This website requires JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings, or use a different web browser like Google Chrome or Safari.

Options

From our private database of 28,700+ case briefs...

United States v. Kramer

United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

225 F.3d 847 (2000)

Facts

Robert Kramer (defendant) was a Minnesota resident who worked as an interstate truck driver. In 1980, Kramer was temporarily working in Indiana and had a brief sexual relationship with an Indiana resident, Janice Jacobs. Jacobs subsequently had a child and claimed that Kramer was the child’s father. Jacobs attempted to get Kramer to pay child support through the Indiana court system. Kramer never appeared at any of the court proceedings. In 1982, the Indiana court established Kramer’s paternity by default and ordered him to pay $25 per week in child support. Kramer made sporadic attempts to contest the default judgment and never paid any of the ordered support, in spite of various legal efforts by Jacobs and the Indiana courts to enforce the order. In 1998, Kramer was indicted under a federal statute, the Child Support Recovery Act (CSRA), 18 U.S.C. § 228, for willful failure to pay child support due in another state. Kramer moved for a judgment of acquittal, alleging that the underlying Indiana child-support order was invalid because he had never received service of process in that matter and that the state court therefore did not have personal jurisdiction over him. The court refused to grant Kramer’s motion. Kramer was convicted, sentenced to one year of probation, and ordered to pay $19,750 in restitution. Kramer appealed.

Rule of Law

The rule of law is the black letter law upon which the court rested its decision. To access this section, please start your free trial or log in.

Issue

The issue section includes the dispositive legal issue in the case phrased as a question. To access this section, please start your free trial or log in.

Holding and Reasoning (Ripple, J.)

The holding and reasoning section includes:

A "yes" or "no" answer to the question framed in the issue section;
A summary of the majority or plurality opinion, using the CREAC method; and
The procedural disposition (e.g., reversed and remanded, affirmed, etc.).

To access this section, please start your free trial or log in.

What to do next…

Unlock this case brief with a free (no-commitment) trial membership of Quimbee.
You’ll be in good company: Quimbee is one of the most widely used and trusted sites for law students, serving more than 546,000 law students since 2011. Some law schools—such as Yale, Berkeley, and Northwestern—even subscribe directly to Quimbee for all their law students.
Unlock this case brief Read our student testimonials
Learn more about Quimbee’s unique (and proven) approach to achieving great grades at law school.
Quimbee is a company hell-bent on one thing: helping you get an “A” in every course you take in law school, so you can graduate at the top of your class and get a high-paying law job. We’re not just a study aid for law students; we’re the study aid for law students.
Learn about our approach Read more about Quimbee

Here's why 546,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:

Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 28,700 briefs, keyed to 983 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.

Access this case brief for FREE

With a 7-day free trial membership

Here's why 546,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:

Reliable - written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students
The right length and amount of information - includes the facts, issue, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents
Access in your class - works on your mobile and tablet
28,700 briefs - keyed to 983 casebooks
Uniform format for every case brief
Written in plain English - not in legalese and not just repeating the court's language
Massive library of related video lessons - and practice questions
Top-notch customer support