(Cross-posted from the C.D. Cal. Federal Public Defender blog.)
Administrative Note: Because of the holidays, coverage in the Roundup for at least this and next week will be mostly limited to legislative activity and circuit or supreme court cases. All appropriate well-wishing is incorporated herein.
FBI: Crime (Still) Down. Berman has the story here.
When Food Products Aren't Enough... There's always military ordnance. (Then again, aren't iron, copper, and magnesium essentially just mineral supplements?)
Judge Criticizes Government's Counter-Brady Maneuvers. In an FCPA case, district judge Richard Leon "warned the government that 'sharp' tactics [would] not be tolerated." But though the government had "snookered" the defense about the existence of witness notes, Leon stopped short of declaring a mistrial.
Top of the Ninth - 9th Cir. decisions released during the week
· Romero-Mendoza v. Holder (immigration) (derivative citizenship claim defeated because paternity was legitimated under Salvadoran law).
Short Circuits
· Haley v. Elsmere (6th Cir.) (civil rights) (officer's arrest of plaintiff who had admitted to drinking two beers was objectively unreasonable, so qualified immunity did not apply).
· Narvaez v. U.S. (7th Cir.) (Begay and Chambers apply retroactively to guidelines misapplication claimed in initial collateral attack).
· Draft Op. (Cal. State Bar) (ethics) (attorney may maintain virtual office "in the cloud" consistent with ethical obligations).
The Week in Sausage Making. Measures introduced include S. 2017 (federal voting rights for released inmates); H.R. 3702 (to clarify that war authorization or similar does not authorize detention of citizens, lawful permanent residents without charge or trial); H.R. 3721 (to encourage veterans' treatments courts).
For the Bookworms - New books and scholarly articles of note
· "A Parent's 'Apparent' Authority: Why Intergenerational Coresidence Requires a Reassessment of Parental Consent to Search Adult Children's Bedrooms," Hillary B. Farber, Cornell J. L. & Pub. Pol'y 39 (2011) (SSRN).
· "How Capital Jurors Respond to Mitigating Evidence of Defendant's Mental Illness, Retardation, and Situational Impairments: An Analysis of the Legal and Social Literature," Leona Deborah Jochnowitz, Crim. L. Bull. 839 (2011) (SSRN) (gives a historical overview of research on the topic).
· "Deciphering De Novo Determinations: Must District Court Review Objections Not Raised Before a Magistrate Judge?" (Comment), Kevin Koller, 111 Colum. L. Rev. 1557 (2011) (YEAR) (pdf).
· "Denying Defendants the Benefit of a Reasonable Doubt: Federal Rule of Evidence 609 and Past Sex Crime Convictions" (Comment), Julia T. Rickert, (SSRN) (argues that prior sex crimes should be presumptively inadmissible to impeach credibility).
· "Sentencing Proportionality in the States" (Comment), Gregory S. Schneider, Az. L. Rev. (2012) (SSRN) (explores principles and analytic tools used in some states to analyze proportionality, and arguing that they amount to a coherent, workable system of review that other jurisdictions can incorporate).
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Suggestions or corrections? Email Michael_Drake@fd.org.
