Immigration
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March 21, 2019
Marine Chief Says Hurricanes, Border Work Straining Budget
Recent hurricanes, alongside deployments to the southern border and other unexpected events, have resulted in the U.S. Marine Corps facing unprecedented financial challenges and "unacceptable risk" to its combat readiness, Commandant Gen. Robert Neller said in a pair of internal memos, publicly leaked Thursday.
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March 21, 2019
Immigrant Groups Seek Info On Union Pacific Helping ICE
A coalition of immigrant advocacy groups sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in California federal court Wednesday, seeking records regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s alleged cooperation with the Union Pacific Railroad Police on immigration law enforcement.
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March 21, 2019
2nd Circ. Says NY Judge Botched Marriage Fraud Trial
The Second Circuit tossed the marriage fraud convictions of two Indian nationals and an American woman, ruling Thursday that they didn’t get a fair trial because the judge had a solo meeting with some of the jurors and gave the entire jury an inappropriate instruction.
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March 21, 2019
Justices Urged To Merge Census Citizenship Question Cases
The city of San Jose and immigrant advocates urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to hear their constitutional claims against the inclusion of a citizenship status question on the 2020 census, suggesting that the court consolidate their case with one brought by New York and other states.
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March 21, 2019
Tesla, Contractor To Face Trafficking Claim In Visa Fraud Suit
A California federal judge on Wednesday dumped most of an amended suit alleging Tesla and its contractor committed visa fraud to illegally import low-cost foreign labor, but allowed one of the plaintiffs' human trafficking claims to survive.
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March 21, 2019
Same-Sex Couple Wants $1.3M For Son's Citizenship Suit
A same-sex married couple asked a California federal court Wednesday to award them $1.3 million in attorney fees and costs, after their son who was born abroad was initially refused U.S. citizenship because he wasn't biologically related to his American parent.
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March 21, 2019
Gov't Hit With FOIA Suit For Docs On ICE Partnerships In Va.
A nonprofit civil rights group on Wednesday hit the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in D.C. federal court, accusing the agencies of ignoring its request for records about cooperation between local law enforcement in Virginia and federal immigration authorities.
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March 20, 2019
What’s In A Judgeship? More Than Meets The Eye
Figuring out what constitutes a manageable workload for the nation’s district judges is no simple task. Getting the judiciary the resources it needs is even harder.
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March 20, 2019
Swamped: How Magistrate Judges Salvaged Louisiana's Judicial Crisis
The Western District of Louisiana is supposed to have seven district judges. But for a year, most of the courthouses were operating without a single Article III judge. As usual, magistrate judges picked up the slack.
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March 20, 2019
Ex-Diplomat Tells Jury Alleged Forced Labor Was Aboveboard
An attorney for a former Chinese diplomat accused of using workers from his home country as forced labor in U.S. construction projects made his final pitch to a Brooklyn jury Wednesday, arguing there was a legitimate employment arrangement with the supposed victims.
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March 20, 2019
ABA Report Calls For Immigration Court System Overhaul
The American Bar Association released a report on Wednesday calling on the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Homeland Security to implement a host of reforms to the federal immigration system, taking the agencies to task for policies including family detention and case quotas for immigration judges.
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March 20, 2019
Families Not Causing Immigration Backlog, Syracuse U. Says
Immigrant families that have recently arrived at the southwest border are not the primary cause behind the growing immigration court backlog, as they only make up 4 percent of the pending caseload, according to new data from Syracuse University.
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March 20, 2019
Iranian Prof's Emails Fair Game In Visa Fraud, Sanctions Trial
Federal prosecutors can present emails sent by an Iranian professor accused of lying on his visa application and sharing confidential military technology with Iran in breach of U.S. sanctions laws, the Sixth Circuit held, throwing out a lower court ruling that had suppressed that evidence as obtained without probable cause.
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March 20, 2019
SPLC Wants Sanctions For RICO Suit Over 'Hate Group' Label
Two leaders of the Southern Poverty Law Center asked a D.C. federal court on Tuesday to hit the Center for Immigration Studies with sanctions for filing a frivolous lawsuit, accusing the nonprofit think tank, which advocates for restrictionist immigration policies, of hiding a weak defamation suit behind its wire fraud claims.
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March 19, 2019
‘In A Timely Manner’: Three Decades Of Judgeship Bills
Partisanship has played a large role in the small passage rate of new judgeship bills since 1990. New judgeships create new vacancies, and neither party wants to give the other the upper hand.
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March 19, 2019
From Showdowns To Hotlines, Frazzled Judges Get Creative
Using magistrate hotlines, “showdown” hearings and extra mediation, many courts with heavy dockets have pioneered methods for moving cases along. But not every program succeeds, and the techniques have their detractors.
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March 19, 2019
Justices Leave Room To Challenge Immigrant Detention Law
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared to leave the door open to further challenges on constitutional grounds to a statute requiring the government to arrest and detain immigrants who have certain criminal convictions without bond hearings, immigration scholars said.
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March 19, 2019
Au Pair Agency Not Covered In Wage Suit, 11th Circ. Told
Berkley Assurance Co. urged the Eleventh Circuit on Monday to affirm that it doesn’t have to defend or indemnify an au pair placement agency accused of conspiring to set low pay rates, saying an exclusion applies because the agency knew of the underlying class action prior to its policy period.
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March 19, 2019
Challenge To Minimum Wage For H-2A Farmworkers Tossed
A D.C. federal judge has thrown out a farm group's challenge to the U.S. Department of Labor's minimum wage requirements for migrant agricultural workers on H-2A visas, finding Monday that the lawsuit had been filed too late.
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March 19, 2019
Celebrity Tattooist Accuses Ex-Worker Of Stealing Clients
A New York celebrity tattoo artist who has inked Rihanna, LeBron James and Kylie Jenner has accused a former staffer of conning him into providing her with a work visa while she stole clients from under his nose.
Expert Analysis
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Lenders Score Major High Court Victory In Foreclosure Case
The U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous ruling on Wednesday in Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP removes nearly all activities taken by creditors seeking nonjudicial foreclosure of liens and mortgages from the ambit of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, says John Baxter of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP.
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Tech Trends From SXSW Pose Unique Questions For Lawyers
These days, a popular theme in media is that lawyers' jobs will be taken by robots. However, based on the tech issues discussed at the South by Southwest technology conference in Austin, Texas, last month, robots may in fact need lawyers, says Nick Abrahams of Norton Rose Fulbright.
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An Employment Lawyer's Guide To M&A Due Diligence
Excerpt from Lexis Practice Advisor
In the context of corporate mergers and acquisitions, there are several employment-related elements to consider. Attorneys with Proskauer Rose LLP share guidance on discovering, managing and preventing potential liabilities resulting from a target company’s labor and employment practices.
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In Bar Admissions Process, It's Candor Or Bust
You passed the bar exam and are ready for the character and fitness committee interview. Time to think about how to discuss that minor incident in college, that misdemeanor in high school or that mental health issue that you have totally under control, says Richard Maltz of Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC.
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Series
Judging A Book: Bashant Reviews 'Doing Justice'
My initial reaction to "Doing Justice" was that author Preet Bharara may have bitten off more than he could chew — an accusation leveled against him when he served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York — but I found the book full of helpful gems, says U.S. District Judge Cynthia Bashant of the Southern District of California.
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Firms Can Leverage Communications When Economy Is Slow
Though most experts believe that an imminent recession is unlikely, slowdown fears are increasing. Now is the time for firms to consider how to best leverage their communications and marketing teams to lessen impacts from a potential economic slowdown, says Tom Orewyler of Tom Orewyler Communications LLC.
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Ethical Social Media Marketing For Lawyers
Social media presents rich opportunities to reach prospective clients. Attorneys should not let those opportunities pass them by, but they should keep their ethical obligations in mind as they post, says Cort Sylvester of Nilan Johnson Lewis PA.
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Q&A
A Chat With Norton Rose Diversity Director Nina Godiwalla
In this monthly series, Amanda Brady of Major Lindsey & Africa interviews management from top law firms about the increasingly competitive business environment. Here we feature Nina Godiwalla, director of diversity and inclusion at Norton Rose Fulbright.
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5 Mistakes Law Firms Make When Responding To RFPs
More and more corporations are now using requests for proposals to make data-driven decisions about which law firms to work with, so it is more important than ever for law firms to avoid common RFP mistakes, says Matthew Prinn of RFP Advisory Group.
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Guest Feature
Leon Panetta In The Courtroom, Langley And Area 51
Over the course of his career, Leon Panetta has served as a U.S. representative, director of the CIA and secretary of defense. But before all that, he was a lawyer. Randy Maniloff of White and Williams LLP asked him about his legal background — and about little men from outer space.