Correspondent
Federal courthouse correspondent, covers civil rights, employment discrimination, housing rights, and Second Amendment disputes.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of an employment discrimination appeal filed pro se by John Houhoulas. The court held that individual employees cannot be sued under Title VII and that state law claims were barred by the California Government Claims Act.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court dismissal of a Section nineteen eighty-three claim alleging a state-created danger. The court held that the plaintiffs failed to plausibly allege that the school district knew the student was violent or that its policies caused the attack.
The Tenth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a student and her parents challenging a school district's COVID-19 mask mandate. The court held that the plaintiffs failed to state valid claims for compelled speech, retaliation, or due process violations under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
The Ninth Circuit granted a stay and abeyance to allow a death row inmate to present an ineffective assistance of counsel claim at sentencing to state court. The court held that the claim was not procedurally barred under Arizona law despite the petitioner's failure to raise it in a prior petition.
The Tenth Circuit affirmed the conviction of a Customs and Border Protection officer who was found guilty of depriving a traveler of his rights and falsifying records. The court rejected the officer's due process claim that the government violated his rights by deleting a video of a separate incident under its standard retention policy.
The Ninth Circuit granted a stay and abeyance to allow a death row inmate to present an ineffective assistance of counsel claim at sentencing to state courts. The court held that it was unclear whether Arizona law would bar the claim in a second postconviction petition.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit dismissed an appeal filed by a pro se prisoner for lack of jurisdiction and duplicative litigation. The court found that the appellant had already appealed the primary orders and failed to timely appeal other procedural rulings.
The Ninth Circuit granted a stay and abeyance to allow a death row inmate to present an ineffective assistance of counsel claim at sentencing to state court. The court held that it is unclear whether Arizona procedural rules bar such a claim in a second post-conviction petition.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal with prejudice of a pro se plaintiff's Fair Credit Reporting Act complaint. The court held that the plaintiff abandoned his arguments on appeal and that the district court properly exercised its inherent power to manage its docket.
The Eleventh Circuit denied Allied Universal's petition for review and granted the National Labor Relations Board's application for enforcement. The court held that the Board's procedures satisfied due process requirements and that substantial evidence supported the finding that security lieutenants were not supervisors under the National Labor Relations Act.
