Should Anyone Care that Sexual Assault is “Out of Character” for Biden?

SHERRY F. COLB

Cornell law professor Sherry F. Colb considers what people mean when they say that a sexual assault allegation seems “out of character” for a particular person and explains why that reasoning is logically flawed. Focusing on differences between how people behave publicly and privately, Colb argues that the lack of an observed pattern of sexual misconduct is not evidence that a person did not engage in sexual misconduct on a specific occasion.

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United States v. Longoria

Docket: 19-20201

Opinion Date: May 5, 2020

Judge: Gregg Costa

Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Fifth Circuit held that the base offense level of 20 was proper for defendant's felon-in-possession crime involving a semiautomatic firearm that is capable of accepting a large capacity magazine. In this case, defendant failed to show that the district court clearly erred in relying on the FBI's agent statement about what was found in the apartment. The court clarified any confusion and held that the 2013 amendment to the commentary on the acceptance-of-responsibility Guideline does not clearly overrule its caselaw allowing the government to withhold the third point for acceptance of responsibility when it must litigate a suppression motion. The court held that Amendment 775 does not contain the unequivocal override needed to get past the court's precedent. Therefore, the court affirmed defendant's sentence.