Correspondent
Federal courthouse correspondent, covers civil rights, employment discrimination, housing rights, and Second Amendment disputes.
The First Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a former student's civil rights claims against school officials and a police officer regarding sexual assault by a coach. The court held that the school officials lacked actual knowledge of the abuse and that the plaintiff failed to prove the state created the danger or that the officer was properly served.
The Eleventh Circuit vacated a district court ruling that denied qualified immunity to a jail deputy who remotely unlocked a pretrial detainee's cell for medical transport. The appellate court held that the deputy's actions did not constitute deliberate indifference to the detainee's known suicide risk because she lacked subjective awareness that unlocking the cell would cause the specific harm that occurred.
The Seventh Circuit affirmed the district court's certification of a class action against Amazon for alleged violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. The court held that common questions regarding Amazon's data collection practices predominate over individual questions about user location, allowing the case to proceed as a class action.
The Eleventh Circuit certified four critical questions to the Alabama Supreme Court regarding the scope and criminal penalties of Alabama's SB1 absentee voting law. The federal court paused its review of a Voting Rights Act preemption claim because the state statute's ambiguity creates uncertainty about whether plaintiffs have standing to sue.
The Eleventh Circuit denied an emergency stay of execution for a death row inmate challenging his execution under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The court held that the inmate's exclusion from a COVID-19 agreement pausing executions for certain prisoners did not violate the Equal Protection or Due Process Clauses.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the denial of a motion to compel arbitration in an ERISA case involving a terminated employee stock ownership plan. The court held that the plan's arbitration provision was unenforceable because it prohibited plaintiffs from seeking plan-wide relief, thereby prospectively waiving substantive statutory rights under ERISA.
The Eleventh Circuit denied Frank A. Walls's motion for a stay of execution, ruling that his last-minute Eighth Amendment challenge to Florida's lethal injection protocol was barred by inexcusable delay. The court held that Walls failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits because he waited months to file suit despite knowing of his health risks and the protocol's history for years.
The Eleventh Circuit reversed the district court's denial of summary judgment, holding that Officer David Collier was entitled to qualified immunity for using deadly force against Jacob Settle. The court concluded that Settle's actions of starting his truck and shifting it into gear created an objectively reasonable belief of imminent threat, even though the vehicle did not move.
The Eleventh Circuit reversed a district court's grant of summary judgment in a Section 1981 retaliation case, holding that the lower court improperly conflated the McDonnell Douglas pretext analysis with the convincing mosaic standard. The court remanded the case for the district court to apply the correct summary judgment standard to the employment discrimination claim.
The Eleventh Circuit held that Clearwater's five-foot vehicular safety zone buffer around an abortion clinic likely violated the First Amendment under the Supreme Court's ruling in McCullen v. Coakley. The court found the district court abused its discretion in denying a preliminary injunction because the ordinance was not narrowly tailored to serve the city's safety interests.
