Articles Posted in Court Decisions

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December 29, 2008 – January 3, 2009

U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, December 30, 2008 Gonzalez v. Duncan, No. 06-56523 A sentence of 28 years to life imprisonment under California’s “Three Strikes” law violates the Eighth Amendment where: 1) the offense was Petitioner’s failure to update his annual sex offender registration within five working days of his birthday; and 2) he was living at his registered address throughout the relevant time period. Habeas relief is warranted because the state court’s application of the gross disproportionality principle was objectively unreasonable.

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Week of December 15-19, 2008.

U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, December 15, 2008 Doe, Inc. v. Mukasey, No. 074943 In litigation concerning First Amendment challenges to the constitutionality of statutes governing the issuance and judicial review of National Security Letters (NSLs) which request records from providers of wire or electronic communication services, decision finding 18 U.S.C. subsections 2709(c) and 3511(b) unconstitutional and enjoining certain actions by FBI officials is affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded where: 1) the statutes are construed to avoid some constitutional challenges; 2) subsections 2709(c) and 3511(b) were unconstitutional to the extent that they imposed a nondisclosure requirement on NSL recipients without placing on the Government the burden of initiating judicial review of such a requirement; 3) subsections 3511(b)(2) and (b)(3) were unconstitutional to the extent that a governmental official’s certification that disclosure may endanger the national security of the U.S. or interfere with diplomatic relations was treated as conclusive; and 4! ) district court’s injunction is modified by limiting it to enjoining FBI officials from enforcing the nondisclosure requirement of section 2709(c) in the absence of Government-initiated judicial review.

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U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, December 11, 2008 Dutil v. Murphy, No. 06-2292 The text of the Massachusetts SDP statute, as interpreted by state courts, does not on its face violate the due process protections heretofore afforded sexually dangerous persons subject to civil commitment. Appellant’s due process rights are not violated by the statute’s failure to provide an unambiguous timeline for a redetermination of his sexual dangerousness. .

U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, December 11, 2008 Broadley v. Hardman, No. 08-1342 Absent any allegation that state officials were used to enforce the process, Defendant was not transformed into a state actor for section 1983 purposes when he issued a subpoena commanding the Plaintiff to appear at a pretrial deposition, even though the subpoena was issued in his capacity as a notary public and in the name of the state of Rhode Island.