Correspondent
Capitol Hill correspondent, covers legislative and political stories.
The Eleventh Circuit granted appointed counsel's motion to withdraw under Anders v. California after an independent review found no arguable issues of merit. The court affirmed the defendant's conviction and sentence.
The Sixth Circuit reversed a district court denial of a preliminary injunction, ruling that a school board president violated the First Amendment by silencing a speaker. The court found the board engaged in viewpoint discrimination and ratified a heckler's veto by cutting off the speaker's microphone in response to crowd hostility.
The Sixth Circuit affirmed a conviction for threatening a federal official, finding sufficient evidence that a voicemail constituted a true threat. The court also held that the district court's jury instructions on the required mental state were not plainly erroneous.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed dismissal without prejudice of a pro se amended complaint as a shotgun pleading. The court also denied a motion to supplement the record and for judicial notice of an F.B.I. response letter.
The Seventh Circuit reversed the dismissal of Illinois wage claims over unpaid pre-shift COVID-19 screenings at Amazon warehouses. The court held that the Illinois Minimum Wage Law does not incorporate either the federal Portal-to-Portal Act's preliminary-activity exclusion or Amazon's proposed benefit-of-the-employer limitation.
The Fifth Circuit affirmed Francis Kerr's illegal-reentry conviction and sentence. The court rejected his claim that the district court's denial of a for-cause juror challenge deprived him of a fair trial.
The Seventh Circuit held that an Indiana child-molesting conviction qualifies as a prior state conviction "relating to aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, or abusive sexual conduct involving a minor or ward" under 18 U.S.C. Section 2252A(b)(2), triggering the ten-year mandatory minimum for Schatz's federal child-pornography conviction.
The Fourth Circuit affirmed the denial of Melvin Maxwell's suppression motion and upheld his sentence. The court held the traffic stop and trunk search were lawful and found no procedural error in the within-Guidelines sentence.
The Fifth Circuit vacated a district court dismissal of a habeas petition because the petitioner named the wrong respondent. The court held that the proper respondent in a habeas action must be the person who has actual custody over the petitioner.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the Merit Systems Protection Board's decision to uphold the removal of a postal employee. The court found that the agency satisfied due process requirements by mailing the notice of proposed removal to the employee's address of record.
