OT ’15 grants

Question presented: Whether 42 U.S.C. § 16913(a) requires a sex offender who resides in a foreign country to update his registration in the jurisdiction where he formerly resided. Lower court opinion: United States v. Nichols, 775 F.3d 1225 (10th Cir. 2014) Docket Scotusblog page The resolution of this question will be of interest to federal criminal law… Read more

Question presented: Does a misdemeanor crime with the mens rea of recklessness qualify as a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence,” as defined under 18 U.S.C. §§ 921(a)(33)(A) and 922(g)(9)? Lower court opinion: United States v. Voisine, 778 F.3d 176 (1st Cir. 2015); Docket; Scotusblog page Under 18 U.S.C. §§ 921(a)(33)(A) and 922(g)(9), a person convicted of a “misdemeanor crime… Read more

Question Presented: Whether, in a federal criminal prosecution under the Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C. §1951, the Government is relieved of proving beyond a reasonable doubt the interstate commerce element by relying exclusively on evidence that the robbery or attempted robbery of a drug dealer is an inherent economic enterprise that satisfies, as a matter of… Read more

Question Presented: Where an error in the application of the United States Sentencing Guidelines results in the application of the wrong Guideline range to a criminal defendant, should an appellate court presume, for purposes of plain-error review under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 52(b), that the error affected the defendant’s substantial rights? Lower court decision… Read more

Questions Presented: 1. Are the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments violated where the presiding Chief Justice of a State Supreme Court declines to recuse himself in a capital case where he had personally approved the decision to pursue capital punishment against Petitioner in his prior capacity as elected District Attorney and continued to head the District… Read more

Question Presented: Should evidence seized incident to a lawful arrest on an outstanding warrant be suppressed because the warrant was discovered during an investigatory stop later found to be unlawful? Lower court opinion: State v. Strieff, ___ P.3d ___, 2015 WL 223953 (Utah Jan. 16, 2015) Docket Scotusblog page This case concerns the applicability of the… Read more

Questions presented: 1.  Whether the law-of-the-case doctrine requires the sufficiency of the evidence in a criminal case to be measured against the elements described in the jury instructions where those instructions, without objection, require the government to prove additional or more stringent elements than do the statute and indictment. 2.  Whether a statute-of-limitations defense not… Read more