246 results for 'court:"4th Circuit"'.
J. Wilkinson finds the lower court properly found the free-choice-of-provider provision of the Medicaid Act creates enforceable individual rights. South Carolina argued a recent high court ruling compels the conclusion that individual Medicaid beneficiaries cannot enforce the free choice-of-provider provision, but the ruling did not change the law to an extent that would call previous determinations into question. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Wilkinson , Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: 21-1043, Categories: Government, Health Care, Medicaid
Per curiam, the Fourth Circuit upholds the revocation of defendant’s supervised release and his sentence to 35 months’ imprisonment after he was found possessing, with intent to sell or distribute, marijuana. The evidence did not rely on mere hearsay. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: February 28, 2024, Case #: 22-4596, Categories: Drug Offender, Sentencing
J. Quattlebaum upholds the dismissal of two parents’ claims challenging the constitutionality of their county school board’s election process for choosing a high school student-member of the board. It does not violate the free exercise of religion because the county does not allow any sort of private school, religious or nonreligious, to participate in selecting the student member. It does not violate the equal protection clause because the process does not need to conform to the principle of “one person, one vote,” as prospective student members do not participate in a popular election but instead are appointed for what is essentially a civics laboratory. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Quattlebaum, Filed On: February 28, 2024, Case #: 22-2294, Categories: Education, Elections, Equal Protection
J. Heytens upholds the lower court’s finding that the Maryland company that rented nine people a pontoon is not liable for their injuries in a boating accident when the boat motor failed, resulting in a collision with a bridge that capsized the vessel. The boaters couldn’t show how the accident resulted from the renter’s own negligence. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Heytens, Filed On: February 28, 2024, Case #: 23-1312, Categories: Negligence
J. Agee finds that the district court should not have granted habeas relief to defendant, who said his guilty plea was not knowing and voluntary because he was not briefed on the nature and elements of the offenses he was charged with. The state court disagreed with him, and the federal district court should not have overridden the state court’s judgment, as a “highly deferential” standard was required. Reversed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Agee, Filed On: February 28, 2024, Case #: 23-6179, Categories: Habeas, Plea
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Per curiam, the Fourth Circuit upheld the conviction of defendant after he pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute cocaine and his possession of more than 500 grams of cocaine. The court neither imposed an unreasonable sentence, nor erred in calculating the drug weight. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: February 27, 2024, Case #: 23-4200, Categories: Drug Offender, Sentencing
Per curiam, the Fourth Circuit upholds defendant’s conviction for two counts of using a firearm in relation to a violent crime. A violent crime in support of racketeering activity, committed with a dangerous weapon, is a valid crime-of-violence predicate for convictions such as defendant’s. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: February 27, 2024, Case #: 20-6767, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Weapons, Racketeering
J. Agee upholds the lower court decision to grant summary judgment to South Carolina’s probation agency on a former employee’s gender discrimination and retaliation claims. She was fired once and rehired after the EEOC agreed that she had been passed over for a job because the agency wanted a man. This time around, she resigned after she failed a polygraph test during an investigation of her for having sex with a subordinate before removing the subordinate from her team. She could not show how the investigation she faced was retaliation for protected activity. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Agee, Filed On: February 27, 2024, Case #: 21-2275, Categories: Civil Rights, Employment Discrimination, Employment Retaliation
J. Thacker upheld the lower court’s decision to remand Annapolis and Anne Arundel County’s state-law tort and consumer protection lawsuits against many energy companies, which allegedly misrepresented or concealed information about their fossil fuel products. In at least 10 similar cases, energy firms have tried to remove the dispute to federal court: “The eleventh time is not the charm.”
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Thacker, Filed On: February 26, 2024, Case #: 22-1999, Categories: Energy, Environment, Consumer Law
J. Niemeyer dismisses Travelers’ challenge to the lower court’s order remanding a court-appointed receiver’s complaint, alleging breach of insurance policies issued to a defunct company, back to state court. The federal court’s reasons to remand were “colorably supported,” barring appellate review. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Niemeyer, Filed On: February 26, 2024, Case #: 23-1339, Categories: Insurance, Jurisdiction, Venue
J. Heytens finds no reversible error in the conviction of defendant for three offenses related to his paid murder of another man. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Heytens, Filed On: February 26, 2024, Case #: 22-4696, Categories: Murder
J. Harris finds the lower court improperly granted summary judgement to the police officer. There is still genuine dispute over whether the officer knew that the German shepherd he shot was actually tethered somewhat unconventionally to a 25-foot zip line connecting two trees in the yard. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Harris, Filed On: February 22, 2024, Case #: 22-2120, Categories: Evidence, Police Misconduct
J. Diaz finds the lower court properly denied the correctional officers motion for summary judgement. The officer, accused of forcing an employee she mistook for a prisoner to strip search, is not entitled to qualified immunity because body cavity or strip search of a prison employee is reasonable only if officials have reasonable and individualized suspicion the employee is carrying contraband. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Diaz, Filed On: February 22, 2024, Case #: 21-1960, Categories: Constitution, Police Misconduct, Prisoners' Rights
J.Heytens finds the lower court improperly ordered the victim of sexual assault to use her real name. The victim had a legitimate interest in anonymity and her continuing use of a fake name at the damages trial is not unfair to the assaulter as he had already been found guilty of rape. Reversed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Heytons, Filed On: February 21, 2024, Case #: 23-1151, Categories: Fair Trial, Sex Offender, Assault
J. Thacker finds the lower court properly read instructions to the jury. The sex offender argued that he did not need to register himself as a sex offender in West Virginia after traveling from Virginia because he was living at campsites rather than a permanent residence. A sex offender habitually lives in the relevant sense in any place in which the sex offender lives for at least 30 days. The sex offender stayed at the campsite he was arrested at for touching a minor for a little over two months. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Thacker, Filed On: February 21, 2024, Case #: 22-4595, Categories: Sex Offender, Child Victims, Child Pornography
Per curiam, the Fourth Circuit finds the lower court properly denied the defendant's motion to vacate his sentence. The defendant argued that violent crimes in aid of racketeering conviction for assault with a dangerous weapon is not a crime of violence. The predicate VICAR assault offense qualified as a crime of violence because that offense had as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: February 20, 2024, Case #: 22-6285, Categories: Assault, Racketeering
J. Rushing finds the lower court improperly found the internet service provider liable for vicarious infringement. Top music companies sued the provider for its lack of action to prevent its subscribers from using its service to download music illegally. The provider did not profit from its subscribers’ acts of infringement, a legal prerequisite for vicarious liability. Reversed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Rushing, Filed On: February 20, 2024, Case #: 21-1168, Categories: Communications, Copyright, Jury
J. Wilkinson finds the lower court properly denied motions to suppress evidence stemming from a Facebook warrant. The six MS-13 gang members accused of trafficking a 13-year-old girl for prostitution failed to show that the warrant that sought communication regarding the minor didn't have sufficient nexus between the Facebook accounts to be searched and the crimes under investigation. Affirmed
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Wilkinson, Filed On: February 16, 2024, Case #: 22-4656, Categories: Prostitution, Gangs, Human Trafficking
J. Heytens finds the lower court improperly ruled that the Electronic Fund Transfer Act did not protect a prepaid debit card. The self-employed mechanic applied for and received unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic that the government distributed via prepaid debit cards. After a prolonged period, the mechanic received his card, but the card had a zero balance, and the entire $14,644 had been spent between August and October on transactions he did not recognize. The mechanic sued the bank, asserting its conduct and error-claim procedures violated the federal Electronic Fund Transfer Act and various state law obligations. The Act does protect the account because it is a government benefit account under the controlling regulations. Vacated.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Heytens, Filed On: February 16, 2024, Case #: 22-1954, Categories: Government, Banking / Lending, Covid-19
J. Quattlebaum finds the lower court properly granted summary judgment to the insurance company. Patients sued a pediatric clinic after discovering the clinic’s in-house psychologists had lied about her credentials. The clinic's insurance company proved they could rescind its policy because the owner misrepresented that she had thoroughly checked her employees' credentials. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Quattlebaum, Filed On: February 16, 2024, Case #: 22-1994, Categories: Health Care, Insurance, Contract
J. Diaz finds the lower court properly convicted the defendant of Hobbs robbery. The defendant and a group of co-conspirators attempted to rob the owners of a local restaurant as they returned home from work, leading to a shootout that left one of the owners dead. The defendant claims the jury was unfair because the court struck two Black jurors, the same race as a defendant, and no white defendants. Although both the Black defendants and white defendant did not raise their hands as they should have when asked verbatim whether they had family members who had ever been plaintiffs or defendants in a court case, the white juror had told the court before she had a family member that fit the description the verbatim questioning. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Diaz, Filed On: February 15, 2024, Case #: 21-4458, Categories: Jury, Robbery, Jury Instructions
J. Quattlebaum finds the lower court properly dismissed the sexually dangerous person's petition. He was civilly committed as a sexually dangerous person after completing his sentence for child pornography charges. While civilly committed, he was convicted of and sentenced for two separate federal crimes and served prison terms for those sentences. His civil commitment continued following those criminal sentences as it should have because he was never declared not a sexually dangerous person. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Quattlebaum , Filed On: February 14, 2024, Case #: 22-6338, Categories: Sex Offender, Commitment, Child Pornography
J. Agee finds the lower court properly denied the inmate's petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The inmate is a famous music manager serving multiple life sentences for his role in drug trafficking and murder. Then-President Trump told the inmate's supporter, former Cleveland Browns running back Jim Brown, that he would commute the inmate's sentence, but Trump never actually signed a warrant of commutation. While it is not required that Trump file paperwork to make a commutation valid, his forward-looking statements - as alleged by Mr. Brown - indicate that he was not proclaiming the inmate pardoned over the phone. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Agee, Filed On: February 14, 2024, Case #: 22-7188, Categories: Drug Offender, Habeas, Murder
J. Wilkinson finds the lower court properly affirmed the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services decision to deny residence to a citizen of the Czech Republic. The foreign citizen, who attempted twice to claim he was married to an American, was found to be lying about the first marriage, meaning for his second attempt, he didn't pass the marriage fraud bar, which prohibits the approval of petitions on behalf of any noncitizen who has previously been found to have entered into a fraudulent marriage to circumvent immigration laws. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Wilkinson, Filed On: February 14, 2024, Case #: 22-2285, Categories: Fraud, Immigration, Agency
J. Rubin finds the lower court improperly enforced an arbitration award. This dispute concerns two wireless communications companies over breach of contract, trade secret misappropriation and deceptive trade practices. The court did not have an independent basis of subject matter jurisdiction to confirm the arbitration award. Reversed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Rubin, Filed On: February 14, 2024, Case #: 22-1253, Categories: Arbitration, Trade Secrets, Contract
J. Diaz dismisses the defendant's appeal of orders compelling his physical presence at a resentencing hearing. The court can't rule on anything from the lower court except final orders and instructions to appear physically for a resentencing hearing do not meet that threshold.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Diaz, Filed On: February 14, 2024, Case #: 23-4055, Categories: Sentencing
J. Niemeyer finds the lower court properly applied sentence enhancements to the defendant. The court enhanced the defendant's sentence for possession of a firearm by a felon after determining that two of his prior convictions, including one for North Carolina assault inflicting physical injury by strangulation, count as crimes of violence. The defendant argued that following a Supreme Court ruling that said the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force is required to count as a crime of violence discounts the court's determination. North Carolina's crime of assault inflicting physical injury by strangulation remains a crime of violence, regardless of the ruling. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Niemeyer, Filed On: February 14, 2024, Case #: 22-4588, Categories: Firearms, Sentencing, Assault
J. Wynn finds the lower court improperly granted summary judgment to the news outlet on copyright claims stemming from the website Independent Journal Review's use of a Ted Nugent photo in an online article. The concert photographer who took the photo of Ted Nugent that the news outlet used for publication without obtaining permission still had copyright registration for the pictures. They cannot rely on the fair use defense as they did not alter anything from the photo. Reversed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Wynn, Filed On: February 6, 2024, Case #: 21-2021, Categories: Copyright
J. Richardson finds the lower court properly convicted the defendant of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The police had probable cause to search his vehicle, where they found illegally owned firearms and drugs because the defendant ran two stoplights in an unprovoked flight upon noticing the police before they had turned on their sirens. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Richardson, Filed On: February 6, 2024, Case #: 21-4684, Categories: Evidence, Firearms, Vehicle
J. Gregory finds the lower court improperly convicted the doctor on 861 counts of the unauthorized prescription of opioids. The government misstated the law in the jury instructions by failing to state that the doctor could only be convicted if he knew that his conduct in prescribing opioids to substance abusers was unauthorized. Vacated.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Gregory, Filed On: February 2, 2024, Case #: 19-4761, Categories: Drug Offender, Jury Instructions