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Criminal Law—First Circuit Allows Guilty Plea for Misprision to Stand Under Plain Error Review—United States v. Caraballo-Rodriguez, 480 F.3d 62 (1st Cir. 2007), cert. denied, 128 S. Ct. 489 (2007)

First Circuit Review 2008 The federal misprision statute requires that a person with knowledge of a felony report such knowledge to the authorities.  Generally, the prosecution must prove that the defendant took some affirmative step to conceal the crime from...

Commercial and Consumer Credit Law—Class Action Remedy Unavailable in First Circuit for Plaintiffs Seeking Rescission Under Truth in Lending Act—McKenna v. First Horizon Home Loan Corp., 475 F.3d 418 (1st Cir. 2007)

First Circuit Review 2008 The Truth in Lending Act (TILA) provides consumers with the right to rescind their loan agreements within three days of the closing of the transactions.  Beyond this statutory provision permitting consumer recovery, the federal courts remain...

Constitutional Law—First Circuit Vacates Preemption Finding Relating to Three Massachusetts Oil Spill Prevention Act Provisions—United States v. Massachusetts, 493 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 2007)

First Circuit Review 2008 Federalism is “[t]he legal relationship and distribution of power between the national and regional governments . . . .” When state and federal laws conflict, the court will conduct a preemption analysis to determine whether an injunction of...

Labor and Employment Law—Uncertainty Over Burden of Proof for Mixed Motive Employee Discharge—Hospital Cristo Redentor, Inc. v. NLRB, 488 F.3d 513 (1st Cir. 2007)

First Circuit Review 2008 In 1977, the United States Supreme Court espoused a framework to determine whether impermissibly discharging an employee due to his or her union activities constitutes an unfair labor practice.  This framework requires that the employee first...

Federal Jurisprudence—The First Circuit Construes Plurality Opinions to Expand the Reach of the Clean Water Act—United States v. Johnson, 467 F.3d 56 (1st Cir. 2006), cert. denied, 128 S. Ct. 375 (2007)

First Circuit Review 2008 The Clean Water Act (CWA) extends federal protection to “navigable waters,” which it broadly defines as “the waters of the United States, including territorial seas.”  In Rapanos v. United States, the Supreme Court attempted to define the...