Case Summaries
Criminal Law & Procedure
Family Law
Criminal Law & Procedure
[08/19]
US v. Bonin
In a case involving an individual previously arrested for making threats to country music singer George Strait and later for threats to a magistrate judge, an order committing defendant to the custody of the Attorney General pursuant to a dangerousness determination is vacated and remanded where the determination contravened the requisite statutory procedure.
[08/19]
US v. Duhon
On remand from the Supreme Court, sentence of probation for possessing child pornography is affirmed over the government's objections that: 1) the district court's failure to apply enhancements requested by the government was reversible error; 2) consideration of the disparity between defendant's and co-defendant's sentences was plain error; 3) the sentencing guidelines precluded sentencing defendant to probation; and 4) the sentence was substantively unreasonable.
[08/19]
US v. Soto
Conviction for aiding and abetting the making of false statements to a federal firearms licensee is affirmed over objections that: 1) the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction; 2) the question of whether the forms filled out by the alleged principal as required by the licensee, on which she had allegedly lied, were statutorily-required records was a jury question; and 3) even if the record-keeping question was a question of law, the forms in question were not required records.
[08/19]
US v. Carter
Sentence for tax fraud, money laundering, and engaging in illicit monetary transactions is affirmed over the government's objections as to: 1) findings based on defendant's age that she was unlikely to commit future crimes; 2) a finding that defendant's offenses were not typical money-laundering offenses; and 3) several other mitigating circumstances found pursuant to consideration of the 18 U.S.C. section 3553(a) factors.
[08/19]
US v. Clark
Amended judgment correcting a sentence for possessing and conspiring to possess cocaine with intent to distribute is affirmed where: 1) a mandatory minimum sentence was statutorily required, and the sentencing court was required to invoke Fed. R. Crim. P. 35(a) to correct its initial imposition of a lesser sentence; and 2) judge-found facts based on a preponderance of the evidence standard were sufficient to determine the drug quantity.
[08/19]
US v. Henry
Denial of defendants' motions to dismiss their indictment related to marijuana growing is reversed, and their convictions and sentences vacated and remanded where the continuance of trial for 103 days could not be excluded from defendant's speedy trial clock, which caused the total delay in defendant's case to exceed the seventy days allowed by the Speedy Trial Act.
[08/19]
US v. Vega-Castillo
Sentence of 70 months for reentering the United States illegally after having been deported or removed is affirmed over claims of error that prior precedent, which "does not require the district court to depart based on the availability of the [fast-track] departure", was overruled by Kimbrough.
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Family Law
[08/14]
Lemons v. Bradbury
In an action brought by voters who signed a referendum, which sought a statewide vote on a legislative act establishing same-sex domestic partnerships, challenging the Oregon Secretary of State's procedures for verifying referendum petition signatures, denial of permanent injunctive relief for plaintiffs is affirmed where the Secretary's procedures for verifying sampled referendum petition signatures did not violate plaintiffs' equal protection and due process rights.
[08/12]
Choin v. Mukasey
Russian native's petition for review of a decision denying her application for adjustment of status and ordering her removed is granted where: 1) the BIA erroneously interpreted the "as a result of the marriage of the nonimmigrant" language in INA section 245(d); 2) the plain language of section 245 is ambiguous; 3) nothing in the plain language of section 245(d) suggests that an application that was valid when submitted should be automatically invalid when a petitioner's marriage ends by divorce two years later; and 4) the statute also does not require the automatic removal of immigrants whose marriages end in divorce while their applications for adjustment of status are under agency consideration.
[08/11]
Vale v. Avila
Grant of father's petition to return his children to Venezuela under the International Child Abduction Remedies Act is affirmed where the childrens' place of habitual residence was properly determined to be Venezuela, and the custody rights held by father under Venezuelan law were violated by mother's removal of the children to the US.
[08/08]
Jonathan L. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County
In a dependency proceeding involving the legality of, and restraints upon, home schooling in California, denial of motion requiring children to attend public or traditional private school is vacated and remanded where: 1) California statutes permit home schooling as a species of private school education; and 2) the statutory permission to home school may constitutionally be overridden in order to protect the safety of a child who has been declared dependent. (Opinion on rehearing)
[08/07]
In re Esperanza
Orders denying petitions for modification under Welfare and Institutions Code section 388 and order terminating parental rights under section 366.26 are reversed where the juvenile court has jurisdiction to review the social services agency's denial of a criminal records exemption for abuse of discretion.
[08/06]
US v. Flores-Villar
The circuit court rejects challenges under the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment's due process clause on the basis of age and gender to two former sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which impose a five-year residence requirement, after the age of fourteen, on U.S. citizen fathers, but not on U.S. citizen mothers, before they may transmit citizenship to a child born out of wedlock abroad to a non-citizen.
[08/04]
Stanley v. Stanley
In a divorce case, modification of a stipulated property division order is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) the trial court properly considered the parties' changed circumstances in deciding to reopen and revise the property division order; but 2) under federal law, husband's Social Security disability benefits may not be transferred or assigned to a former spouse in a property settlement.
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