RICO Madness: Marijuana Operations Face RICO Challenges in Federal Courts

Don’t look now cannabis businesses, but your neighbors may be raising a racket. A June decision by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver may have opened the doors to new legal challenges to marijuana operations: civil suits under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

RICO was originally intended to go after the mafia and other organized crime, but its broad language…

Tenth Circuit Briefs in Appeal of Conviction for Defrauding Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah

In UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee vs. JEFFREY CHARLES ZANDER, Defendant-Appellant, the government obtained a superseding indictment against Mr. Zander, charging him with two counts of mail fraud (counts 1-2) in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341, two counts of wire fraud (counts 3-4) in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343, one count of money laundering (count 5) in violation of 18 U.S.C.…

I wrote up my thoughts on the three Tenth Circuit judges who will be deciding the Utah and Oklahoma same sex marriage cases, looking at both their reputation and some of the specific cases they've decided. Again, I think the lesson is that other factors are probably more important than the party of the president who appointed the judge.