A defendant’s sentence for a single firearm charge and distribution of drugs was vacated and the case remanded, after a finding that the government breached the plea agreement by not advocating for the 10-16 months’ imprisonment agreed to by the ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Pamela A. Harris

Although a search warrant was defective, the district court did not err in denying the defendant’s motion to suppress because the officer seeking the warrant possessed sufficient information to support probable cause and any defects in the affidavit were miscalculation, ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Pamela A. Harris

Claims by a defendant convicted of conspiracy in a luxury car scheme that a judge’s jury instruction constructively amended the indictment against him in violation of the Fifth Amendment, was rejected, as the instruction did not alter the element of ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Pamela A. Harris

A university did not restrict or chill students’ speech by seeking their response to complaints that they had harassed others. The students, who’d sought and obtained university approval for a campus “Free Speech Event,” met with an official to discuss ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional First Amendment Judge Pamela A. Harris

A prosecutor who read racial slurs aloud from potential evidence, which he was evaluating at a pre-trial meeting, did not create a hostile work environment for the black police officers in the room. Even if such conduct could give rise ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Employment Employment Discrimination Judge Pamela A. Harris Municipal

A serial killer, sentenced to death under North Carolina law, did not have a constitutional right to inform his sentencing jury that he was ineligible for parole. This right, which accrues when the prosecutor points to the defendant’s future danger ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Pamela A. Harris Sentencing

When asked to impose a shorter sentence based on the defendant’s well-documented history of mental illness, the sentencing court was required to explain why it rejected such mitigation. Defense counsel had argued that the defendant’s multiple death threats sent to ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Pamela A. Harris Sentencing

Although a forensic search of a digital phone is a “non-routine” border search that requires an individualized suspicion of illegal activity, CBP agents had such reasonable suspicion when they seized a suspected weapons smuggler’s phone and extracted communications data and ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Criminal Judge Pamela A. Harris Search & Seizure

A Board of Immigration Appeals decision effectively adopting a new standard for “crimes involving moral turpitude” could not rely on the new standard without offering good reasons for the change and addressing its retroactive effect. Background Petitioner Pedro Josue Jimenez-Cedillo, ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Administrative Criminal Immigration Judge Pamela A. Harris

An employer enjoined from moving its operations could no longer pursue its appeal after an arbitrator’s final decision. The matter was moot, despite the employer’s intention to seek attorneys’ fees. Background Appellant Airgas Inc. operates a facility in Hyattsville, Maryland, ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Arbitration Civil Procedure Contract Employment Judge Pamela A. Harris Labor