Professor John Hasnas has written a short article for the Washington Legal Foundation on the erosion of the mens rea requirement for public welfare offenses. He opines that both federal and state governments have decidedly shifted to employ the criminal law as a means of achieving regulatory ends and, in doing so, have vitiated mens rea […]
In his book, Winning on Appeal, Ruggero Aldisert writes on the singular purpose of the appellate brief: The only reason for your brief is to convince the appellate court to reverse or affirm. Forget about how you spotted and discussed all those issues on your law school exams. Forget about how you wrote that law review article setting […]
In Goss v. United States, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decided the issue of whether, when computing the advisory guideline range, the fair market value of the collateral for the home-mortage loans involved in a mortgage-lending fraud scheme should be credited against the loss to the victim. Goss , a mortage lender, was indicted […]
