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The Tenth Circuit denied a certificate of appealability because the petitioner failed to allege specific, credible constitutional violations in his habeas petition. The court dismissed the appeal, finding the petitioner's claims were delusional and factually frivolous under the Rules Governing Section 2254 Cases.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a developer's federal constitutional claims, holding that the plaintiff failed to allege a constitutionally protected property interest in the disputed land or contractual payments. The court reasoned that the plaintiff conveyed legal title to the property and that the contract language did not create a legitimate claim of entitlement to payment for a specific number of lots.
The Tenth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a federal prisoner's Eighth Amendment claim, ruling that his amended complaint failed to provide fair notice of the specific conduct alleged against defendants. The court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding the allegations were too vague and conclusory to satisfy Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed Oscar Hudspeth's conviction for sex abuse in Indian country, ruling that excluding polygraph evidence did not violate his constitutional right to present a complete defense. The court held that while the defendant sought to explain his incriminating statements as reactions to a failed polygraph, the exclusion of the test results was proper and did not prevent him from presenting his overall defense strategy.
The Sixth Circuit reversed the district court's certification of a class action against State Farm, holding that individualized issues regarding the unique value of each insured vehicle predominate over common questions. The court reasoned that because determining actual cash value requires case-by-case analysis, a class-wide resolution is unmanageable under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3).
The Ninth Circuit denied Lorena Vazquez-Trujillo's petition for review of her asylum and withholding of removal claims, ruling that her proposed social group lacks the required legal particularity. The court upheld the agency's finding that women of low socio-economic status in Mexico are too amorphous to constitute a cognizable particular social group.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed Dustin Jones's convictions for drug trafficking and felon-in-possession, ruling that his anchored boat qualified as a vehicle under the Fourth Amendment. The court further held that officers had reasonable belief the suspect was inside to justify the arrest warrant execution and that the felon-in-possession statute remains constitutional as applied to non-violent felons.
The Seventh Circuit affirmed a 75-month federal sentence for a bank fraud scheme, rejecting the defendant's challenges to two sentencing enhancements. The court found sufficient evidence that the defendant knowingly used sophisticated means and supervised other participants in the fraud.
The Fifth Circuit dismissed a petition for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals decision because it was filed more than thirty days after the agency's ruling. The court held that the statutory time limit is a strict jurisdictional bar that deprives the appellate court of authority to hear untimely cases.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the denial of a writ of error coram nobis, holding that the defendant failed to prove prejudice from his counsel's alleged failure to warn him of immigration consequences. The court ruled that without contemporaneous evidence showing the defendant would have rationally rejected the plea to proceed to trial, the fundamental error standard was not met.
