Please enjoy the latest edition of Short Circuit, a weekly feature from the Institute for Justice.
Alert: New case: Game wardens can trespass on private property in Pennsylvania without permission, notice or warrant. Some state laws say yes. The Supreme Court’s “open fields doctrine”, which is a lamentable law, says the exact same. Two hunting clubs now wonder if Pennsylvania’s constitution offers more protection against unreasonable searches than that of the federal Constitution. For more information, click here
- Allusion: Our family has been targeted regularly for special searches when we travel. It strongly suggests the government has placed us on a screening list. Our family travels a lot and would like federal courts to remove it. D.C. Circuit: That sounds a lot like an injury that can be redressed. Case undismissed.
- Co-founder of group, Liberté Congolaise, that opposes the regime is arrested and never heard from again. After multiple arrests, the other co-founder fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Board of Immigration Appeals: It doesn’t appear that he fears persecution. Send him back. Third Circuit: It is impossible to read the asylum law to require that an removed asylum seeker live in fear of being arrested, imprisoned, tortured, or killed. It does not condemn one to live the rest of his/her life (or try to outlast a repressive regime) fearing every knock on the door—assuming those in authority there even bother with such conventions.”
- Walmart: Our pharmacists refuse to dispense doctor-prescribed opioids in an effort to conform to federal drug laws. We also allow our blacklisting of doctors to identify those who are suspect. This has resulted in lawsuits from doctors as well threats and warnings from state regulators. The feds threaten us with retaliation for the exact same lax policies. Is there any chance of clarity? Fifth Circuit: No. But good news—the feds are suing you now (in Delaware) so maybe you can hash it out with them in that other case.
- Indian asylee challenges denial of asylum, observing that the immigration judge—who smirked and rolled her eyes throughout counsel’s presentation—has a nearly 100% denial rate over the last nine years. Fifth Circuit: There is nothing to be seen here.
- O(SHA) snap! OSHA (SHA) snap! Was the Fifth able to lift the Emergency Rule’s suspension by the Sixth Circuit? It was “summarily concluded,” was “failure”[ed]acknowledgment,” which was “unadorned with precedent” and that “failed to analyse any harm OSHA.” Contrary to Fifth’s assertion, “necessary” can be understood in two different ways. This is not the one. McCulloch v. Maryland. (SCOTUS may take a closer look.
- My friends, it is not possible to hold vicariously responsible for the actions of a police officer who violates constitutional rights. Plaintiff: However, what happens if an officer breaches my rights under Americans with Disabilities Act? For example, he fails to properly secure my wheelchair while I ride from jail to my home. Sixth Circuit (over a dissent): Same deal. No vicarious liability.
- It would normally be difficult to choose who to support in a battle between a homeowners association or the United States Postal Service. But, since the complaint of this Michigan HOA is about receiving improperly addressed mail but the listing of the city as Ypsilanti rather than Superior Township, Ann Arbor, then we are here with the Sixth Circuit.
- The Sixth Circuit did not preserve the issues for its review, and the “jurisprudential banquet” is now a sham.
- A district court can consider whether to grant compassionate relief when considering sentencing disparities due to non-retroactive federal law amendments. Sixth Circuit (Mar. 9, 2021): No(ish?). Sixth Circuit (May 6, 2021): Yes. Sixth Circuit (June 3, 2021): No. Sixth Circuit (Aug. 30, 2021): No. Sixth Circuit (Dec. 17, 2021): Yes. Dissent: No. (Michael Dreeben: Yes.)
- Allegiance: Quintet of forensic specialists tell Quincy officials in Illinois that the theory of murder they are proposing is untrue. They lie to the fifth expert who creates a report in which the husband of the victim (a professor, prosecutor and president of a school board) is implicated. He is released after spending over two years detained. Seventh Circuit: He will be trial for his Fourth Amendment rights.
- Seventh Circuit: There is no need to change the $30 million verdict against the feds. It was for inactions by a East St. Louis nurse practitioner, Ill. clinic, who failed inform plaintiff about the severity of hypertension, how to treat it and failed to examine lab results that indicated advanced kidney disease.
- Wisconsin provides a transportation benefit to families who send their kids to private schools—but only one school of the same religious denomination in the same area qualifies. The benefit is not available to families who attend a Milwaukee Catholic school. There’s another Catholic school nearby that qualifies. Seventh Circuit (2018). This is fine. Seventh Circuit, 2021 after stopping at SCOTUS & SCOWI: Plaintiffs school claims it has a differing understanding of Catholicism (and in fact the school is not affiliated with the local diocese). The inquiry into its beliefs and practices will determine whether it believes and practices the Catholic faith. Really It is not appropriate for officials to attempt to give it another denomination. The benefit is available to plaintiffs.
- Chicago officers seize $4k from $18k found in a car belonging to a suspected drug dealer. Yikes! This is the FBI’s vehicle and FBI cash. FBI wiretaps also capture the subsequent coverup attempt by the FBI officers. Seventh Circuit: It’s not necessary to reconsider the convictions of officers or their six- and seven-year sentences.
- An Illinois White Castle franchisee files suit under the Biometric Information Privacy Act. The lawsuit claims that Illinois White Castle’s requirement that employees use fingerprint scanning systems to access its computer system is a violation of the law. White Castle defends that the case is time-barred—the statute of limitations should have started running from the first time she used the system following the law’s enactment in 2008, not each time she used the system. Seventh Circuit – This is a very important question, which we are happy to let the Illinois Supreme Court answer.
- Your summarist would never sue a coupon company if he was arrested for harassing Best Buy employees over a coupon dispute. This Florida woman march to the beat she owns, but it is clear. For its part, the Eleventh Circuit is not having any of it.
- Lawyers for victims of sexual trafficking sue several Atlanta-area hotel franchisors. They claim that staff at the hotels acted as lookouts, and that franchisors sent inspectors to detect that there was trafficking taking place. Eleventh Circuit. To be held liable under Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization, franchisors must have been involved in trafficking and not simply turning a blindeye. Case dismissed. Concurrence. You could certainly sue franchisees of hotel chains for taking part.
- In en banc news the Eleventh Circuit will not reconsider its decision under Title 2 that federal agents have the authority to sue Florida over allegedly insinuating hundreds of children with medical conditions unnecessarily.
It was a great success. It was a great success! “The Board apparently believes—incorrectly—that it can say the magic words ‘traffic and safety’ and this Court will rubber stamp the classification no matter the facts,” wrote U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell. The Court cannot allow such deference to excuse it from its obligation to uphold the Constitution rights of everyone. For more information, click here