Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice John L. Coffey died Saturday at the age of 90.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Shirley Abrahamson Supreme Court

The Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment does not preclude a mandatory life sentence for dealers who possess a smaller quantity of crack cocaine than the quantity of powder cocaine necessary to trigger a similar sentence, the 7th Circuit has ruled.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Crack cocaine drugs Eighth Amendment U.S. Court of Appeals U.S. Supreme Court

The duty to take more active anti-suicide measures arises only when the risk is imminent, the 7th Circuit has ruled, affirming summary judgment for state officials who treated a teenager who hung himself while in a youth detention facility.

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In an effort to root out employee abuse of Family and Medical Leave Act violations, employers are increasingly relying upon the “honest suspicion” defense – and winning.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit FMLA

United Airline workers who lose their jobs due to disability are entitled reassignment to vacant positions for which they are qualified, the 7th Circuit has ruled in reversing judgment.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Americans with Disabilities Act Court of Appeals Disability EEOC Supreme Court

A court ruling that ordered Massachusetts to pay for an inmate's sex-change surgery is being seen as another milestone for transgender people.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Court of Appeals discrimination transgender

A Chrysler employee produced sufficient evidence of recklessness to justify a substantial award of punitive damages in a Title VII hostile environment case, the 7th Circuit has ruled in reinstating a $3.5 million jury verdict.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Hostile work environment

An atheist said Friday he may take his legal fight over state funds used to renovate a towering southern Illinois cross to the U.S. Supreme Court now that his latest federal appeal has failed.

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Investors could not sue a medical device manufacturer for fraudulently downplaying the significance of one surgeon’s report that one of the company’s hip replacement parts had a high failure rate, the 7th Circuit has ruled in affirming a dismissal.

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A convicted felon may get a new trial because his lawyers misread the Fourth Amendment implications of their client’s contention that a gun found on his person was planted by police.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Fourth Amendment

A debt collector may have violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act when its automated dialing system contacted cell phone users with reassigned numbers, the 7th Circuit has ruled in affirming judgment.

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Police used excessive force when they fired a baton launcher four times in order to arrest a nonviolent drunk driver who was mistakenly suspected of being a car thief, the 7th Circuit has ruled in reversing a defense verdict.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Excessive force

Police officers who arrested a woman who exhibited symptoms of a mental health disorder in a safe location but released her into a dangerous neighborhood may be sued under §1983, the 7th Circuit has ruled.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit mental illness

The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court took up a complicated bankruptcy case Monday, parsing the language of the Bankruptcy Code to determine if a Chapter 11 debtor must give a secured creditor the right to credit bid items being sold at auction.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Antonin Scalia certiorari John Roberts Supreme Court

A second term for President Barack Obama would allow him to expand his replacement of Republican-appointed majorities with Democratic ones on the nation's appeals courts, the final stop for almost all challenged federal court rulings.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Anthony Kennedy Antonin Scalia Barack Obama Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg Samuel Alito Sonia Sotomayor Stephen Breyer Supreme Court

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — An appeals court has ruled that a failed script writer sentenced to more than five years in federal prison for flying $500,000 worth of marijuana to Wisconsin on his private plane should have been allowed to ...

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Court of Appeals marijuana

Despite evidence that the police withheld exculpatory evidence and witnesses were not truthful at trial, a state prisoner convicted in 1994 of sexual assault and attempted homicide will not get a new trial.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Confrontation Clause Habeas Corpus Rape shield law sexual assualt

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A federal appeals court says two Wisconsin public high schools properly held graduation ceremonies in a church. Brookfield Central and Brookfield East held their graduations at Elmbrook Church for most of the last decade. A group ...

Tagged with: 7th Circuit 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Court of Appeals separation of church and state

One of the great advantages I have gained from my twitter account is a vast amount of information about juries, jury issues and jury problems.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Blawg Log Dimotto Jury O’Hear

If a criminal defense attorney uses his peremptory challenges to exclude potential jurors because of race or gender, he violates the Equal Protection Clause, the Rules of Professional Responsibility and provides ineffective assistance of counsel.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Equal Protection Clause Habeas Corpus Ineffective assistance Supreme Court

The 7th Circuit has issued standards that a defendant charged with illegal reentry must meet to be considered for a lower sentence based on the lack of a fast-track program.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Illegal reentry

The government can deny a defendant his counsel of choice, merely by asserting its intent to call his attorney as a witness.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Counsel of choice David Hamilton

“All crack is cocaine base but not all cocaine base is crack,” Judge Diane S. Sykes noted in U.S. v. Edwards, 397 F.3d 570 (7th Cir. 2005).

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Crack cocaine Diane Sykes U.S. Supreme Court

Under 7th Circuit precedent, federal courts in Wisconsin are bound to apply the old mandatory minimum sentences for crack cocaine offenses occurring before the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 went into effect.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Ann Claire Williams David Hamilton U.S. Supreme Court

It has come to my attention that the nomination of University of Wisconsin law professor Victoria Nourse to the 7th Circuit is unlikely to be approved by the U.S. Senate.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Lochner v. New York

Arguably, any 18-year-old in Wisconsin who uses the Internet to arrange a consensual sexual encounter with a 17-year-old faces 10 years to life in federal prison.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Richard Posner

An April 1 opinion from the 7th Circuit creates a conundrum for state courts when criminal defense attorneys fail to follow the rules for submitting evidence the alleged victim in a sexual assault case has made false allegations before.

Tagged with: 09-3940 7th Circuit Sussman v. Jenkins

An April 1 opinion from the 7th Circuit creates a conundrum for state courts when criminal defense attorneys fail to follow the rules for submitting evidence the alleged victim in a sexual assault case has made false allegations before.

Tagged with: 09-3940 7th Circuit Confrontation Clause Sussman v. Jenkins

Employees in Wisconsin no longer need to file a written complaint to come within the anti-retaliation provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The U.S. Supreme Court held March 22 that an oral complaint suffices, provided it is “sufficiently clear ...

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Antonin Scalia Clarence Thomas Fair Labor Standards Act Stephen Breyer Supreme Court

Attorneys need to be careful what they tell their witnesses, lest it come back to haunt them in the form of impeachment evidence.

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