An Important Second Circuit Ruling on Sanctuary Jurisdictions May Have Reached the Right Result, but En Route it Misread the Momentous Sebelius Supreme Court Ruling on Conditional Federal Funding to States

VIKRAM DAVID AMAR

Illinois Law dean and professor Vikram David Amar comments on a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit regarding so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions. Amar argues that while the Second Circuit may have arrived at the correct conclusion of law, it also misunderstood the Supreme Court’s decision in NFIB v. Sebelius, in which the Court struck down the “Medicare expansion” provision of the Affordable Care Act as unconstitutionally coercive. Amar points out that in Sebelius, the Court found the fact that the Medicare expansion provision of the ACA vitiated the terms of a preexisting deal was sufficient to hold that provision coercive.

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Moore v. Stirling

Docket: 18-4

Opinion Date: March 3, 2020

Judge: Richardson

Areas of Law: Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law

The Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of a petition for habeas corpus relief based on two ineffective assistance of counsel claims previously rejected by the state post-conviction court. The court held that petitioner defaulted on his claims because he failed to raise them to the state court and thus they are unexhausted. Because the new evidence does not fundamentally alter the heart of the two ineffective assistance of counsel claims presented to the state court, the court held that the district court properly deferred to the state court rejection of these claims. Likewise, the court rejected petitioner's third ineffective assistance of counsel claim, holding that he defaulted on this claim by not presenting it to the state court and he failed to make a substantial showing that his trial counsel were ineffective.

United States v. Jones

Docket: 18-4448

Opinion Date: March 3, 2020

Judge: Niemeyer

Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of defendant's motion to suppress evidence and his conviction for possession of a firearm by a felon. The court held that the officers had probable cause to believe that a crime was being committed in defendant's house, and thus the warrant appropriately authorized the search of the house for evidence of that crime. The court found unpersuasive defendant's argument that the warrant should have been limited in geographic scope because the smoldering marijuana cigarette in the trash can was the likely source of the marijuana odor. Rather, the court held that the presence of one marijuana cigarette in the kitchen did not negate the fair probability that other evidence of the crime of marijuana possession would be found in the house.

United States v. Jordan

Docket: 17-4751

Opinion Date: March 3, 2020

Judge: Pamela Harris

Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Fourth Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction and sentence for possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, and four other drug-trafficking and firearms-related offenses. The court held that there was no error in denying defendant's motion to suppress evidence gathered from the traffic stop, because the detective had ample reasonable suspicion of drug distribution, justifying the full length of the stop under the Fourth Amendment; there was no Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause violation by admitting evidence relating to a recorded phone call between defendant and an informant who did not testify at trial; and the district court did not err by holding that section 403 of the First Step Act does not apply retroactively to cases pending on direct appeal when it was enacted.