Second Circuit

1996 amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act, narrowing the rights of aliens convicted of certain crimes from seeking discretionary relief from deportation, do not apply retroactively to alien who plead guilty to those crimes before the amendments took effect. St. Cyr v. INS (September 1, 2000)

Third Circuit

A Chapter 7 debtor’s lawyer can be paid from the bankruptcy estate for work done after a trustee was appointed, says the Third Circuit. This is true despite a technical "glitch" in the 1994 Bankruptcy Reform Act which deleted "debtor’s attorney" from the list of people who can be paid out of the estate under Sc. 330(a) of the Code. In re Topr Grade Sausage Inc. (September 2000)

Despite a 1998 landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision making same-sex discrimination in the workplace unlawful, the 7th Circuit has ruled that homosexuals are not a "protected class" under Title VII. In a recent case, the court distinguished between "one’s sex and one’s sexuality" finding that TitleVII only covered discrimination based on sex.

Eighth Circuit

Decision made by Judge Richard Arnold said rules barring the citation of unpublished opinions are unconstitutional. The decision which stemmed from a challenge over the court’s reliance on an earlier unpublished opinion, said such rules are barred by Article III of the Constitution. "Unpublished in this context has never meant secret." Anastasoff v. United States of America

Ninth Circuit

District court could review ERISA plan administrator’s discontinuation of disability benefits under de novo standard where plan did not confer authority on administrator to determine eligibility, construe terms of plan, or make final and binding determinations. Sandy v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance (August 22, 2000)

In USA v. Michael, the court affirmed the use of two level sentence enhancement for brandishing dangerous weapons. The court

concludes that a cellular phone fell within sentencing guidelines definition of a dangerous weapon. The determination of whether an object constitutes a dangerous weapon is based on the objects ability to incite fear and violence rather than from latent capability. (August 17, 2000).

Ohio Supreme Court

Where a police officer didn’t strictly follow NHTSA testing procedures in administering roadside sobriety tests to a suspected drunk driver, the results can’t be used to show probable cause, in what appears to be the first high court ruling of this kind. The court said it didn’t matter that the officer had substantially complies with the testing requirements. State v. Homan (September 2000)

New York Supreme Court

Plaintiff commenced an action in 1995 to recover for personal injuries as the result of the medical malpractice of defendants in failing to timely diagnose breast cancer. She died in 1996. Her husband, administrator of her estate, moved to serve an amended complaint adding a cause of action for wrongful death. The court said that, based on the Court of Appeals ruling in Caffaro v. Trayna, the wrongful death action was deemed to have been interposed at the inception of the original complaint and was therefor not time-barred. Brown v. Bayley Seton Hospital, Supreme Court, Richmond County, QDS: 62703081

California Supreme Court