Under the Clean Water Act (“CWA”), the EPA issues permits limiting the pollutants that regulated entities can discharge into federal waters. Those permits generally operate either by establishing effluent limitations for certain pollutants or by imposing narrative requirements, like requiring the permittee to use “best practices” to limit pollution. But in recent years, the EPA has sometimes taken a third approach, issuing results-oriented permits that
Read More City and County of San Francisco v. EPA (No. 23-753)Thompson v. United States (No. 23-1095)
William Blake once observed that “a truth that’s told with bad intent, beats all the lies you can invent.” It turns out the Supreme Court agrees, at least for escaping liability under 18 U.S.C. § 1014. In Thompson v. United States (No. 23-1095), a unanimous court held that this statute criminalizes only false statements and not statements that are misleading but literally true.
Patrick…
Read More Thompson v. United States (No. 23-1095)Delligatti v. United States (No. 23-825)
Federal law provides a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for a person who uses or carries a firearm during a “crime of violence.” In Delligatti v. United States (No. 23-825), the Supreme Court addressed whether a crime of omission involves the “use” of physical force, thus subjecting a defendant to the sentencing enhancement. A 7-2 Court held that it does.
Salvatore Delligatti is…
Read More Delligatti v. United States (No. 23-825)Bufkin v. Collins (No. 23-713)
When a veteran seeks disability benefits, federal law provides that ties go to the applicant. But if the Veterans Administration decides it’s not a tie—that is, the preponderance of the evidence comes out against the veteran—then it has no occasion to apply this tiebreaking rule. That leads to a question only an appellate lawyer would ask: What standard of review applies to the VA’s determination…
Read More Bufkin v. Collins (No. 23-713)Dewberry Group, Inc. v. Dewberry Engineers Inc. (No. 23-900)
The federal Lanham Act provides that a plaintiff who prevails in a trademark infringement suit is sometimes entitled to recover the “defendant’s profits” derived from the infringement. But does the “defendant’s profits” look only to the named defendant, or can it consider the profits of separately incorporated affiliates that were not parties to the lawsuit? In Dewberry Group, Inc. v. Dewberry Engineers Inc. (No 23-900)…
Read More Dewberry Group, Inc. v. Dewberry Engineers Inc. (No. 23-900)