Correspondent
Federal courthouse correspondent, covers civil rights, employment discrimination, housing rights, and Second Amendment disputes.
The Sixth Circuit affirmed a district court grant of qualified immunity to police officers who fatally shot a suspect who reached for a firearm and turned toward them. The court held that the officers' use of deadly force was objectively reasonable under the Fourth Amendment given the suspect's noncompliance and immediate threat.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed the denial of a federal habeas corpus petition filed by a South Dakota death row inmate. The court rejected six claims challenging the constitutionality of habeas deference, procedural default, and ineffective assistance of counsel.
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 Eleventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of Dawn Plagianes's ADA claims because she failed to file her EEOC charge within the statutory 180-day deadline. The court held that the limitations period began when the school district unequivocally notified her of its termination decision in April 2021, not when her resignation or termination became effective later that summer.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's order compelling arbitration and denying the motion to vacate, holding that the employment agreement was not unconscionable under California law. The court found that while unequal bargaining power created some procedural unfairness, the agreement lacked sufficient substantive unfairness because the district court had already severed the offending carve-out provision.
