2020 D.C. Circuit US Court of Appeals Case Law
Date: December 29, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5305
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit held that the members of the House of Representatives' Committee on Oversight and Reform who requested agency information under 5 U.S.C. 2954 have standing under Article III to enforce their statutorily…
Date: December 29, 2020
Docket Number: 19-3058
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit reversed the district court's denial of appellants' motions for reduced sentences under section 404 of the First Step Act. The court held that the district court erred in determining that if a defendant…
Date: December 29, 2020
Docket Number: 19-7129
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant, a resident of the District of Columbia and a dual citizen of the United States and the Russian Federation, filed a defamation action in district court against appellee, a nonresident alien and citizen of the…
Date: December 29, 2020
Docket Number: 19-7136
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit alleging that DCPS failed to provide her son with a free appropriate public education (FAPE) based on his 2017 individualized education program (IEP). The DC Circuit affirmed the district court's…
Date: December 29, 2020
Docket Number: 20-5193
Justia Opinion Summary: Pursuant to the Affordable Care Act, Congress required hospitals to make public "a list" of "standard charges" in accordance with guidelines developed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The Hospital and…
Date: December 22, 2020
Docket Number: 20-1006
Justia Opinion Summary: The FCC’s Lifeline program offers low-income consumers discounts on telephone and broadband Internet access services. Qualified consumers receive service from eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs), which receive a…
Date: December 18, 2020
Docket Number: 20-1142
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit upheld the FCC's order significantly narrowing a frequency band dedicated to fixed satellite transmissions in order to make room for the emerging fifth generation of mobile cellular technology. At issue in…
Date: December 8, 2020
Docket Number: 19-3016
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants Knight and Thorpe were convicted on a ten-count indictment for charges related to armed robbery and kidnapping. Knight was sentenced to more than 22 years' imprisonment and Thorpe was sentenced to 25 years'…
Date: December 1, 2020
Docket Number: 20-5048
Justia Opinion Summary: E-cigarette manufacturers and retailers, as well as a nonprofit organization, challenged the FDA's Deeming Rule, which deemed e-cigarettes to be "tobacco products" subject to the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco…
Date: November 24, 2020
Docket Number: 19-7029
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant seeks damages from WMATA for an assault he suffered while working, unsatisfied with a workers' compensation order to which he previously stipulated. Another employee at WMATA pinned appellant to the ground and…
Date: November 20, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1174
Justia Opinion Summary: Bob's Tire petitioned for review of the Board's order concluding that Bob's violated the National Labor Relations Act. Bob's argued, among other things, that subcontracted work was not bargaining unit work and that, even…
Date: November 18, 2020
Docket Number: 20-5329
Justia Opinion Summary: In July 2019, the Department of Justice announced a revised protocol for execution by lethal injection using a single drug, pentobarbital. Plaintiffs, federal death row inmates, sought expedited review of three of the…
Date: November 13, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5260
Justia Opinion Summary: Hospitals, in calculating their Medicaid fractions -- the proportion of treatment a hospital provided to Medicaid patients -- sought to include days of care funded by Florida's Low Income Pool, an approved Medicaid…
Date: November 10, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5178
Justia Opinion Summary: Statewide filed three actions alleging that certain aspects of DHS's current administration of the immigration-bond system violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and Statewide's right to due process under the…
Date: November 6, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1214
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a broker-dealer, twice misappropriated his employer's funds and then unsuccessfully tried to cover his tracks by falsifying documents. FINRA permanently barred him from membership and from associating with…
Date: November 3, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1164
Justia Opinion Summary: After the FCC determined that incumbents no longer dominated the telecommunications market because of the plethora of competitor modes of voice transmission, the FCC exercised its statutory authority to forbear from…
Date: October 27, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5021
Justia Opinion Summary: The district court correctly concluded that loan proceeds qualify as cash, not indebtedness, under the EB-5 visa program. The DC Circuit held that the text, structure, and regulatory context show that the term "cash," as…
Date: October 23, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1235
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit granted Davidson's petition for review of the Board's decision determining that Davidson committed unfair labor practices by refusing to bargain with a union in two Board-certified units. The court…
Date: October 16, 2020
Docket Number: 19-3040
Justia Opinion Summary: On April 22, 2019, the district court denied petitioner's first three claims for habeas relief, but reserved his 18 U.S.C. 924(c) claim for later resolution because, at the time, United States v. Davis, 139 S. Ct. 2319,…
Date: October 15, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5331
Date: October 13, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1111
Justia Opinion Summary: The union represents teachers and other professional employees at schools on U.S. military bases in Puerto Rico. In 2015, the federal agency and the union began negotiating a successor to an expired collective bargaining…
Date: October 13, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5052
Justia Opinion Summary: National Butterfly Center, a 100-acre wildlife sanctuary and botanical garden owned by the nonprofit North American Butterfly Association, lies along the border with Mexico. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security…
Date: October 9, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5284
Justia Opinion Summary: Under the terms of a 2008 injunction, the Secretary must make various Federal Reserve Notes distinguishable to the visually impaired no later than the next scheduled redesign of each denomination. The Council challenged…
Date: October 6, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1025
Justia Opinion Summary: Intentional discrimination against the statutorily protected collective actions of employees remains discrimination even when it takes the form of scapegoating. Napleton petitioned for review of the Board's decision…
Date: September 25, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5176
Justia Opinion Summary: The House filed suit alleging that the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, the Treasury, and the Interior, and the Secretaries of those departments violated the Appropriations Clause of the Constitution and the…
Date: September 25, 2020
Docket Number: 20-5204
Justia Opinion Summary: Title V of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) makes certain funds available to the recognized governing bodies of any "Indian Tribe" as that term is defined in the Indian…
Date: September 15, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5284
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit against her employer, the EEOC, alleging that the agency had subjected her to a hostile work environment in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and had violated her rights under the…
Date: August 31, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5331
Justia Opinion Summary: After the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives ordered former White House Counsel McGahn to testify, the president instructed McGahn to assert absolute testimonial immunity from compelled…
Date: August 31, 2020
Docket Number: 20-5143
Justia Opinion Summary: Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents, 18 U.S.C. 1001. In May 2020, before sentencing, the government moved to dismiss all charges with prejudice. Flynn consented to that motion and moved…
Date: August 28, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1235
Justia Opinion Summary: Two U.S. railroads began allowing engineers and conductors employed by their Mexican affiliates to operate trains on their tracks in the U.S. Railroads certify their own engineers and conductors, in compliance with…
Date: August 28, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5079
Justia Opinion Summary: The district court denied a habeas petition by Al Hela, a Yemeni sheik, challenging his detention at the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay. Al Hela claims that the President lacked authority to detain him under the…
Date: August 21, 2020
Docket Number: 17-5265
Justia Opinion Summary: After the federal government brought an action against Dynamic Visions and its owner under the False Claims Act (FCA) for submitting false claims for reimbursement, the district court granted summary judgment to the…
Date: August 21, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1124
Justia Opinion Summary: This case arose from a longstanding dispute about which of two competing unions represents a group of several dozen mechanics who maintain and repair shipping equipment. Under NLRB v. Burns International Security…
Date: August 21, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5261
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs filed suit challenging a Federal Election Commission Rule requiring some donations known as independent expenditures (IEs) to be publicly disclosed. In the underlying case, plaintiff brought an enforcement…
Date: August 21, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5025
Justia Opinion Summary: Five foreign nationals who each contributed $500,000 to Mirror Lake, a new commercial enterprise set to construct and operate a senior living facility, sought to obtain lawful permanent resident status under the EB-5…
Date: August 21, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5088
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed three sets of requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), seeking information about the denial of his applications for a United States entry visa. The district court granted summary judgment in…
Date: August 20, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1216
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit denied the Refinery's motion to proceed under a pseudonym. The court weighed the markedly thin showing of potential injury by the Refinery against the substantial public interest in transparency and…
Date: August 18, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1011
Justia Opinion Summary: Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a lower grandfathered royalty rate is paid by some music services that were early providers of digital music transmissions. Music Choice, a digital broadcast music…
Date: August 14, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1281
Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal involves conditions that the FCC imposed on a merger of three cable companies into a new merged entity, New Charter. Among other things, the conditions (1) prohibit New Charter from charging programming…
Date: August 14, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1139
Justia Opinion Summary: The EPA issued a regulation known as the Pathways II Rule, allowing renewable-fuel producers to use a measurement method "certified by a voluntary consensus standards body" (VCSB), or a method "that would produce…
Date: August 14, 2020
Docket Number: 20-5056
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Secretary Clinton's former Chief of Staff, Cheryl Mills, sought mandamus relief preventing the district court's order granting Judicial Watch's request to…
Date: August 11, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5047
Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal arose from NSC's three lawsuits raising 45 claims against six federal agencies arising out of numerous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests initiated by NSC. Through a series of decisions, the district…
Date: August 11, 2020
Docket Number: 18-7177
Justia Opinion Summary: Congress enacted an appropriations rider in 2009 prohibiting the District of Columbia from paying more than $4,000 in attorneys' fees for any past proceeding under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).…
Date: August 11, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1028
Justia Opinion Summary: In these consolidated appeals, appellants challenge the royalty rates and terms established by the Board for the period of January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2022. Appellants challenged numerous aspects of the Board's…
Date: August 11, 2020
Docket Number: 19-7020
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs filed suit against CareFirst after hackers allegedly stole sensitive customer information from the health insurer's data system, alleging tort, contract, and statutory claims. The district court dismissed all…
Date: August 7, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5176
Date: August 7, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5331
Justia Opinion Summary: On petition for rehearing en banc, the en banc court held that the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives has standing under Article III of the Constitution to seek judicial enforcement of its duly…
Date: August 4, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1007
Justia Opinion Summary: The Communications Act of 1934 restricts the rates that telecommunications carriers may charge for transmitting calls across their networks, 47 U.S.C. 201(b). Iowa-based Aureon is a joint venture through which local…
Date: August 4, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5334
Justia Opinion Summary: The Department of Health and Human Services disallowed roughly $30 million in Medicaid reimbursements for payments Virginia made to two state hospitals. HHS determined that Virginia had materially altered its payment…
Date: August 4, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1076
Justia Opinion Summary: Al Bahlul, a Yemeni national, was Osama bin Laden’s head of propaganda at the time of the September 11 attacks. After he was captured in Pakistan, Al Bahlul was convicted by a military commission in Guantanamo Bay of…
Date: August 4, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1101
Justia Opinion Summary: Pacific is the multi-employer bargaining representative in collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) for its employer members. One member, Long Beach, employs watchmen, represented by Local 26, and marine clerks,…
Date: July 31, 2020
Docket Number: 18-7151
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983 against the District of Columbia, seeking compensation for the Executive Director of the Lottery Board's violation of plaintiff's Fifth Amendment rights. In this case, the…
Date: July 31, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1067
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit denied petitions for review challenging FERC's orders concerning SFPP's tariffs. SFPP challenges FERC's decisions to deny SFPP an income tax allowance, to decline to reopen the record on that issue, and to…
Date: July 31, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1163
Justia Opinion Summary: The union filed suit challenging the Authority's decision overturning an arbitrator's award in a dispute arising from a termination provision of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The DC Circuit granted the…
Date: July 31, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5048
Justia Opinion Summary: Hospitals and hospital associations filed suit challenging HHS's decision to reduce the reimbursement rates for 340B hospitals. The district court held that the rate cute exceeded HHS's statutory authority to adjust…
Date: July 28, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1325
Justia Opinion Summary: Meritor filed suit challenging the EPA's listing of the Rockwell facility and surrounding areas to the National Priorities List, alleging that the listing is arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to governing regulations.…
Date: July 28, 2020
Docket Number: 19-7087
Justia Opinion Summary: TIG filed an emergency motion for attachment-related relief and a writ of execution, seeking to satisfy a long-pending judgment by attaching a building that the Republic of Argentina listed for sale in the District of…
Date: July 24, 2020
Docket Number: 10-3037
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted on all counts related to his involvement in a violent narcotics-distribution conspiracy, except one count of aiding and abetting first-degree murder and a corresponding count of aiding and…
Date: July 24, 2020
Docket Number: 15-1323
Justia Opinion Summary: In three consolidated petitions for review, petitioners challenged five FERC orders on two intertwined El Paso rate cases under the Natural Gas Act, the 2008 Rate Case and the 2011 Rate Case. The DC Circuit denied the…
Date: July 24, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1219
Justia Opinion Summary: AdvancePierre petitioned for review of the Board's finding that it committed unfair labor practices (ULPs) over a five month span as the union conducted an organizing campaign. At issue is whether AdvancePierre…
Date: July 24, 2020
Docket Number: 19-7019
Justia Opinion Summary: After plaintiff filed suit against Parsons for employment discrimination, Parsons moved to compel arbitration. The district court denied the motion, concluding that genuine disputes of material fact existed as to whether…
Date: July 21, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1337
Justia Opinion Summary: IPG, an agent for royalty claimants in these proceedings, filed suit challenging Copyright Royalty Judges' denial of most of its clients' royalty fee claims for programming in the devotional and program suppliers'…
Date: July 17, 2020
Docket Number: 18-7168
Justia Opinion Summary: IMAPizza, which operates the "&pizza" chain of restaurants in the United States, filed suit under the Copyright and Lanham Acts as well as D.C. common law against At Pizza, operator of the "@pizza" restaurant in…
Date: July 17, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5013
Justia Opinion Summary: Asylum seekers filed suit challenging executive-branch policies adopted to implement the expedited-removal provisions of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). Asylum seekers…
Date: July 17, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5212
Justia Opinion Summary: The ACAP and others challenged the Departments' Short-Term Limited Duration Insurance (STLDI) Rule defining STLDI as coverage with an initial contract term of less than one year and a maximum duration of three years…
Date: July 17, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5352
Justia Opinion Summary: In these consolidated actions, a group of hospitals challenged HHS's rate reduction for off-campus provider-based departments (PBDs) falls outside of the agency's statutory authority. The district court agreed and set…
Date: July 14, 2020
Docket Number: 17-5008
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit against the DOJ under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, alleging discrimination on the basis of his race and his sex, as well as retaliation for protected activity. Plaintiff cited seven…
Date: July 14, 2020
Docket Number: 18-7188
Justia Opinion Summary: After Strike 3's investigators recorded IP address 73.180.154.14 illegally distributing Strike 3's pornographic films via the BitTorrent network, the company filed a complaint against the IP address subscriber. However,…
Date: July 14, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1231
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit granted a petition for review of the EPA's denial of New York's petition challenging the EPA's asserted failure to address cross-border pollution under the Clean Air Act's Good Neighbor Provision, 42…
Date: July 10, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1203
Justia Opinion Summary: In these consolidated petitions, petitioners challenged area designations promulgated by the EPA for the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) applicable to ground-level ozone, i.e., smog. The court found…
Date: July 10, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1142
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit denied a petition for review of orders related to FERC's efforts to remove existing barriers to the participation of electric storage resources (ESRs) in the Regional Transmission Organization and…
Date: July 10, 2020
Docket Number: 19-7040
Justia Opinion Summary: Members of the Valambhia family filed an action to recognize the High Court of Tanzania's judgments in the District of Columbia. The DC Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of Tanzania's motion to dismiss the…
Date: July 10, 2020
Docket Numbers: 19-7083, 19-8004
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit dismissed the petition for permission to appeal in No. 19-8004 and related appeal in No. 19-7083 for lack of jurisdiction. In this case, the district court certified an order for interlocutory appeal but…
Date: July 7, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1022
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit dismissed petitions for review of several Federal Aviation Administration actions related to the proposed expansion of the Paulding Northwest Atlanta Airport. The court held that it lacked jurisdiction…
Date: July 7, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5195
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs, three cigar and pipe tobacco industry associations, filed suit challenging various provisions of the FDA's Deeming Rule, which subjects newly regulated tobacco products, including cigars and pipe tobacco, to…
Date: July 7, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5276
Justia Opinion Summary: The burden of producing judicial records may not permanently foreclose their unsealing. After plaintiffs, a journalist and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, applied to the district court to unseal certain…
Date: July 7, 2020
Docket Numbers: 18-5331, 18-5375
Justia Opinion Summary: In two related cases under the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), Plaintiffs Gorbey and Pinson, both incarcerated three-strikers, seek to bring their appeals in forma pauperis (IFP) on the ground that they face…
Date: June 30, 2020
Docket Number: 17-1098
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit denied the Commission's and Intervenor's motions to dismiss the petitions filed after thirty days of Commission inaction. The court explained that, before a party aggrieved by an order of the Federal…
Date: June 30, 2020
Docket Number: 18-3055
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit affirmed Defendant David G. Bowser's conviction for charges related his obstruction of an investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) into his work as chief of staff to a Member of Congress,…
Date: June 30, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1155
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit denied a petition for review of the Commission's order of disclosure of certain financial data related to Inbound Letter Post. The court held that the Postal Service's statutory argument hinges on a…
Date: June 30, 2020
Docket Number: 19-7116
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit vacated the district court's dismissal of plaintiff's claims of employment discrimination against Cushman & Wakefield's Chief Executive Officer of the Americas for lack of personal jurisdiction based on…
Date: June 26, 2020
Docket Number: 19-3026
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of distributing child pornography and traveling across state lines to engage in sexual conduct with a nine-year-old girl. The DC Circuit held that a defendant violates 18 U.S.C. 2423(b) by…
Date: June 26, 2020
Docket Number: 19-7027
Justia Opinion Summary: In the underlying lawsuit, voting rights organizations alleged that the new Executive Director, Brian Newby, acted outside the scope of his authority by changing the Commission's policy on documentary proof of…
Date: June 24, 2020
Docket Number: 20-5143
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit granted the petition for writ of mandamus in part and ordered the district court to grant the government's Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 48 motion to dismiss the charges against Michael Flynn, former…
Date: June 23, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5298
Justia Opinion Summary: Associations filed suit contending that the Secretary's decision to expand the reach of the expedited removal process to its statutory limit, sweeping in all individuals without documentation who have resided in the…
Date: June 19, 2020
Docket Number: 18-3081
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction of tax evasion in connection with his 2010 and 2011 individual tax returns. Defendant was a chief executive of a recycling technology company and solicited millions of…
Date: June 19, 2020
Docket Number: 18-7140
Justia Opinion Summary: After DSCI filed suit against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom removed the case to federal district court and filed a motion to dismiss the complaint on the grounds of forum non conveniens, pointing to the…
Date: June 19, 2020
Docket Number: 18-7154
Justia Opinion Summary: The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) does not permit courts to contemplate how much merits litigation is too much. Instead, they must resolve colorable assertions of immunity before the foreign sovereign may be…
Date: June 19, 2020
Docket Number: 19-7010
Justia Opinion Summary: ACC, the subcontractor on a Corps flood protection project, filed suit against the prime contractor, Hirani, for breach of contract and the providers of Hirani's payment bond, Colonial, under the Miller Act for unpaid…
Date: June 19, 2020
Docket Number: 19-7017
Justia Opinion Summary: Four professors of American studies filed suit against the American Studies Association (ASA) and individual ASA leaders after the ASA endorsed a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, alleging that the individual…
Date: June 16, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5145
Justia Opinion Summary: The Great Lakes Pilotage Act requires foreign vessels and American vessels participating in foreign trade to hire an American or Canadian maritime pilot to assist in navigating the difficult waters of the Great Lakes.…
Date: June 16, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5343
Justia Opinion Summary: Solenex challenged the Secretary's cancellation of its oil and gas lease in the Badger-Two Medicine Area. The district court ruled in favor of Solenex, concluding that the amount of time that had elapsed between the…
Date: June 16, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1042
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners filed suit challenging the SEC's adoption of a Pilot Program, Rule 610T, which was designed to gather data so that the Commission might be able to determine in the future whether regulatory action was…
Date: June 16, 2020
Docket Numbers: 19-5147, 19-5152
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellants, conservative organizations and a safari guide, filed suit challenging the Service's actions governing the import of sport-hunted animal trophies from Africa. Initially, appellants challenged certain findings…
Date: June 16, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5222
Justia Opinion Summary: Drug manufacturers challenged the Department's rule that broadly requires drug manufacturers to disclose in their television advertisements the wholesale acquisition cost of many prescription drugs and biological…
Date: June 12, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1201
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit granted a petition for review of the NLRB's determination that Circus committed three unfair labor practices related to a temporary employee. The court held that the Board engaged in unreasoned…
Date: June 12, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1065
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit denied a petition for review of the Authority's order finding that the Union committed unfair labor practices by attempting to dismantle the pool of arbitrators selected by a predecessor union and thereby…
Date: June 12, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5117
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs filed suit alleging that the CPD routinely endorses and supports Republican and Democratic nominees at the expense of third-party candidates, and that the CPD uses subjective and biased criteria for selecting…
Date: June 12, 2020
Docket Number: 19-7086
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs filed a legal malpractice case arising out of the failure of two sets of lawyers associated with two different law firms, Westerman, Hattori, Daniels & Adrian, LLP (Westerman) and Kratz, Quintos & Hanson, LLP…
Date: June 9, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1069
Justia Opinion Summary: After the CBP distributed a memorandum to its agents changing vehicle inspection procedures at the El Paso border checkpoint, the Union filed a grievance on behalf of CBP agents claiming that the CBP failed to notify and…
Date: June 9, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5168
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit contending that USPS's custom postage program violated the prohibition against viewpoint discrimination under the First Amendment. While the parties were completing discovery and nearing summary…
Date: June 9, 2020
Docket Number: 19-7119
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed a putative class action against Autovest and its debt-collection agency under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), alleging claims related to a prior collection action. The DC Circuit vacated…
Date: June 5, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1292
Justia Opinion Summary: Section 19(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is not available as a means to challenge the reasonableness of generally-applicable fee rules. At issue in this appeal is whether fees that national securities…
Date: June 5, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5255
Justia Opinion Summary: Following an incident at President Trump's 2019 Social Media Summit involving Appellee Brian Karem, a journalist with a hard pass, and Sebastian Gorka, a Summit attendee, the Press Secretary suspended Karem's pass for…
Date: May 29, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5315
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit against the Attorney General of the United States in his official capacity as head of the Department of Justice (DOJ), alleging that the DOJ had denied her a promotion to a Division Director position…
Date: May 29, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5350
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant contends that he received ineffective assistance of counsel during the direct appeal of his murder conviction in D.C. Superior Court. Appellant alleged that his appellate counsel labored under two conflicts of…
Date: May 29, 2020
Docket Number: 19-7072
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs filed suit challenging the validity of District of Columbia regulations that impose minimum education requirements for certain childcare providers. The district court held that the case was non-justiciable on…
Date: May 26, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5122
Justia Opinion Summary: After appellant asked the Board to expunge or amend Army investigators' determinations recorded in his military files, the Board denied his application and the district court sustained its decision. The DC Circuit…
Date: May 26, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5087
Justia Opinion Summary: The district court remanded the Fiscal Year 2014 Rule to the Secretary of Health and Human Services without vacating the Rule. The district court's decision was made in response to the challenge by a group of hospitals…
Date: May 19, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1285
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit granted Maryland's petition for review of the EPA's denial of its Clean Air Act section 126(b) petition requesting that the EPA impose additional limitations on certain upwind sources that were purportedly…
Date: May 15, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1282
Justia Opinion Summary: Kiewit contested its OSHA citation, arguing that the quick-drenching provision in 41 C.F.R. 50-204.6(c), which requires quick-drenching eyewash facilities for workers exposed to corrosive materials, was invalidly applied…
Date: May 15, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5297
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant, an Algerian national detained at Guantanamo Bay since 2002, asks the court to hold that the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause categorically applies in full to detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and that his…
Date: May 8, 2020
Docket Number: 18-7181
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit against George Washington University, alleging that it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to provide a reasonable accommodation and discriminating against her because of…
Date: May 5, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1071
Justia Opinion Summary: FlyersRights claimed that airlines were not giving passengers sufficient notice of their right to compensation for delays in flights and urged the Department to issue regulations requiring the airlines to print written…
Date: May 1, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1335
Justia Opinion Summary: PMRS petitioned for review of the FDA's denial of PMRS's application to market a prescription opioid drug. The DC Circuit rejected PMRS's challenges under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and held that the FDA's…
Date: May 1, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1044
Justia Opinion Summary: This case arose out of the FAA and NPS's efforts to regulate commercial sightseeing flights over national parks. The Air Tour Management Act of 2000 directs the FAA and NPS to "make every effort" to establish rules…
Date: April 28, 2020
Docket Number: 16-1149
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, found liable for multiple securities fraud violations, petitioned for review in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, which is the wrong court. By the time petitioner realized his mistake and filed the…
Date: April 24, 2020
Docket Number: 19-3090
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit vacated defendant's sentence imposed after he pleaded guilty to unlawful possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base, or crack, in violation of 21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(A)(iii)…
Date: April 21, 2020
Docket Number: 17-1257
Justia Opinion Summary: When the EPA promulgated the emission standard for pulp mill combustion sources in 2001, EPA addressed some but not all the hazardous air pollutants they are known to emit. In 2017, EPA conducted its first section…
Date: April 21, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5241
Justia Opinion Summary: Hall filed suit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), seeking records from the EPA related to the agency's purported adoption of a "nonacquiescence decision." The judgment at issue is that of the United States…
Date: April 21, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5370
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit challenging the Navy Secretary's refusal to grant him a waiver of statutory requirements that govern his eligibility for incentive pay. After determining that plaintiff has abandoned his substantive…
Date: April 21, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5104
Justia Opinion Summary: Three scientists who had previously received EPA grants and served on advisory committees, as well as several non-profit organizations, filed suit arguing that the EPA's directive, which now prohibits all grant…
Date: April 17, 2020
Docket Number: 18-3093
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit vacated the district court's denial of defendant's motion to suppress evidence. The court held that officers violated the Fourth Amendment when they seized defendant because they lacked reasonable…
Date: April 17, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5328
Justia Opinion Summary: After the EPA issued guidelines for two categories of solid waste incinerator over two years ago, the Administrator has not imposed a federal plan on noncompliant States. Sierra Club filed suit under the Clean Air Act's…
Date: April 14, 2020
Docket Number: 17-3080
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit reversed the district court's judgment and remanded with instructions to grant defendant's motion to vacate his sentence under 28 U.S.C. 2255. Defendant was convicted of murder almost 50 years ago. The…
Date: April 14, 2020
Docket Number: 17-7168
Justia Opinion Summary: The families of American victims of a 2002 bombing in the West Bank filed suit against the Palestinian Defendants, alleging that defendant are liable for the attack on the theory that they enabled the bombing through…
Date: April 14, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5330
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, a former employee of the FAA, filed suit against the Secretary of Transportation for unlawful retaliation and discrimination, and the Secretary of Transportation and the Department of Labor for violation of…
Date: April 14, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1026
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit granted UPS's petition for review, challenging the Commission's Order Adopting Final Rules Relating to the Institutional Cost Contribution Requirement for Competitive Products, No. 4963. The order modified…
Date: April 10, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1074
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit held that FERC's rejection of Gulf South's application for incremental-plus rates was arbitrary and capricious. The court held that FERC failed to justify the disparity between how materially identical…
Date: April 10, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1100
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit denied petitions for writs of mandamus seeking vacatur of all orders issued by the former presiding military judge because of the appearance of partiality. Petitioners are being tried before a military…
Date: April 7, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1167
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit dismissed Sierra Club's petition for review of the EPA's "Guidance on Significant Impact Levels for Ozone and Fine Particles in the Prevention of Significant Deterioration Permitting Program" (SILs…
Date: April 7, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1172
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit granted the petitions for review of the EPA's 2018 Rule, which suspended the prior listing of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) as unsafe substitutes in its entirety. Consequently, even current users of…
Date: April 7, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1210
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit denied a petition for review of the Department's determination that Hagerstown Airport was not eligible for federally subsidized air service because it did not meet the statutory "enplanement" requirement.…
Date: April 7, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5322
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit vacated the district court's preliminary injunction enjoining four plaintiffs from being executed. Plaintiffs claimed that the 2019 execution protocol and addendum violate the Federal Death Penalty Act of…
Date: April 7, 2020
Docket Number: 19-7033
Justia Opinion Summary: Western Surety filed suit against US Engineering, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief regarding its potential liability under a construction performance bond. Western Surety claimed that its obligations under the…
Date: March 27, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1298
Justia Opinion Summary: BGE petitioned for review of FERC's orders arising out of its efforts to apply its "matching" principles to divergences between the timing of deductions for tax purposes and timing for purposes of allocating costs to…
Date: March 27, 2020
Docket Number: 18-3073
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit affirmed the various challenged rulings, but remanded the ineffective assistance of counsel claims to the district court. In this case, appellant was convicted for kidnapping and unlawful possession with…
Date: March 27, 2020
Docket Number: 18-3090
Justia Opinion Summary: On remand, appellant asserted various ineffective assistance of counsel claims during the suppression stage, based on counsel's failure to move for STA dismissal, based on counsel's failure to call a witness, and based…
Date: March 27, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1030
Justia Opinion Summary: The county sought to revoke two exemptions the Board granted with respect to a freight rail easement over the county's property, alleging that both notices misrepresented the easement's ownership. The Board denied the…
Date: March 27, 2020
Docket Number: 19-7064
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant filed a qui tam action under the False Claims Act, alleging that KBR and various subcontractors defrauded the US Government by inflating costs and accepting kickbacks while administering military contracts in…
Date: March 17, 2020
Docket Number: 18-7167
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit against his former employer, claiming that Mastro's deprived him and other servers of a minimum wage in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the District of Columbia's Minimum Wage Revision…
Date: March 17, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1075
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit denied Union Pacific's petition for review of the Administration's regulation governing disclosures made by railroads that are transporting hazardous materials. Union Pacific alleged that the regulation…
Date: March 13, 2020
Docket Numbers: 15-1015, 16-1169, 16-1349
Justia Opinion Summary: In these consolidated actions, petitioners challenged the EPA's 2014 final rule, which exempted coal- and oil-burning power plant utility boilers' startup periods from numerical limits on hazardous air pollutants. EPA…
Date: March 13, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5207
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Eagle, in an action brought by Eagle, alleging that the Orphan Drug Act's (ODA), 21 U.S.C. 360aa–360ee, plain language required the FDA…
Date: March 13, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5239
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit affirmed the Commission's dismissal of three administrative complaints alleging violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act's disclosure requirements. After determining that plaintiffs had Article III…
Date: March 13, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1085
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the petition for review challenging the Commission's order approving the continued use of admittedly outdated accounting rules for an ever-dwindling number of telephone companies…
Date: March 13, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1146
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a Guantanamo detainee, sought a writ of mandamus asking the court to prevent the government from proceeding with destruction of a particular detention center ("Site A"). The DC Circuit denied relief, finding…
Date: March 13, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5176
Date: March 13, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5331
Date: March 10, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1173
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit dismissed the State's petition challenging the FAA's amended flight paths to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport as untimely. Although the State acknowledged that its petition was filed well after…
Date: March 10, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5068
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) seeking to compel the release of records related to an incident in which plaintiff was stabbed from behind with a screwdriver in prison. The DC Circuit…
Date: March 10, 2020
Docket Number: 18-7162
Justia Opinion Summary: Current and former Whole Foods employees initiated this diversity action seeking to recover purportedly lost wages, alleging that Whole Foods manipulated its incentive-based bonus program, resulting in employees losing…
Date: March 10, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5288
Justia Opinion Summary: The Committee seeks to obtain the redacted grand jury materials referenced in the Special Counsel's Report in connection with its impeachment investigation of President Trump. The Committee requested three categories of…
Date: March 6, 2020
Docket Number: 18-3056
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction and sentence for conspiracy to deal heroin and other drugs. The court held that defendant has failed to demonstrate prejudice from the government's belated disclosure of a…
Date: March 3, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1089
Justia Opinion Summary: The Hospital petitioned for review of an administrative decision affirming the Secretary's citation for violating the General Duty Clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) by inadequately protecting its…
Date: February 28, 2020
Docket Number: 18-7161
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs, Chinese citizens who were imprisoned for expressing dissent on the internet, filed suit alleging that, as part of an earlier settlement, Yahoo established a charitable trust to provide humanitarian and legal…
Date: February 28, 2020
Docket Number: 18-7185
Justia Opinion Summary: Cork Wine Bar, a restaurant that competes with President Trump's eponymous hotel, filed suit alleging violations of the District's common law of unfair competition. Cork alleged that President Trump's hotel attracted…
Date: February 28, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5331
Justia Opinion Summary: Separation-of-powers principles and historical practice compelled the DC Circuit to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction the Committee's suit to enforce the congressional subpoena against the Executive Branch. After the…
Date: February 25, 2020
Docket Number: 18-3010
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit affirmed defendants' convictions for conspiracy to commit bank robbery by intimidation. The court held that the evidence was sufficient to support the jury's finding that defendants agreed to rob by…
Date: February 21, 2020
Docket Numbers: 18-1241, 18-1242, 18-1243
Justia Opinion Summary: NTCH challenged the Commission's three spectrum-management decisions: first, the Commission "modified" Dish Network's license in the AWS-4 Band to authorize the company to develop a stand-alone terrestrial network that…
Date: February 21, 2020
Docket Numbers: 19-5023, 19-5027
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant filed suit claiming damages under the Consent Decree created in the 1999 settlement between the Department of Agriculture and a class of African American farmers. After the arbitrator denied the claims,…
Date: February 14, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5180
Justia Opinion Summary: Jackson served in the Marine Corps, 1977-1991. Almost 30 years after his honorable discharge, Jackson filed a pro se complaint alleging that toward the end of his military career, his supervising officers discriminated…
Date: February 14, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5094
Justia Opinion Summary: Kentucky and Arkansas residents sued the Secretary of Health and Human Services based on the approval under 42 U.S.C. 1315(a) of an “experimental, pilot, or demonstration projects which, in the judgment of the Secretary,…
Date: February 14, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5131
Justia Opinion Summary: Since the 1940s, the U.S. Navy operated a landfill on the island of Guam, containing discarded munitions, chemicals, and everyday garbage. The Ordot Dump lacked any environmental safeguards. The EPA added Ordot to its…
Date: February 11, 2020
Docket Number: 17-3057
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit affirmed Defendants Cooper and Bryant's appeal of their convictions and sentences for theft of public money and conspiracy to defraud the United States. The court held that the district court correctly…
Date: February 11, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5264
Justia Opinion Summary: Baystate filed suit against the Secretary, challenging his promulgation of a final rule calculating the wage index for hospital reimbursements in 2017. Baystate alleged that the Secretary failed to comply with the…
Date: February 11, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5199
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of plaintiff's suit, alleging that President Trump violated the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 by obscuring liabilities on financial disclosure reports, because…
Date: February 7, 2020
Docket Number: 19-1009
Justia Opinion Summary: The Narragansett Tribe petitioned for review of the Commission's order denying its motion to intervene in a natural gas pipeline certificate proceeding after the certificate to build a pipeline had issued. While the…
Date: February 7, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5237
Justia Opinion Summary: 215 Members of the Congress sued President Donald J. Trump based on allegations that he has repeatedly violated the United States Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause. The district court denied the President's motion…
Date: January 31, 2020
Docket Number: 18-3019
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit affirmed defendants' convictions for conspiring to traffic wholesale quantities of cocaine into the United States. The court found no grounds for reversal, holding that the evidence presented at trial did…
Date: January 28, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1063
Justia Opinion Summary: Duquesne petitioned for review of the Board's decision and order requiring the school to bargain with a union representing the school's adjunct facility. Duquesne argued that its religious mission places it beyond the…
Date: January 28, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1307
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit denied a petition for review of the Commission's order finding that the company violated regulations promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). In this case, the company had hired a…
Date: January 28, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5020
Justia Opinion Summary: The First Amendment does not create an implied damages action against officials in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for retaliatory administrative enforcement actions under the Financial Institutions…
Date: January 28, 2020
Docket Number: 18-7037
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, a white male of Chilean origin, filed suit under Title VII and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), alleging that WMATA failed to promote him on the basis of age and national origin and later…
Date: January 28, 2020
Docket Number: 18-7141
Justia Opinion Summary: In the GM/Ford action, AARC filed suit under the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA) for alleged violations of the Act. A second, substantially similar lawsuit was filed by AARC against FCA and Mitsubishi. The district court…
Date: January 24, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5298
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit reversed the district court's order dismissing, based on lack of subject matter jurisdiction, a pre-enforcement challenge to the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA),…
Date: January 22, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1085
Date: January 21, 2020
Docket Number: 17-3091
Justia Opinion Summary: After apprehension and extradition to the United States, defendants were convicted each on four counts: two counts under 18 U.S.C. 1114, which criminalizes the killing of an officer or employee of the United States; one…
Date: January 17, 2020
Docket Number: 18-5232
Justia Opinion Summary: The Trust appealed the district court's decision finding that the Trust failed to show that its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit caused the agencies to change their positions. In this case, the Trust requested…
Date: January 17, 2020
Docket Number: 18-7159
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit held that the Coal Industry Retiree Health Benefit Act of 1992 (Coal Act) required Arch Coal, as a person related to a 1988 last signatory operator (LSO), to provide security, and the security previously…
Date: January 10, 2020
Docket Number: 18-7193
Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal arose out of the unexplained disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 somewhere over the Southern Indian Ocean in the early hours of March 8, 2014. Representatives of many of the passengers filed suit…
Date: January 10, 2020
Docket Number: 19-5015
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit reversed the district court's grant of the USDA's motion to dismiss, based on failure to state a claim, an action brought under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) by two animal-rights groups, alleging…
Date: January 7, 2020
Docket Number: 18-1296
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit denied Rain for Rent's petition for review of a $116 fine under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977. Rain for Rent was given a citation after an employee forgot to set the parking brake on a…
Date: January 7, 2020
Docket Number: 18-3012
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction for six counts of sex trafficking and related crimes against minors, rejecting his claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. The court held that the existing record left…
Date: January 7, 2020
Docket Number: 18-3053
Justia Opinion Summary: The DC Circuit affirmed the district court's holding that defendant's prior bank robbery convictions were crimes of violence and affirmed the denial of defendant's motion for post-conviction relief. The court need not…
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