Case Summaries
Criminal Law & Procedure
Family Law
Immigration Law
Criminal Law & Procedure
[11/17]
Goldstein v. The Superior Court of Los Angeles
In a claim alleging that defendants wrongfully obtained plaintiff's conviction for murder based on their pattern and practice of misusing the testimony of jailhouse informants, grant of plaintiff's Penal Code section 924.2 petition seeking access to grand jury materials is reversed where California courts do not have a broad inherent power to order disclosure of grand jury materials to private litigants.
[11/17]
US v. Guzman-Tlaseca
Conviction and sentence for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine are affirmed where: 1) search warrants used to discover evidence used to convict defendant were supported by probable cause; 2) there was sufficient evidence to support a conspiracy conviction; 3) a prior state drug-possession conviction punishable by up to five years' imprisonment was a "felony drug offense" for purposes of imposing a mandatory-minimum sentence; and 4) there was no clear error in an enhancement for defendant's managerial role in the conspiracy.
[11/17]
Engleman v. Murray
In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 claim alleging Fourth Amendment violations by am Arkansas sheriff's deputy who arrested plaintiff in Oklahoma on an Arkansas warrant, denial of summary judgment for defendant on qualified-immunity grounds is reversed where defendant's belief that he was arresting plaintiff in Arkansas was objectively reasonable and did not violate a constitutional right.
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Family Law
[11/07]
Choose Life Illinois, Inc. v. White
In a suit by an interest group seeking on First Amendment grounds to force the state of Illinois to issue "Choose Life" specialty license plates, judgment in favor of plaintiffs is reversed where: 1) specialty license plates implicate the speech rights of private speakers, not government speech; 2) specialty plates are a nonpublic forum; and 3) the state could enforce a content-based but viewpoint-neutral ban disallowing any abortion-related message, whether pro-life or pro-choice, to be displayed on its license plates.
[11/06]
Aguilar v. Aguilar
Denial of petition to undo a wife's withdrawal of trust property brought by a remainder beneficiary of the trust is reversed and remanded where: 1) even though the property the wife sought to withdraw was her share of the community property, it was too late for her to withdraw it; 2) irrevocable trusts are binding, even on their trustors; and 3) as the life beneficiary, the wife could continue to enjoy the property as held by the trust.
[11/05]
In re A.E.
Order directing both parents to participate in Department of children and Family Services (DCFS)-approved "programs of parent education [and] individual counseling addressing all issues including anger management" is affirmed where the father did not object to the order directing him to participate in counseling sessions.
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Immigration Law
[11/14]
Alsol v. Mukasey
Petitions for review of decisions canceling removal are granted and orders of the Board of Immigration Appeals are vacated where: 1) a second conviction for simple controlled substance possession under state law is not a felony under the Controlled Substances Act, because the offense of conviction did not proscribe conduct punishable as a felony as it did not correspond in any meaningful way with the federal crime of recidivist possession, even if it could have been prosecuted in state court as a recidivist offense; and 2) the decision in US v. Simpson did not hold to the contrary.
[11/13]
Kaba v. Mukasey
Petition for review of a denial of asylum and related relief brought by a native of the Cote d'Ivoire is denied where the evidence in the administrative record did not compel a conclusion contrary to those reached by the IJ in finding: 1) he was not credible; 2) he had not suffered past persecution in his native country; and 3) he failed to show a well-founded fear of future persecution there.
[11/12]
US v. Alapizco-Valenzuela
A sentence for transporting illegal aliens for private financial gain is affirmed over defendant's challenges to: 1) the application of a two-level enhancement under U.S.S.G. section 2L1.1(b)(8) for detaining an alien involuntarily through coercion or threat, or in connection with a demand for payment; and 2) a decision to grant a motion for an upward departure and upward variance.
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