Summary of recent federal court decisions

Please enjoy the latest issue short circuita weekly feature written by many people at the Institute for Justice.

Last week, IJ co-founder and former president Chip Mellor passed away after a battle with leukemia. Godspeed, Chip. you are a legend click here To learn more.

What’s new in short circuit podcast: What happens if you claim the government isn’t enforcing the law? This would avoid many civil rights lawsuits.

1. Economists often say that incentives are important. Consider, for example, the incentives created by premarital sex. man’s wife If he dies, you’ll receive $8 million, but if you divorce within a year, you’ll only receive $3.5 million per month for 36 months. First circuit: Conviction for commissioned murder confirmed.
2. Can New York State Make a Claim? head bracket Do they have standing to sue the school district for failing to address repeated complaints of sexual assault, sexual harassment, gender-based violence and bullying among students? Second circuit: Yes, you can do that. consent i doubt it: That seems pretty awful, but our entire jurisprudence is head bracket The Supreme Court needs to resolve this issue because it is a terrible thing to stand by.
3. One of your goals in life is to understand whether a “subsection” is something within a “section” or just the next smallest thing within a “section” and not something smaller. If so, your ship has it. You should also consider whether certified nurses are required to participate in certain studies under Medicaid law, but if not, please read this document carefully. Second circuit Opinions that include dissenting opinions (yes about the need for nurses) (no about the need for nurses) would be well worth it.
4. The Video Privacy Protection Act was passed in 1988 after a reporter investigated Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork’s video rental history (and Not sneaky at all). But does this dusty law, written in the days of VHS tapes, have any continued life? Second circuit: “The VPPA is not a dinosaur law.” Therefore, a lawsuit could proceed that the NBA violated the rights of basketball fans when they disclosed their video viewing history to Metaplatforms.
5. In 2021, Texas will enact a law restricting paid “vote collection services.” It is defined as “an interaction with one or more voters in the physical presence of an official ballot or mail-in ballot for the purpose of delivering votes for a particular candidate or policy.” . ” The law will be challenged in August 2021, but the district court won’t issue an injunction until September 28, 2024, three weeks before voting begins in Texas. The state is moving to put the injunction on hold. Fifth Circuit:And then I’ll stay the night. under parcel As a general rule, you can’t mess around with elections this close.
6. A man celebrating his birthday in Detroit was listening to street musicians when a police officer asked him to move with him. The two got into a brief argument, and the man was hugging his girlfriend and passively resisting arrest when officers taped him up without warning. Qualified immunity to excessive force? 6th Circuit: No. “This circuit clearly establishes that an individual has a constitutional right not to be taped when he or she is not actively resisting.”
7. Amid unrest over a similar death in 2020, Wauwatosa, Wis., said he expected the district attorney’s office to announce it would not prosecute the police officer who shot and killed a Black teenager. Authorities imposed a five-day curfew and arrested or ticketed several demonstrators for violating it. Seventh Circuit: This did not violate the First Amendment because it was a content-neutral measure appropriately adjusted to the exigencies of the situation. (Note: If a district court instructs you to use extreme caution when amending a complaint to determine whether you are suing a government defendant in an official or private capacity. Please don’t ignore it.)
8. A hoax call leads police to a home in Pasadena, California, searching for a non-existent suicidal suspect. Yay! It turns out that two federal law enforcement officers live in the house and have complained about the search with guns. I went through the drawer and personal items. In response, the police chief issued a press release that included body camera footage that purported to show the officer’s appropriate actions, but also revealed the location of the home. FEDERAL OFFICER: It was retaliation and we had to move to another city because our lives were at risk. district court: There is no qualified immunity. 9th Circuit (Unpublished): Qualified immunity.
9. Plaintiff: Colorado law says you can’t build a septic tank without a permit, but my county says they won’t give me a permit until the septic tank construction is complete. My 22 got caught! I choose Sophie! So this is unconstitutional! 10th Circuit: That sounds like a crappy system, but that doesn’t mean it violates due process.
10. Did Jenks, Oklahoma, police have the jurisdiction to investigate a man who killed his ex-girlfriend on the Muscogee Creek Reservation in 2018? 10th Circuit: Not since the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision McGirt vs. OklahomaHowever, state officials acting in good faith could reasonably have believed they had the authority to investigate in 2018, so there was no need to suppress the evidence. The conviction was affirmed.
11. Plaintiff Landowner (and Successful SCOTUS) litigant) complain that the county’s land use ordinance leaves approximately 97 percent of the land under water, making development impossible. 11th Circuit: Well, you never asked them if they could build something. So maybe I’ll try a variance application or something first.
12. Although the case has not yet been heard on appeal, we have received information from our friends at Newsletter that the case has been successful. habeas petition The brutal triple murder that occurred in Puerto Rico in 1989 is a big story that has not yet reached the mainland. Google Translate Compatibility Research It has been indicated that it will soon head to the First Circuit. There are section headings like “Crime Scene Havoc” and “Investigators Contaminate, Discard, and Destroy Vital Evidence,” which is outrageous.
13. And in big news, 6th Circuit I have no intention of reconsidering my refusal to remove RFK Jr. from the Michigan presidential ballot. Justice Clay strongly agreed, stating that given that Kennedy is suing in New York in an attempt to remain on the state’s presidential ballot, the First Amendment arguments presented by “plaintiffs and their dissenting colleagues” are He said it was “completely fraudulent.” Opposition colleagues, meanwhile, have accused Michigan’s secretary of state of illegally placing Mr. Kennedy on the ballot, presumably to draw votes away from certain controversial major-party candidates.
14. And in the news of permission/cancellation/remand, the Supreme Court said: Villarreal v. Alaniz Return to the 5th Circuit for reconsideration in light of (IJ’s megahit) Gonzalez v. Trevino. Ms. Villarreal, a citizen journalist and known critic of law enforcement, was charged with “soliciting” nonpublic information from a Laredo, Texas, police officer after she asked him to confirm facts that were part of a developing story. was arrested. This crime had never been carried out for decades. Back in January, Fifth Circuit In a 9-7 vote, the arrest was ruled A-OK. (IJ is Court summary Urge reconsideration. And while we’re honking this horn, this is second time A bad First Amendment ruling gonzalez. )

new case: Last month in Kalispell, Mont. City Council members voted to close the Flathead Warming Center, a 50-bed homeless shelter in a commercial district, as winter approaches. The shelter is clean and well-organized, and no violations of regulations have been reported. After much collaboration with elected officials and city staff, it opened in its current location, a former vacant auto repair shop. But with visible homelessness on the rise in the city (rents have nearly doubled in the past two years), city leaders decided to make the shelter a scapegoat. And while there is a process in place to deal with problem properties, here the city council chose to ignore its own rules and revoke the shelter’s permit (a permit that, once granted, lives with the land). . A federal judge next week will consider a request for a temporary restraining order to allow the warming center to operate while the lawsuit progresses and nighttime temperatures dip below freezing.