261 results for 'court:"11th Circuit"'.
J. Grant finds that the district court improperly granted defendant habeas relief from his murder conviction based on a determination that the trial court incorrectly refused to suppress incriminating statements defendant made to a fellow suspect when police put the two men in an interrogation room together even after defendant had invoked his right to counsel. A reasonable jurist could conclude that the officer's decision to put defendant in the interrogation room with the other suspect was not a violation of defendant's Miranda rights. The officer's move was a "strategic use of a neutral situation," not a "coercive psychological ploy." Reversed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Grant, Filed On: February 15, 2024, Case #: 22-11744, Categories: Habeas, Miranda, Murder
J. Carnes finds that the district court properly denied defendant's habeas petition for relief from his murder conviction and life sentence. Although the Georgia Supreme Court incorrectly applied a stricter prejudice standard in rejecting defendant's ineffective assistance of counsel claim, defendant failed to show that he was prejudiced by his trial counsel's failure to argue that the use of a PIT maneuver by police to stop the high-speed car chase was an intervening cause that broke the causal chain between defendant's wrongful conduct and the victim's death. The Georgia Supreme Court decided as a matter of Georgia law that questions about the wisdom of using the PIT maneuver were insufficient for the maneuver to have been an intervening cause of the victim's death under Georgia law. Affirmed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Carnes, Filed On: February 15, 2024, Case #: 22-10313, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Murder
J. Pryor finds that the district court properly ruled the individual was a dealer under the Securities Exchange Act and correctly ordered him to disgorge his profits from a type of "toxic lending" in which he obtained the convertible debt of penny-stock companies, converted the debt into common stock at a discount and sold the stock in high volumes. The individual was an unregistered securities dealer at the time of the transactions. The commission's enforcement action against him did not violate his due process rights. However, the district court incorrectly banned the individual from participating in future penny-stock offerings. The individual gave sincere assurances against future securities law violations and his conduct was not egregious. Affirmed in part.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Pryor, Filed On: February 14, 2024, Case #: 21-13755, Categories: Securities
[Consolidated.] J. Grant finds that the district courts properly denied defendant's habeas petitions seeking to vacate several of his life sentences following his guilty plea to charges including arson and use of a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence. Defendant was responsible for a string of bombings in Georgia and Alabama in the late 1990s, including the bombing of the 1996 Centennial Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. Defendant's motions are collateral attacks on his sentences and are barred by the appeal waiver in his plea agreement. Affirmed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Grant, Filed On: February 12, 2024, Case #: 21-12828, Categories: Habeas, Arson
J. Brasher finds that the district court improperly dismissed an action brought by three individuals and a gun advocacy group challenging the constitutionality of a Georgia law barring anyone under the age of 21 from obtaining a license to carry firearms. The district court correctly found that the individuals lack standing to sue the public safety commissioner but incorrectly found they lacked standing to sue three county probate judges. The individuals showed that they faced an injury due to the statute. The individuals also showed that their injury is traceable to the probate judges and redressable by an order against them because probate judges are responsible for issuing the licenses. Probate judges perform a ministerial rather than judicial function when processing weapons carry licenses. Reversed in part.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Brasher, Filed On: February 9, 2024, Case #: 22-13444, Categories: Constitution, Firearms
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J. Carnes finds that the district court properly dismissed a breach of contract, fiduciary duty and negligence action brought by the estate and clinic against the insurers stemming from an insurance coverage dispute which arose after a $60 million consent judgement was entered in an underlying wrongful death action in favor of the deceased liposuction patient's estate and against the clinic. The district court correctly found that a four-year statute of limitations applied to the fiduciary duty claim and that the claim was barred by the statute of limitations. The insurance policy unambiguously includes a policy limit of $50,000 for a claim of professional liability. The insurer had already incurred expenses beyond that amount defending the estate claims, therefore the policy limit was exhausted. Affirmed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Carnes, Filed On: February 8, 2024, Case #: 22-10614, Categories: Insurance, Fiduciary Duty, Contract
J. Lagoa dismisses defendant's challenge to his wire fraud conviction pursuant to a guilty plea. The 11th Circuit cannot review defendant's claim that the district court unfairly denied his motion to dismiss the indictment against him. Defendant claimed the indictment was issued outside the statute of limitations. Defendant waived any challenge to the timeliness of the indictment by entering an unconditional guilty plea to one of the counts.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Lagoa, Filed On: February 8, 2024, Case #: 22-11175, Categories: Fraud, Plea
J. Pryor vacates the original panel opinion in this case and substitutes the instant opinion denying the immigrant's petition for review of the decision to remove him to Jamaica after he was convicted of aggravated felonies. The immigrant was brought to the United States by his father, who is a naturalized citizen, and was admitted as a lawful permanent resident. The immigrant claimed that a provision of a statute disallowing naturalized unmarried fathers from transmitting citizenship to their children violates the equal protection guarantee of the Fifth Amendment by discriminating based on race and sex. The immigrant would not have derived citizenship from his father even if the provision treated mothers and fathers the same. The immigrant's mother never naturalized and the mother's maternity was established, therefore the sex classification did not affect the denial of his citizenship claim.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Pryor, Filed On: February 7, 2024, Case #: 22-10416, Categories: Immigration
[Consolidated.] J. Wilson finds that the district court properly dismissed the employees' separate Title V claims under the ADA in employment discrimination and retaliation actions against their employers, the Georgia Department of Human Services and the Georgia Department of Corrections. The actions arose after the employees were fired. The district court correctly dismissed the claims based on sovereign immunity because the underlying provision of Title V, Title I, does not allow a plaintiff to assert a claim against the state. A Title V claim based on the exercise of a right arising from Title I cannot be brought against the state. However, the district court's ruling is vacated and the case is remanded for the limited purpose of allowing the district court to dismiss the case without prejudice. Vacated.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Wilson, Filed On: February 6, 2024, Case #: 21-12571, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Immunity, Employment Retaliation
J. Rosenbaum finds that the district court improperly ruled that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act preempted the consumer's failure-to-warn claim regarding packaging or labeling of the weedkiller Roundup in a product liability action against Monsanto arising after the consumer developed cancer. Neither the Act or the EPA's registration process preempts the consumer's state law failure-to-warn claim. Monsanto failed to show that the EPA would not have approved the warning label proposed by the consumer concerning the ingredient glyphosate's potentially harmful effects. Vacated.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Rosenbaum, Filed On: February 5, 2024, Case #: 21-10994, Categories: Product Liability
J. Lagoa finds that the district court improperly refused to remove an impaneled juror in a negligence action brought against Royal Caribbean by the passenger after a trip-and-fall incident. The jury found Royal Caribbean negligent but assessed a comparative-negligence finding against the passenger that reduced her recovery by 90%. Although the juror had a niece who worked for Royal Caribbean, the district court did not question her about the niece or any potential for bias. The district court therefore failed to fulfill its investigative obligation. Reversed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Lagoa, Filed On: February 1, 2024, Case #: 21-13612, Categories: Jury, Negligence
J. Tjoflat vacates the original panel opinion and substitutes the instant opinion finding that the district court improperly denied the sheriff's deputy's motion to dismiss a civil rights action brought by the vehicle passenger. The action arose from the passenger's arrest for resisting an officer without violence after he refused to give the deputy his ID when the vehicle was pulled over. The district court incorrectly found that the deputy lacked a valid basis to require the passenger to provide ID. The deputy is entitled to qualified immunity because it was not clearly established law that an officer cannot ask a passenger to identify himself unless the officer has reasonable suspicion to believe the passenger poses a risk to his safety. Reversed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Tjoflat, Filed On: January 30, 2024, Case #: 21-10670, Categories: Civil Rights, Immunity
J. Pryor dismisses the immigrant's petition for review of the decision to remove him to Jamaica after he was convicted of aggravated felonies. The immigrant was brought to the United States by his father, who is a naturalized citizen, and was admitted as a lawful permanent resident. The immigrant lacks standing to assert his claim that a provision of the statute disallowing naturalized unmarried fathers from transmitting citizenship to their children violates the equal protection guarantee of the Fifth Amendment by discriminating based on race and sex. The immigrant would not have derived citizenship from his father even if the provision treated mothers and fathers the same.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Pryor, Filed On: January 26, 2024, Case #: 22-10416, Categories: Immigration, Equal Protection
J. Rosenbaum finds that the district court improperly ruled in favor of the parents in an action brought by the nanny for unpaid overtime wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The district court incorrectly found that the nanny resided in the parents' home. The nanny was not a live-in domestic service employee. The nanny had a separate home and was a night-shift worker for the parents. She was on duty for 79 hours each week, even while sleeping at the parents' home. A genuine issue of fact exists as to whether the parents or two LLCs funded by them were the nanny's employer. Reversed in part.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Rosenbaum, Filed On: January 24, 2024, Case #: 22-13669, Categories: Labor
J. Lagoa finds that the district court properly convicted defendant of Hobbs Act robbery and correctly sentenced him to 180 months in prison. The district court correctly rejected defendant's proposed jury instruction on evaluating eyewitness identifications. The pattern instruction substantially covered defendant's proposed instruction. Statements made by two detectives and an FBI agent were not prejudicial to defendant. Sufficient evidence was presented to support defendant's convictions, including surveillance video showing that the robber pointed a gun at a store employee and wore boots which were found in defendant's car. Affirmed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Lagoa, Filed On: January 24, 2024, Case #: 22-10408, Categories: Robbery, Jury Instructions
J. Brasher finds that the district court properly convicted defendant of impeding law enforcement during a civil disorder. Defendant's charge arose after she smashed the window of a police car that was blocking protesters from walking onto the interstate during a 2020 Alabama protest against police brutality in the wake of George Floyd's death. The district court correctly denied defendant's motion to dismiss the indictment on the basis that the statute underlying her offense is unconstitutional. The jurisdictional element of the statute requiring that the civil disorder obstruct commerce is enough to limit the law's scope to constitutional applications. The criminalized act in the statute is sufficiently connected to interstate commerce. Defendant's actions required commercial vehicles to be rerouted as they transported hazardous materials. The statute does not violate the First Amendment. Affirmed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Brasher, Filed On: January 18, 2024, Case #: 21-13136, Categories: Obstruction, Civil Rights
J. Rosenbaum finds that the district court properly upheld the bankruptcy court's grant of the debtor's motion to revive an $893,000 judgment against the individual arising from an adversarial proceeding brought by the debtor for tortious interference with contract. The district court correctly found that the debtor did enough to satisfy Georgia's judgment-revival procedure despite failing to strictly follow traditional procedures or file a new judgment to seek revival. The debtor substantially complied with Georgia's scire facias statute by timely filing the revival motion and by mailing the motion and notice of a hearing to the individual at multiple addresses. Affirmed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Rosenbaum, Filed On: January 12, 2024, Case #: 22-10819, Categories: Bankruptcy, Enforcement Of Judgments
Per curiam, a panel of the 11th Circuit grants the petition for panel rehearing, vacates the prior panel opinion and substitutes the instant opinion finding that the district court improperly denied class certification to the consumers in an action against a consumer reporting agency arising from a technical error which misreported the consumers' debt collection status dates on their credit reports. A consumer does not have to prove actual damages to recover statutory damages under the Fair Credit Reporting Act for the agency's allegedly willful failure to comply with the statute's requirements. Vacated.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: January 12, 2024, Case #: 22-11187, Categories: Consumer Law, Class Action
J. Pryor vacates the previous panel opinion and substitutes the instant opinion finding that the district court improperly denied ex-state attorney Andrew Warren's motion for injunctive relief in a civil rights action against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis arising after the governor suspended Warren from office and appointed a political ally to replace him. The suspension occurred after Warren signed transgender healthcare and abortion advocacy statements. The district court incorrectly found that the First Amendment did not protect Warren's signing of the statements. Warren's agreement with a sentence in the abortion statement saying that signatories committed to exercising discretion and refraining from prosecuting people who seek or provide abortions qualified as protected speech. The district court also incorrectly found that the First Amendment did not bar the governor from suspending Warren to gain a political benefit. The case is remanded for the district court to consider whether the governor would have made the same decision based solely on Warren's performance and policies. Vacated.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Pryor, Filed On: January 11, 2024, Case #: 23-10459, Categories: Civil Rights, First Amendment
[Consolidated.] J. Carnes dismisses the oil refinery's petitions for review of the decisions by the Environmental Protection Agency denying its petitions for economic hardship exemptions from the Clean Air Act’s renewable fuel standard program. The refinery should have filed its petitions for review in the D.C. Circuit because the challenged decisions were nationally applicable and announced a universal approach to evaluating hardship petitions. Since the refinery already filed petitions for review of the denied actions in the D.C. Circuit as a protective measure, the instant petitions will not be transferred.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Carnes, Filed On: January 11, 2024, Case #: 22-11617, Categories: Environment
J. Pryor finds that the district court improperly denied ex-state attorney Andrew Warren's motion for injunctive relief in a civil rights action against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis arising after the governor suspended Warren from office and appointed a political ally to replace him. The suspension occurred after Warren signed transgender healthcare and abortion advocacy statements. The district court incorrectly found that the First Amendment did not protect Warren's signing of the statements. Warren's agreement with a sentence in the abortion statement saying that signatories committed to exercising discretion and refraining from prosecuting people who seek or provide abortions qualified as protected speech. The district court also incorrectly found that the First Amendment did not bar the governor from suspending Warren to gain a political benefit. The case is remanded for the district court to consider whether the governor would have made the same decision based solely on Warren's performance and policies. Vacated.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Pryor, Filed On: January 10, 2024, Case #: 23-10459, Categories: Civil Rights, First Amendment
J. Jordan finds that the district court properly ruled in favor of the synagogue in a civil rights action alleging that the transit authority's rejection of a proposed Chanukah on Ice event advertisement violated the First Amendment. The district court correctly found that even if the transit authority's policy prohibiting ads that primarily promote a religious faith or religious organization is viewpoint neutral, the policy is unreasonable due to its lack of objective, workable standards for interpreting terms like "primarily promote" and "religious." The case is remanded to the district court for the purposes of limiting the scope of the permanent injunction to only the transit authority's current policy rather than to future policies. Affirmed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Jordan, Filed On: January 10, 2024, Case #: 22-11787, Categories: Civil Rights, First Amendment
J. Grant finds that the district court improperly ruled in favor of the city with respect to an activist's First Amendment claim in a civil rights action arising after he was banned from city council meetings and arrested for disorderly conduct. The city violated the activist's rights when it indefinitely barred him from city hall, preventing him from attending city council meetings which are a designated public forum. However, the district court correctly found that the officer who enforced the city's ban was entitled to qualified immunity. The officers were not entitled to qualified immunity from the activist's false arrest claims because the activist's actions in yelling, cursing and grabbing his crotch did not amount to probable cause for a disorderly conduct arrest. The city had probable cause to arrest the activist for cyberstalking based on his online posts to a law enforcement blog. Reversed in part.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Grant, Filed On: January 10, 2024, Case #: 22-11421, Categories: Civil Rights, Immunity, First Amendment
J. Pryor vacates the original panel opinion and substitutes the instant opinion finding that the district court properly ruled partially in favor of a couple in a breach of contract action against the insurer seeking equitable reformation of an insurance policy due to mutual mistake. The restaurant owner settled the couple's original action arising from injuries the wife suffered from a hot soup spill and assigned the couple its rights under the insurance policy. The policy was in force when the wife suffered her injury. Reformation of the policy is not prejudicial to the insurer. Affirmed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Pryor, Filed On: January 10, 2024, Case #: 22-13738, Categories: Insurance, Contract
J. Brasher finds that the district court properly denied defendant's petition for habeas relief from his death sentence for murder. Defendant's trial counsel was not deficient for failing to adequately impeach an eyewitness with evidence of his probationary status and probation violation warrants which were pending at the time of the trial. Defendant's counsel was also not ineffective for failing to call a detective to testify that the eyewitness said he could not swear to his identification of defendant during a photo lineup. Defendant's counsel challenged the strength of the eyewitness's identification during cross-examination in other ways. Other ineffective assistance claims raised by defendant are barred by the statute of limitations because they do not relate back to the initial, timely filed habeas petition. Affirmed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Brasher, Filed On: January 8, 2024, Case #: 22-13616, Categories: Habeas, Ineffective Assistance, Murder
J. Lagoa finds that the district court improperly granted the deputy's motion for judgment as a matter of law on the individual's false arrest claim and incorrectly set aside the jury's $625,000 verdict in favor of the individual. The civil rights action arose from injuries the individual suffered when the deputy tackled him through the door of his parents' home and arrested him without a warrant. The jury found that exigent circumstances did not justify the deputy's warrantless entry into the home. The deputy was not entitled to qualified immunity. The jury's verdict in favor of the individual is reinstated. Reversed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Lagoa, Filed On: January 8, 2024, Case #: 21-14454, Categories: Civil Rights, Police Misconduct
[Consolidated.] J. Lagoa finds that the district court properly convicted defendant of sex trafficking of a minor and production of child porn. Substantial evidence shows that defendant was the victim's pimp, knew the victim was underage, intentionally had sex with a minor, and took a photo of the act with his phone. However, the district court improperly convicted defendant of witness tampering. Although defendant told his mother to convince the victim to recant, federal charges had not yet been filed against defendant when the victim made the statements. Affirmed in part.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Lagoa, Filed On: January 5, 2024, Case #: 19-14969, Categories: Sex Offender, Witnesses, Human Trafficking
J. Pryor finds that the district court properly refused to find in favor of the officer in a civil rights action brought by the brother and spouse arising after their loved one, a white man, was strangled to death by his Black cellmate. The cellmate, who was in jail on aggravated assault charges, told the officer he was inspired to stab a white clerk at a store after watching news reports of white police officers shooting Black men. A reasonable jury could find that the officer violated decedent's rights by doing nothing to isolate the cellmate from white inmates after learning that his prior crime was racially motivated. Affirmed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Pryor, Filed On: January 5, 2024, Case #: 22-14205, Categories: Civil Rights, Immunity
J. Manasco finds that the district court properly abstained from exercising jurisdiction over a fraud and RICO action brought by the property owners against the bank arising from a dispute over the validity of a mortgage and an allegedly false promissory note. The district court correctly stayed the federal case pending conclusion of a related state court foreclosure action. Both cases involve similar parties and substantially similar issues related to the validity of the note and the existence of a lien on the property. Affirmed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Manasco, Filed On: January 4, 2024, Case #: 22-11355, Categories: Fraud, Jurisdiction, Racketeering
J. Tjoflat finds that the district court properly upheld the Social Security Administrator's denial of the individual's claim for disability insurance benefits. Although an administrative law judge was not constitutionally appointed when the first opinion in the individual's case was issued, that decision was vacated on the merits by the district court and the second decision was issued by a properly appointed judge. There is therefore no live Appointments Clause violation at issue. There was good cause to discount a medical opinion from the individual's treating physician because it was inconsistent with medical records. Affirmed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Tjoflat, Filed On: January 3, 2024, Case #: 22-11103, Categories: Social Security