Constitutional Law › Criminal Law › Communications & Media Law

Can the Government Search Your iPad or iPhone at the Border?

Can the United States search your laptop, camera, iPhone/iPad, or other devices at the border? Read this article on the Fourth Amendment rights and exceptions....more

California Moves One Step Closer to Passing Privacy Bill Requiring a Search Warrant for Providers' Customers' Emails

In a 33-1 vote, on May 13, the state Senate approved Senator Mark Leno's bill that would require state law enforcement officials to obtain a search warrant before asking service providers to disclose the contents of their...more

State of Alabama v. Carlos Edward Kennedy

ORDER REGARDING ELECTRONIC DEVICES AND CONTACT WITH JURORS, POTENTIAL JURORS AND WITNESSES

The trend around the nation is for judges to ban the use of laptops, I-Phones, Blackberries and other electronic devices whether used by reporters or the public to report on the trial. This Order allows their use in the 13th...more

Context, Content And Privacy In Warrantless Searches Of Cell Phone And Cameras

Context and content matters to the assessment of reasonable expectations of privacy in criminal law matters. Recently, in R. v. B. (C.), 2013 CarswellOnt 3851 (SCJ), P. Smith J. considered the constitutionality of a...more

Jackson Walker's VIA Media Postcard - April 2013

In This Issue: - Steve Fogle's Feature: Out of the Blue - A recent unexpected court order restricting the media from reporting on certain details of a high-profile criminal case serves as a reminder that the...more

The First Amendment and Off-Label Promotion: United States v. Caronia

For years, the U.S. Department of Justice has aggressively pursued and brought charges over “off-label promotions”—the promotion of drugs for uses that have not received FDA approval—by pharmaceutical manufacturers and their...more

Court Upholds Executive’s Conviction Stemming from Off-Label Drug Promotion

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has upheld the wire fraud and misbranding convictions and sentence of InterMune Inc. founder W. Scott Harkonen. United States v. Harkonen, No. 11-10209 (9th Cir. March 4, 2013)....more

Two New Developments in First Amendment Challenges to Off-Label Promotion: What's Next?

Following the Second Circuit’s marquee First Amendment ruling in the Caronia case, two recent developments demonstrate a shift in the battleground for First Amendment challenges to the prohibition on off-label promotion under...more

Ninth Circuit Affirms Prosecution for Off-label Marketing

Over the past two years, courts began to recognize that at least some off-label marketing is protected lawful commercial speech under the First Amendment. Specifically, the Second Circuit in New York in a case called United...more

Ninth Circuit Affirms Conviction in Harkonen, Rejects the Defendant’s “Off-Label” First Amendment Challenge

On March 4, 2013, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued its opinion in United States v. Harkonen,1 a case in which the CEO of a pharmaceutical company was prosecuted for transmitting...more

Ninth Circuit Off-Label Marketing Decision Suggests More Prosecutions Will Be Coming

The Ninth Circuit has reopened a door for off-label marketing prosecutions, and it is important to review your compliance and risk management programs in light of this recent decision. Last December, the pharmaceutical and...more

A Charter Right to Search Google?

The Internet has transformed society in so many ways. Even the ways we find information and the sources we rely upon have been fundamentally transformed. It appears our legal systems need to adapt to this new...more

Second Circuit Vacates Pharmaceutical Misbranding Conviction on Free Speech Grounds

After two years of deliberation, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals has finally issued its decision in United States v. Caronia, holding that the government cannot prosecute pharmaceutical manufacturers or their...more

Florida Judge Quashes Subpoena in Political Taping Case

In a criminal case arising from the secret recording of a private conversation, Florida prosecutors issued a subpoena to compel a news reporter to testify in a case against a former aide to Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll. The...more

Second Circuit Declares Off-Label Promotion Ban Unconstitutional: Implications for False Claims Act Defendants

On December 3, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that the First Amendment protects pharmaceutical companies who truthfully promote the lawful, off-label use of prescription drugs from...more

Telling People They Can Use A Drug In A Way Different Than How The FDA Says They Can Use A Drug Is Not A Crime, Says the Second...

Alfred Caronia was a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company. And, despite what you might think by reading some of the literature, being a pharmaceutical sales rep is not a crime. It's even more emphatically not a crime after...more

Second Circuit Vacates Off-Label Promotion Conviction on First Amendment Grounds in U.S. v. Caronia

On December 3, 2012, a panel of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned the November 2009 conviction of Alfred Caronia for conspiracy to introduce a misbranded drug into interstate commerce...more

Off-Label Marketing Questioned as a Viable Criminal Theory – But Stay Tuned

On December 3, 2012, a divided Second Circuit held in United States v. Caronia (“Caronia”) that the misbranding provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (“FDCA”) do not criminalize “the truthful off-label...more

United States v. Caronia: Second Circuit Rules Manufacturers Cannot Be Criminally Prosecuted for Off-Label Promotion of Drugs...

On December 3, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a landmark decision in United States v. Caronia, holding that “the government cannot prosecute pharmaceutical manufacturers and their...more

Second Circuit Rules That Certain Speech Regarding the Off-Label Use of Drugs Is Protected Under the U.S. Constitution

In a long-awaited decision, on December 3, 2012, a divided panel (2–1) of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated the conviction of Alfred Caronia, a former pharmaceutical sales representative for Jazz...more

Short Wins - Off-Label Drug Use And the First Amendment In The Second Circuit; Machine Guns And Grenades In The Eighth Circuit

It's an odd week for wins in the federal appellate courts. The Second Circuit ruled that the First Amendment protects (some kinds of) promotional activity for off-label use of drugs. Any time the First Amendment is...more

Does Misdemeanor Misbranding Survive Caronia?

The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit sent shockwaves through the pharmaceutical industry with its decision in United States v. Caronia. Alfred Caronia was a pharmaceutical sales representative convicted of a...more

Court’s Ruling about Off-Label Drug Promotion Defies Reason

Last week a federal appeals court made a ruling that chips away at a fundamental aspect of the FDA's gatekeeping function with new drugs. The court tossed a conviction of a drug sales representative who was promoting drugs...more

Second Circuit Holds that Criminal Penalties for Pharmaceutical Sales Representative’s Off-Label Promotion Violate the First...

On December 3, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued an opinion that stands to transform the regulatory landscape in which pharmaceutical and medical device companies operate. In recent...more

Second Circuit Holds Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act Does Not Prohibit Off-Label Promotion

In a significant blow to the U.S. government’s enforcement efforts against the pharmaceutical industry, a panel of the Second Circuit overturned the conviction of a pharmaceutical sales representative for conspiracy to...more