APPELLATE LEGAL NEWS

Appellate Law & Practice Updated : Giving it up. I am going to be discontinuing my participation in this blog in the next week or so. If you want someone to blame, blame 1) non-lawyers; 2) furries; and 3) the victims rights/tort reform industry. CA1: It’s official. Everything is mail fraud. US v. Hebshie, 07-2339 (12/4/08). This is a federal arson case. As you know, the framers of the constitution really envisioned the federal government prosecuting insurance fraud (or, as they say, “mail fraud”). The first says that pretty much any... CA1: Drinking and driving isn’t accepting responsibility U.S. v. Jordan, No. 08-1432 (12/5/08). The defendant committed some criminal acts while out on bail – namely drinking and driving. At sentencing, the District Court denied an offense level reduction under § 3E1.1 based on his putative acceptance of... CA1: proper punishment for a stalker that refused to retain a lawyer before not paying taxes USA v. Steirhoff, 08-1183. Selya tries to be dramatic. He says “The tale of how the stalker became the stalked follows.” Anyway, the defendant seems like a bad guy because he talked to the police without a lawyer. And he... CA1: surprise! creating false invoices to defraud Uncle Sam is corrupt U.S. v. Marek, No. 07-2437 (11/26/08). This is sort of interesting. There was an audit by the IRS. The defendants appeared to participate in the audit in good faith. Problem was that they went so far as to procure back-dated... Can you say this without giggling? Second, the Commission concluded that the broadcast of Jackson’s exposed breast was shocking and pandering. At least eight government attorneys can, and they put it on p. 8 of the petition for cert. in the Janet Jackson case. Taft: Video A video about President Taft can be found here. CA1: data-mined prescription information not protected speech IMS Health, Inc. v. Ayotte, No. 07-1945. This is a big case. Essentially pharmaceutical salespeople were using doctors prescription histories (in databases) to generate sales leads and shape their sales pitches. Then, New Hampshire said that was a bad idea...