On June 27, 1997, WLF filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on the applicability of 18 U.S.C. § 3501. The Sullivan case involved the suppression of a statement by a felon that he had a loaded gun in his car. WLF’s Sullivan brief was filed in response to an unusual maneuver by the Solicitor General’s Office of the Justice Department. The original brief filed by DOJ career prosecutors included the § 3501 argument; however, the brief was subsequently “pulled” from the court of appeals by the Justice Department and a substitute brief was filed redacting the § 3501 argument. The Justice Department subsequently disavowed § 3501 altogether in the Leong case which was also before the Fourth Circuit. The court, however, did not need to reach the § 3501 issue because it held that Sullivan was not in police custody when he made his incriminating statements.
