2,814 results for 'cat:"Civil Rights"'.
J. Willett finds the lower court improperly rejected the legislator’s privilege claims in their withholding of certain documents from discovery in this suit alleging racist election code rule changes. A cited case does not support the idea that state legislators can be compelled to produce documents concerning the legislative process and a legislator’s subjective thoughts and motives. A state legislator’s common law immunity from civil actions precludes the compelled discovery of legislative process documents. Reversed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett, Filed On: May 17, 2023, Case #: 22-50435, Categories: civil Rights, Immunity, Discovery
J. Kennelly partially grants the Chicago public school board’s motion for summary judgment and denies a former student’s motion for summary judgment in this case over compulsory meditation training. The former student says his teachers forced him to sign up for a class on Transcendental Meditation against his will, and didn’t tell him that Transcendental Meditation had links to Hindu spiritual traditions. The court finds the former student has not sufficiently shown that his religious expression rights were infringed upon, so it grants the school board summary judgment on that claim. The former student’s emotional damages and establishment clause claims survive.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Kennelly, Filed On: May 16, 2023, Case #: 1:20cv4540, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Damages, First Amendment
J. Johnston grants the government’s motion to dismiss the estate of a Roane County man’s civil rights suit against the U.S. Marshals Service for the man’s 2020 shooting death by a Roane County Sheriff’s deputy assigned to a Marshals task force as a special deputy. The court finds, following its prior ruling the deputy was acting in his capacity with Roane County Sheriff’s Department at the time of the shooting, the estate is collaterally estopped from making a claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act the deputy was in acting his role with the Marshals.
Court: USDC Southern District of West Virginia, Judge: Johnston, Filed On: May 16, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv426, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: civil Rights, Wrongful Death, Police Misconduct
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J. McNulty finds for the city and rules in part for officers in claims contending police attacked and falsely arrested a bar manager outside his business after he fired a gun during a party. A jury must determine whether one officer had justifiably fired his weapon after the manager discharged his own firearm, but evidence indicates another officer struck the manager at the beginning of the altercation without identifying herself as a police officer. Meanwhile, the manager did not present evidence indicating that the decision to suspend the officers had been an inappropriate disciplinary response.
Court: USDC New Jersey, Judge: McNulty , Filed On: May 16, 2023, Case #: 2:19cv16853, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights
J. Settle declines to dismiss the church's claim that a 2018 Washington law requiring all health insurance plans to provide coverage for abortions if they also provide maternity coverage violates the church's religious beliefs against abortion. The state argues that dismissal is appropriate because the church can obtain comparable coverage, but this is not true as only self-insurance is a plan that would restrict abortion in a manner consistent with the church's religious beliefs, and self-insurance is not a financially viable option compared to a fully insured plan.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Settle, Filed On: May 16, 2023, Case #: 3:19cv5181, NOS: Constitutionality of State Statutes - Other Suits, Categories: civil Rights, Government, Insurance
J. Gibbons finds the lower court erroneously found for a town and county on a CBD shop's civil conspiracy claim arising from police raids and criminal charges that were eventually dropped. Evidence in the record would allow a reasonable jury to conclude the sheriff and other officials knew the products sold in the CBD stores and involved in the simultaneous raids were legal, which in turn made the operation illegitimate from the outset. Reversed.
Court: 6th Circuit, Judge: Gibbons, Filed On: May 16, 2023, Case #: 23-5106, Categories: civil Rights, Malicious Prosecution
J. Heil grants the dismissal motions filed in this pro se lawsuit arising from an arrest warrant, which the individual plaintiff contends was "improperly obtained." The state officers are entitled to sovereign immunity as to the claims against them in their official capacities, and the individual plaintiff has failed to adequately plead his remaining claims.
Court: USDC Northern District of Oklahoma , Judge: Heil, Filed On: May 16, 2023, Case #: 4:20cv365, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Procedure, civil Rights, Immunity
J. Bowen finds in favor of the sheriff's department, sheriff and sheriff's deputy in a civil rights and excessive force action brought by family members after the decedent's death in a police car chase. The family members failed to show that the deputy violated any clearly established law by employing a PIT maneuver against the decedent's vehicle to end the chase. The deputy had a reasonable belief that the decedent posed a risk of serious harm to the public and to the deputy due to reckless driving.
Court: USDC Southern District of Georgia, Judge: Bowen, Filed On: May 16, 2023, Case #: 3:21cv22, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Police Misconduct
J. Estudillo finds in favor of the unions against the think tank's claim that the unions tried to stop the think tank's opt-outs for their public employees by refusing their mail. The think tank lacks standing to make its claim, because mailing an opt-out card on a public employee's behalf is "not crucial to its ability to educate and assist union registration," and the think tank does not identify any employees who tried to resign from one of the unions but was unable to do so.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Estudillo, Filed On: May 15, 2023, Case #: 3:22cv5273, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Labor / Unions
J. Berger grants three Parkersburg Police officers’ motion to dismiss a resident’s claims they violated his First and 14th Amendment rights when they attempted to dissuade him from filing criminal charges against a Williamstown Police officer on April 24, 2022, after the officer and two of his sons assaulted the man, believing him to be the person they saw on their home security camera earlier attempting a break-in. The court finds the resident failed to make in his complaint any plausible claim how the non-assailant officers would potentially retaliate against him if he pressed charges against his assailants.
Court: USDC Southern District of West Virginia, Judge: Berger, Filed On: May 15, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv180, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Government, Police Misconduct
J. Rodriguez declines to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a former Bexar County sheriff’s office lieutenant and “ardent and passionate” Trump supporter alleging that she was improperly fired for participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. The sheriff’s office argued that a Collective Bargaining Agreement prevented the former employee from bringing her case and instead forced arbitration, but no such agreement “explicitly refers” to the First and Fourteenth Amendment claims the former employee is bringing, and she may proceed with those.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Rodriguez, Filed On: May 15, 2023, Case #: 5:22cv1355, NOS: Civil Rights - Habeas Corpus, Categories: civil Rights, Constitution, Employment
J. Brennan finds that the lower court improperly granted the juvenile center superintendent immunity on claims stemming from changes he made at the center to accommodate the filming of scenes for the television series Empire at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center in 2015. The superintendent is not entitled to immunity on allegations that he violated the detainee's Fourteenth Amendment conditions-of-confinement claims. Reversed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Brennan, Filed On: May 15, 2023, Case #: 21-3303, Categories: civil Rights, Constitution, Immunity
J. Ludwig finds partially in favor of the county and county employees in a lawsuit from a widower over the death by hanging of his late husband while he was involuntarily committed at a county mental health center. Summary judgment is granted to the county and one of the employees, as neither could be found to be liable based on the recorded events, including because the employee increased his checks of the late husband after the widower expressed concerns about his welfare. Although the facts are disputed, a reasonable jury could find the other employee, a psychiatric technician, failed to properly check on the husband when, at some point, he died by suicide during her shift, so the claims against her will move forward.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Wisconsin, Judge: Ludwig, Filed On: May 15, 2023, Case #: 2:21cv972, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Negligence, Equal Protection
J. Ho finds the trial court improperly denied qualified immunity to the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections in this suit brought by a former inmate alleging civil rights violations. The inmate was properly credited for time served during his trial process, but improperly so after a law change during his sentence, resulting in his serving over a year longer than required. The inmate says that the secretary was objectively unreasonable for failing to assign the calculation of release dates to an attorney. Nothing in the constitution requires that a member of the bar be assigned such tasks. Reversed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Ho, Filed On: May 15, 2023, Case #: 21-30625, Categories: civil Rights, Due Process, Prisoners' Rights
J. Bryan finds in favor of the state for the arrestee's claim that the police officers wrongfully arrested him for attempting to meet with an undercover officer posing as a 13-year-old girl. The arrestee fails to show that the officers violated his Fourteenth Amendment rights because he does not prove that the officers used evidence they knew or should have known would have yielded false information. Even if there was fabricated evidence, he does not show that it was the proximate cause of his injury.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Bryan, Filed On: May 15, 2023, Case #: 3:21cv5915, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Evidence, Police Misconduct
J. Byrne finds the lower court properly denied the estate's request to appoint counsel after it filed a pro se civil rights complaint. Although its representative claimed she was indigent and disabled, there is no precedent or right to counsel during civil proceedings. Meanwhile, even though pro se litigants are given some leeway regarding the rules of procedure, the trial court properly dismissed the claims because the estate's representative failed to issue a summons to any defendant or sign the complaint when it was filed with the court. Affirmed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Byrne, Filed On: May 15, 2023, Case #: 2023-Ohio-1604, Categories: Civil Procedure, civil Rights, Wrongful Death