4th Circuit Court of Appeals to hear cases at Law School's Merhige Moot Courtroom March 20

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in three cases at University of Richmond’s School of Law on March 20.

The session, beginning at 9:30 a.m., will give law students the opportunity to observe the court in action and, after adjournment, ask the judges and their clerks questions about anything other than the cases under consideration.

The court occasionally holds sessions in locations other than its home at the Lewis F. Powell Jr. U.S. Courthouse in Richmond, giving law students and the public the opportunity to observe its work. The March 20 session will be held in the law school’s Merhige Moot Courtroom.

The three cases to be heard include:

• Gerlad Lembach v. Howard Bierman, a property and housing law case growing out of a mortgage foreclosure. The debtor alleges that in order to maximize their profits by filing more foreclosures than their competitors, the mortgage holder did not strictly comply with the provisions concerning the signing of foreclosure papers and that this violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The mortgage holder argues in response that the procedural errors concerning the signatures do not affect the validity of the foreclosure since the debtor admits the debt. Interestingly, the Maryland Court of Appeals established an emergency rule to condemn the practices that had been disclosed, and the Maryland secretary of state decommissioned at least four notaries employed by the mortgage holder.

• Libertarian Party of Virginia v. Charles Judd, a First Amendment case which raises a challenge to a Virginia law requiring signatures on a ballot petition placing a minor political party candidate for the office of president and vice president on the Virginia ballot to be witnessed by a Virginia  resident. The Libertarian Party of Virginia challenges the requirement as an abridgment of its First Amendment rights. The case also includes a standing issue.  

• U.S. v. Jones, an evidence and criminal process case. This is a criminal appeal arising out of a conviction of conspiracy to evade immigration laws through fraudulent marriages between U.S. Navy servicemen and women and foreign nationals. It raises a number of issues, including a hearsay objection arising out of phone calls between Jones and his uncle while Jones was incarcerated and an issue about juror selection. Jones argued that a juror should have been struck for cause because of her political advocacy as a talk radio host. The case also involves an issue involving the sentencing guidelines.

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