Defendant-appellant Nadia Sol attempted to appeal for a reduced sentence, arguing that it was substantively unreasonable, which the Eleventh Circuit then shot down, affirming the original sentence.

From March 2009 to April 2010, Sol participated in a conspiracy set-up involving the creation of fraudulent bank accounts. Stolen checks were obtained, then deposited into those fake bank accounts, and then the funds were withdrawn before anyone could find out. At one point, Sol even made her minor daughter participate in the depositing.

The Eleventh Circuit disagreed when the district court entered a judgment ruling that the Menendez family did not willfully violate minimum wage laws, and found that there was sufficient evidence to support a finding.

Plaintiff Maria Davila was hired as a nanny for the Menendez family from 2004 until 2010 and alleged that the defendants violated federal and state minimum wage laws. The district court had granted a judgment as a matter of law against Davila and in favor of the Menendezes, claiming that Davila did not introduce sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to find a willful violation of minimum wage laws.

When the district court issued a sweeping injunction that promptly stopped an order to require 85,000 people to report to suspicionless drug testing, it was too broad, the Eleventh Circuit said last month.

In 2011, the Governor of Florida, Rick Scott, issued an executive order (EO) that required nearly 85,000 state employees submit to suspicionless drug testing. In turn, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 79 ("Union") sued Rick Scott in his official capacity in court to invalidate this EO -- both facially, and as an as-applied challenge (contending that it was unconstitutional). The district court then granted summary judgment in favor of the Union.

Best Buy's practice of scanning the magnetic card strip of the drivers' licenses of customers who made returns was not a violation of any privacy law, the Eleventh Circuit ruled last month. The court agreed with and affirmed the district court's ruling that plaintiff Steven Siegler did not have any valid claim for relief under the Drivers' Protection Privacy Act ("DPPA").

Siegler, who was hoping to launch a class action suit against Best Buy, was a customer who was attempting to return a computer mouse that he had purchased the day before. Per the store's policy for returns, the cashier requested Siegler's drivers' license, which was voluntarily handed over and swiped by the cashier. Siegler then demanded that the information derived from that scan be deleted, but the store said they were unable to do so.

Last month, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the lower court's ruling that The Coca-Cola Company (Coke) was in compliance with a provision of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and employee-employment policy when they placed the plaintiff employee Franklin Owusu-Ansah on a paid leave of absence and required that he undergo a psychiatric/psychological fitness-for-duty evaluation.

Franklin Owusu-Ansah was first employed by Coke in 1999 and consented to a request and recommendation that he take paid time off to undergo a fitness-for-duty evaluation. He then alleged that Coke was in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 12112(d)(4)(A), a provision of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which reads:

The Eleventh Circuit ruled that a district court judge did not err in sentencing a defendant by applying the modified categorical approach in determining his prior crime committed was violent. By finding his crime violent, the court upheld the district court using a higher sentencing guideline under the federal statutory scheme for an illegal reentry of a deported alien.

Death Row inmate, John Errol Ferguson, one of Miami's most notorious mass murderers lost his appeal this Tuesday. Ferguson is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection as early as Tuesday evening.

Ferguson's attorney, Chris Handman, represented him in his appeal from the Florida Supreme Court decision. Handman argued that capital punishment by lethal injection to a schizophrenic is "cruel and unusual punishment." The Florida Supreme Court rejected Ferguson's arguments of incompetency.

Florida has dabbled in kosher cuisine. From 2004 to 2007, seven prisons administered kosher meals to inmates under the Jewish Dietary Accommodation Program (JDAP). For unknown reasons (likely budgetary), the program was discontinued. In 2010, they tried a pilot program, though it only existed at one prison in South Florida.

Bruce Rich is an Orthodox Jew serving time at the Union Correctional Institution in Florida. He filed a claim under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), arguing that his right to practice his religion was violated because he was denied a strictly kosher diet, and seeking both injunctive relief and monetary damages. Somehow, his case was tossed via summary judgment.

Faced with the “devastating impact” of the $85 billion in sequestration cuts on the federal judiciary, the Eleventh Circuit did what any responsible circuit facing budget cuts would do:

PARTY!

O.K., that’s not a completely fair assessment of the situation, but it is certainly a valid perception of the Eleventh Circuit’s Judicial Conference, which took place recently at the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort and Spa, where “Southern charm meets modern luxury.”

Gary Washington participated in a credit card scheme. Along with his cohorts, the group purchased stolen credit card numbers off of the internet and imprinted new cards with those numbers. They then used them or sold them to third parties.

There's not really a dispute as to his guilt - he did plead guilty, after all. What is currently in dispute is the appropriate sentence. USSG §2B1.1(b)(2) provides for the following sentencing enhancements: