United States v. Ali

I join the majority’s holding that the district court erred in granting the government’s motion to exclude Ali’s “mistake of law” defense. I disagree, however, with the majority’s holding affirming the district court’s denial of Ali’s motion to dismiss the indictment.

It is undisputed that Ali’s attempted second marriage was void ab initio under state law and therefore without any legal effect. See Blaox’s Law DictionaRY (8th ed.2004) (definition of “void marriage”) (“A void marriage does not exist, has never existed, and needs no formal act to be dissolved.”); see also id. (definition of…