Divorce Lawyer, Who Plotted to Kill Ex-Client While Dating the Man’s Ex-Girlfriend, Gets 8.5 Years

Once a promising young partner at a matrimonial law firm in suburban Chicago, Jason W. Smiekel was sentenced Tuesday to eight and a half years in federal prison after pleading guilty earlier this year to plotting to hire a hit man to kill an ex-client’s former girlfriend. Smiekel, 30, began…

Dec 5, 2012 2:55 PM CST

War of the Words: Scalia and Posner Are at It Again

Dec 1, 2012 9:50 AM CST

Chicago Judge Seeking Info re Mystery Federal Cases Filed Against Her Is On Leave, Officials Say

Updated: Following news last week that a Chicago judge had appeared before two federal judges claiming that she is the target of “secret proceedings” that may have been filed by her former lawyer, doctor and/or “spiritual adviser” and seeking to intervene in cases that seemingly do not exist, state judiciary…

Nov 5, 2012 9:45 PM CST

Conviction Is Reinstated for Neo-Nazi Who Posted Juror’s Photo and Address

A Chicago-based federal appeals court has reinstated the conviction of a self-avowed neo-Nazi who posted a jury foreperson’s photo and home address on a white supremacy website. In a per curiam opinion (PDF), the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the conviction of William White for soliciting the commission…

Oct 31, 2012 3:03 PM CDT

Is $1,200 Bribe Worth $5K? Zoning Inspector Gets Conviction Tossed on Valuation Issue

What’s the value of a bribe? A federal appeals court considered the question when it overturned the conviction of a Chicago zoning inspector who accepted two $600 bribes to issue certificates of occupancy for four homes. Dominick Owens was convicted under a federal statute with a $5,000 payment threshold, report…

Oct 19, 2012 3:09 PM CDT

Girls’ Hoops to Get Equal Prime-Time Play in Southeast Indiana; 7th Circuit Refused to Toss Case

Girls who play basketball at 10 high schools in Southeast Indiana will play as many “prime-time” games as the boys because of a consent decree in a Title IX lawsuit. Lawyer William Groth, who represented plaintiff Amber Parker, says the case sets a precedent because of a ruling (PDF) earlier…

Oct 18, 2012 11:00 AM CDT

Is Free Will a Bunch of Malarkey? Judge Posner Weighs In, with a Comment on Taxing Wealth

Judge Richard Posner sees a connection between free will (he doesn’t believe in it) and heavy taxation of wealth (he sees nothing unfair about it, though there may be “disincentive effects”). In a post at the Becker-Posner Blog, the Chicago-based appeals judge notes that liberals tend to see luck as…

Oct 17, 2012 11:00 AM CDT

Fed. Circuit Says Trial Judge Abused Discretion in Smartphone Sales Ban, Aligns with Posner View

In a Thursday ruling in one of several recent patent cases related to smartphone technology, a federal appeals court said a U.S. District Court judge in California abused her discretion by granting a pretrial injunction sought by Apple Inc. that banned sales of the Galaxy Nexus marketed by Samsung Electronics…

Oct 12, 2012 9:38 PM CDT

Posner Fires Back in Spat over Scalia’s Book and the Definition of Legislative History

What exactly is legislative history, and did Justice Antonin Scalia use it when he wrote his opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller holding that the Second Amendment protects the right to own guns? Judge Richard Posner of the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considering those questions…

Sep 21, 2012 11:41 AM CDT

Scalia Weighs In on Posner’s Controversial Book Review, Calls Posner’s Assertion ‘a Lie’

Updated: Judge Richard Posner’s controversial review of a book co-authored by Justice Antonin Scalia is getting more push back, this time from the justice himself. Scalia says Posner was dead wrong when he asserted that Scalia was “doing legislative history” by considering the original meaning of the Second Amendment in…

Sep 18, 2012 11:42 AM CDT

Scalia Co-Author Sees ‘Tendentious Hostility’ in Review by Posner, Who Denies Any Personal Animosity

Disagreement in print comes naturally to former academics, according to Judge Richard Posner. The Chicago-based judge from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cites that proclivity in response to a blogger’s question about his harsh review of Reading Law, the new book by Justice Antonin Scalia and Bryan Garner,…

Sep 6, 2012 3:03 PM CDT

Indiana’s Sex Offender Registry Violates Registrants’ Due Process Rights, Appeals Court Says

Indiana’s sex and violent offender registry violates some registrants’ due process rights because it doesn’t give them a chance to fix any mistakes in the information, a federal appeals court has held. In a ruling (PDF) Tuesday, the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals encouraged the parties to work…

Aug 30, 2012 10:30 PM CDT

Textual Originalism and the Great Sandwich Debate: Posner Reviews Scalia

Judge Richard Posner picks apart Justice Antonin Scalia’s arguments for textualism in a book review that touches on the meaning of “sandwich” and the role of cognitive delusion in judicial decision-making. Scalia’s defense of “textual originalism” is lacking, Posner concludes in the New Republic essay. Scalia’s method relies on dictionary…

Aug 30, 2012 4:47 PM CDT

2 Federal Judges Work with Ex-Cons in Chicago Re-Entry Program

Two federal judges still wear their robes when they participate in a twice-a-month group program at their Chicago courthouse that is intended to help former inmates with substance-abuse issues stay out of trouble after they are released from prison. That is because U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo and U.S. Magistrate…

Aug 16, 2012 4:00 PM CDT

Attorney Faces Disbarment for Smuggling Cuban Cigars in 1990s

Bar authorities in Illinois are seeking the disbarment of a lawyer convicted of smuggling Cuban cigars into the country back in the 1990s. The recommendation filed by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission last week seeks to disbar Richard Steven Connors, who was convicted in 2002 of violating the…

Aug 15, 2012 1:12 PM CDT