Correspondent
Capitol Hill correspondent, covers legislative and political stories.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed the denial of a motion to suppress evidence found during a traffic stop. The court held that a large spiderweb crack across a vehicle's windshield provided probable cause to stop the driver under South Dakota law.
The Fourth Circuit affirmed a sixty-six-month sentence for a felon in possession of a firearm and upheld revocations of supervised release. The court remanded two related appeals to correct a clerical error in the judgment that listed violations not found by the district court.
The Fifth Circuit affirmed a conviction for illegal reentry after deportation. The court found no clear and obvious error in the district court's handling of the defendant's guilty plea.
The Fifth Circuit affirmed a sentence imposed after the mandatory revocation of supervised release. The court held that the district court did not plainly err by considering the need to promote respect for the law as a dominant sentencing factor.
The Fifth Circuit affirmed a conviction for illegal reentry under federal law. The court held that the defendant's constitutional challenge to the recidivism enhancement was foreclosed by existing Supreme Court precedent.
The Sixth Circuit affirmed a substantive reasonableness challenge to a defendant's sentence for child pornography offenses. The court held that the district court properly weighed sentencing factors and did not abuse its discretion in imposing a downward variance.
The Sixth Circuit affirmed the denial of a motion to dismiss an indictment against a defendant charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. The court held that the defendant failed to meet his burden of proving he was not dangerous under the Second Amendment as-applied challenge.
The Sixth Circuit affirmed a seventy-month prison sentence for a felon in possession of a firearm. The court found the district court acted within its discretion in calculating sentencing guidelines and weighing statutory factors.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied petitions for rehearing and affirmed the dismissal of charges against Boeing following a non-prosecution agreement, ruling that challenges to a prior deferred prosecution agreement were moot.
The Sixth Circuit affirmed a district court's decision to revoke supervised release and reimprison a defendant for twelve months. The court rejected the defendant's claims that the sentence was procedurally infirm and substantively unreasonable.
