News & Events

Firdaus Dordi, former Trial Chief of the Federal Public Defender for the Central District of California (FPD-CDCA), was appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court bench by Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. in December 2016. Firdaus was sworn in by former Federal Public Defender Maria Stratton in January 2017. Firdaus spent 14 years with the FPD-CDCA, starting as a Deputy Federal Public Defender and ending his career as the Chief of the Los Angeles office’s trial unit. An investiture was held on August 25, 2017, […]..

United States v. Martinez-Lopez, __ F.3d __, 2017 WL 3203552 (9th Cir. July 28, 2017) (en banc): The Court considered whether California Health & Safety Code §11352, which—like many California drug statutes—criminalizes a variety of activities related to multiple controlled substances, is a drug trafficking for purposes of U.S.S.G. §2L1.2. The Court first held that the statute, which is overbroad with regard to the type of controlled substance, is divisible as to that element such that the modified categorical approach can be used. The Court […]..