Correspondent
Federal courthouse correspondent, covers civil rights, employment discrimination, housing rights, and Second Amendment disputes.
The D.C. Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the Jibril family's lawsuit, holding they lacked Article III standing to seek prospective injunctive relief. The court ruled that without evidence of current watchlist status or a substantial risk of future injury, the plaintiffs could not demonstrate the concrete injury required for judicial review.
The D.C. Circuit affirmed the district court's sua sponte dismissal of Deborah Walton's complaint, holding that she lacks standing to bring a qui tam action under the False Claims Act. The court further ruled that her retaliation claim fails because she is not an employee or agent of the defendants, and that she forfeited other federal claims by failing to adequately brief them.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a preliminary injunction banning wolf trapping in Montana during grizzly bear denning season but vacated the order's geographic scope and prohibition on research trapping. The court held that while plaintiffs raised serious questions regarding unlawful grizzly bear take under the Endangered Species Act, the district court's injunction was overbroad in its application to areas outside the occupied grizzly range and to state research activities.
The Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of an association's discrimination suit against Pfizer for lack of Article III standing. The court held that an organization asserting injuries to its members must identify at least one injured member by name when seeking a preliminary injunction under the summary judgment standard.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a challenge to California statutes banning firearm sales on state property, ruling that the laws regulate nonexpressive conduct and do not violate the First or Second Amendments. In a related consolidated appeal, the court vacated a preliminary injunction, finding the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success on their constitutional claims.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the denial of a preliminary injunction, holding that legislators' walkouts to deny a quorum are official acts protected by Nevada Commission on Ethics v. Carrigan rather than personal speech under the First Amendment. Consequently, the Senators could not claim retaliation for absences incurred during their protest, meaning Oregon's constitutional disqualification provision applies without violating free speech rights.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the denial of a preliminary injunction, rejecting a death row inmate's due process claims regarding Idaho's commutation proceedings. The court held that the state's procedures satisfied constitutional minimums and that any alleged prosecutorial errors were harmless given the overwhelming evidence supporting the denial of clemency.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the denial of preliminary injunctive relief to death row inmate Thomas Creech regarding his scheduled lethal injection. The court held that Creech failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success on his Due Process and Eighth Amendment claims because his arguments about drug provenance were speculative and he offered no viable alternative execution method.
The Ninth Circuit enforced the National Labor Relations Board's order finding that hospitals committed an unfair labor practice by unilaterally stopping union dues checkoff after their collective bargaining agreements expired. The court ruled that the Taft-Hartley Act does not require specific revocability language to be written into employee authorization forms for the deduction to remain valid.
The Second Circuit affirmed a jury verdict in a reverse redlining case where Black and Latino homeowners successfully sued a lender for violating antidiscrimination laws by targeting them with predatory mortgage refinancing loans. The court held that equitable tolling applied to the statute of limitations and that a release-of-claims provision in a loan modification agreement was unenforceable as a matter of law.
