Every decision we've summarized — searchable, filterable, neutral.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed Jacob Robinson's sentence as an armed career criminal, ruling that his prior Arkansas conviction met the statutory elements of the Armed Career Criminal Act. The court rejected arguments regarding the age of the prior offense and procedural errors in sentencing calculations while granting counsel's motion to withdraw.
The Federal Circuit affirmed the invalidity of a patent under the pre-AIA on-sale bar, holding that a third-party sale of a device embodying the invention more than one year before the priority date renders the claims invalid regardless of whether the invention's details were publicly disclosed. The court further clarified that source code commands are not hearsay at summary judgment because they constitute instructions rather than statements of fact.
The First Circuit vacated a defendant's sentence because the district court failed to provide a sufficiently reasoned explanation for imposing a twenty-five-month upward variance above the Sentencing Guidelines range. This procedural error prevented the appellate court from reviewing the substantive reasonableness of the sentence, necessitating a remand for resentencing with proper justification.
The Fifth Circuit affirmed a conviction for illegal reentry, ruling that a district court does not violate Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11 by failing to explicitly define 'official restraint' during a guilty plea colloquy. The court held that no clear or obvious error occurred because binding precedent does not require judges to address surveillance as a form of official restraint.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of a sentence reduction motion under the compassionate release statute. The appellate court found no abuse of discretion in the lower court's weighing of the offense severity and public safety concerns.
The Ninth Circuit denied Wayner Baudilio Cano-Cardona's petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals' decisions, upholding the denial of asylum and related protections. The court found substantial evidence supported the conclusion that gang recruitment was motivated by criminal intent rather than a protected ground.
The Eleventh Circuit dismissed an appeal sua sponte because the district court's order did not resolve all claims or parties in the underlying case. The appellate court held that the order was not final under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and did not qualify as an immediately appealable interlocutory order.
The Fifth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for police officers, holding that their seizure of unlisted electronics fell within the Fourth Amendment's plain view doctrine. The court found that specific tips regarding stolen goods, combined with the items' suspicious packaging and location, provided probable cause to believe the property was contraband.
The Ninth Circuit denied Diego Saul Rivas-Monge's petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals' decision to deny his claims for asylum, withholding of removal, and Convention Against Torture relief. The court held that the agency's factual findings were supported by substantial evidence, concluding that the petitioner's alleged harms did not rise to the level of persecution or torture.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court's order returning two children to Venezuela under the Hague Convention, ruling that the mother failed to meet her burden of proving any affirmative defense. The court held that a party cannot reopen a final judgment under Rule 60(b) simply because their prior counsel made a strategic decision to concede a specific defense at trial.
