Short Circuit: An inexhaustive weekly compendium of rulings from the federal courts of appeal

Please enjoy the latest edition of Short Circuit, a weekly feature written by a bunch of people at the Institute for Justice.

Papers, please. IJ Senior Attorney Anya Bidwell comments on the lack of accountability for federal police over at The New Republic, in Radley Balko’s piece about the Trump Administration’s immigration enforcement blitz.

New on the Short Circuit podcast: Find out what it’s like to litigate for people behind bars—including when they overcome qualified immunity.

1. For weeks, staff at a secure, state-run Norwich, N.Y. facility for people with severe disabilities ignore man’s increasingly worrisome signs of heart disease, as well as his mother’s pleas to take him to a hospital. Per an expert, his death felt like drowning. Facility: Ah, but he was admitted voluntarily, so we didn’t have a constitutional duty of care to him. Second Circuit: Grant of qualified immunity reversed. To trial this must go.
2. Allegation: In 2020, college student reports that she was pulled over and sexually assaulted at night by someone in an unmarked vehicle with flashing blue lights. She leaves her phone at the Washington County, Va. sheriff’s station while officers take her to the scene and soon thereafter receives threatening text messages telling her to recant or else. Officers review traffic footage of the wrong day and time and lie to her, saying they saw her car but not the assailants’ in the video (in fact, they saw neither). They accuse her of sending the text messages to herself. Fearing that a legitimate cop is the assailant, she recants. She’s charged with making a false report (and subjected to intense public vitriol). After her acquittal, she sues the officers. District court: She recanted, so. Fourth Circuit: Case undismissed.
3. Man suspected of illegal firearm possession takes off running when confronted by Gaithersburg, Md. officers. They shoot him in the back, killing him. Officers: He pointed a gun at us and we saw a muzzle flash, so good shoot. District court: To trial this must go. A reasonable jury might find the man didn’t point the gun or fire it. Fourth Circuit (over a dissent): Affirmed.
4. So-called “Parker immunity” means that monopolies don’t violate the Sherman Act so long as the state legislature has said the monopoly is a-okay. And if the legislature okays city-granted private monopolies, says the Fourth Circuit, that also means cities can just keep that monopoly for themselves.
5. Woman wants to sue Lexington, Miss. officers for, among other things, false arrest. But! After she got out of jail, she received paperwork asking her to appear in court, but the date is delayed and never rescheduled. Except! Turns out the arrest report says she was found guilty of obstruction and providing false info. Except! The court has no record of this. So does the “conviction” count under the Heck bar? District court: Parties, confer and figure out what’s going on. Cops: Let’s appeal. Fifth Circuit (unpublished): You can’t appeal from that.
6. Sixth Circuit: “In summer 2020, Sir Maejor Page raised hundreds of thousands of dollars through a Facebook page he created for Black Lives Matter of Greater Atlanta. Donors thought Page was using their funds to support protests. But in reality, he spent the money on a prostitute, guns, booze, tailored suits, and a new house. As a result, Page was convicted of wire fraud and money laundering. On appeal, he challenges both his conviction and sentence. Because none of his arguments has merit, we affirm.”
7. Former Tippecanoe County, Ind. sheriff’s deputy: The elected sheriff railroaded me with bogus excessive-force allegations. Then he tricked me into resigning and waiving my due-process rights by saying he’d withdraw the disciplinary charges and give me a neutral reference letter. But as soon as I resigned, he and two county prosecutors lost no time telling all and sundry about the excessive-force allegations. Which has made me unemployable. And violated my due-process rights. Seventh Circuit: A couple of the prosecutors’ communications are covered by absolute immunity, but y’know what? At least at the pleadings stage, most of the erstwhile deputy’s due-process claim can proceed.
8. On the way to Kansas City, Mo., Amtrak passenger shoots another passenger dead, apparently at random and unprovoked. Jury: Amtrak owes the deceased’s family $158.8 mil in damages. District court: Make that $44 mil. Eighth Circuit: Make that zero. The crime wasn’t foreseeable.
9. Missouri school-district employees are required to attend DEI trainings where they feel compelled to refrain from expressing their insufficiently woke views. A First Amendment violation? Eighth Circuit (en banc): Yes, indeed. Dissent: A cringey in-service is not a First Amendment issue.
10. In the late 19th century, the United States was deeded 600 acres of land between Santa Monica and Los Angeles to house disabled veterans. As an entirely expected consequence, the property is used for other things and Los Angeles is home to some 3,000 homeless veterans. Ninth Circuit: Build them some housing already!
11. Assistant principal in Washington state publishes a private Facebook rant about the 2020 “Demtard” National Convention. He claims he was hacked and actually posted something different (that also contained the word “Demtard”). He is transferred to a teaching position. He sues. Ninth Circuit: His speech, no matter how poorly spelled, was on matters of public concern, but the school could reasonably foresee disruption.
12. Ninth Circuit (2021): These property owners lose under the Quiet Title Act’s jurisdictional statute of limitations. SCOTUS (2023): That statute of limitations isn’t jurisdictional, guys. Ninth Circuit (this week): Yeah, okay. These property owners lose under the Quiet Title Act’s non-jurisdictional statute of limitations.
13. And in en banc news, the Ninth Circuit will not reconsider its opinion that privately provided mandatory continuing medical education is government speech. Three judges in two separate dissents think that’s obvious nonsense.
14. And in more en banc news, the Tenth Circuit will not reconsider its opinion that New Mexico’s disclosure requirements for electioneering communications do not violate the First Amendment. Dissental: In 1779, the Continental Congress declined Del. Elbridge Gerry’s motion to force the editor of the Pennsylvania Packet to unmask “Leonidas,” a pseudonymous correspondent who’d blamed the congress for inflation. And the state oughtn’t unmask anyone today (without more tailoring).

Boy howdy, this one stings. Just before Christmas, we received word that the Florida Supreme Court will not take up the case of the $165,000 in fines that Lantana officials want to wring out of IJ client Sandy Martinez for three trivial code violations: over $100,000 for parking cars slightly off of her driveway with two wheels in the grass; $47,000 for a storm-damaged fence (which she quickly rectified once her insurance claim went through); and $16,000 for cracks in the driveway. We’d argued that all of that falls afoul of the state constitution’s prohibition on excessive fines, but no dice. Sandy is a hardworking, law-abiding sort, and the city is ruining her life for no good reason. Click here to learn more.

The post Short Circuit: An inexhaustive weekly compendium of rulings from the federal courts of appeal appeared first on Reason.com.