On January 7, 2022, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina notified the public of proposed amendments to the Local Civil, Criminal, and Admiralty Rules of Practice and Procedure. These...more
The Supreme Court of the United States issued four decisions today: Arizona v. Navajo Nation, No. 21-1484: This case considered the federal government’s obligations related to the Navajo Tribe’s access of the Colorado...more
With four decisions yesterday, the Court has now cut its backlog down to the mid-teens. And with decisions likely today as well, the Court is well on its way to clearing the docket as the term ends....more
No, this does not mean what you may think. I believe the best way to protect animals, is to provide for their humane care by their owners. This position is juxtaposed to those who believe animals should be considered...more
What happens when the Supreme Court changes the interpretation of the law under which a federal inmate was convicted, such that the person would be innocent under that new interpretation?...more
New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen, No. 20-843: This case involves a constitutional challenge to a New York handgun-licensing law. New York makes it a crime to possess a firearm without a license. ...more
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen is the long-awaited New York gun licensing decision that has been hotly debated since its filing. Especially in light of recent school shootings, that debate is likely...more
I’m currently in the wilds of Alaska, learning about the training of sled dogs. Nevertheless, word of the Supreme Court’s five most recent decisions has traveled northward. While none of these decisions is earthshaking, they...more
Marietta Memorial Hospital Employee Health Benefit Plan v. DaVita Inc., No. 20-1641: This case concerns the interpretation of the Medicare Secondary Payer Act’s (MSPA) anti-discrimination provisions regarding individuals with...more
Public Policy Group attorneys Phil Goldberg and Christopher Appel, working with partner Scott Chesin in the firm’s New York office, filed an amicus brief urging the New York high court to reject a writ of habeas corpus that...more
This week, the New York Court of Appeals rejected a bid for writ of habeas corpus from an unusual petitioner: Happy, a 51-year-old, female Asian elephant, currently living in captivity at the Bronx Zoo....more
Boechler, P.C. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, No. 20-1472: This case involves the application of “equitable tolling” in tax “collection due process” cases. This case arose after the IRS sustained a proposed levy on the...more
Kevin George v. McDonough, No. 21-234: This case, involving an agency’s authority to interpret the statutes it regulates, presents the following question: When the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) denies a veteran’s claim...more
The world of Fourth Circuit en banc review has provided much fodder for my postings on this blog (See, e.g., here, here, here, here). On Monday, the Court released another blog-worthy en banc opinion when it affirmed per...more
Court Holds 2009 Amendments to 31 U.S.C. § 3729(a)(1)(B) Apply Retroactively - United States ex rel. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union No. 98 v. The Fairfield Company (July 13, 2021), No. 20-1922...more
As discussed in our recent article, the Virginia General Assembly voted to allow most criminal defendants and civil litigants to have an appeal as of right to the Court of Appeals of Virginia starting on January 1, 2022. This...more
Earlier this year, the Nonhuman Rights Project (“NRP”) filed an appeal to New York’s highest court, arguing for the release of Happy the Elephant from the Bronx Zoo. The basis of NRP’s case, which was rejected by both the...more
In United States v. Kassir, the Second Circuit (Jacobs, Nardini) held that the concurrent sentence doctrine applies to collateral review of criminal convictions. Under the doctrine, a court may decline to consider a...more
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States issued the following decision: Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc., No. 18-956: Petitioner Google LLC developed the Android software platform for smartphone devices, with the...more
Last week, the Supreme Court of California issued a landmark decision finding that both state and federal constitutional law principles require judges to consider whether an arrestee can actually pay an amount fixed for money...more
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States issued the following decision: Mays v. Hines, No. 20-507: A Tennessee jury convicted respondent Anthony Hines of murdering a woman at the motel at which she worked. Decades...more
On March 2, 2021, in a rare en banc decision, United States v. Scott, 18-163-cr, the Second Circuit held in a divided 9-5 opinion that New York first-degree manslaughter is categorically a “violent felony” under the Armed...more
On March 1, 2021 the Second Circuit (Carney, Koetl) issued a decision in Collier v. United States, affirming the district court’s denial of Keith Collier’s habeas petition to vacate his conviction and sentence for an...more
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States issued the following two decisions: Texas v. New Mexico, No. 65, Orig.: The States of New Mexico and Texas are parties to the 1949 Pecos River Compact, which provides for...more
On November 19, 2020, the First Judicial Department, Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Court heard oral argument, remotely, regarding the Nonhuman Rights Project’s (the “Project”) appeal of the dismissal of...more