41 results for 'judge:"Scudder"'.
J. Scudder finds that a lower court improperly ordered the convicted sex offender to pay a $5,000 special assessment, finding him not qualified as "indigent," without considering his financial prospects for repaying the assessment in future years. Although defendant qualified for appointed counsel, he claims he spent all his money on private counsel. At sentencing, the district court must consider both whether defendant is eligible for appointed counsel and whether defendant lacks the resources to provide for himself going forward before finding them "indigent" or not. Reversed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Scudder, Filed On: July 6, 2023, Case #: 22-1473, Categories: Sentencing, Sex Offender
J. Scudder finds that the lower court properly dismissed a False Claims Act suit against a tribal health care center alleging she was fired for flagging fraudulent billing practices. Although the health care center is not the tribe itself, it is an arm of the tribe and entitled to sovereign immunity. The individual employees named as defendants to the complaint are also entitled to immunity because they are sued in their official capacities. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Scudder, Filed On: June 29, 2023, Case #: 22-2077, Categories: Native Americans, False Claims
J. Scudder finds that the SSA properly denied a woman's application for disability benefits. Despite the woman's fibromyalgia, PTSD and depression, a vocational expert found that she still has the capacity to perform certain jobs in the economy, such as a mail clerk. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Scudder, Filed On: June 28, 2023, Case #: 22-2831, Categories: Social Security
J. Scudder finds that the lower court improperly found for the prison officials on a Muslim inmate's claims that they prohibited him from engaging in prayer, while allowing Christian inmates those privileges. The officials offered only rote assertions of security concerns for denying the Muslim inmate's request to pray outside his cell, and the parties' facts are still in such dispute it is impossible to make a ruling on this record. Reversed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Scudder, Filed On: June 26, 2023, Case #: 22-1876, Categories: First Amendment, Prisoners' Rights
J. Scudder finds that the lower court properly dismissed this breach of contract suit against a California-based telecommunications company. The parties' only connection to Illinois was a 2006 contract signed with the plaintiff's former Chicago-based firm. The contract alone is insufficient to establish personal jurisdiction over the California-based company. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Scudder, Filed On: June 26, 2023, Case #: 17-2620, Categories: Jurisdiction, Contract
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J. Scudder finds that the SSA properly denied the applicant's application for disability benefits. The applicant forfeited his claim that the administrative judge should have done more to ensure the soundness of the vocational expert's methodology, which found that the applicant could perform a wide variety of jobs despite his depression and personality disorder, by failing to object at the hearing. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Scudder, Filed On: June 26, 2023, Case #: 22-1970, Categories: Social Security
J. Scudder finds that the lower court improperly allowed plaintiff's lawsuit challenging a newly-added provision to the Illinois' Health Care Right of Conscience Act that affirmed the legality of Covid-19 vaccine mandates. The lower court's primary conclusion that the addition changed nothing in Illinois law requires dismissing the plaintiffs' challenge for lack of standing. The plaintiffs may then file an appeal from a final judgment. Reversed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Scudder, Filed On: June 21, 2023, Case #: 23-8012, Categories: Constitution, Health Care, Covid-19
J. Scudder finds that this Second Amendment challenge to the federal felon-in-possession statute must be remanded because the lower court made its decision without the benefit of the Supreme Court's guidance in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which announced a new framework for analyzing restrictions on the possession of firearms.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Scudder, Filed On: June 20, 2023, Case #: 22-1557, Categories: Constitution, Firearms
J. Scudder finds that the lower court properly dismissed a man's breach of contract suit against the foreign bank for lack of jurisdiction. The bank is immune from suit over its retroactive change to the terms of its non-resident accounts under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Scudder, Filed On: June 12, 2023, Case #: 22-2734, Categories: Immunity, Jurisdiction, Banking / Lending
J. Scudder finds that the lower court properly convicted defendant of attempted enticement of a minor after he responded to an FBI sting operation's Craigslist ad. Defendant made his sexual desires clear in messages back and forth, and intended to influence the minor to submit to sexual activity by buying her gummy bears. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Scudder, Filed On: June 7, 2023, Case #: 22-1877, Categories: Sex Offender, Child Victims
J. Scudder affirms a district court ruling denying a Wisconsin-based healthcare system’s request for reimbursement by its insurer of $85 million in costs arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. The insurance policy is complex and contains language in one place broadly excluding Covid-related losses while, in another place, supplying limited coverage for portions of those same losses. In the end, the hospital system fails to make a case for coverage beyond the $1 million it received under a limited coverage provision for communicable diseases. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Scudder, Filed On: June 2, 2023, Case #: 22-2577, Categories: Health Care, Insurance, Covid-19