United States v. Cortez Blake -Eastern District of Michigan at Detroit
Split Score
What is a Split Score?
This score (0-100) indicates how likely this case is to be reviewed by the Supreme Court based on:
Case Summary
Disposition
Affirmed in Part
The Sixth Circuit largely upheld Cortez Blake’s conviction for aiding and abetting kidnapping, rejecting challenges to suppression rulings, evidentiary decisions, cross-examination limits and sufficiency of the evidence. It affirmed most of Blake’s sentence but remanded so the district court can reconcile two special supervised-release conditions that were included only in the written judgment and may be unconstitutional.
Circuit Split Identified
Legal Issue
Whether a supervised-release condition barring a defendant from associating with anyone the defendant knows or should know is a gang “associate” is unconstitutionally vague or overbroad.
Circuit Positions
Association ban with gang members/associates is impermissibly vague or overbroad and must be vacated
Association ban is permissible and can be imposed as a condition of supervised release
Issue unresolved on the merits; condition allowed in absence of plain error
Conflict Summary
The Ninth Circuit has vacated such association bans as impermissibly vague or overbroad, whereas the Second and Eighth Circuits have upheld nearly identical conditions. The Sixth Circuit acknowledged the split and, while declining to decide the merits, allowed the condition to stand under plain-error review, effectively leaving the question open in this circuit.