Latest 2 Cases: United States v. Rosales (Criminal Law), Lopez v. Garland (Immigration Law)

The Oprah Interview as a Truth Commission

LESLEY WEXLER

Illinois Law professor Lesley Wexler explains how Oprah’s interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle might illuminate how a formal truth commission to deal with legacies of racism and colonialism might function in the British empire. Professor Wexler describes the purpose and function of state-operated truth commissions and notes the similarities and differences between those and the interview.

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United States v. Rosales

Docket: 19-3749

Opinion Date: March 12, 2021

Judge: Suhrheinrich

Areas of Law: Criminal Law

Duran transported drugs from California to Ohio on a bus. Duran carried 10 packages of methamphetamine, a total of 4,427 grams. The DEA intercepted Duran, who agreed to cooperate and allowed the government to copy calls, texts, and data from her cellphone. When officers surrounded Rosales, Duran’s contact, in a parking lot, Rosales destroyed his cell phone. Officers found cash totaling $6,962 in Rosales’ pocket. Officers searched his pickup truck and found money orders that matched details sent to Duran. In Rosales’ home, officers found $9,500 in cash. No controlled substances, drug paraphernalia, or drug ledgers were found. The court instructed the jury to find the quantity of drugs involved in the conspiracy as a whole, rather than just the amount that was foreseeable to Rosales. The jury convicted Rosales on conspiracy and attempt to possess counts and found that the conspiracy involved 4,427 grams of methamphetamine, 21 U.S.C. 846, 841(a)(1); 841(b)(1)(A)(viii). The court gave a two-point enhancement for obstruction of justice because Rosales threw his cellphone down during his arrest but departed down from the Guidelines range and imposed a sentence of 240 months’ imprisonment The Sixth Circuit affirmed the convictions. There was sufficient evidence to convict on both counts. The court erred in failing to provide defendant-specific jury instructions but the error was harmless because it could not have contributed to a different result. The court remanded for the limited purpose of reconsidering whether the obstruction of justice enhancement applies after making the necessary factual findings.

Lopez v. Garland

Docket: 20-3762

Opinion Date: March 12, 2021

Judge: Bush

Areas of Law: Immigration Law

Lopez, a citizen of Guatemala, entered the U.S. in the 1990s without admission or parole. In 2003, the government charged her with removability under 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(6)(A)(i) and sent Lopez a Notice to Appear that contained a warning in English that if she failed to attend the hearing, the IJ could order her removal, and she might be arrested as a result. Lopez failed to appear at her removal hearing. The IJ ordered her removal in absentia. Immigration officials detained Lopez a few years later. In 2017, Lopez moved to reopen her removal proceedings, claiming that she was the derivative beneficiary of her husband’s pending application for protection under the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA). The IJ denied Lopez’s motion, finding Lopez’s NACARA-based claims untimely and that her motion failed to include required documents. The IJ also declined to exercise its discretionary authority to sua sponte reopen Lopez’s removal proceedings. The BIA affirmed, rejecting Lopez’s additional argument on appeal that the 2004 removal order should be rescinded because the Notice to Appear was delivered in English, not in her native language. The Seventh Circuit rejected a petition for review and dismissed, for lack of jurisdiction, Lopez’s challenge to the BIA’s decision not to sua sponte reopen her case under its discretionary authority,