Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Addict in possession of a firearm?

 While everyone debates whether the charges against Hunter Biden are too aggressive or too lenient, I was wondering if anyone had ever seen a similar charge -- addict in possession of a firearm -- in our district before.  I have not.

Meantime, Justice Alito took to the WSJ opinion pages in an attempt to preempt this ProPublica story:

In early July 2008, Samuel Alito stood on a riverbank in a remote corner of Alaska. The Supreme Court justice was on vacation at a luxury fishing lodge that charged more than $1,000 a day, and after catching a king salmon nearly the size of his leg, Alito posed for a picture. To his left, a man stood beaming: Paul Singer, a hedge fund billionaire who has repeatedly asked the Supreme Court to rule in his favor in high-stakes business disputes.

Singer was more than a fellow angler. He flew Alito to Alaska on a private jet. If the justice chartered the plane himself, the cost could have exceeded $100,000 one way.

In the years that followed, Singer’s hedge fund came before the court at least 10 times in cases where his role was often covered by the legal press and mainstream media. In 2014, the court agreed to resolve a key issue in a decade-long battle between Singer’s hedge fund and the nation of Argentina. Alito did not recuse himself from the case and voted with the 7-1 majority in Singer’s favor. The hedge fund was ultimately paid $2.4 billion.

Alito did not report the 2008 fishing trip on his annual financial disclosures. By failing to disclose the private jet flight Singer provided, Alito appears to have violated a federal law that requires justices to disclose most gifts, according to ethics law experts.

Experts said they could not identify an instance of a justice ruling on a case after receiving an expensive gift paid for by one of the parties.

“If you were good friends, what were you doing ruling on his case?” said Charles Geyh, an Indiana University law professor and leading expert on recusals. “And if you weren’t good friends, what were you doing accepting this?” referring to the flight on the private jet.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Along a similar line, why is harsher sentencing so celebrated:

https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/06/court-strikes-a-blow-for-sentencing-discretion-under-provision-in-federal-firearm-statute/

Acquitted conduct sentencing may finally meet it's maker.

https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/shaw-v-united-states-2/

Anonymous said...

Doesn't the DOJ Tax Division Procedures Manual, state, " All criminal tax charges must be approved by the Tax Division Deputy Attorney General"????

Daryl E. Wilcox said...

I once received a call from the mother of a defendant who was charged with possession of a firearm affecting interstate commerce by a person who was a user of a controlled substance. 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(3). The crime was charged in Iowa. The controlled substance was marijuana

Anonymous said...

SDFL charges 922g3.

Anonymous said...

I don’t want smoked up reefer freaks running around with a gun. But then again, I really don’t think anybody should be running around with guns on them.

Anonymous said...

I had a client with a plea to the same charge. Filed in WDNC, Asheville. Crime happened in the national park. Client had meth and some guns.

Anonymous said...

Welcome to Floriduh!