LawyersUSA

U.S. District Court judges can consider the impact of the disparity in the federal sentencing guidelines - a 100:1 ratio in sentences established by Congress - for crack and powder cocaine crimes. 

The U.S. Supreme Court will not decide if a federal court can determine that an offense that is not an aggravated felony is still a "particularly serious crime" that bars a defendant's eligibility for withholding of removal. The case has been voluntarily dismissed.

When a defendant trades a gun for illegal drugs, this does not constitute "use" of a handgun during a drug crime, leading to a mandatory five-year sentence.

A defendant's state convictions for violent misdemeanors count as predicate offenses under the federal Armed Career Criminal Act's sentencing enhancement provisions, because his civil rights were never lost.

An attorney's assistance is not presumptively ineffective where counsel participated in a plea hearing by speaker phone. 

The U.S. Supreme Court will not decide if an ineffective assistance of counsel ruling may stand where the defendant did not claim he would have accepted a plea agreement but for his attorney's advice, because the defendant has abandoned his claim of ineffective assistance. 

A post-conviction state court petition that was dismissed as untimely cannot toll the 1-year statute of limitation for filing a federal habeas petition under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.

New York's convention system of choosing trial court judge nominees does not violate the First Amendment.

An inmate cannot sue corrections officers over allegedly detained or mishandled goods under the Federal Torts Claims Act, because a corrections officer is considered a “law enforcement official” under the Act.

The Individuals with Disabilities Act allows parents to seek tuition reimbursement for private school costs for a child who never attended public school.

Investors in a company that committed fraud may not impose liability under the Securities Exchange Act against the company's vendors for their role in the scheme.

A federal district court judge can sentence a defendant to a term below the federal sentencing guidelines range.

Courts must consider whether the Tucker Act 's statute of limitations restricts the subject matter jurisdiction of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, even if the issue is not raised by the parties. 

Investment advisory fees incurred by a trust are generally subject to the same two percent floor applied to individuals for the deduction of itemized expenses from adjusted gross income, except where those fees would not have been incurred if the property were not held in a trust.

A railroad can challenge a state's methodology for valuing the railroad for tax purposes.