Strange Doctrines

The FPD’s TGIF OMGIM Roundup

For the week of May 1, 2015

In this edition:

News to Use | Top of the Ninth |
SCOTUS Focus | Short Circuits | For the Bookworms

The FPD’s TGIF Roundup

For the week of April 24, 2015

In this edition:

News to Use | Top of the Ninth |
SCOTUS Focus | Short Circuits | For the Bookworms

The FPD’s TGIF Roundup

For the week of April 17, 2015

In this edition:

News to Use | Top of the Ninth | Short Circuits | For the Bookworms

The FPD’s TGIF Roundup

For the week of April 10, 2015

In this edition:

News to Use | Top of the Ninth | Short Circuits | For the Bookworms

The FPD’s TGIF Roundup

For the week of April 3, 2015

In this edition:

News to Use | Top of the Ninth |
SCOTUS Focus | Short Circuits | For the Bookworms

The FPD’s TGIF Roundup

For the week of March 27, 2015

In this edition:

News to Use | New Rules | Top of the Ninth |
SCOTUS Focus | Short Circuits | For the Bookworms

The FPD’s TGIF Roundup

For the week of March 20, 2015

In this edition:

News to Use | Top of the Ninth | Short Circuits | For the Bookworms

The FPD’s TGIF Roundup

For the week of March 13, 2015

In this edition:

News to Use | Top of the Ninth | SCOTUS Focus | Short Circuits |
For the Bookworms

The FPD’s TGIF Roundup

For the week of March 6, 2015

In this edition:

Top of the Ninth | SCOTUS Focus | Short Circuits | For the Bookworms

The FPD’s TGIF Roundup

For the week of February 27, 2015

In this edition:

News to Use | Top of the Ninth | SCOTUS Focus | For the Bookworms

The FPD’s TGIF Roundup for a Fortnight

For the weeks of February 13 & 20, 2015

In this edition:

News to Use | New Rules | Top of the Ninth | SCOTUS Focus | Short Circuits |
The Week in Sausage Making | For the Bookworms

The FPD’s TGIF Roundup

For the week of February 6, 2015

In this edition:

News to Use | Top of the Ninth |
SCOTUS Focus | Short Circuits | For the Bookworms

The FPD’s TGIF Roundup—special post-NLADA-training nonblogging catching-up-on-the-fortnight edition

For the fortnight ending January 30, 2015

In this edition:

News to Use | Top of the Ninth | SCOTUS Focus | Short Circuits |
The Week in Sausage Making | For the Bookworms

The FPD’s TGIF Roundup

For the week of January 16, 2015

In this edition:

News to Use | Top of the Ninth | SCOTUS Focus | Short Circuits |
The Week in Sausage Making | For the Bookworms

The FPD’s TGIF Roundup

For the week of January 9, 2014

In this edition:

News to Use | Top of the Ninth | SCOTUS Focus |
Short Circuits | The Week in Sausage Making | For the Bookworms

The FPD’s TGIF Roundup—Post-New Year’s Catch-Up Edition

For the fortnight ending January 02, 2015

In this edition:

News to use | Top of the Ninth | SCOTUS focus | Short circuits (and solid states | For the bookworms

The FPD’s TGIF Roundup

For the week of December 19, 2014

In this edition:

News to Use | Top of the Ninth
SCOTUS Focus | Short Circuits | For the Bookworms

What I Mean by ‘Glory’

Everyone who’s worked the defense side in a criminal drug case knows that a special agent (it’s always a “special” agent) who gives “expert” testimony about “drug jargon” is subject to about the same semantic constraints as Humpty Dumpty. Basically, take even the most benign, everyday topic of conversation (say, “tickets to the Dodgers game”), and you can cast it as having some drug-related meaning encoded in it, if you try hard enough. And they usually do try hard enough.

All that just to say that Scott Greenfield has what I take to be the classic illustration:

I borrowed a client’s cellphone on the way home from an arraignment to call my mother, as it was her birthday and, well, I forgot to call. Two years later, I’m reading through transcripts of telephone conversations and see my call to my mother, with the notation, “birthday refers to delivery of large quantities of narcotics.” True story.

The Violence Inherent in the System—Sentencing Reduction Denialism Edition

Some ugly play here by the Eleventh Circuit in a case I came across that otherwise holds for a defendant who appealed the district court's denial of his motion to reduce his sentence under 18 U.S.C. §3582(c)(2):

If, after examining [the complete record] the district court cannot determine Hamilton's drug quantity with enough specificity to decide whether Amendment 750 lowers his guidelines range, then Hamilton is ineligible for § 3582(c)(2) relief.

United States v. Hamilton, 715 F.3d 328, 340–41 (11th Cir. 2013) (emphasis added). This, the Hamilton court explains, is because a defendant has the burden to show that the lower guideline range would apply if the listed amendment had been in effect at the time of original sentencing.

To review, then: A defendant who cannot meet his burden because the district court failed to make the clear finding it was required to make at initial sentencing is categorically barred from getting the relief he seeks. Got it.

The FPD’s TGIF Roundup

For the week of December 12, 2014

In this edition:

News to Use | Top of the Ninth | SCOTUS Focus | Short Circuits
The Week in Sausage Making | For the Bookworms