388 results for 'court:"2nd Circuit"'.
J. Raggi finds that the district court improperly sentenced defendant for his conviction on robbery counts that included murder of a robbery victim. Precedent now holds that rather than mandating consecutive sentences, concurrent sentences may be considered for murder counts. Thus, remand is necessary for the limited purpose of resentencing on the murder charge and to separately sentence defendant for his firearms conviction. Defendant's other claims on appeal lack merit.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Raggi, Filed On: May 15, 2024, Case #: 21-1379, Categories: Murder, Robbery, Sentencing
J. Calabresi finds that the district court improperly found for prison officials in an inmate's claims that he had been denied a special meal for a Muslim religious holiday. Questions of fact remain unresolved as to whether the meal was part of the official Eid al-Adha observance or a tangentially related "family event," and the court properly denied plaintiff's request to reopen discovery in claims contending he had been subjected to cruel and unusual punishment claims due to the policy of leaving his housing block in constant illumination, which he claims caused migraines, dizziness, and fatigue.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Calabresi, Filed On: May 15, 2024, Case #: 21-2554, Categories: Constitution, Prisoners' Rights
Per curiam, the circuit finds that the district court improperly dismissed a request in which the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board sought temporary injunctive relief concerning Starbucks' alleged unfair labor practices in response to a Buffalo-Rochester regional unionization effort. Starbucks was properly granted limited expedited discovery, but the overbroad subpoenas sought information beyond the Buffalo-Rochester stores. On remand, arguments for and against specific subpoenas should be subjected to closer inspection.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: May 15, 2024, Case #: 23-1194-cv, Categories: Discovery, Labor / Unions, Injunction
[Consolidated.] J. Jacobs finds that the district court properly dismissed antitrust claims in which developers of a brand name blood-pressure drug and its generic equivalents contend "reverse" patent-infringement settlement payments had been made to delay market entry of the generics. Precedent holds that such arrangements can be illegal if they do not represent fair value for goods exchanged as part of an arms-length transaction, but plaintiffs, as purchasers of the drugs, failed to demonstrate the payments were unjustified or unexplained. Furthermore, dismissal with prejudice was proper since the amendment did not cure pleading deficiencies. Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Jacobs, Filed On: May 13, 2024, Case #: 23-410 (L), Categories: Antitrust, Civil Procedure, Patent
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Per curiam, the circuit finds that the district court properly dismissed claims in which Emelike Nwosuocha contends the copyright for his online song "Made in America" had been infringed by the parties who put out the song "This Is America," which won two Grammy Awards for Donald Glover in 2019, as the sound recording of Nwosuocha's song had not been registered for a copyright for the musical work, and claims that this had been a mistake lacked merit. Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: May 10, 2024, Case #: 23-703, Categories: Copyright
J. Sullivan finds that the district court properly dismissed disability discrimination claims brought after a student who has "Asperger's Syndrome" was told to stay away from three classmates following an incident during freshman orientation. Precedent holds that emotional damages are not available under the disabilities act, and the claims could not be reframed as economic absent a contract breach. Meanwhile, the request for declaratory and injunctive relief was moot because the student had graduated. Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Sullivan, Filed On: May 10, 2024, Case #: 23-1217, Categories: Civil Procedure, Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Education
J. Chin finds that the district court properly dismissed class telemarketing claims concerning promotional text messages offering free bags of chips with sandwiches because the text-blasting service relied on a preexisting list of numbers submitted by consumers instead of generating numbers, and thus did not meet the definition of an automated dialing system. Meanwhile, the texts did not use artificial or prerecorded voices as prohibited by telemarketing law. Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Chin, Filed On: May 10, 2024, Case #: 22-1726-cv, Categories: Communications, Consumer Law, Class Action
Per curiam, the circuit finds that the district court properly dismissed Title IX claims stemming from Columbia University's investigation of a sexual assault reported against a coed by another student. The coed's "deliberate indifference" charge failed in light of university protocols for handling allegations of peer harassment, and while she may have advocated for different procedures, Title IX did not give her the right to make particular remedial demands. Meanwhile, the court did not abuse its discretion in denying her third attempt to amend and dismissing her claim with prejudice. Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: May 7, 2024, Case #: 23-960-cv, Categories: Civil Procedure, Civil Rights, Education
Per curiam, the circuit finds that attorney George Adrian Rusk should be publicly reprimanded for his conduct in a 2022 appeal that was dismissed as frivolous. The order advises Rusk that similar future misconduct will result in more severe discipline and requires that he attend continuing legal education programs on both federal appellate practices and appellate brief writing.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: May 7, 2024, Case #: 23-90006-am, Categories: Attorney Discipline
Per curiam, the circuit finds that the district court properly dismissed trademark infringement claims contending Thom Browne used product markings resembling sneaker giant adidas' three-stripe logo. Adidas contends the jury instructions did not sufficiently focus on consumer confusion before and after sales, rather than at the point of sale, but prejudicial error had not occurred since the court emphasized the affected periods multiple times. Furthermore, testimony from an adidas expert on branding was properly blocked because his methodology was deemed unreliable in surveying the opinions of "fashionistas on the web." Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: May 3, 2024, Case #: 23-166, Categories: Jury, Trademark, Experts
J. Merriam finds that the district court properly found for snack foods producer KIND in class multidistrict claims alleging deceptive advertising based on product labels containing the phrase "all natural." Class experts were properly precluded as biased, and three classes of New York, California, and Florida customers were properly decertified. Meanwhile, the class failed to establish a reasonable consumer's understanding of the term "all natural." Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Merriam, Filed On: May 2, 2024, Case #: 22-2684, Categories: Experts, Class Action, False Advertising
J. Robinson finds that the district court properly declined to compel arbitration in fiduciary duty claims an employee brought against the company and the trustee of the contribution retirement plan. The arbitration provision was unenforceable under ERISA because the provision limited relief available to an individual's account and barred a plan-wide remedy. Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Robinson, Filed On: May 1, 2024, Case #: 21-2891-cv, Categories: Erisa, Fiduciary Duty
Per curiam, the circuit finds that the district court improperly sentenced defendant based on his guilty plea to possessing and conspiring to distribute cocaine, with an admission to participating in a murder to further the conspiracy. The prosecution challenged the time-served sentence as substantively unreasonable, and while the court cited defendant's success in turning his life around, the record did not fully explain the reasoning behind the below-guidelines term. Thus, remand for clarification is necessary.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: May 1, 2024, Case #: 22-1707-cr, Categories: Drug Offender, Sentencing
J. Menashi finds that the district court properly revoked probation imposed upon defendant's conviction for drug trafficking and sentenced him to prison for violating the terms of release by repeatedly raping his teenage daughter over the course of a year. Defendant contends he received ineffective assistance at the violation hearing when counsel failed to present medical evidence indicating he was physically incapable of rape due to previous injuries, but he failed to demonstrate that any shortcoming had been prejudicial in light of his admission that he had sex with his wife on the same air mattress where some of the rapes occurred. Meanwhile, the sentence did not constitute an abuse of discretion. Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Menashi, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 22-1775, Categories: Evidence, Ineffective Assistance, Probation
[Consolidated.] Per curiam, the circuit finds that the district court improperly sentenced one of five defendants in an extended-family sex-trafficking organization convicted of smuggling young women from Mexico to the U.S., including minors, and forcing them into prostitution. Procedural error occurred in sentencing Abel Romero-Melendez in excess of the maximum allowed on a count charging illegal reentry, and remand is necessary for resentencing. For the others, sufficient evidence supported their convictions and their challenge to jury instructions lacked merit. Affirmed in part.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 22-333(L), Categories: Jury, Sentencing, Prostitution
J. Perez finds that the district court improperly dismissed claims seeking to recover losses from the purchase of residential mortgage-backed securities related to 56 trusts administered by two U.S. banks. The investor was contractually barred from bringing claims against trusts with "no action clauses" without complying with pre-suit obligations, but this requirement must be weighed when parties with likely conflicts of interest are involved. On remand, a closer look must be made into whether pre-suit demands would be futile.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Perez, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 22-854, Categories: Civil Procedure, Securities, Contract
J. Park finds that defendant was properly convicted based on his guilty plea to aiding Islamist terrorist group al-Shabaab in raids in Kenya and Somalia that killed scores of civilians, including Americans. Defendant contends the superseding indictment to which he pleaded fell outside the remand mandate of a prior appeal affected by intervening precedent, but nothing on remand blocked superseding indictments, and the initial plea agreement permitted new charges in the event that defendant's conviction was vacated for any reason. Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Park, Filed On: April 29, 2024, Case #: 22-2958-cr, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Plea, Terrorism
J. Nathan finds that the district court improperly granted injunctive relief to internet providers opposed to a new law that requires reduced broadband costs for qualifying New York households. The companies' federal preemption defenses cited the 1996 telecommunications act and a 2018 regulatory order classifying broadband as an information service, but neither of which were meant to exclude states from rate regulation. Reversed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Nathan, Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: 21-1975-cv, Categories: Preemption, Consumer Law
J. Kahn finds that the district court properly held that a school district did not violate a student's due process rights by denying a medical exemption from the Covid-19 masking mandate because the student's fundamental rights had not been violated, and the mandate was reasonably related to legitimate health and safety concerns. However, the court improperly held that administrative remedies had not beeen exhausted when such was not required to bring disability claims alleging failure to accommodate the student's asthma. Affirmed in part.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Kahn, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 23-582-cv, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Education, Covid-19
J. Park finds that the district court properly denied defendant pretrial release from detainment for allegedly making interstate threats against Jewish students at Cornell University following the October 2023 Hamas attack against Israel because defendants may be detained pending trial on charges constituting crimes of violence. Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Park, Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: 23-8081, Categories: Threats
Per curiam, the circuit finds that the district court properly denied defendant's request to vacate one conviction stemming from a terrorism-related plot to engage in coordinated suicide bombings in the New York City subway system. Because defendant was convicted of possessing a destructive device in furtherance of a crime of violence, he also was guilty of attempted terrorism as a crime of violence on the premise of aiding and abetting. Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: 21-1438, Categories: Terrorism
J. Cabranes finds that the district court properly held that defendant's three-year term of supervised release for firearms possession began when imprisonment ended, not upon release from federal custody. Defendant had been transferred to New York custody on state charges of attempted murder, the conviction of which was vacated based on procedural error, and he was eventually freed when charges were dismissed on retrial. Defendant sought release from probation after spending four years in pretrial detention, but precedent holds that "imprisonment" ends when federal supervised release begins. Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Cabranes, Filed On: April 23, 2024, Case #: 23-6394-cr, Categories: Probation, Sentencing
Per curiam, the circuit finds that defendant's request to reinstate his appeal should be again remanded as brought from the lower court's refusal to modify a condition of probation that prohibits him from having direct contact with minors, including his own children, without approval. Action had not been taken on remand within 30 days, and the issue should be heard by a different judge this time around.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: April 17, 2024, Case #: 23-6145, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Probation
Per curiam, the circuit finds that the district court properly dismissed class securities fraud claims brought after a spinoff of Honeywell International filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to legacy asbestos indemnity issues because the class failed to plead scienter with sufficient specificity to establish that the spinoff recklessly assured investors of its financial health while planning for bankruptcy. Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: April 17, 2024, Case #: 23-668-cv, Categories: Bankruptcy, Fraud, Securities
J. Walker finds that the district court improperly granted a preliminary injunction barring New York City from using the phrase "medical special operations" in conferences organized for first-responders, as sought by the rescue paramedic who initially brought the idea to the city after he parted ways with organizers. The paramedic had registered the phrase with the patent office, but the phrase was merely descriptive.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Walker, Filed On: April 16, 2024, Case #: 23-325-cv, Categories: Trademark
Per curiam, the circuit finds that the district court properly confirmed an arbitration award assessing withdrawal liability against a business that contributed to a multi-employer union pension fund. The ERISA exemption from liability did not apply when the business shut down because the firm and its predecessor-in-interest provided installation and maintenance for Time Warner Cable in the New York City area, services which were not part of the building and construction industry. Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: April 15, 2024, Case #: 23-647-cv, Categories: Erisa
Per curiam, the circuit dismisses an interlocutory appeal in claims brought against a police officer after plaintiff's arm was broken as he resisted being handcuffed following a domestic incident. The officer seeks dismissal based on qualified immunity, which had been granted to others who assisted in the arrest, but the district court held that issues remained unresolved as to whether the officer used excessive force.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: April 12, 2024, Case #: 23-901-cv, Categories: Civil Rights, Immunity
Per curiam, the circuit finds that an interlocutory appeal must be dismissed in claims challenging a provision of New York election law that invalidates write-in ballots cast during party primaries for non-party candidates because the 2023 primary and general elections rendered the claim moot. However, a decision remains pending on the facial challenge to the constitutionality of the provision in claims seeking declaratory relief, and thus review would be inappropriate at this time.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: April 8, 2024, Case #: 23-1305-cv, Categories: Civil Procedure, Elections
J. Lohier finds that the district court properly dismissed a trust's request for relief in the form of a declaration that a life insurance policy remained in effect after assignment and purported reassignment for lack of contractual standing to sue under New York law because the trust failed to notify the insurer that the policy had been reassigned to the trust by the policyholder. Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Lohier, Filed On: April 5, 2024, Case #: 19-87-cv, Categories: Civil Procedure, Insurance, Contract