382 results for 'court:"7th Circuit"'.
J. Ripple finds that the lower court properly found for the officer on false arrest claims stemming from a man's arrest on charges of being a hit-and-run driver. Three witnesses asserted that the man was the aggressor in the underlying incident, and the officer therefore had probable cause to arrest him based on that information. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Ripple, Filed On: April 1, 2024, Case #: 23-2574, Categories: Civil Rights, Police Misconduct
J. Pryor finds that the lower court properly limited the insurer's liability under the underinsured motorist policy's $1 million limit by sums the driver received from other sources. The insurer is entitled to offset the limit by a settlement in a personal-injury lawsuit and a workers' compensation award. Between the sums received from other sources, and the insurer's payment of $672,000, the driver recovered a total of $1 million, thus fulfilling the purpose of underinsured motorist coverage under Illinois law. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Pryor, Filed On: April 1, 2024, Case #: 22-2776, Categories: Insurance, Vehicle, Contract
J. Kirsch finds that the immigration board properly found the Mexican immigrant ineligible for withholding of removal. The evidence supports the board's finding that the immigrant is not being persecuted by individuals whom the Mexican government is unable or unwilling to control, as police helped him a number of times and he was permitted to transfer government jobs on multiple occasions. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Kirsch, Filed On: March 29, 2024, Case #: 21-3253, Categories: Immigration
J. Scudder finds that the lower court properly convicted defendant of providing material support to a terrorist organization by creating a computer program that allowed ISIS to rapidly duplicate terrorist propaganda videos online. Defendant did not simply engage in independent advocacy for a terrorist organization, but closely coordinated his activity with the terrorist organization by providing them with a software tool to disseminate media to a wide audience and circumvent censors. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Scudder, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 22-3140, Categories: Constitution, Terrorism
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court properly sentenced defendant for being a felon in possession of a firearm. While defendant was a passenger in the car that recklessly fled from police, the driver testified that he directed the driver to continue fleeing, supporting the enhancement to his guideline calculation. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 22-2715, Categories: Sentencing, Escape
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J. Brennan finds that the lower court properly denied the woman's application for supplemental security income, finding her able to perform light work despite her migraine disorder, degenerative disc disease, social anxiety disorder and ADHD. The agency's vocational expert was not required to provide information regarding his methodology, and her counsel did not pursue the matter. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Brennan, Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: 23-1196, Categories: Social Security
[Consolidated.] J. Easterbrook finds that the lower court improperly ordered the company to pay a $2 million withdrawal liability penalty. The company's contributions to the pension fund were not covered by a written agreement as the parties "Steel Mill Addendum" applied to steel mill operation work only, and not work hauling commodities. The fund must repay the withdrawal liability it collected from the company. Reversed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Easterbrook, Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: 23-1563, Categories: Pensions, Labor / Unions
J. Brennan finds that the lower court properly denied defendant's habeas petition challenging his conviction for sexually assaulting his daughter. Trial counsel was not ineffective for failing to move for the in camera review of the daughter's medical records, as the motion would have been futile. The daughter's mental state was already before the jury as far as her reports of hearing voices, and defendant cannot show the medical records contained material evidence. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Brennan, Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: 17-2903, Categories: Habeas
J. Easterbrook finds that the lower court properly rejected the company's suit seeking a $3.5 million tax refund for deductions based on revenues from software sales. The company cannot show that it sold "direct use" of the software for it to qualify as the sale of a service rather than as a product. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Easterbrook, Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: 23-1936, Categories: Tax
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court improperly awarded the student $1,000 in statutory damages and $58,000 in attorney fees in a suit over an attorney's failure to warn him of the consequences of failing to respond to requests for admission in an underlying education debt collection action , in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The student lacks standing to bring his claim because the attorney never tried to take advantage of his failure to respond, so the student was not harmed by the attorney's statutory violation. Vacated.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: March 21, 2024, Case #: 22-2602, Categories: Debt Collection, Attorney Fees
J. Wood finds that the immigration board properly denied the Honduran immigrants' application for asylum on the basis that they had been persecuted by extortionists in Honduras. The board found no evidence that the extortionists targeted the immigrant because she is a female business owner, and determined that she could avoid future harm by relocating within Honduras. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Wood, Filed On: March 21, 2024, Case #: 22-3035, Categories: Immigration
[Consolidated.] J. Rovner finds that the lower court properly ordered defendant to pay $1.2 million in restitution for her role in a scheme to file hundreds of fraudulent tax returns. The evidence supports the calculation of the restitution figure and does not support characterizing some of the false returns as part of a separate scheme. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Rovner, Filed On: March 21, 2024, Case #: 22-1360, Categories: Fraud, Restitution, Tax
J. Flaum finds that the lower court properly dismissed a worker's lawsuit against a barge company stemming from his slip and fall on ice on the deck of a barge, leaving him in the freezing February waters of the Mississippi River for 12 minutes. The complaint fails to connect his fall with any breach of duty owed to him by by the barge company, as his injury was not foreseeable. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Flaum, Filed On: March 19, 2024, Case #: 22-2348, Categories: Tort, Negligence
J. St. Eve finds that the court lacks jurisdiction to hear the school's appeal of the lower court's order denying its motion to dismiss a sex discrimination suit on the basis of church autonomy. The lower court has not issued a conclusive decision on the school's church-autonomy defense, and did not second-guess the school's determination that the teacher was not in doctrinal good standing. Rather, the viability of the school's defense depends on the strength of the teacher's allegations related to pretext.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: St. Eve, Filed On: March 18, 2024, Case #: 21-2683, Categories: Jurisdiction, Employment Discrimination, First Amendment
J. Scudder finds that the lower court properly found for the city in a dispute over the school's installation and use of nighttime lights at its athletics field. The school failed to show that other master plan institutions received permission to install lighting and it is "a bridge to far" to say that the school's inability to host nighttime athletic competitions poses a substantial burden on its Catholic mission. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Scudder, Filed On: March 15, 2024, Case #: 23-1175, Categories: Municipal Law, First Amendment
J. St. Eve finds that the lower court properly overturned the bankruptcy court's decision, holding that the parties' loan authorization agreement and guaranty qualified as securities contracts totaling $25 million. Although this transfer left the debtor in dire financial straits, the trustee cannot seek to recover this money because it falls within the safe harbor provision. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: St. Eve, Filed On: March 15, 2024, Case #: 23-1931, Categories: Bankruptcy, Securities
J. St. Eve finds that the lower court properly convicted defendant of possession of marijuana and possession of a firearm as a felon. A jury could infer that defendant possessed the gun based on his responses to deputies' questions, and because it was in close proximity to him in the car on the day of the offense. Further, while defendant only acknowledged ownership of the bag with the drugs inside it, it is only logical that the second bag containing scales also belonged to him. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: St. Eve, Filed On: March 15, 2024, Case #: 23-1315, Categories: Drug Offender, Evidence
J. Scudder certifies a question to the Delaware Supreme Court regarding whether last year's ruling in Cantor Fitzgerald v. Ainslie precludes reviewing forfeiture-for-competition provisions for reasonableness in circumstances outside the limited partnership context, and whether it applies in circumstances with unsophisticated parties in a clawback situation.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Scudder, Filed On: March 15, 2024, Case #: 23-2330, Categories: Corporations, Securities
J. Scudder finds that the lower court properly declined to issue sanctions against the U.S. government for failing to produce technical information about the software program used by Australia and New Zealand to identify his computer in a multinational investigation of a dark web child pornography site called The Love Zone. The U.S. does not have an obligation to produce documents held exclusively by foreign authorities, upon showing that it made a good faith effort to obtain the information. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Scudder, Filed On: March 12, 2024, Case #: 23-1010, Categories: Sanctions, International Law, Child Pornography
Per curiam, the Seventh Circuit properly granted the insurer a declaratory judgment, finding that the underlying accident is excluded from coverage under the tree service company's insurance policies. An injured woman won a default judgment in state court against the company after she was struck by a truck with an attached woodchipper. However, the company's errors and omissions policy contains an auto exemption, and its general liability policy provides coverage only if the woodchipper was in operation at the time of the accident. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: March 11, 2024, Case #: 23-1478, Categories: Insurance, Contract
[Consolidated.] J. Scudder finds that the lower court properly dismissed a woman's state law claims against her insurer arising out of coverage requests following a fire that destroyed her restaurant. Under the terms of the policy, the woman agreed to resolve part of the dispute through an appraisal process resembling arbitration, and there is no merit to her claim that the appraisal umpire did not understand his assigned task to calculate the actual cash value of the restaurant. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Scudder, Filed On: March 8, 2024, Case #: 23-2282, Categories: Insurance, Contract
J. St. Eve finds that the lower court properly rejected the employee's employment retaliation claims at a jury trial. The court's jury instructions were not misleading, even if they asked the jury to question the employer's "belief" for firing the employee. Further, the court was within its discretion to deny the employee's for-cause challenge to a prospective juror based on an alleged bias against Black men. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: St. Eve, Filed On: March 8, 2024, Case #: 22-2619, Categories: Jury, Employment Retaliation
J. Kirsch finds that the lower court properly found for the city on a former police officer's ADA claims alleging it failed to accommodate his sleep apnea. The city offered the officer several reasonable accommodations, but it was never able to implement any of them because he was disciplined for pressuring subordinates to support him against the city and for improperly storing police personnel files. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Kirsch, Filed On: March 8, 2024, Case #: 23-2140, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Employment Retaliation
J. Scudder finds that the lower court properly dismissed parents' challenge to the school district's Administrative Guidance for Gender Identity Support, which is a policy that provides direction to schools encountering students with questions about their gender identity. The parents level a broad pre-enforcement attack on the policy, without identifying any specific instance of the district applying the policy in a way that infringes on parental rights. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Scudder, Filed On: March 7, 2024, Case #: 23-1534, Categories: Civil Rights, Education
J. Brennan finds that the lower court properly convicted defendant of unlawful possession of a firearm, and sentenced him to 96 months in prison. The verdict was supported by sufficient evidence he possessed a handgun and threw it away while running from police even if no dashcam video captured the handgun. The video does not contradict the police officer's testimony that defendant had the gun in his waistband. Further, the court did not err by sentencing defendant to a below-guidelines sentence. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Brennan, Filed On: March 7, 2024, Case #: 23-1878, Categories: Firearms, Sentencing
J. St. Eve finds that the lower court properly dismissed an Indiana citizen's Takings Clause claim based on the state's failure to pay interest accrued on property while it was in state custody. The specific relief sought in this case is now moot, as Indiana has since passed a law requiring payment of interest on all property recovered under the Revised Indiana Unclaimed Property Act. Further, the citizen cannot seek compensation in federal court from Indiana official defendants due to Eleventh Amendment immunity. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: St. Eve, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: 23-1792, Categories: Constitution, Property, Immunity
J. St. Eve finds that the lower court properly applied a two-level sentencing enhancement for defendant's possession of a chewing tobacco can full of energetic powder, sealed with adhesive, and outfitted with a fuse. This "firework" qualifies as a destructive device for sentencing purposes on top of his possession of a firearm as a felon. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: St. Eve, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: 23-1942, Categories: Firearms, Sentencing
J. St. Eve certifies three questions to the Illinois Supreme Court in a suit challenging the temporal limitations of the Workers' Occupational Diseases Act which provides workers' compensation for employees who contract a disease arising out of their employment, sometimes years or decades after that employment ends.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: St. Eve, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: 23-2343, Categories: Civil Procedure, Workers' Compensation
J. Kirsch finds that the lower court improperly found for the prison guards in a First Amendment prisoner suit stemming from the prisoner's discipline for the possession of a bag of sage, which he was accused of stealing from the First Nations chapel. The prison guards waived their statute of limitations argument by failing to present it before the lower court. Reversed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Kirsch, Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: 21-2860, Categories: Civil Procedure, Prisoners' Rights
J. Flaum finds that the lower court properly sentenced defendant on gang-related RICO charges. The court properly calculated defendant's offense level including his responsibility for a man's murder, because the crime was a jointly undertaken criminal activity and he was directly responsible under Illinois law even if defendant was not a gang leader. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Flaum, Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: 23-1236, Categories: Sentencing, Racketeering, Gangs