39 results for 'judge:"Hamilton"'.
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court improperly dismissed the hospital's claim against the state because the private managed care organizations the state contracts with to pay Medicaid bills systematically delayed and reduced payments owed to the hospital for treating patients covered by Medicaid. The hospital has a viable right to have the state ensure timely payments from managed care organizations and this right is enforceable in this section 1983 actions against the state health agency's director. Reversed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 21-2325, Categories: Government, Health Care, Medicaid
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court properly revoked defendant's probation, finding that he possessed a firearm in violation of the terms of his supervised release. While the trial judge should not have allowed defendant's probation officer to narrate a police surveillance video showing defendant with the gun without permitting defendant to cross-examine the officer, the error was harmless. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: 22-3282, Categories: Firearms, Probation, Witnesses
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court properly found for the prison radiologists who misread a prisoner's x-rays that showed the surgically implanted rods in his back were broken, leaving him in pain for over a year. The radiologists' error was negligent, but did not rise to the level of deliberate indifference, nor did the actions of the prison doctor who found the mistake and put the prisoner on the path to corrective surgery. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: April 23, 2024, Case #: 23-1220, Categories: Constitution, Prisoners' Rights
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court properly found for the city and police detectives in a civil rights suit filed by two suspects who claim the detectives deliberately misled judges and a grand jury to secure a probable cause determination to detain them on charges of first-degree murder, of which they were acquitted. The suspects cannot show that the detectives' alleged false statements were necessary to the judge's probable cause decision, especially as the state's attorney's office conducted its own independent investigation before deciding to file charges. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: April 15, 2024, Case #: 22-2467, Categories: Civil Rights, Police Misconduct
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. 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. Hamilton finds that the lower court properly awarded the business venture $15,000 after excluding most of its theories and evidence for lost-profits damages based on the city's opposition to its plans to open an adult entertainment business. The owner's calculations of estimated lost profits were based on another adult entertainment venue's profits, but significant differences between the two businesses make the comparison legally insufficient to support this method. Further, the court correctly sanctioned the business for discovery disclosure failures. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: February 26, 2024, Case #: 22-3194, Categories: Damages, Business Expectancy, Discovery
J. Hamilton finds that the attorney's appeal of the lower court's order revoking his pro hac vice admission in this lawsuit must be dismissed. Before the attorney filed this appeal, the parties to this suit reached a settlement agreement resolving all issues between them. The attorney's alleged reputational injury is not sufficient to grant him standing in this appeal.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: January 22, 2024, Case #: 22-2111, Categories: Administrative Law, Attorney Discipline, First Amendment
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court properly found for the city, ruling that the Madison fire department's physical test for firefighters had a disparate impact on women, but did not violate Title VII because it served the city's legitimate purpose in ensuring that firefighters have the physical abilities to perform in their demanding job. Furthermore, Madison has a higher-than-average rate of hiring and retaining female firefighters, showing that its test performs well at selecting qualified candidates. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: January 22, 2024, Case #: 22-2433, Categories: Civil Rights, Employment Discrimination
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court improperly excluded evidence that defendant, a felon, was found in possession of a firearm with a laser sight attached and that two key witnesses saw the sight activated when defendant brandished the weapon. The government's final proposal to have its witnesses describe the firearm only as having a "glowing red dot" without naming the laser sight should be sufficient to avoid unfair prejudice to the defendant, while maintaining the probative value of the evidence. Reversed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: January 5, 2024, Case #: 23-1264, Categories: Evidence, Firearms
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court properly upheld the Social Security Administration's decision not to award the applicant disability insurance benefits because his insured status for those benefits expired five weeks before he was found to have been disabled. The administrative law judge was not required to consult a medical expert to determine whether the applicant became disabled before the dates of his earliest relevant medical records. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: December 19, 2023, Case #: 22-1972, Categories: Administrative Law, Social Security
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court properly upheld the Social Security Administration decision to deny the applicant disability benefits. The agency reasonably found that the application was able to perform some kinds of sedentary work despite her significant gastrointestinal problems, including frequent vomiting, caused by her radiation treatment for cancer. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: December 7, 2023, Case #: 22-2808, Categories: Social Security
J. Hamilton finds that the district court properly imposed a communication restriction on an employer in a putative collective and class wage-and-hour action under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The lead plaintiff objected after his former employer responded to his lawsuit seeking unpaid overtime wages by trying to persuade employees to agree not to join any class action and to encourage employees to settle their claims individually. The district court found that the employer’s communications were misleading and coercive. Affirmed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: December 7, 2023, Case #: 22-55731, Categories: Employment, Class Action
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court improperly dismissed the anti-hunting activists' pre-enforcement challenge to Wisconsin's "hunter harassment law" which makes it a crime to harass hunters in various ways. There is no way to read the law as requiring an activist physically interfere with a hunter to violate the law, raising serious First Amendment issues. To suffice for standing, the activists need only "arguably" be affected by the challenged statute. Reversed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: November 13, 2023, Case #: 21-1042, Categories: Civil Procedure, Constitution, First Amendment
J. Hamilton finds in favor of Santa Cruz County after a church sued it with religious discrimination claims when the county opened up a welfare fraud investigation that resulted in several leaders of the organization being charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana. The church says it was unfairly treated due to its religious practices, but there is nothing on the record that implies county officials were doing anything beyond enforcing a facially-neutral law in a completely non-discriminatory fashion. The charges leveled against the church leadership were also well supported by evidence found in their home during a legal search.
Court: USDC Northern District of California, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: October 31, 2023, Case #: 4:19cv2729, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Municipal Law
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court properly ruled for Costco on an employee's ADA claim that it remodeled the store in a way that made it impossible for her to continue in her position as Optical Manager given her difficulties walking and standing. While there was a clear error in the jury instructions, the error was not so prejudicial as to require a new trial in this case. Further, the court did not err in allowing both parties to introduce photographs of the workplace that had not been disclosed in discovery. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: September 1, 2023, Case #: 22-2067, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Jury, Employment Discrimination
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court improperly dismissed a prisoner's ADA claim alleging the prison improperly denied his request for accommodation of his injured knee. The complaint claims that the prisoner's prior prison had assigned him a lower bunk, but his current prison denied him a lower bunk causing him severe pain. This pro se allegation sufficiently states an ADA claim.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: August 25, 2023, Case #: 22-2458, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Prisoners' Rights
J. Hamilton finds that the district court properly entered summary judgment for a psychiatrist at Patton State Hospital in California in an action where a patient alleged that he was attacked by a fellow patient while he was a pretrial detainee and a patient at the hospital. The patient offered no evidence that the psychiatrist failed to act reasonably concerning the attack and found in favor of the psychiatrist on the merits rather than based on the defense of qualified immunity. Affirmed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: August 25, 2023, Case #: 22-55588, Categories: Civil Rights, Prisoners' Rights
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court properly denied defendant's motion to withdraw his guilty plea to possession of child pornography. A psychological evaluation confirmed that defendant had been competent to plead guilty, and the court reasonably found that he had done so knowingly and voluntarily. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: August 23, 2023, Case #: 22-2366, Categories: Competence, Child Pornography
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court properly sentenced defendant to an above-guideline prison term for possession of a firearm as a felon. The record shows the court considered rehabilitation as a reason for extending defendant's sentence, but this was not the judge's primary consideration in deciding defendant's sentence. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: August 22, 2023, Case #: 22-2275, Categories: Firearms, Sentencing
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court properly denied defendant's habeas petition asserting he was deprived of effective assistance of counsel because counsel did not tell him six of the over a dozen sexual abuse felony charges against him, including one to which he pled guilty, were barred by the statute of limitations. Defendant cannot show he would have rejected the plea bargain and gone to trial instead if his counsel had properly informed him. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: August 8, 2023, Case #: 21-2416, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Plea
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court properly convicted defendant of failing to disclose his foreign bank account on his income tax returns. The evidence supported the jury's finding that defendant willfully chose not to disclose his foreign bank account. The key question on the tax return form was not ambiguous as applied to defendant's situation, and he cannot show the foreign-account reporting regulation is invalid. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: August 8, 2023, Case #: 22-2758, Categories: Fraud, Tax
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court properly found for the employer in an ADA suit claiming the hospital did not adequately accommodate an employee's anxiety, which made her unable to wear a mask as required by the hospital's Covid-19 protocol. Management reasonably denied the employee's request to work entirely from home, as no juror could find the employee could perform certain essential functions of her job without being present at the hospital. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: August 7, 2023, Case #: 22-2740, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Employment Discrimination
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court properly convicted defendant of sex-trafficking minors. Although the jury was accidentally given a laptop computer that contained files it should not have, there is no possibility that evidence could have affected the jury's verdict. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: August 4, 2023, Case #: 22-1429, Categories: Evidence, Jury, Child Victims
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court improperly dismissed a lawsuit against the defendant business partner of now-defunct Backpage.com stemming from the website's criminal sex-trafficking violations. The company provided custom-tailored software to Backpage and provided ongoing support, knowingly benefiting from the website's sex-trafficking venture. The complaint states a viable claim under Section 1595 and the Communications Decency Act. Reversed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: August 3, 2023, Case #: 22-2621, Categories: Communications, Tort, Business Practices
J. Hamilton partially grants the police officers and city officials' motion for summary judgment in the protestors' suit alleging civil rights violations and injuries at protests of the death of George Floyd. Police officers' decision to shoot less-lethal munitions into a crowd could create unlawful-seizure claims for those struck, since firing their weapons toward the protesters was a "knowing and willful act that terminated [their] freedom of movement," regardless of the officers' intent to encourage protestors to disperse. Several protestors' claims are dismissed for reasons including inability to identify or incorrect identification of the officers who injured them and the officers' reasonable beliefs that the use of force was necessary to apprehend them. Five protestors have surviving claims.
Court: USDC Northern District of California, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: August 3, 2023, Case #: 4:21cv1705, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, First Amendment, Police Misconduct
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court improperly dismissed a man's suit stemming from the village's acquisition of his property to use as a municipal park. While the man's house is gone and cannot be recovered, he may still seek due process damages if he can prove the village failed to provide required pre-deprivation notice and an opportunity to be heard. Reversed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: August 2, 2023, Case #: 22-3065, Categories: Municipal Law, Property, Damages
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court improperly dismissed a False Claims Act suit alleging the telecom company charged schools and libraries more for services than allowed under the Schools and Libraries Universal Service Support program. The relator identified enough specific evidence of discriminatory pricing to allow a reasonable jury to find that the company charged schools and libraries more than similarly situated customers. Reversed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: August 2, 2023, Case #: 22-1515, Categories: Communications, False Claims
J. Hamilton finds that the lower court properly found for the Corps in an environmental challenge to its decision to continue the overall program of building river training structures to maintain the navigable channel in the middle Mississippi River where the Ohio River meets it and more than doubles the river's flow. The Corps considered alternatives, removed structures that are no longer effective and studied the uses of dredged material that would minimize environmental harm. Other alternatives suggested by environmental groups were rejected, in part, because they would require Congressional authorization. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: August 1, 2023, Case #: 22-1466, Categories: Environment, Agency