5th Circuit Court

Afternoon Briefs: Arizona bans photos outside top courts; lawyer’s pretrial detention upheld

Arizona bans photos and broadcasts outside appellate-level courts Arizona’s chief justice has banned photos, videos and live broadcasting outside appellate-level courts in the state, including the state supreme court. The order makes an exception for those who get advance approval from the chief justice and the people being photographed. The…

Oct 30, 2019 4:09 PM CDT

5th Circuit judge’s dissent says to prevent mass shootings ‘we should stop punishing police officers’

Criminal Justice

Oct 24, 2019 3:17 PM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Trump couldn’t be prosecuted even if he shot someone, lawyer argues; Kellogg’s to pay $20M

Sitting president can’t be prosecuted even if he shot someone, Trump lawyer argues A sitting president couldn’t be investigated and prosecuted by New York authorities even if he shot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue, according to William Consovoy, President Donald Trump’s private lawyer. The lawyer made the “temporary…

Oct 23, 2019 4:47 PM CDT

Why scraping publicly available information online isn’t a crime

To criminalize public website scraping castrates an open internet by curtailing access to information, says ABA Journal Legal Affairs Writer Jason Tashea. This isn’t just an issue for internet startups and academic researchers but also the legal community.

Sep 23, 2019 6:30 AM CDT

Fines-and-fees system that helps fund court budget is unconstitutional, 5th Circuit rules

A federal appeals panel has ruled that a system of criminal fines and fees in the New Orleans criminal court was unconstitutional because the money is used to support a general fund overseen by the court’s judges.

Aug 30, 2019 10:32 AM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Former judge pleads guilty to murder; parents sue over Sharpie haircut punishment

Former judge pleads guilty to murder of his ex-wife Former Ohio judge Lance Mason pleaded guilty Tuesday to fatally stabbing his ex-wife, Aisha Fraser, in November. Mason had resigned his judgeship in 2015 after a previous guilty plea for assaulting the same woman. A University of Michigan law grad, Mason…

Aug 20, 2019 4:06 PM CDT

As federal anti-hacking law turns 35, its meaning, reach and effectiveness are still murky

What had started as a pre-internet computer crime law affecting national security and finance has become a statute that prosecutors, plaintiff attorneys and defense counsels agree isn’t right for its time, and maybe never was. Even with broad agreement on the problem, however, the solution is less clear.

Aug 19, 2019 6:00 AM CDT

DA can’t be sued for firing 4 higher-level employees who supported his opponent, 5th Circuit says

A federal appeals court has ruled that a Texas district attorney was partly protected from lawsuits by seven people who claim he fired them because they had supported his election opponent. In a 2-1 decision on Aug. 6, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Hidalgo County…

Aug 8, 2019 12:42 PM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: 4th Circuit tosses emoluments suit; health insurance mandate on shaky ground

• A federal appeals court has tossed a case contending that President Donald Trump is violating the Constitution’s ban on presidents accepting emoluments from foreign states. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Richmond, Virginia, unanimously ruled that the state of Maryland and Washington, D.C., had no standing to…

Jul 10, 2019 4:46 PM CDT

SCOTUS to consider implied right to sue in case of Mexican boy shot and killed by US border guard

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to consider once again whether the family of a Mexican teen has an implied right to sue in U.S. courts for his fatal cross-border shooting by a U.S. Border Patrol agent. The high court granted cert in the case of Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca,…

May 28, 2019 12:22 PM CDT

BigLaw firm isn’t liable to investors for lawyer’s work for Ponzi schemer, 5th Circuit rules

A federal appeals court has ruled that Greenberg Traurig is immune from liability in a lawsuit by investors who lost money in a Ponzi scheme perpetrated by a client. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New Orleans ruled Wednesday that the law firm is immune under Texas law…

Apr 19, 2019 7:00 AM CDT

Lawyer’s ethics complaint targets 5th Circuit judge for alleged ‘vitriolic’ dissent

A Texas civil rights lawyer has filed a misconduct complaint against a federal appeals court judge that takes issue with the tone of her dissent in a gerrymandering case. The April 8 complaint accuses Circuit Judge Edith Brown Clement of writing a “vitriolic” dissent that includes “highly partisan and insulting…

Apr 12, 2019 7:00 AM CDT

Denying sex reassignment surgery to inmate isn’t cruel and unusual, 5th Circuit rules

A blanket ban on sex reassignment surgery for prison inmates isn’t cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment, a federal appeals court has ruled.

Apr 1, 2019 9:14 AM CDT

SCOTUS blocks execution of man denied Buddhist adviser; decision was different in Muslim case

On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the execution of a Texas inmate who wasn’t allowed to bring his Buddhist spiritual adviser into the execution chamber with him.

Mar 29, 2019 9:30 AM CDT

5th Circuit judge raises eyebrows with ‘majority-minority panel’ reference in gerrymandering case

A dissent by Circuit Judge Edith Brown Clement in a Mississippi gerrymandering case is raising some questions and eyebrows. What, exactly, did the federal appeals judge mean when she wrote that the state defendants “have simply had the poor luck of drawing a majority-minority panel”? Mother Jones initially surmised that…

Mar 27, 2019 7:30 AM CDT