted on March 03, 2008Over the dissent of Torruella, the First denies a petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc in Cerqueira v. American Airlines (our coverage here), which held that the airlines can?t be sued for kicking someone with a Stanford education off...
Cultural anthropology 101 for lawyers
Posted on February 27, 2008I have often been criticized for being isolated from non-lawyers. After all, like most of my readers, since non-lawyers have very little contact with non-lawyers, we simply don?t know much about their simple, yet ancient and beautiful culture. It seems...
CA6: Sixth Circuit turns habeas preclusion against the state
Posted on February 27, 2008DotD points to a decision from the 6th Circuit which holds that if the state courts, pre-Atkin concluded that someone was retarded to be killed by the state but nevertheless could be killed by the state, post-Atkins, the state can?t...
GA: Jefferson contempt coverage reversed
Posted on February 26, 2008Detail-oriented real lawyers (i.e. our fans) will recall our coverage of Sherri Jefferson. (Even more of our coverage here.) Well, A Public Defender tells us that the contempt conviction of public defender, Sherri Jefferson was reversed by the George Supreme...
CA1: BOP?s regulations denying placement in halfway houses valid
Posted on February 26, 2008Muniz v. Sabol, Nos. 06-2692, 06-2693. The First Circuit holds that ?the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) may, through rulemaking, deny placement in a community corrections center (CCC) Footnote to all prisoners during the first ninety percent of their sentences...
CA1: Laches in an IDEA case
Posted on February 26, 2008School Union No. 37 v. Ms. C., No. 06-2261. In yet another IDEA case, the school District wins. This time the school district claims that the administrative decision requiring the school to pay for the private schooling of someone that...
CA1: School District wins IEP fight
Posted on February 25, 2008Lessard v. Wilton-Lyndeborough, No. 07-1860. Selya does an Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 20 U.S.C. §§ 1400-1491 (2000) case, and the parents lose. This essentially comes down to an (Individualized Eduation Plan) IEP fight. Selya seems to envision the...
CA1: Why do District Courts screw up 41(g) motions?
Posted on February 25, 2008US v. Cardona-Sandoval, No. 07-1748. This is a return of property appeal under Fed.R.Crim.P. 41(g). The District Courts seem to be screwing these things up quite a bit. See United States v. Cardona-Sandoval, No. 05-1022 (1st Cir. Mar. 17, 2006)...
Hillary represented someone
Posted on February 25, 2008Sexcrime Defender points to an interesting account of Senator Clinton?s representation of a defendants in criminal matters. She really seems to have done it all: 1) aggressively represented defendants in front of courts that were hostile to both her and...
CA1: cert. in Carcieri v. Kempthorne
Posted on February 25, 2008SCOTUSblog says that Supremes grant cert. in Carcieri v. Kempthorne (our coverage -- 1330 words of it -- is here). Gladys Kravitz says this is all about the casinos.
Miller Test Google Poker
Posted on February 24, 2008Dear S.Cotus: What game can I play at work with Google and an understanding of constitutional law? Hugs and Kisses, Professor Twoyearsbehindthetimesbutstillblogs. Dear Professor, Have I got a game for you. It is called Miller Test Google Poker. Agree amongst...
Torruella?s dissent
Posted on February 23, 2008In light of Judge Torruella?s disagreement about the Court?s decision to rehear US v. Vega-Santiago, 06-1558 en banc (our coverage here), I think the part of his dissent dealing with rehearing en banc procedures needs to be analyzed for it...
CA1: selective prosecution
Posted on February 22, 2008There was one other opinion from the First today, on selective prosecution. Since Selya wrote it, and the defendant was a black Muslim, there isn?t much to learn from it. I wrote something about it, but the post was eaten....
On the subtle beauty of coerced confessions
Posted on February 22, 2008Orin Kerr points to an article by Charles Weisselberg entitled ?Mourning Miranda.? It describes the ways in which society is protected by getting poor people to confess to things. And believe me, you can make a poor person say anything....
CA1: Cops not entitled to qualified immunity for failed drug bust and massive waivers
Posted on February 22, 2008DeMayo v. MA State Police, No. 07-1623 reverses a grant of summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity (and a denial of a for judgment motion on the pleadings) in a Bivens action. The individual cop (along with other...
Crack retroactivity ? Puerto Rican style
Posted on February 22, 2008PRACDL posts the District of Puerto Rico?s administrative order dealing with the implementation of the Crack Retroactivity Guideline in the District of Puerto Rico.
CA1: en banc court holds that 32(h) notice at sentencing is required sometimes based on vague yet easy-to-understand standard
Posted on February 21, 2008US v. Vega-Santiago, 06-1558 (en banc). Panel Decision here. Our coverage here. The First granted rehearing to determine whether ?the district judge must provide "notice" to litigants before imposing a sentence outside the guideline range--a requirement that the panel found...
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Standards of Practice in Civil Protection Order Cases
The American Bar Association has recently published its new Standa...
WHAT'S THE POOP WITH THE APPELLATE TERM?
In 565 Tenant’s Corp. v. Adams, a cooperative shareholder fa...
My fiance's check is DD into a local credit union. Bank seems to have a pattern of "invisibly holding" charges from the debit card until just HOURS before his DD is processed (and this is after hours, of course). Over th
Have your fiance take the information you've collected and go into the bank...
I am being accused of hitting a 7 yr old child with my car, but I honestly don't think I hit the child. The Child was never knocked down, ran around my car to go back to ball practice, and was walking around with the par
You are in a serious situation. Get a lawyer immediately. Make no statements to ...

My fiance's check is DD into a local credit union. Bank seems to have a pattern of "invisibly holding" charges from the debit card until just HOURS before his DD is processed (and this is after hours, of course). Over th
Have your fiance take the information you've collected and go into the bank...
I am being accused of hitting a 7 yr old child with my car, but I honestly don't think I hit the child. The Child was never knocked down, ran around my car to go back to ball practice, and was walking around with the par
You are in a serious situation. Get a lawyer immediately. Make no statements to ...








