[4] On April 15, 2004, Judge Block sentenced Gambino crime family boss Peter Gotti to 9 years and 4 months in prison for money laundering and racketeering charges.
[6] In 2008, Judge Block ruled that the United States government could not use ethnicity as a factor in deciding to detain two Egyptian-born men on a plane.
The Judge stated that it was the first case post-September 11 attacks to address whether ethnicity may be used to establish criminal propensity under the Fourth Amendment.
[2] On September 30, 2015, a portion of a "seemingly never-ending dispute" over the printing of the Rebbe's Sichos came to an end when Judge Block dismissed a major part of a lawsuit involving members of the Orthodox Jewish Chabad group.
Judge Block dismissed claims of copyright infringement and unfair competition brought by Vaad L'Hafotzas Sichos and Zalman Chanin against Merkos and Agudas Chasidei Chabad.
[8] On May 24, 2016, Judge Block ordered a sentence of one year of probation (rather than the guideline 33-41 month imprisonment) for a defendant who was convicted by a jury of importation and possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute.