Tuesday, May 27, 2008

U.S. v. Fernandez (9th Cir. - May 27, 2008)

Sometimes they make it easy for you. So easy that you only have to read the first sentence of the opinion to know not only the question presented, but also its unstated -- but crystal clear -- resolution by the court.

So, for example, when the first paragraph of the opinion contains a single sentence, and that sentence reads: "We must decide whether evidence obtained from an authorized wiretap investigation must be suppressed where the government continued to intercept a named target’s conversations despite his adoption of a new alias," it's far from tough to figure out what the answer is.

Even if you forgot that the opinion was written by Judge O'Scannlain -- another huge clue -- you'd have to be totally out of it not to know how this one ends.