Posted by Orin Kerr:
Government Files Notice of Appeal in Lori Drew Case:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_09_20-2009_09_26.shtml#1253922361
Today Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Krause, the prosecutor in the Lori
Drew case, [1]filed a notice of appeal of the [2]District Court's
decision granting the motion to dismiss. It's important to note that
this does not mean the case will actually be appealed. The
[3]Solicitor General must approve the decision to appeal for it to go
forward, and this may simply be a protective notice in light of the
fact that the government has 30 days to file a notice of appeal under
the federal rules.
It is also worth noting that just ten days ago, the Ninth Circuit
rejected the line of cases that the government relied on in the Lori
Drew prosecution in a civil case, [4]LVRC Holdings v. Brekka. This is
particularly interesting because in Drew, Judge Wu accepted the
government's broad reading of the statute as a matter of statutory
interpretation; he only dismissed the case because of the
constitutional vagueness problem. Under Brekka, however, the Ninth
Circuit seems to have rejected the Government's very broad reading of
the statute as a matter of statutory interpretation.
In any event, if the Government does in fact appeal the Drew case, I
plan to work on the appeal.
References
1. file://localhost/files/DrewNoticeofAppeal.pdf
2. http://volokh.com/files/LoriDrew.pdf
3. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sec_18_00003742----000-.html
4. http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/09/15/07-17116.pdf
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