Last week, Judge Morrison granted a motion to suppress a gun, holding that police didn’t have reasonable suspicion to seize or subsequently frisk a person stopped on the street in Brooklyn. United States v. Burvick, No. 23-CR-450 (NRM), 2025 WL 240976 (E.D.N.Y. Jan. 17, 2025). The lengthy opinion discusses and rejects some common police reasons … Read more

Yesterday, in Snyder v. United States, the Supreme Court held that 18 USC 666 prohibits bribes to state and local officials, but does not prohibit  gratuities to state and local officials. The difference between a bribe and a gratuity is largely one of timing of the agreement: a bribe is given to a public official … Read more

At long last, the Supreme Court last week issued its eagerly-anticipated decision in United States v. Rahimi, involving a post-Bruen Second Amendment challenge to 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8), which criminalizes possession of a firearm while one is subject to a domestic violence restraining order. Unsurprisingly to anyone who listened to the oral argument, the Court, … Read more

Today, in Brown v. United States, the Supreme Court held that state drug convictions count as ACCA predicates if they involved a drug that was on the federal drug schedules at the time of the state conviction. In Brown, legislatures had eliminated two substances from the relevant drug schedules – hemp and ioflupane – between the … Read more

Yes, the Second Circuit means it! If the district court doesn’t explain why a special condition of supervised release is required in a particular case, the Circuit will vacate the condition. Today, yet again, the Second Circuit vacated a condition of supervised release because the district court did not explain the reasons for imposing the … Read more

In United States v. Delvalle, No. 22-1539-cr (2d Cir. Mar. 5, 2024) (per curiam), the Court reiterated its longstanding rule that a guilty plea is not rendered involuntary or unintelligent simply because the defendant expected to receive a lower sentence than he ultimately received. Delvalle pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy. The parties estimated that his Guidelines … Read more

In United States v. Chaires, No. 20-4162 (2d Cir. Dec. 7, 2023) (per curiam), the Second Circuit (Carney, Sullivan, and Menashi) remanded for resentencing, on plain error review, where the defendant was sentenced as a career offender based on New York controlled substance predicates. As our dear readers are well-aware, Chaires follows in the footsteps … Read more

In United States v. Gates, the Second Circuit today affirmed a 45-year sentence for a person with no criminal history, who was convicted of three counts related to sexual exploitation of her child based on five images found on the child’s father’s phone. (Even though the child’s father, unlike Gates, had thousands of additional images … Read more

In United States v. Hunt, No. 21-3020 (2d Cir. Sept. 20, 2023) (Walker, joined by Parker and Bianco), the Circuit affirmed Hunt’s conviction and sentence for threatening to assault and murder United States officials, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 115(a)(1)(B), based on Hunt’s online posting of a video entitled “Kill Your Senators.” In the … Read more

This week, in United States v. Daniels, the Fifth Circuit held that a person’s conviction under 922(g)(3) was unconstitutional following Bruen. The facts of Daniels are straightforward: Daniels was found with guns and marijuana in his car and then admitted he was a habitual marijuana user. He was charged and convicted of violating Section 922(g)(3). … Read more