19 results for 'judge:"Willett"'.
J. Willett grants the chamber of commerce's petition for a writ of mandamus challenging the district court's denial of a preliminary injunction. The chamber calls into question a final rule issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau decreasing the safe harbor amount for charging credit card late fees. The chamber had a short window of time to comply with the rule or seek the injunction. The court’s inaction amounted to an effective denial of the injunction. The district court also lacked jurisdiction to transfer the case after this appeal was docketed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett , Filed On: May 3, 2024, Case #: 24-10266, Categories: Commerce, Banking / Lending, Injunction
J. Willett finds the district court properly ruled in favor of the construction retaining wall manufacturer. The successor to the company that purchases and sells the walls says the manufacturer defrauded the original company by selling certain products to competitors. The successor seller brought its claims after limitations. Once the manufacturer allegedly breached the exclusivity agreement, the seller had an actionable claim. Any subsequent third-party sales would have only added to existing damages. The limitations period began to run upon the initial alleged breach. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett, Filed On: April 3, 2024, Case #: 23-50123, Categories: Fraud, Contract
J. Willett finds the district court properly convicted and sentenced defendant, by guilty plea, for being a felon in possession of a firearm based on sufficient evidence. Though the court failed to inform defendant of the punishment range, the presentence report specifically detailed it. The court properly applied career criminal sentencing enhancements for defendant's previous, violent felony convictions. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett , Filed On: March 15, 2024, Case #: 23-50040, Categories: Firearms, Sentencing
J. Willett withdraws the previous opinion and substitutes this one, finding the district court improperly awarded the debilitated former NFL running back top tier NFL plan disability benefits. Although the plan’s review board may have denied the retired player a full review, and he is most likely entitled to the highest level of disability pay, he is not entitled to reclassification. He has not shown changed circumstances between a previous application and his claim for reclassification, which was denied and which he did not appeal. Reversed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett , Filed On: March 15, 2024, Case #: 22-10710, Categories: Erisa, Insurance
J. Willett finds the district court properly granted the book vendor's request for a preliminary injunction against the commissioner of the Texas Education Agency. The vendors sued for injunctive relief that Texas' READER Act, which requires schoolbook vendors to issue ratings for all library materials they have ever sold (or will sell), flagging materials deemed sexually explicit, violates the constitution. Because the vendors are likely to succeed on the merits of their first amendment claim, the state and the public will not be injured by the injunction. Affirmed in part.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett , Filed On: January 17, 2024, Case #: 23-50668, Categories: Constitution, Education, Agency
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J. Willett, withdrawing the previous opinion and substituting another, finds the district court improperly found in favor of journalists on the pre-enforcement claims filed by various photographers and press organizations who lost income due to the possibility of being sued for flying drones in sensitive airspace. Nothing in the First Amendment or binding precedent permits an unqualified right to conduct aerial surveillance on non-consenting private individuals on private property. Reversed in part.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett , Filed On: January 10, 2024, Case #: 22-50337, Categories: Civil Rights, Constitution
J. Willett finds the district court improperly denied one defendant's motion for a new trial on robbery and conspiracy charges related to the deadly robbery of a Loomis truck. New evidence emerged regarding the credibility of government witnesses, which is material as applied to one defendant; therefore, the prosecutor's disclosure of it must be reviewed. The armored truck company does not tally money by serial number, and money found in this defendant’s house would have to have been connected to the robbery by denomination. Evidence suggests the money may have been from defendant's employer, who paid him in cash. Reversed in part.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett , Filed On: December 22, 2023, Case #: 22-30238, Categories: Evidence, Robbery, Conspiracy
J. Willett dismisses the former nurse's appeal of her more than 20-year-old drug conviction. Though she has maintained her innocence of charges arising from police officers' finding of cocaine on the ground near where she was standing, a district attorney who was also working as a law clerk consistently advised the judge to draft adverse rulings in her case. He was disbarred after his retirement. The former nurse cannot show favorable termination of her conviction, and her civil rights suit cannot proceed. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett , Filed On: December 14, 2023, Case #: 22-50998, Categories: Drug Offender, Judiciary, Civil Rights
J. Willett finds the district court properly denied the charter school's motion to discontinue the use of race as an admissions parameter. The consent order at issue requires the school to implement a race-based enrollment process consistent with an ongoing desegregation plan in the Louisiana parish. The school has not rebutted the court’s conclusions and has forfeited its constitutional argument. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett , Filed On: December 13, 2023, Case #: 23-30063, Categories: Constitution, Education, Due Process
J. Willett finds the district court improperly found in favor of journalists on the pre-enforcement claims brought by various photographers and press organizations who lost income due to the possibility of being sued for flying drones in sensitive airspace. Nothing in the First Amendment or binding precedent permits an unqualified right to conduct aerial surveillance on non-consenting private individuals on private property. The district court properly dismissed the field-preemption claim. Affirmed in part. Vacated and remanded in part. Reversed and remanded in part.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett, Filed On: October 23, 2023, Case #: 22-50337, Categories: Constitution, Aviation
J. Willett finds the district court improperly granted reclassification of the NFL running back’s retirement benefits level to the highest tier. The player has suffered multiple concussions throughout his career and was awarded one set of benefits. After he was found to be entitled to social security disability, the NFL plan reclassified him to a higher tier. Two years later, the NFL denied a third claim for reclassification. The district court then granted discovery and awarded the player top-level benefits instead of remanding for review at the administrative level. The player is not entitled to the court’s reclassification because he has not shown changed circumstances between his last two claims, the last of which was denied and which he did not appeal. Reversed and remanded.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett, Filed On: October 6, 2023, Case #: 22-10710, Categories: Administrative Law, Erisa, Insurance
J. Willett finds the district court improperly dismissed this suit brought by doctors who claim that the FDA's messaging about ivermectin during the Covid-19 pandemic (messaging based on discouraging use of the animal version of the drug) interfered with their own individual medical practice when they attempted to prescribe the human version. The doctors can use the Administrative Procedure Act to bypass sovereign immunity and assert claims that the FDA plausibly overstepped its professional authority by effectively giving medical advice that only physicians should give. Reversed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett , Filed On: September 1, 2023, Case #: 22-40802, Categories: Health Care, Agency, Covid-19
J. Willett finds the district court properly granted summary judgment to the school district and a resource officer who tased a special-needs student, who physically fought with school staff while attempting to leave school following a violent episode. Though, based on recent Supreme Court precedent, the court incorrectly subjected the disability discrimination claims to administrative exhaustion, the student’s mother has not shown that the officer intentionally discriminated based on the student’s disability. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett, Filed On: August 28, 2023, Case #: 21-20671, Categories: Civil Rights, Constitution, Education
J. Willett finds the district court properly struck the franchise owner’s jury demand in this suit arising upon Pizza Hut’s termination of his franchise agreement due to his failure to fulfill contractual obligations. He says that the jury waiver was procured by fraud and that the court failed to give due weight to Seventh Amendment inviolability. In his view, the history of the Seventh Amendment shows that pre-dispute jury waivers were nonexistent, and, even if they did exist, fraud can always invalidate a contract. The Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial is unassailable but not unwaivable. Courts have long honored parties’ agreements to waive the jury right if the waiver is knowing and voluntary. The Fifth Circuit follows its sister circuits in holding that general allegations of fraud do not render contractual jury waivers unknowing and involuntary unless those claims are directed at the waiver provision specifically. The franchise owner failed to show that the jury waiver was unknowing and involuntary. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett, Filed On: August 22, 2023, Case #: 22-40555, Categories: Constitution, Business Expectancy, Contract
J. Willett finds the trial court properly dismissed the immigration attorney’s claims against DHS arising from its seizing of his phone after his surname appeared in connection with an investigation involving an arms dealer. The attorney lacks standing to seek declaratory relief related solely to past events, and his constitutional theories upon which he seeks an injunction requiring DHS to delete seized data have no merit. His rights were not violated by the DHS’s search of his phone. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett, Filed On: August 15, 2023, Case #: 22-10772, Categories: Constitution, Immigration, International Law
J. Willett finds the district court improperly dismissed this suit brought by the law firm whose contracts with the county were terminated after the election changed the composition of the county board of supervisors. The law firm seeks a fixed sum for the full year, per its contracts. Though the district court reasoned that nothing authorized the old board to bind the new one, the statute which empowers the board to contract “by the year” for legal counsel gave the old board “express authority” to bind the new board. Reversed and remanded.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett, Filed On: August 14, 2023, Case #: 22-60457, Categories: Municipal Law, Contract
J. Willett finds the district court improperly denied the school district’s motion to dismiss the federal civil rights claim brought by the parents of a disabled student who was sexually assaulted by another student. The Fifth Circuit has never adopted a state-created danger exception to the “no duty to protect” rule, asserting that “never-established right cannot be a clearly established one.” The parents can still seek redress under their Title IX claim, which has been stayed pending this interlocutory appeal. Reversed and remanded with instructions to dismiss the civil rights claim.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett, Filed On: July 14, 2023, Case #: 21-20553, Categories: Civil Rights, Constitution, Education
[Consolidated.] J. Willett finds the district court improperly sanctioned the event ticket-selling service for failing to designate a list of its affiliates as “highly confidential” during discovery in the underlying patent infringement suit. Though that part of the sanctions order imposing liability against the company was properly entered, the part imposing liability against individual representatives was improperly calculated. The court also did not provide adequate reasoning as to the calculation, nor did it address the application of factors from a guiding case in a way that would facilitate meaningful review. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett, Filed On: June 19, 2023, Case #: 21-40705, Categories: Patent, Sanctions, Discovery
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