Where a defendant argued that the trial judge failed to sequester co-defendant testifying witnesses from each other while they were held in the courthouse holding area, his claim was rejected because he did not complain at trial, there were limited ...
Read More »Criminal Practice – Failure to sequester witnesses not reversible error
Criminal Practice – Sexual activity statute not applied extraterritorially 
Where the defendant was overseas on a Navy base when he used the internet to coerce a Virginia-based minor into sexual activity, his extraterritorially argument was rejected because the focus of the conduct and the child victim was in the ...
Read More »Criminal Practice – Convictions reinstated against Flynn associate 
Where the Turkish government communicated instructions through a Turkish businessman to an executive at the Flynn Intel Group who followed those instructions, his convictions for acting as an unregistered foreign agent and conspiring to do so were reinstated. Background A ...
Read More »Intellectual Property – Trademark Board appeal process clarified 
Where a party can appeal an initial decision of the Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to either the Federal Circuit or district court, and the Federal Circuit remands to the Trademark Board which issues a second ...
Read More »Administrative – Agency didn’t explain Clean Water certification denial 
Where the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality denied a Clean Water Act certification to a company building a natural gas pipeline, but did not explain why it disagreed with the hearing officer’s findings or why it denied the application, ...
Read More »Administrative – No jurisdiction over challenge to DOD performance 
Where a nonprofit veteran’s group claimed the Department of Defense has not fulfilled its statutory duty to timely publish decisions by its review boards, the suit did not challenge a final agency action but was a “programmatic attack” on DoD’s ...
Read More »Criminal Practice – Hearing ordered on ineffective assistance claim 
Where the defendant argued his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to move to suppress incriminating statements made in violation of Miranda, an evidentiary hearing was required to determine whether he was in custody at the time of his ...
Read More »Constitutional – Bivens not extended to retaliation claim 
Where other remedies are available to an inmate claiming prison officials violated his First Amendment rights by retaliating against him for filing grievances, allowing a Bivens remedy could lead to an intolerable level of judicial intrusion into an issue best ...
Read More »Consumer Protection – Pressure on appraisers backs inducement 
Where mortgage and appraisal companies pressured home appraisers to raise values in order to obtain higher loans, a class of plaintiffs was granted summary judgment on its claim for unconscionable inducement under the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act. ...
Read More »Labor/Employment – Union may assert good-faith defense 
In a case of first impression, a private party is entitled to assert the good-faith defense to liability under § 1983. As such, unions that collected representation fees from nonunion teachers prior to the Supreme Court holding such fees were ...
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