Featured Articles

No notice to subscriber required when officers seize stored email from ISP

Alain Leibman
October 30, 2009 22:07

The usual protocol when agents execute a search warrant at an office or home is to leave a copy of the warrant with the person in control of the premises, often but not necessarily the owner.  Rule 41(f)(1)(C) requires it.  But what kind of notice is required when agents execute a search...

Recent Articles

Seventh Circuit Does End-Run Around Sixth Amendment to Admit Drug Testing Evidence

March 06, 2010 15:38

Last year the Supreme Court emphatically extended its new Confrontation Clause jurisprudence -- abjuring reliance on historically-rooted hearsay exceptions to require in criminal cases that  "testimonial" hearsay be kept out unless subject to cross-examination -- to in-court evidence...

One-person corporation has no Fifth Amendment privilege

March 06, 2010 14:51

More than twenty years ago the Supreme Court decided the case of Braswell v. United States, 487 U.S. 99 (1988), in which the Court extended to even small, closely-held corporations the principle that corporate entities have no Fifth Amendment privilege to assert in opposition to a...

Another Revisit to Madoff and His Charity Stakeholders - Hadassah and Yeshiva University: Now A Perplexing Tale of Three Forms 990 - Part II - Installment 23

February 14, 2010 17:36

This is the twenty-third in a series of installments on this blog that are discussing issues arising in the aftermath of the long global Ponzi scheme of Bernard L. Madoff (“Madoff”). Installments 3 through 8, Installment 10 and Installments 14 through 22 of this series focused on...

New Sentencing Guidelines amendments aim to strengthen corporate compliance programs

February 09, 2010 19:59

On January 21, 2010, the United States Sentencing Commission (the “Commission”) issued a notice of proposed amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines, which included amendments to those guidelines regarding the sentencing of organizations. Generally, when organizations are charged and...

Crawford requires that co-conspirator statements to informants be tossed

January 27, 2010 17:37

Since the seismic shift in Confrontation Clause jurisprudence effected by Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004), lower courts have struggled to define precisely which "testimonial statements" are now excluded from evidence unless the government can show both that the declarant is...

Eleventh Circuit Limits Reach of Section 666 By Narrowly Construing "Agent of the State" Element

January 26, 2010 15:51

We noted here recently the first signs of an effort among courts of appeal to temper the reach of 18 U.S.C. § 666, long a favorite tool of prosecutors seeking to federalize misdeeds by local and state officials. Now the Eleventh Circuit has joined in, acting to limit the scope of the statute...

Fifth Circuit Pulls Back the Reach of 18 U.S.C. ยง 666 As It Relates to Bribery of Local Judges

January 18, 2010 15:14

Long a favorite weapon of federal prosecutors, Section 666 of Title 18 makes it a crime for an agent of a state or local organization or agency to corruptly demand, offer, or accept anything of value of $5,000 or more in connection with any business or transaction of the organization or agency,...

Another Revisit to Madoff and His Charity Stakeholders - Hadassah and Yeshiva University: Now A Perplexing Tale of Three Forms 990 - Part I - Installment 22

January 15, 2010 18:37

This is the twenty-second in a series of installments on this blog that are discussing issues arising in the aftermath of the long global Ponzi scheme of Bernard L. Madoff (“Madoff”). Installments 3 through 8, Installment 10 and Installments 14 through 21 of this series focused on the...

DOJ Issues New Guidance Requiring Fuller and Earlier Disclosures by Prosecutors

January 05, 2010 18:37

On January 4, 2010, Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden issued a series of three memoranda, published on the website of the Department of Justice, which represented the culmination of a several-months long study of discovery practices among the United States Attorney's Offices and retraining of...