Cocaine smugglers have taken to use semi-submersible vessels attempting to avoid detection. The below photo is from a recent interdiction.
U.S. Coast Guard photo.
New criminal case from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals involving the constitutionality of the semi-submersible drug trafficking statute, 18 U.S.C. 2285. The case is United States v. Campaz-Guerrero.
In a case ripped from the tales of yore or the latest installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals found that the U.S. courts had no in rem jurisdiction over a sunken Spanish ship. The case is Odyssey Marine Exploration v. The Unidentified Shipwrecked Vessel, Its Apparel, Tackle, Appurtenances &
The ten-year anniversary of 9/11 prompted a vivid documentary about the boatlift of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers off Manhattan following the World Trade Center attacks.
Alternative, less choppy video, here.
On the Coast Guard’s efforts, and the herculean response of the maritime community in New York, the Commandant of the U.S. Coast
Occasionally, I'll digress from the usual eclectic fare of this blog to share some interesting cases from around the country.
I posted earlier about the Stolen Valor Act case arising from California. The case involved a man asserting his receipt of the Medal of Honor. Per the Ninth Circuit:
Apparently, Alvarez makes a hobby of lying about himself to make people think he is “a psycho from the mental ward with Rambo stories.” The summer before his election to the water district board, a woman informed the FBI about Alvarez’s propensity for making false claims about his military past. Alvarez told her that he won the Medal of Honor for rescuing the American Ambassador during the Iranian hostage crisis, and that he had been shot in the back as he returned to the embassy to save the American flag. Alvarez reportedly told another woman that he was a Vietnam veteran helicopter pilot who had been shot down but then, with the help of his buddies, was able to get the chopper back into the sky.
The Ninth Circuit reversed the conviction, here . As predicted, the United States just petitioned for Supreme Court review (petition here).
The Question Presented is:
Section 704(B) of Title 18, United States Code, makes it a crime when anyone “falsely represents himself or herself, *** verbally or in writing, to have been awarded any decoaration or medal authorized by Congress for the Armed Forces of the United States.” The Question Presented is Whether 18 U.S.C. 704(B) is facially invalid under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.
Stay tuned.
Today, on behalf of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, we filed a complaint against Governor Neil Abercrombie seeking to compel the disclosure of the list of judicial nominees provided to him by the Judicial Selection Commission.
The complaint is here.
And, not the eternal damnation kind of condemnation either. We are proud to announce the publication of Eminent Domain – A Handbook of Condemnation Law (ABA 2011).
The American Bar Association's Section of State & Local Government Law has just published a new book on eminent domain fundamentals: Eminent Domain – A Handbook of Condemnation
Civil Beat had a great article in today’s edition on the proposed designation of critical habitat for the Monk Seal (for more on the regulation, see my earlier post here).
Photo courtesy of NOAA.
Sophie Cocke does a great job outlining the proposed habitat designation and then identifying the issues associated with
An environmental group has brought a federal court lawsuit against various federal officials seeking to enjoin the issuance of permits to the Kona Blue Water Fish aquaculture operation. The complaint can be downloaded here.
The complaint alleges that the issuance of permits for the aquaculture operation violates the Marine Sanctuaries Act, the National
In reference to my earlier post regarding the environmental lawsuit to stop whale strikes, here is the Petition compiled by several environmental groups to regulate ship speed off the coast of California to prevent whale strikes.
From the Petition:
Pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 553(e), the Center for Biological Diversity, Environmental
