United States v. Dupre, Docket Nos. 05-2223-cr (L), 05-2272-cr (CON) (2d Cir. Sept. 6, 2006) (found here)
On appeal, the defendants argued that the district court erred in calculating their advisory Guidelines offense level by imposing a "vulnerable victims" sentence enhancement (pursuant to Section 3A1.1(b) of the Guidelines) partially on the basis of the victims' religion (and apparently their religious beliefs). The Second Circuit rejected the district court's imposition of that enhancement, finding that "membership in religious groups cannot, standing alone, make victims 'vulnerable' for purposes of the enhancement, even where a fraud involves reliance on religious themes or imagery. . . . We have no reason to believe that evangelical Christians as a class are 'unusually susceptible' to fraud."
