US v. Sedaghaty, No. 11-30342 (8-23-13)(McKeown with Schroeder; partial concurrence/dissent by Tallman).

This was a tax fraud case that was transformed into a terrorism case. Charitable contributions supposedly for a mosque in Missouri were allegedly were sent to terrorists in Chechnya. The 9th reversed and remanded for a new trial, and to see if evidence should be suppressed, based upon Brady violations, and a search outside the contours of the warrant. The case, and trial, was played out with evidence deemed classified. This lead to summaries, slanted according to the 9th, being used; and Brady material on a key witness being withheld. The Brady withholding was especially troubling, and caused a remand, as well as the computer search that ranged far afield beyond the warrant. Dissenting from the reversal and remand, Tallman argued that the 9th viewed the evidence from the vantage of the defendant, while a more neutral view revealed DOJ and the gov't taking extraordinary measures to disclose. The text of the search warrant is unduly restricted in the majority's reading.

Congrats to Steve Wax, FPD for Oregon.