383 results for 'court:"7th Circuit"'.
Per curiam, the Seventh Circuit finds that the lower court properly determined defendant is not entitled to a reduced sentence under the First Step Act. Defendant was convicted in 1998 of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise (CCE) by managing the drug-trafficking operation of the Latin Kings street gang in Chicago and sentenced to life in prison. CCE convictions are not covered offenses under the Act because the statutory penalties of 20 years to life were not altered by the Fair Sentencing Act. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: May 7, 2024, Case #: 23-1318, Categories: Drug Offender, Sentencing, Gangs
J. Kirsch finds that the lower court properly found for the insurer in a dispute over insurance coverage for the non-responsible parties of an auto accident. These parties cannot recover as assignees of the insured, because the the assignment's covenant not to execute the judgment against the insured personally rendered the insured not legally responsible, therefore triggering no responsibility on the part of the insurer. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Kirsch, Filed On: May 7, 2024, Case #: 23-1299, Categories: Insurance, Contract
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court properly found for the city on constitutional and defamation claims filed by a business owner who claims the city denied his business an emergency grant because he had gone to an illegal anti-lockdown rally at the Wisconsin State Capitol. The state's Safer at Home Order was a valid restriction on speech and public gatherings due to the government interest in stopping the spread of Covid-19. Further, it was not unreasonable for the city to have denied discretionary funds to a business whose manager had violated the law and contributed to the public health crisis. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: May 6, 2024, Case #: 23-1208, Categories: Defamation, Covid-19, First Amendment
J. Easterbrook finds that the lower court properly ordered Wisconsin to release defendant on bail unless it retries him on murder charges within two months. Defendant's attorney abandoned him in 1996 when he sought post-conviction relief, and the transcript of his trial was destroyed after 10 years. The Wisconsin Supreme Court held that holding a new trial in the absence of a transcript is appropriate only if defendant first makes a valid claim of prejudicial error, ignoring the fact that defendant trusted his attorney to get a the necessary transcript and effectively denying him an appeal for 28 years. "Wisconsin's treatment of Pope is a travesty of justice." Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Easterbrook, Filed On: May 6, 2024, Case #: 23-2894, Categories: Civil Rights, Habeas
J. Scudder finds that the lower court properly found for the plan administrator in an ERISA suit challenging its denial of an employee's disability claim based on his worsening fatigue due to his multiple sclerosis. Multiple medical reports found that the employee could work 8-hour days and could continue working in his field, even if his current employer denied his request to reduce his shifts from 12 to 8 hours. The administrator presented rational reasons for its decision based on a fair reading of the plan and the employee's medical records. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Scudder, Filed On: May 6, 2024, Case #: 23-2269, Categories: Erisa
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J. Easterbrook finds that the lower court improperly found for the university on a male student's sex discrimination claims stemming from its investigation of sexual assault claims against him. The student never explained what remedy he seeks, and this suit is not a live claim unless compensatory damages are available for him. Further, it remains a question whether the student is entitled to proceed anonymously in this case, as the lower court must conduct a hearing on whether the revelation of the student's name will also identify his alleged victim. Vacated.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Easterbrook, Filed On: May 3, 2024, Case #: 22-2925, Categories: Civil Procedure, Civil Rights, Education
J. Kirsch finds that the lower court properly ordered the bankruptcy trustee to return her fee because the debtor's plan was never confirmed, even though he made payments under a proposed plan. The trustee is not entitled to a fee for pre-confirmation payments when the court dismissed the bankruptcy proceedings for unreasonable delay. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Kirsch, Filed On: May 3, 2024, Case #: 23-2212, Categories: Bankruptcy
[Consolidated.] J. Scudder finds that the lower court properly found the businessman and three associated healthcare companies violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and False Claims Act by knowingly paying kickbacks to induce referrals for medical services, many of which were paid for by Medicare. However, the $6 million judgment against the businessman must be revised, because the lower court did not sufficiently clarify which Medicare claims - all or some - resulted from the illegal kickback scheme. Affirmed in part.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Scudder, Filed On: May 2, 2024, Case #: 22-3295, Categories: Damages, Medicare, False Claims
J. Wood finds that the lower court properly ordered the six-year-old child returned to Germany in a suit filed by a German mother under the International Child Abduction Remedies Act. The record supports the finding that the child's residence was in Germany at the time the father refused to return the child after his summer visitation time was over. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Wood, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 23-3407, Categories: Family Law, International Law
J. Pryor finds that the lower court properly convicted defendant of being a felon in possession of a firearm and sentenced him to 96 months in prison. The arresting officers' testimony supported an enhancement for creating a substantial bodily risk to others, and the lower court reasonably considered defendant's mitigation arguments. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Pryor, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 22-2764, Categories: Firearms, Sentencing
J. Jackson-Akiwumi finds that the lower court improperly granted qualified immunity to two probation officers who failed to release a man jailed for a probation violation months after his probation should have been over. The officers' jobs involved correcting unlawfully long probation terms, but they did nothing when they discovered the error, not even tell someone about the problem. Their decision to do nothing about the mistake was egregious and unreasonable. Reversed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Jackson-Akiwumi, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 21-3332, Categories: Civil Rights, Immunity
J. Wood finds that the lower court properly found for Costco in a suit accusing the wholesale store of violating a Wisconsin law that prohibits selling gasoline for less than the statutorily defined cost. However, Costco claims it only lowered its prices to match a competitor's price, which the law allows, and reasonably asserts that its competitors should not be determined simply based on its geographical location, but also on the addresses-of-record of its members given that many members will travel a distance to take advance of the wholesaler's low prices. Further, the plaintiff gas stations have not shown that Costco's gasoline prices actually caused them injury. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Wood, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 23-1800, Categories: Energy, Unfair Competition
J. Sykes finds that the lower court properly found for the village on a developer's claims that it was singled out for unfavorable treatment. The developer failed to show that the village's decisions lacked any conceivable rational basis. Rather, the village's imposed development conditions were rationally related to its interests in promoting its land-use objectives. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Sykes, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 21-3237, Categories: Civil Rights, Real Estate
J. Kirsch finds that the lower court properly found for the city on a female employee's gender discrimination claims. The employee does not identify adequate male comparators to support her equal pay and sex discrimination allegations, nor does she show that she engaged in protective activity to support a retaliation claim. Rather, the city presents a reasonable explanation for believing her performance inadequate in support of its decision to fire her. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Kirsch, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 23-1761, Categories: Employment Discrimination, Employment Retaliation
J. Easterbrook finds that the tax court properly found for the IRS in a dispute over a couple's claim for a research expense tax credit. There is no support for the couple's claim that the husband's salary and bonus as president of the wife's firm were research expenses, as there are no written records of how he spent his time. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Easterbrook, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 23-2681, Categories: Tax
J. Lee finds that the lower court properly convicted defendant of being a felon in possession of a firearm but improperly sentenced him with an enhancement for possession of an explosive. The application of a higher base offense level effectively punishes him twice for the same conduct. Reversed in part.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Lee, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 22-2607, Categories: Sentencing, Weapons
J. Jackson-Akiwumi finds that the lower court improperly enhanced defendant's sentence for possession of a firearm under the Armed Career Criminal Act. Defendant's prior Florida conviction for aggravated assault no longer qualifies as a violent felony after the Florida Supreme Court's decision in Somers v. U.S., which ruled that the Florida crime of aggravated assault covers reckless conduct. To qualifies as a violent felony, a prior crime must be intentional not reckless. Vacated.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Jackson-Akiwumi, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 21-1325, Categories: Firearms, Sentencing
J. Lee finds that the lower court properly found for the insurers in a declaratory judgment action over the insurer's obligation to defend a construction company in an underlying suit filed by the city after it found cracks in the welds of steel columns at O'Hare International Airport. The defects in the welds do not constitute "property damage" under the welder's commercial liability policies because there was no physical injury to any building elements beyond the steel columns with the faulty welds. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Lee, Filed On: April 29, 2024, Case #: 23-1662, Categories: Insurance, Indemnification, Contract
J. Wood finds that the lower court properly dismissed defendant's habeas petition challenging his conviction for murdering his wife. Defendant argues that his counsel was ineffective for failing to discover evidence that cast doubt on an expert witness's testimony against him. However, a state court already found defendant waived this claim by failing to raise it on direct appeal, and the state-court waiver means that he procedurally defaulted the claim for federal-court purposes as well. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Wood, Filed On: April 29, 2024, Case #: 23-2125, Categories: Habeas, Ineffective Assistance, Experts
J. Wood finds that the lower court improperly denied class certification to a class of pretrial detainees who claim they were denied adequate dental care at the Cook County Jail. While medical care is necessarily individualized, that does not mean that it is never possible to certify a class based on claims of inadequate medical care. The jail's decision not to keep an oral surgeon on staff is a uniform policy that led to treatment delays for all detainees needing dental surgery, and may be addressed by the court in class litigation. Vacated.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Wood, Filed On: April 29, 2024, Case #: 23-1312, Categories: Class Action, Prisoners' Rights
[Consolidated.] J. Jackson-Akiwumi finds that the lower court properly convicted defendant of inciting a riot in Champaign, Illinois during the weekend of unrest following the police murder of George Floyd. The panel declined to revisit the Seventh Circuit's 1972 decision in U.S. v. Dellinger upholding the Anti-Riot Act as constitutional under the First Amendment. Further, the offense is covered by the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act as an "offense against property." However, the government failed to meet its burden of showing that defendant directly caused all damages to businesses in the restitution order, so the lower court must revisit its $1.6 million restitution order. Affirmed in part.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Jackson-Akiwumi, Filed On: April 29, 2024, Case #: 21-2572, Categories: Constitution, Restitution, Property Crimes
On rehearing, J. Easterbrook finds that the bankruptcy court improperly found that it had jurisdiction to determine the amount of a debtor's tax obligations, when the debtor is unlikely to pay them. The bankruptcy court has jurisdiction only if the tax dispute is "related to" the payment of debtor's other debts, which must be determined at the outset of the dispute not after the bankruptcy court has already resolved other creditors' claims. On remand, the court must consider whether a decision could have affected the allocation of assets among creditors on the date the debtors asked the court to determine their tax liabilities. Vacated.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Easterbrook, Filed On: April 29, 2024, Case #: 16-3244, Categories: Tax, Jurisdiction
J. St. Eve finds that the lower court properly denied defendant's motion for post-conviction relief alleging ineffective assistance of counsel based on the fact that his second hired attorney also presided over his preliminary hearing in this same case. Defendant presents no specific evidence that his counsel's performance was in any way deficient despite this conflict of interest that went unremarked. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: St. Eve, Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: 22-3086, Categories: Drug Offender, Ineffective Assistance
J. St. Eve finds that the lower court properly convicted singer R. Kelly of sexually abusing underage girls, and of child pornography for videotaping his sex acts with his victims. Under current law, there is no statute of limitations for sex crimes against children. Although R. Kelly's abuse of his victims took place in the 1990s and 2000s, he is not entitled to the application of an earlier version of the statute with a shorter limitations period. The PROTECT Act of 2003 unambiguously applies retroactively to R. Kelly's crimes. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: St. Eve, Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: 23-1449, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Sex Offender, Child Victims
J. Kirsch dismisses the South African immigrant's appeal of the cancellation of his removal based on having overstayed his visa. The immigrant was twice arrested on domestic violence charges, and, although the charges were dismissed, the board reasonably found that his criminal history made him ineligible to cancel his removal proceedings.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Kirsch, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 23-2208, Categories: Immigration
J. St. Eve finds that the lower court properly convicted defendant on drug charges and of being a felon in possession of a firearm after searching a stolen car and finding his belongings inside. Defendant has no evidence to support his claim he did not know the rental car was stolen, especially as the license plates had been switched out. Further, he had no expectation of privacy in the safes located in the stolen car. Even if he did, the automobile exception to the warrant requirement applies as officers had ample reason to believe the car held contraband. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: St. Eve, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 23-1364, Categories: Drug Offender, Search
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court improperly dismissed the hospital's claim against the state because the private managed care organizations the state contracts with to pay Medicaid bills systematically delayed and reduced payments owed to the hospital for treating patients covered by Medicaid. The hospital has a viable right to have the state ensure timely payments from managed care organizations and this right is enforceable in this section 1983 actions against the state health agency's director. Reversed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 21-2325, Categories: Government, Health Care, Medicaid
J. Lee finds that the lower court finds that the lower court improperly found in favor of the professor on his emotional distress counterclaims against a another professor who accused him of sexual assault in online posts, assessing damages of $700,000. No reasonable jury could find that the defendant professor acted in an outrageous manner by posting comments intended to inform students of the professor's notorious reputation. However, there is sufficient evidence that an accusing student's knowingly false allegations of rape are outrageous enough to support an emotional distress claim for $100,000. Reversed in part.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Lee, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 23-1960, Categories: Emotional Distress
J. Wood finds that the lower court properly dismissed the property owners' federal suit seeking to challenge the propriety of the village's taking of their land via eminent domain. The owners never challenged the validity of the taking in their state court action, only challenging the compensation given to them. They cannot now seek a "do-over" on their takings challenge by filing in federal court. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Wood, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 23-1678, Categories: Property, Jurisdiction
J. Easterbrook finds that the lower court improperly found for the school in a Title IX sex discrimination suit filed by a male medical student who was found to have physically abused a female student off-campus. The medical student was not expelled until he applied to the university's business school and described his mere suspension as an "exoneration," which the dean of the medical school found to be a falsification. The male student should have been given notice and an opportunity to defend himself before summary expulsion. However, in order to continue with this suit, the male student must disclose his full name, as he is neither a minor nor at risk of improper retaliation. Vacated.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Easterbrook, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 22-1576, Categories: Civil Rights, Education