2023 D.C. Circuit US Court of Appeals Case Law
Date: September 13, 2023
Docket Number: 23-3001
Justia Opinion Summary: Representative Scott Perry’s cell phone, which was seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation pursuant to a warrant. In a district court motion, Representative Perry argued the Clause bars the government from…
Date: September 12, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1300
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2022, the Commission promulgated a rule that set stringent safety standards for the operating cords on custom-made window coverings based on a finding that such cords pose a strangulation risk to young children. The…
Date: September 12, 2023
Docket Number: 22-7063
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs in this case are three standard-developing organizations: the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), and the…
Date: September 1, 2023
Docket Number: 20-5350
Justia Opinion Summary: Hospitals receive greater payment if their Medicare patients are disproportionately low-income individuals entitled to federal supplemental security income benefits. Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center contends that…
Date: September 1, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5214
Justia Opinion Summary: Hospitals treating Medicare beneficiaries receive greater reimbursements to the extent that the beneficiaries are also entitled to supplemental security income benefits under Title XVI of the Social Security Act. The…
Date: August 29, 2023
Docket Number: 21-5203
Justia Opinion Summary: The Copyright Office sent a letter to Valancourt Books, LLC, an independent press based in Richmond, Virginia, demanding physical copies of Valancourt’s published books on the pain of fines. Valancourt protested that it…
Date: August 29, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1076
Justia Opinion Summary: After the FDA promulgated regulations applying the Act to vaping products, Fontem US, LLC, submitted numerous applications to market its flavored and unflavored vaping products. The FDA denied all of them, concluding…
Date: August 29, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1142
Justia Opinion Summary: The Securities and Exchange Commission recently approved the trading of two bitcoin futures funds on national exchanges but denied approval of Grayscale’s bitcoin fund. Petitioning for review of the Commission’s denial…
Date: August 29, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5104
Justia Opinion Summary: Ascendium Education Solutions (“Ascendium”) is a Program guarantor that previously charged debt-collection costs to defaulting Program borrowers who entered loan rehabilitation agreements. Ascendium challenged the…
Date: August 25, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5137
Justia Opinion Summary: In this case, the Federal Trade Commission appeals the district court’s dismissal of claims against pharmaceutical manufacturers for violations of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. The district court dismissed the…
Date: August 18, 2023
Docket Number: 21-5108
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant Watkins Law & Advocacy, PLLC, submitted requests under the Freedom of Information Act to various federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice, and the Department of…
Date: August 18, 2023
Docket Numbers: 22-1019, 22-1020
Justia Opinion Summary: The consolidated petitions in this case concern an order of the Surface Transportation Board (“the Board”) authorizing the construction and operation of a new rail line in the Uinta Basin in Utah (“Railway”). The Board…
Date: August 18, 2023
Docket Number: 22-3018
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant committed a petty offense. The district court sentenced him to prison, followed by probation. The only question on appeal is whether that sentence is authorized by statute. The DC Circuit vacated Defendant’s…
Date: August 18, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5313
Justia Opinion Summary: Noncitizens can qualify for employment-based U.S. visas by investing in designated commercial enterprises that create jobs in the United States. After making a qualifying investment, a noncitizen must petition the United…
Date: August 15, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1137
Justia Opinion Summary: The United States Maritime Administration (“MARAD”) approved a shipping company’s request to replace two vessels operating in the Pacific trade within the Maritime Security Program. Matson Navigation Co., a competitor in…
Date: August 15, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1214
Justia Opinion Summary: Vistra Corporation, joined by several other electricity suppliers, petitioned the DC Circuit to review three underlying orders of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. These orders involve the sale of electricity in…
Date: August 15, 2023
Docket Number: 21-7108
Justia Opinion Summary: Thousands of protesters flooded the streets of the District to proclaim “Black Lives Matter.” Over several weeks, the protesters covered streets, sidewalks, and storefronts with paint and chalk. The markings were…
Date: August 15, 2023
Docket Number: 21-7134
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff acting on behalf of her son, a student who qualifies for special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), appealed an order of the district court denying her motions for…
Date: August 15, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1054
Justia Opinion Summary: Pacific Networks Corp. and ComNet (USA) LLC, which are companies owned by the People’s Republic of China, held authorizations to operate communication lines in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission…
Date: August 11, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1159
Justia Opinion Summary: The Environmental Protection Agency extended the deadline for compliance with a revised national drinking water regulation, which in turn extended the deadline for states to enforce conforming revisions to their own…
Date: August 11, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1195
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Fairless Energy, LLC (Fairless Energy) contends that it pays too much for the transportation of natural gas to fuel its electric power generating plant located in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania (the Fairless…
Date: August 11, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1028
Justia Opinion Summary: For over four decades, immigration judges employed by the Executive Office for Immigration Review have collectively bargained through a certified union. Four years ago, that office asked the Federal Labor Relations…
Date: August 10, 2023
Docket Number: 21-5097
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed a Title VII action against her employer, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI” or the “Bureau”) for allegedly taking retaliatory actions against her after she reported discrimination to the Bureau’s…
Date: August 9, 2023
Docket Number: 23-5044
Justia Opinion Summary: The district court issued a search warrant in a criminal case, directing appellant Twitter, Inc. ("Twitter") to produce information to the government related to the Twitter account "@realDonaldTrump." The search warrant…
Date: August 8, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5121
Justia Opinion Summary: The Affordable Care Act obligates large employers to provide their full-time employees with health insurance coverage meeting certain requirements. If an employer fails to provide coverage or provides noncomplying…
Date: August 8, 2023
Docket Number: 22-7010
Justia Opinion Summary: Two consolidated cases arise out of the Hungarian government’s confiscation of property owned by Jews during the Holocaust. The questions raised by these appeals bear on whether survivors of the Hungarian Holocaust may…
Date: August 4, 2023
Docket Number: 20-1429
Justia Opinion Summary: In this consolidated appeal of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) orders, two utility companies argue that Attachment Z2 plainly requires utilizing the N-1 Contingency Analysis (N-1) methodology. And they…
Date: August 1, 2023
Docket Number: 21-3075
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant was convicted of wire fraud and other offenses for embezzling over one million dollars from her former employer, Global Management Systems, Inc. On appeal, Appellant sought to set aside both her convictions and…
Date: August 1, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1071
Justia Opinion Summary: MSHA’s jurisdiction, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (“Commission”) held that for the list of items in Section 802(h)(1)(C) to be considered a “mine,” the items had to be located at an extraction…
Date: August 1, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1221
Justia Opinion Summary: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission must ensure that the rules for funding new transmission facilities are just and reasonable. A funding regime is not just and reasonable if it makes one party foot the bill for a…
Date: August 1, 2023
Docket Number: 22-3017
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a person who has been convicted of a felony in violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 922(g)(1). He moved to suppress the firearm, contending that it was the fruit…
Date: July 28, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1038
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Cboe Futures Exchange (CFE) announced plans to list futures contracts based on the Cboe Volatility Index, more commonly known as the “VIX Index.” The following year, the SEC and the CFTC issued a joint order…
Date: July 28, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1243
Justia Opinion Summary: Every five years, the Copyright Royalty Board (the “Board”) issues a statutory license that establishes the terms and rates under which certain entities that stream copyrighted songs over the internet make royalty…
Date: July 28, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1108
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Green Development, LLC (Green Development) sought interconnection with the distribution system of Narragansett Electric Company (Narragansett), a public utility. Accommodation of the increased flows of…
Date: July 28, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5045
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant brought an action against the Army in district court, challenging the Secretary’s assignment of a 20% disability rating. According to Appellant the Secretary should have given him a 30% rating, consistent with…
Date: July 28, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5050
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant applied for Supplemental Security Income based on disability. While her application was pending, the Social Security Administration promulgated rules with new criteria for demonstrating disability and made them…
Date: July 25, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1187
Justia Opinion Summary: The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (“RCRA”) governs the treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste. In implementing the RCRA, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) promulgated a rule under…
Date: July 25, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1097
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner served as the personal assistant and public-relations secretary to Usama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda and mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attack against the United States. Members of a military…
Date: July 21, 2023
Docket Number: 20-1441
Justia Opinion Summary: Under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, review of orders issued by the Environmental Protection Agency after a “public hearing” lies exclusively in the courts of appeals. 7 U.S.C. Section 136n(b).…
Date: July 21, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1213
Justia Opinion Summary: The federal government funds certain expenses incurred by presidential candidates at specific times during their primary campaigns. Jill Stein, who ran for President in 2016, contends that a temporal limit on this…
Date: July 21, 2023
Docket Number: 21-3074
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant appealed the denial of his motion for compassionate release made pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 3582(c)(1)(A). First Step Act of 2018, Pub. L. No. 115-391, Section 602(b)(1), 132 Stat. 5194, 5239 (2018)…
Date: July 21, 2023
Docket Number: 21-5250
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant and her d her family sued Sudan, seeking compensation for a terrorist attack on their family. The question on appeal is whether we have jurisdiction. Under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, a state sponsor…
Date: July 21, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1090
Justia Opinion Summary: This case concerns how PJM, the manager of a large, multi-state electrical grid, prices the flow of electricity to utilities in times of congestion. Such congestion arises when energy is scarce in a particular location…
Date: July 21, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1146
Justia Opinion Summary: the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted Algonquin a certificate of public convenience and necessity that allowed it and the owner of the neighboring Maritimes & Northeast pipeline to undertake a series of…
Date: July 18, 2023
Docket Number: 20-5008
Justia Opinion Summary: In these consolidated appeals, the issue is whether overlapping statutes that affect more than two million acres of federally owned forest land in southwestern Oregon are reconcilable and, therefore, operative. The…
Date: July 18, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1015
Justia Opinion Summary: The Renewable Fuel Standard Program codified in the Clean Air Act requires all transportation fuel sold in the United States to contain an annually determined volume of renewable fuel. As part of its role in implementing…
Date: July 18, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5068
Justia Opinion Summary: The United States and the French Republic agreed to establish a fund for compensating non-French nationals who were deported from France to concentration camps during the Holocaust. The Department of State, which…
Date: July 18, 2023
Docket Number: 22-7033
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellees worked as non-emergency medical transportation drivers. In July 2017, they brought a putative class action and Fair Labor Standards Act collective action against Medical Transportation Management, Inc. (“MTM”).…
Date: July 14, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1018
Justia Opinion Summary: This petition challenges several interrelated orders of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) that permitted the creation of a new energy transmission service across several states in the…
Date: July 14, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1096
Justia Opinion Summary: XO Energy petitioned for a review of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval of filings implementing a regional transmission organization’s (“RTO”) revised Forfeiture Rule for Financial Transmission Rights…
Date: July 14, 2023
Docket Number: 22-7126
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2015, two citizens of the United States and one citizen of the United Kingdom brought an action in the federal district court seeking either return of the artifacts or monetary compensation. The plaintiffs trace their…
Date: July 7, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1192
Justia Opinion Summary: Congress requires transmission operators to charge reasonable rates, which must be submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission through a tariff before the rates can be levied on generators. Here, a generator,…
Date: July 7, 2023
Docket Number: 21-3032
Justia Opinion Summary: The D.C. Circuit affirmed the district court's order denying Defendant's motion to suppress evidence, finding that officer had reasonable suspicion to stop the Defendant. In dissent, Judge Wilkins would have granted…
Date: July 7, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1107
Justia Opinion Summary: Last year, the court ordered the Department of Energy to address three different categories of comments raised during its informal rulemaking establishing more stringent energy efficiency standards for commercial…
Date: July 7, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1143
Justia Opinion Summary: GMS Mine Repair and Maintenance, Inc. (GMS) is a mining contractor that provides “specialized services” to mines in North America. GMS provided contract services at the Mountaineer II Mine in West Virginia on April 20…
Date: July 7, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1260
Justia Opinion Summary: Intellistop, Inc. (Intellistop) invented and sells a module that fits into a commercial motor vehicle’s existing brake light system and pulses the brake lights with each application of the brakes. Because the module…
Date: July 7, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5095
Justia Opinion Summary: The Sunshine Act’s “agency” definition only encompasses those with a majority of Board members whom the President appoints and the Senate confirms to such position. Government in the Sunshine Act (Sunshine Act). For…
Date: July 7, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5105
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2018, Congress enacted the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 (commonly referred to as “FOSTA”). FOSTA adds a new definitional provision to the Trafficking Act, 18 U.S.C. Section…
Date: July 7, 2023
Docket Number: 22-7046
Justia Opinion Summary: Jones Lang LaSalle Brokerage, Inc. (JLL) represented both parties to an agreement to lease property in northwest Washington, D.C. Because dual representations of that kind pose inherent conflicts of interest, the…
Date: July 7, 2023
Docket Number: 22-7047
Justia Opinion Summary: D.T. and six other Plaintiffs were arrested for violating a citywide temporary curfew in Washington, D.C., in June 2020. At the time of their arrests, Plaintiffs were standing on a public street peacefully protesting…
Date: July 7, 2023
Docket Number: 22-7083
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellants are survivors and family members of victims of the 1998 U.S. embassy attacks in Kenya and Tanzania. They bring suit against Appellee BNP Paribas, S.A. (“BNPP”), an international bank, alleging the bank acted…
Date: June 30, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1018
Justia Opinion Summary: After finding that certain greenhouse gases endanger public health, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) regulated the emission of these pollutants from aircraft engines. The Aircraft Rule aligns domestic aircraft…
Date: June 30, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1263
Justia Opinion Summary: The Environmental Protection Agency designated northern Weld County, Colorado and El Paso County, Texas, as areas that had already attained a 2015 ozone pollution standard. But EPA reversed course after Clean Wisconsin…
Date: June 30, 2023
Docket Number: 21-5257
Justia Opinion Summary: On October 29, 2018, 189 people boarded a Boeing 737 MAX airplane in Jakarta, Indonesia. A few minutes after takeoff, the plane crashed. No one survived. Five months later, 157 people aboard a 737 MAX in Ethiopia…
Date: June 30, 2023
Docket Number: 21-5265
Justia Opinion Summary: The Seminole Tribe of Florida (“Tribe”) and the State of Florida entered into a compact under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (“IGRA”). That gaming compact (“Compact”) purported to permit the Tribe to offer online…
Date: June 30, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1209
Justia Opinion Summary: Norfolk Southern Railway Company (Norfolk Southern) petitioned for review of a decision of the Surface Transportation Board (STB or Board), the successor agency to the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) charged with…
Date: June 30, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5058
Justia Opinion Summary: In January 2021, the United States House of Representatives adopted Resolution 38, which required wearing a mask when in the Hall of the House and provided fines for the failure to do so. When three representatives…
Date: June 30, 2023
Docket Number: 22-7072
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff injured himself on the job while working as a photojournalist for media corporation Turner Broadcasting Systems, Inc. In the following years, while he was unable to work, Turner paid him for his leave.…
Date: June 27, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5047
Justia Opinion Summary: A Council of ten members, appointed by the President, supervises the work of the Conference. The question, in this case, is whether an appointee to the Council is removable at will by the President. The district court…
Date: June 27, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5074
Justia Opinion Summary: The H-1B visa program allows foreign nationals to work in the United States in specialized positions for sponsoring employers. By regulation, any such employer must file amended paperwork with the United States…
Date: June 23, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5009
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant applied for a visa to enter the United States. But the Government denied his application, fearing that he was part of a criminal organization. Appellant and his wife (collectively “Appellants”) — who is an…
Date: June 23, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5133
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellants, individual protestors and Black Lives Matter D.C. brought consolidated actions against federal law enforcement officers, alleging that officers’ actions in clearing protestors from Lafayette Park in June 2020…
Date: June 20, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1251
Justia Opinion Summary: According to the Environmental Protection Agency, greenhouse gases called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) threaten the environment because they “can be hundreds to thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide.” To reduce…
Date: June 16, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1242
Justia Opinion Summary: Methane is considered the most dangerous gas in underground mining; in sufficient concentrations, methane can ignite and cause a potentially catastrophic explosion. To protect worker safety, Mine Safety and Health…
Date: June 16, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5093
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff sought judicial review of the Merit Systems Protection Board’s (MSPB) final decision affirming his removal from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) but filed his complaint in the district court one day…
Date: June 16, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5238
Justia Opinion Summary: The National Marine Fisheries Service licenses fisheries in federal waters. In doing so, the Service must comply with the Endangered Species Act (ESA). That Act requires the Service to prepare an “opinion,” commonly…
Date: June 13, 2023
Docket Number: 20-7032
Justia Opinion Summary: Three former officers of a local affiliate of the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO (“AFGE”) filed a lawsuit alleging that AFGE unlawfully retaliated against them for speech protected under Section…
Date: June 13, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1262
Justia Opinion Summary: Longmont United Hospital (Longmont) petitioned for a review of the decision of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board), concluding that Longmont violated the National Labor Relations Act by refusing to bargain…
Date: June 13, 2023
Docket Number: 22-7021
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant complaint, filed in 2021, repeated the claims she had made against the defendants in her 2018 complaint. The district court dismissed her 2018 complaint because the D.C. statutory limitations period had run. In…
Date: June 9, 2023
Docket Number: 21-5165
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) requests with six intelligence agencies for any records about the unmasking of members of President Trump’s campaign and transition team. Plaintiff sought to uncover…
Date: June 9, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5176
Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal arises from the denial of a motion for a default judgment. End Citizens United (“ECU”) sued the Federal Election Commission alleging the Commission unlawfully dismissed its administrative complaint. Although…
Date: June 6, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1088
Date: June 2, 2023
Docket Number: 18-3063
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2005, after a jury convicted Appellant of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon (18 U.S.C. Section 922(g)), the district court, relying on the Armed Career Criminal Act, sentenced Appellant to 18 years…
Date: June 2, 2023
Docket Number: 21-3039
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant appealed his criminal convictions for forty-two counts of prescribing a controlled substance without a legitimate medical purpose under 21 U.S.C. Section 841(a) and two counts of money laundering under 18…
Date: May 26, 2023
Docket Number: 20-1512
Justia Opinion Summary: Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC has been trying to build its eponymous Mountain Valley Pipeline through West Virginia and Virginia. In 2017, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission first issued a certificate approving the…
Date: May 26, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1268
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant claimed the IRS owes him a whistleblower award under subsection 7623(b)(1), and he argued that the Treasury regulation on which the IRS relied to decide otherwise contravenes the text of the statute. Appellant…
Date: May 26, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1006
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant sent information to the Whistleblower Office of the Internal Revenue Service that he believed showed a company was underpaying taxes by taking unjustified deductions and using improper pricing practices.…
Date: May 23, 2023
Docket Number: 22-7004
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff is the former Vice President of Program and Community of the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation. She received largely positive feedback during her tenure, but less than two years after she was hired, the CEO…
Date: May 19, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5140
Justia Opinion Summary: Heritage Action for America appeals the denial of its post-judgment motion to intervene as of right, in Campaign Legal Center’s challenge to the Federal Election Commission’s failure to act on its administrative…
Date: May 16, 2023
Docket Number: 20-1379
Justia Opinion Summary: The Alaska Gasline Development Corporation sought authorization to build and operate a system of natural gas facilities. After the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted that authorization, the Center for…
Date: May 16, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1148
Justia Opinion Summary: The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) prescribe safety standards for pipelines on behalf of the Secretary of Transportation. Two oil and gas associations, GPA Midstream and the American…
Date: May 16, 2023
Docket Number: 22-3011
Justia Opinion Summary: A grand jury charged Appellee with wire fraud and obstructing an official proceeding. Appellee moved to dismiss the indictment for failure to state an offense. The district court granted the motion, and the Government…
Date: May 12, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5071
Justia Opinion Summary: The Government removed Appellant from the United States. Back in his home country, Appellant filed a habeas petition, arguing that his removal was unlawful. The district court dismissed Appellant’s petition. It concluded…
Date: May 9, 2023
Docket Number: 20-1335
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued its “final determination to regulate perchlorate in drinking water” under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Drinking Water: Regulatory Determination on Perchlorate.…
Date: May 9, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1218
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner is a former Guantanamo Bay detainee. He asked the DC Circuit to vacate his convictions for war crimes—including providing material support to terrorism and murder of a United States soldier in violation of the…
Date: May 9, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5080
Justia Opinion Summary: The United States seized oil cargo it claims belongs to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Appellants attached the oil in order to satisfy money judgments they hold against Iran. The district court upheld the United States'…
Date: May 2, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1260
Justia Opinion Summary: The Internal Revenue Service assessed penalties pursuant to 26 U.S.C. Section 6700 against Appellant in connection with his promotion of a tax shelter scheme. Appellant filed a motion to recuse and disqualify all Tax…
Date: May 2, 2023
Docket Number: 21-7097
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellants are victims of terrorist attacks allegedly perpetrated by the Islamic Resistance Movement, colloquially known as “Hamas.” Appellants assert that Hamas and affiliated groups are responsible for launching…
Date: April 27, 2023
Docket Number: 21-7078
Justia Opinion Summary: Meta Platforms, Inc. owns and operates the social media network Facebook. Forty-six states, the District of Columbia, and the Territory of Guam joined in a civil complaint charging Facebook with violating the antitrust…
Date: April 21, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5185
Justia Opinion Summary: This is an appeal from the district court’s denial of the State of North Dakota’s supplemental motion to intervene in the lawsuit against the Department of the Interior brought by the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation,…
Date: April 18, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5125
Justia Opinion Summary: Air Excursions, LLC provides air transportation services in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. It claims that the United States Department of Treasury (Treasury) erroneously disbursed pandemic relief funds to a competitor…
Date: April 14, 2023
Docket Number: 21-5283
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff sought the services of the customized postage program to print copies of an adaptation of his drawing of Uncle Sam being strangled by a snake labeled “Citizens United” and configured as a dollar sign. However,…
Date: April 12, 2023
Docket Number: 19-5079
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant challenged the basis of his detention at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay. Detained in 2004, Mr. al-Hela filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in 2005 pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Section 2241. The district…
Date: April 11, 2023
Docket Number: 21-3094
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury convicted Defendant of drug trafficking and unlawful firearm possession, the district court sentenced him to 420 months imprisonment. Defendant challenged that sentence, arguing that the district court…
Date: April 7, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1088
Justia Opinion Summary: The Mine Safety and Health Administration (“MSHA”) is an agency within the Department of Labor whose mission is to administer the provisions of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act (“Mine Act”). The Mine Act authorizes…
Date: April 7, 2023
Docket Number: 22-3038
Justia Opinion Summary: Several defendants were charged by indictment in separate cases with various offenses arising from their alleged participation in the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. Among other charges, the government also charged each…
Date: April 4, 2023
Docket Number: 22-8001
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs sought class certification to pursue various claims against the Hilton Hotels Retirement Plan (“Hilton Plan”) for what they say are unlawfully denied vested retirement benefits. The district court ultimately…
Date: March 31, 2023
Docket Number: 21-3053
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant opened bank accounts for fictitious companies, deposited stolen checks into the accounts, and then withdrew the cash from the accounts. After he was arrested, Defendant pleaded guilty to two counts of bank…
Date: March 24, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5089
Justia Opinion Summary: Two American Indian tribes – Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation – challenged as arbitrary and capricious the Secretary of the Treasury’s 2020 and 2021 Distributions of…
Date: March 21, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5154
Justia Opinion Summary: On November 22, 2021—the day federal employees were required to be vaccinated—Appellant filed suit in District Court, challenging the mandate’s constitutionality. Characterizing Appellant’s suit as a “workplace dispute…
Date: March 17, 2023
Docket Number: 21-5003
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant is a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia who entered the United States on a visa to receive graduate medical education. He sought to adjust his immigration status to that of a legal permanent…
Date: March 17, 2023
Docket Number: 21-7120
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant, a United States citizen and veteran, alleges Appellees (Foreign Officials) detained and tortured him in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Appellant argued that the Foreign Officials did so to extract…
Date: March 14, 2023
Docket Number: 21-5266
Justia Opinion Summary: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) administers retirement benefits for civilian employees of the U.S. government. OPM typically pays retirement benefits to retirees themselves. But when a retiree’s benefits are…
Date: March 14, 2023
Docket Number: 22-7014
Justia Opinion Summary: Metropolitan Washington Chapter, Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. (“Metro Washington”), a corporate trade organization representing construction companies, brought this pre-enforcement challenge to the…
Date: March 10, 2023
Docket Number: 21-5246
Justia Opinion Summary: Ascension Borgess Hospital and forty-four other hospitals appeal the grant of summary judgment to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) dismissing challenges of certain reimbursements…
Date: March 10, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1097
Justia Opinion Summary: The Department of Defense has detained Petitioner at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for over two decades. In 2008, a military commission convicted Petitioner of conspiracy to commit various war crimes. He now seeks judicial…
Date: March 10, 2023
Docket Number: 22-7060
Justia Opinion Summary: More than a decade ago, Medicaid recipients filed this suit alleging that in violation of the Due Process Clause, the District of Columbia is failing to provide them notice and an opportunity to be heard when denying…
Date: March 10, 2023
Docket Number: 22-7082
Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal concerns a discovery dispute over certain documents in an ongoing case before the district court. Defendants are non-mission third parties hired by Qatar as “contractors to support its foreign policy…
Date: March 7, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1209
Justia Opinion Summary: Hawaiian Dredging Construction Company and a Hawaiian chapter of the Boilermakers union failed to renew a collective bargaining agreement. Hawaiian Dredging then discharged Boilermakers welders who were covered by the…
Date: March 7, 2023
Docket Number: 21-5140
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff asked the Foreign Service Grievance Board to review the Foreign Service’s decision to deny her tenure. While the Board was considering her grievances, Plaintiff asked the Board to grant “interim relief.” That…
Date: March 3, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1146
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Midwest Ozone Group (MOG), an association of companies, trade organizations, and individual entities maintaining a collective interest in air quality petitioned for review of the Environmental Protection…
Date: March 3, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1249
Justia Opinion Summary: The International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots, ILA, AFL-CIO (“the Union” or “IOM”), has been the lawful bargaining agent for the Licensed Deck Officers (“LDOs”) on four container ships that carry goods…
Date: March 3, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1004
Justia Opinion Summary: Flyers Rights and its current president have taken aim at the small size of airline seats. In their view, small seats slow emergency evacuations and cause medical problems like blood clots. They have petitioned for a…
Date: March 3, 2023
Docket Number: 22-1016
Justia Opinion Summary: Schwab Multimedia received a construction permit from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). But Schwab never built its station. Though the FCC granted Schwab’s first three requests for more time, it denied…
Date: February 28, 2023
Docket Number: 21-5096
Justia Opinion Summary: The States of Illinois and Nevada (collectively referred to as “the States” or “Plaintiffs”) filed a mandamus action in the district court, seeking to compel the Archivist of the United States to certify and publish the…
Date: February 24, 2023
Docket Number: 21-7122
Justia Opinion Summary: The District of Columbia Department of Behavioral Health had a policy of restraining civilly committed hospital patients during transport to court hearings. It applied that policy to Plaintiff. He says the policy…
Date: February 21, 2023
Docket Number: 21-5258
Justia Opinion Summary: The Office of Professional Responsibility (“OPR”) investigates allegations of practitioner misconduct before the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”). Appellant sued the IRS under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”),…
Date: February 17, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1228
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners PF Sunset Plaza, LLC (“Sunset Plaza”) and PF Holdings, LLC (“Holdings”) were each assessed monetary penalties by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) for violations of their duty to provide…
Date: February 17, 2023
Docket Number: 21-5238
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant, an intelligence analyst at the FBI, wants his employer to use available software that is accessible to blind employees like himself. Both parties agree that Section 794d of the Rehabilitation Act generally…
Date: February 17, 2023
Docket Number: 22-7001
Justia Opinion Summary: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung E.V. (“Fraunhofer”) initiated a patent infringements lawsuit against Sirius XM Radio Inc. (“Sirius XM”) in district court. After filing suit, Fraunhofer…
Date: February 17, 2023
Docket Number: 22-7092
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellants– the former secretary-treasurer and president, respectively, of a District Lodge of the International Association of Machinists – appealed the district court’s denial of their motion for a preliminary…
Date: February 14, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1126
Justia Opinion Summary: The Edison Electric Institute and NorthWestern Corporation, d/b/a NorthWestern Energy (collectively, “Utilities”) petition for review of an order by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“Commission”) in which the…
Date: February 14, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1188
Justia Opinion Summary: Before the parties arrived at the 2016 labor agreement at issue, the Company’s benefit plan offered bargaining-unit employees a tax-advantaged defined contribution plan under Internal Revenue Code Section 401(k)—a…
Date: February 3, 2023
Docket Number: 21-5057
Justia Opinion Summary: The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (“the CFPB”) promulgated the Prepaid Rule, which regulates digital wallets and other prepaid accounts. As relevant here, the Rule requires financial institutions to make…
Date: February 1, 2023
Docket Number: 21-5028
Date: January 31, 2023
Docket Number: 19-7010
Justia Opinion Summary: The surety (“Colonial”) for the prime contractor (“Hirani”) challenged the district court’s award of quantum meruit damages on the Miller Act claim of the subcontractor (“ACC”), and the district court’s award as double…
Date: January 31, 2023
Docket Number: 21-5276
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2019, the Department of Justice announced that it would resume federal executions using a new lethal agent: the drug pentobarbital. Shortly thereafter, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington submitted a…
Date: January 24, 2023
Docket Number: 20-1277
Justia Opinion Summary: The petitions for review sought reversal of a refund order by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or Commission) upon finding a discrepancy in petitioner Ameren Illinois’s self-reported operational costs.…
Date: January 17, 2023
Docket Number: 20-5223
Justia Opinion Summary: The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) challenges a rule governing the elections in which employees vote on whether to be represented by a union. The National Labor Relations…
Date: January 17, 2023
Docket Number: 21-5223
Justia Opinion Summary: Perioperative Services and Logistics, LLC, sells medical devices to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). After someone emailed the VA accusing Perioperative of selling counterfeit implants, the VA’s National Center…
Date: January 13, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5100
Justia Opinion Summary: The Department of the Interior (DOI) provides annual funding for the judicial system of Navajo Nation, an Indian tribe, through a series of self-determination contracts authorized by the Indian Self-Determination and…
Date: January 12, 2023
Docket Number: 21-1233
Justia Opinion Summary: Confronted with reliable claims of escalating Chinese cyber threats targeting the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC” or “Commission”) revoked the authority of China Telecom (Americas) Corp.…
Date: January 10, 2023
Docket Number: 22-5202
Justia Opinion Summary: Under the Hatch-Waxman Act, a drug may receive “new chemical entity exclusivity” if no active ingredient in the drug was previously “approved.” The drug Aubagio was awarded this exclusivity because the Food & Drug…
