2007 Federal Criminal Caseload Statistics: Hattip to Doug Berman at Sentencing Law and Policy for his post and link to data statistics on the federal criminal prosecutions in district courts over various years. Berman notes that federal bank robbery prosecutions have declined nearly 15%, while federal traffic offense prosecutions have increased "more than 20%." Federal prosecutions of sex offenders have also increased in recent years. The data shows that the federal government filed 1,885 claims for sex offenses in 2006. By the end of 2007, the federal government had filed 2,460 claims.

Probable Cause When Executing An Arrest Warrant: Yesterday, Jonathan Adler put up a post at Volokh Conspiracy discussing the Sixth Circuit's decision in U.S. v. Hardin. The decision, filed August 25th, addressed whether police officers could enter a home to execute an arrest warrant if they had "reason to believe" the suspect was inside, or if probable cause was required to enter. Adler comments that while the U.S. Supreme Court appeared to resolve this question in Payton v. New York (1980), a two judge majority found the issue to be an "open question" in the Sixth Circuit. According to the majority in Hardin, "the officers’ knowledge was insufficient under either standard..." therefore, suppression of the evidence seized during the entrance was required. The dissent found circuit precedent to be consistent with Payton v. New York, in requiring a "lesser reasonable belief standard" to enter the home in order to execute an arrest warrant.

Doc Dumps at SCOTUS: Ben Winograd at SCOTUSblog has this practice pointer post on "lodging" of nonrecord materials at the Supreme Court.