Search Results for: sotomayor

The US Supreme Court held on Monday that sentence reduction under the First Step Act is available only if an offender’s prior conviction for a crack cocaine offense triggered a mandatory minimum sentence. In 2018 Congress passed the First Step Act, which made previous sentencing reforms that reduced the sentencing disparity to 18 to 1, retroactive. Under [...]

The US Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that “reckless” crimes qualify as violent felonies for purposes of the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA). The ACCA mandates a 15-year sentence for those persons found guilty of illegally possessing a firearm who have been convicted [...]

The US Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a second case involving the scope of the government’s ability to invoke state secret privilege and declined to hear a case challenging the male-only military draft on the basis of gender discrimination. When the court last reviewed the male-only draft rule in the 1981 decision Rostker v. [...]

In a 6-3 decision on Thursday, the US Supreme Court held that a former police sergeant did not violate the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) when he used his patrol car computer to access a police database for personal purposes. Sergeant Nathan Van Buren was paid $5,000 by an FBI informant to run [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday against a non-US citizen who was contesting his indictment for unlawful re-entry into the country. The case, US v. Palomar-Santiago, involved Refugio Palomar-Santiago, a Mexican citizen who became a lawful permanent resident in 1990. In 1998, an immigration judge found that Palomar-Santiago had committed an aggravated felony under [...]

The US Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal Monday from a death row inmate who sought to have his sentence carried out by firing squad because he believes it would be less painful than the state’s preferred method of execution. Ernest Johnson, a death row inmate in Missouri, suffers from epilepsy as a result [...]

The US Supreme Court held Monday that individuals whose convictions became final before Ramos v. Louisiana, holding that jury verdicts in criminal trials must be unanimous under the Sixth Amendment to the US Constitution, do not receive the advantages of jury unanimity on federal collateral review. In April 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in Ramos that [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments  Wednesday for Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. and PennEast Pipeline Co. v. New Jersey. In PennEast Pipeline Co. v. New Jersey, the Supreme Court will determine whether PennEast Pipeline Co. can run a pipeline through New Jersey’s state-controlled land. PennEast argues that it is permissible to take [...]

George Floyd: I Can’t Breathe Jury: Guilty, Guilty, Guilty Biden: We Can’t Stop Here Outside the Hennepin County courthouse, Minnesota, Floyd family attorney Justin Miller said: What is justice when you lose a loved one? When you don’t have your father or your brother or your uncle anymore? I don’t really think there is justice. [...]

The US Supreme Court Thursday held that Social Security disability claimants are not bound by the issue-exhaustion requirement in administrative law judge (ALJ) hearings. Writing for a 9-0 court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor concluded that although the Social Security claimants in Carr v. Saul did not raise the issue of an improper ALJ appointment at their [...]