Erwin Chemerinsky to Speak in Milwaukee December 8

Erwin Chemerinsky — Dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law and a noted constitutional law scholar — will speak in Milwaukee on December 8 at the Pfister Hotel.  The event is sponsored by the Milwaukee Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society (ACS).  Doors open at 5 pm. 

Dean Chemerinsky is expected to speak on the impact of the Roberts Court and on the future of constitutional law.  More information is available at the website of the American Constitution Society: http://www.acslaw.org/node/17692.

Continue ReadingErwin Chemerinsky to Speak in Milwaukee December 8

Cleaning Up the ACCA Mess

David Holman has a helpful new article exploring the mess that has become the Armed Career Criminal Act jurisprudence in the wake of Begay v. United States. (I’ve blogged about this unfolding jurisprudence several times, e.g., here and here.)  The ACCA, of course, imposes a fifteen-year mandatory minimum for felons in possession of a firearm who have three or more prior convictions for a “violent felony” or a serious drug offense. It is the definition of “violent felony” that has occasioned so much litigation and so many unsatisfying judicial decisions over the past couple of years.  I’m glad to see David’s article because I think legal scholars have not been paying nearly enough attention to recent developments in this important area of federal criminal law.

I think David is correct to trace the jurisprudential difficulties to the tension between two lines of Supreme Court decisions.  

Continue ReadingCleaning Up the ACCA Mess

SCOTUS to Address Requirements for Federal Murder Statute

Yesterday, the Supreme Court agreed to decide what “federal nexus” must be proven in a murder prosecution under 18 U.S.C. § 1512(a)(1)(C).  The statute makes it a federal crime to kill “another person, with intent to . . . prevent the communication by any person to a law enforcement officer or judge of the United States of information relating to the commission or possible commission of a federal offense.”  The specific question before the Court is whether a defendant may be “convicted of murder under § 1512(a)(1)(C) without proof that information regarding a possible federal crime would have been transferred from the victim to federal law enforcement officers or judges.”  Additionally, the case presents interesting questions regarding the interpretation of statutory state-of-mind requirements and the scope of federal criminal jurisdiction.

The decision below was United States v. Fowler, 603 F.3d 702 (11th Cir. 2010).  Here’s what happened.  

Continue ReadingSCOTUS to Address Requirements for Federal Murder Statute