Photo Credit: Vidmir Raic, Pixabay.com “On the children’s show Rainbow Rangers, Rosie Redd, her fellow Rangers, and their trusty unicorn sidekick Floof use their superpowers to save Earth from disaster. Our judicial power is slightly less sweeping, but today we use it to save portions of a securities-fraud complaint from erroneous dismissal. Judge Mendoza, In re: Alavi v. Genius Brands International, Inc. Decision Summaries Fourth Circuit United States v. Sanchez-Garcia The Fourth Circuit held that the federal statute criminalizing the reentry of deported non-citizens does not violate the ..read more

Photo Credit: JLGutierrez, Canva.com “Though habeas relief is hard to get, courts must give petitioners a fair shot. Khamal Fooks never got that. In his habeas petition, he alleges that his lawyer had assured him that he would be eligible for parole. But that assurance was false. His allegations, if true, would show that his lawyer’s advice was ineffective. Yet neither the state nor the federal district court gave him a chance to prove those allegations.” ~Judge Bibas, Fooks v. Superintendent Decision Summaries Second Circuit Permanent Mission of the Republic of Seirra Leone to the UN v. H ..read more

Photo Credit: mrod and labsas, Canva.com “Today, the Court does not hedge its doubts in favor of liberty. Instead, it endorses the government’s implicit distribution theory and elevates it over the law’s ordinary and most natural meaning. It is a regrettable choice that requires us to abandon one principle of statutory interpretation after another. We must read words into the law; we must delete others. We must ignore Congress’s use of a construction that tends to avoid, not invite, questions about implicit distribution. We must dismiss Congress’s variations in usage as sloppy mistakes ..read more

Photo Credit: Designer491, Canva.com The State of Florida seeks to bar employers from holding mandatory meetings for their employees if those meetings endorse viewpoints the state finds offensive. But meetings on those same topics are allowed if speakers endorse viewpoints the state agrees with, or at least does not object to. . . Florida may be exactly right about the nature of the ideas it targets. Or it may not. Either way, the merits of these views will be decided in the clanging marketplace of ideas rather than a codebook or a courtroom. . . Intellectual and cultural tumult do not last ..read more

Photo Credit: Canva.com “Howard County’s process for allowing its young students to participate in selecting the student member does not prematurely enfranchise them; rather, it provides a real-life civics lesson about the democratic process aimed at preparing the schoolchildren for when they will qualify to vote in elections held in Maryland.” Judge Quattlebaum, Kim v. Board of Education of Howard County “In recent years, state and local governments have brought state-court lawsuits against energy companies, alleging they misrepresented and concealed information about their fossil fuel p ..read more

Photo Credit: Mariakray, Pixabay.com “Once there has been an acquittal, our cases prohibit any speculation about the reasons for a jury’s verdict—even when there are specific jury findings that provide a factual basis for such speculation. . . We simply cannot know why the jury in McElrath’s case acted as it did, and the Double Jeopardy Clause forbids us to guess.” Justice Jackson, McElrath v. Georgia Decision Summaries Supreme Court of the United States Great Lakes Ins. SE v. Raiders Retreat Realty Co. The Supreme Court unanimously held that choice-of-law provisions in maritime contracts ..read more

Photo Credit: Lukas, Unsplash.com “Rutgers had to decide in real time, on a changing landscape of executive pronouncements and medical judgments, how to sustain its educational mission while protecting the safety of its student body. Students had to choose whether to vaccinate and resume in-person or to decline and proceed masked (for exempt students) or remotely or elsewhere (for non-exempt students). None of these options were ideal, and no doubt they created hardship for many. What we judge today, however, is not the wisdom of any party’s choice but whether the Complaint stated a claim ..read more

Photo Credit: iStrfry, Marcus, Unsplash.com “For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant. But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution.” D.C. Circuit, Per Curium, United States v. Trump Decision Summaries Second Circuit In re: Mexican Government Bonds Antitrust Litigation The Second Circuit vacated the dismissal of the plaintiff investors’ price-fixing claims against Mexican banks that deal in the bond ma ..read more

Photo Credit: Rolf van Root, Unsplash.com At the very least, the duties imposed by Rule 11 require that attorneys read, and thereby confirm the existence and validity of, the legal authorities on which they rely. . . . Attorney Lee states that “it is important to recognize that ChatGPT represents a significant technological advancement,” and argues that “[i]t would be prudent for the court to advise legal professionals to exercise caution when utilizing this new technology.” Indeed, several courts have recently proposed or enacted local rules or orders specifically addressing the use of art ..read more

Photo Credit: Burak The Weekender, Pexels.com “Villarreal and others portray her as a martyr for the sake of journalism. That is inappropriate. She could have followed Texas law, or challenged that law in court, before reporting nonpublic information from the backchannel source. By skirting Texas law, Villarreal revealed information that could have severely emotionally harmed the families of decedents and interfered with ongoing investigations. Mainstream, legitimate media outlets routinely withhold the identity of accident victims or those who committed suicide until public officials or fa ..read more