In a petition for review of the BIA's order denying petitioner a waiver of the spousal joint-filing requirement for removal of the conditions on his permanent resident status, the petition is denied where: 1) petitioner produced virtually no documentation in support of his claim of a bona fide marriage; and 2) the Immigration Judge's discussion of extreme hardship was brief, but her reasoning was sufficiently clear and supported by the evidence.

Read Yohannes v. Holder, No. 08-3519

Appellate Information

Submitted: September 22, 2009

Filed: November 5, 2009

Judges

Opinion by Judge Wollman

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action by a prisoner alleging inadequate medical treatment, defendants' appeal from a denial of summary judgment based on qualified immunity is dismissed where the district court's order did not in fact resolve the qualified immunity issue and was purely administrative in nature, and therefore was not appealable.

Read Petersen v. Reisch, No. 09-1899

Appellate Information

Submitted: October 19, 2009

Filed: November 4, 2009

Judges

Opinion by Judge Riley

In an ERISA action alleging that various employee benefit plan fiduciaries breached their fiduciary duties to the plan and engaged in prohibited transactions, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where 29 U.S.C. section 1132(a)(2) did not permit the plaintiffs to bring suit because the plan's surplus was sufficiently large that the investment loss did not cause actual injury to plaintiffs' interests in the plan.

Read McCullough v. AEGON USA, Inc., No. 08-1952

Appellate Information

Submitted: December 12, 2008

Filed: November 3, 2009

Judges

Opinion by Judge Colloton

In a product liability action against hormone therapy manufacturers, partial judgment for plaintiff and for defendants is affirmed in part where: 1) plaintiff's Arkansas law claims were not preempted because there was no evidence that the FDA would not have permitted the strengthening of the labels of the drugs at issue in a manner consistent with Arkansas law; 2) plaintiff's expert testimony on causation was properly admitted because the expert ruled out other possible causes of plaintiff's disease; 3) the district court's instruction on proximate cause was correct; and 4) judgment for defendants on punitive damages was correct because defendants did not act with recklessness or malice.

Read In re: Prempro Prods. Liab. Litig., No. 08-2555

Appellate Information

Submitted: May 13, 2009

Filed: November 2, 2009

Judges

Opinion by Judge Wollman

Defendant's drug conspiracy conviction is affirmed where: 1) the government offered sufficient evidence that the conspiracy involved fifty grams or more of crack cocaine; 2) the government proved that defendant aided and abetted the conspiracy; and 3) the jury was equipped to evaluate the motivations of the government's cooperating witnesses without the aid of additional testimony.

Read US v. Coleman, No. 09-1454

Appellate Information

Submitted: September 22, 2009

Filed: October 30, 2009

Judges

Opinion by Judge Gruender

Defendant's appeal from his child pornography sentence is dismissed where defendant's plea agreement rendered a sentence unappealable unless the district court did not accept a recommendation to it contained in the agreement.

Read US v. Smith, No. 09-1057

Appellate Information

Submitted: September 25, 2009

Filed: October 30, 2009

Judges

Opinion by Judge Arnold

Defendant's cocaine base conspiracy sentence is affirmed where the district court did not err in declining to further reduce defendant's sentence pursuant to Amendment 706 to the Sentencing Guidelines because U.S.S.G. section 1B1.10(b)(2)(B), the policy statement applicable to defendant, limited any reduction below the amended guidelines range to an amount comparable to the reduction from the original guidelines range.

Read US v. Higgins, No. 09-1515

Appellate Information

Submitted: October 19, 2009

Filed: October 28, 2009

Judges

Per Curiam

Defendant's firearm possession conviction is affirmed where the district court did not err in denying defendant's motion to suppress the gun at issue because an earlier incident report regarding a vehicle resembling defendant's, along with the number of the vehicle's occupants, sufficiently implicated officer safety concerns to justify a search incident to arrest.

Read US v. Goodwin-Bey, No. 09-1317

Appellate Information

Submitted: September 22, 2009

Filed: October 28, 2009

Judges

Opinion by Judge Gruender

Defendant's sexual assault conviction is affirmed in part where: 1) the district court clearly and promptly admonished the jury to disregard that part of an expert's testimony that could be construed as having invaded the province of the jury; and 2) there was no hearsay issue because the district court did not allow the witnesses to repeat the content of what the victim had said.  However, defendant's conviction is reversed in part where insufficient evidence existed as to the victim's age at the time of the offense conduct.

Read US v. Espinosa, No. 08-3354

Appellate Information

Submitted: June 11, 2009

Filed: October 26, 2009

Judges

Opinion by Judge Smith

Defendant's sentence is vacated pursuant to the government's appeal where, because defendant's sentence was based on his career offender range, he was not eligible for a sentence reduction under 18 U.S.C. section 3582(c)(2).

Read US v. Blackmon, No. 09-1059

Appellate Information

Submitted: October 19, 2009

Filed: October 27, 2009

Judges

Per Curiam