The U.S. Supreme Court decided three cases on Thursday, one of them on the main sequence of the practices of most of the readers of this blog and the others worth knowing about, both as lawyers and as citizens....more
Borden v. United States, No. 19-5410: Under the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”), persons found guilty of illegally possessing a gun who have three or more prior convictions for a “violent felony” are subject to a mandatory...more
This morning, the Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari in the following cases: California v. Texas, No. 19-840; Texas v. California, No. 19-1019: A petition for a writ of certiorari and conditional...more
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States issued the following three opinions: Intel Corp. Investment Policy Comm. v. Sulyma, No. 18-1116: The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) demands that...more
On September 3, 2019, a divided panel issued a decision in United States v. Wallace (Winter, Pooler, Abrams, by designation) affirming the district court’s denial of Wallace’s suppression motion as well as Wallace’s 15-year...more
In United States v. Barrett, No. 14-2541 (2d Cir. Aug. 30, 2019) (Winter, Raggi, Droney), the Second Circuit vacated a defendant’s conviction for using a firearm in connection with a “crime of violence” under 18 U.S.C. §...more
The Supreme Court of the United States issued three decisions this morning: Return Mail, Inc. v. Postal Service, No. 17-1594: The Patent Trial and Appeal Board was created by Congress in the Leahy-Smith America Invents...more
On April 26, 2019, the Second Circuit issued another decision in Shabazz v. United States (Katzmann, Leval, Berman by designation) and denied Al-Malik Shabazz’s request for rehearing in connection with the Court’s January 4,...more
On January 31, 2019, the Second Circuit issued a per curiam decision in United States v. Thrower (Wesley, Chin, and Cote, by designation) reversing a 2017 judgment from the Eastern District of New York that reduced the...more
In Shabazz v. United States, the Second Circuit (Katzmann, Leval, Berman by designation) again addressed the meaning of “violent felony” under the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”), this time under its “force clause.” As...more
The Supreme Court of the United States issued the following decision today: United States v. Stitt, No. 17-765; United States v. Sims, No. 17-766: Respondents in these two consolidated cases were both convicted in federal...more
In United States v. Pereira-Gomez, a panel of the Second Circuit (Cabranes, Carney, Caproni, D.J.) issued an opinion analyzing whether attempted robbery under New York law qualifies as a “crime of violence” for enhancement...more
In Villanueva v. United States, the Second Circuit held by a 2-1 vote (Newman and Leval, with Pooler dissenting) that a conviction for first degree assault under Connecticut law qualifies as a violent felony under the Armed...more
On July 11, 2018, the Court of Appeals issued a short per curiam opinion (Wesley, Chin, Furman D.J. by designation) in Massey v. United States, affirming the sentence imposed on an individual who was convicted of possession...more
Over a year and a half after issuing its initial decision in United States v. Hill, 14-3872-cr (August 3, 2016), the Court amended its decision on May 9, 2018. The amended decision maintains the Court’s holding that a Hobbs...more
In United States v. Bordeaux, 17-486-cr (Cabranes, Raggi, Vilardo), the Second Circuit held that the defendant’s three prior Connecticut state convictions for first-degree robbery—all of which took place during a single...more
In a unanimous (7-0) decision, Beckles v. the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court held on Monday that defendants cannot challenge the sentencing guidelines on vagueness grounds because the guidelines, unlike statutes, are...more
The Supreme Court of the United States issued decisions in three cases today: McDonnell v. United States, No. 15-474: Former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell and his wife, Maureen McDonnell, were federally indicted...more
The Supreme Court of the United States issued decisions in five cases on June 23, 2016: Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, No. 14-981: Petitioner Abigail Fisher applied for admission to the University of Texas at...more
The Supreme Court of the United States issued one decision on April 18, 2016: - Welch v. United States, No. 15-6418: Last term, the Supreme Court, in Johnson v. United States, 576 U.S. __ (2015), held that the residual...more