How Appealing



Saturday, March 16, 2013

“Supreme Court Weighs Whether States Can Require Proof Of Citizenship To Register To Vote”: Sahil Kapur has this report at TPM DC.

Posted at 10:56 PM by Howard Bashman



“Aaron Swartz’s estate seeks release of documents”: Today’s edition of The Boston Globe contains an article that begins, “The estate of Aaron Swartz, the Internet activist who was charged with hacking by the federal government and later committed suicide, filed a ­motion in federal court in ­Boston Friday to allow release of documents in the case that has generated national controversy and raised questions over the US attorney’s aggressive pursuit of a stiff sentence.”

Posted at 10:44 PM by Howard Bashman



En banc Fifth Circuit declines to impose “cumbersome methodological requirement on lower courts to conduct a nationwide survey and look to the majority of state codes — as well as the Model Penal Code, federal law, and criminal law treatises — when deriving the meaning of an undefined offense category enumerated in a federal sentencing enhancement”: You can access yesterday’s en banc ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit at this link. It is interesting to note that authorship of the majority opinion is attributed to two Fifth Circuit Judges.

A dissenter from yesterday’s en banc Fifth Circuit ruling wrote that he preferred the approach that Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III employed in a recent Fourth Circuit ruling that I noted in an earlier post.

Posted at 2:30 PM by Howard Bashman



“The Long Life and Now Death of the Virginia Sodomy Statute”: Shon R. Hopwood has this post at “The CockleBur.”

Posted at 1:48 PM by Howard Bashman



“Federal Circuit grants en banc review of case challenging de novo review of district courts’ claims-construction decisions”: John Council had this post yesterday at the “Tex Parte Blog” of Texas Lawyer.

And in other coverage, at the “Patently-O” blog, Jason Rantanen has a post titled “Federal Circuit to Reconsider De Novo Review of Claim Construction.”

Yesterday’s order of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit can be accessed here.

Posted at 1:38 PM by Howard Bashman



“North Dakota has funds to fight over abortion”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “As oil-rich North Dakota moves toward outlawing most abortions, it’s in a better position than most states for what could be a long and costly court battle over its restrictions.”

And The Bismarck Tribune reports today that “Abortion bills passed.”

Posted at 10:12 AM by Howard Bashman