Tenth Circuit: Clark v. Colbert

Firing of non-lethal rounds at a contained, psychotic fellow with a knife who refused to submit to arrest was not an unconstitutionally excessive use of force.

Appeal of state tort claim waived as only one of three independent grounds for denial was addressed.

Appeal of municipal liability under ADA waived for insufficient development of grounds for appeal.

Jail nurse's refusal to allow follow-up appointment with doctor, resulting in an improperly knit bone healing, did not rise to the level of conscious disregard of an excessive risk to health or safety.

https://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/opinions/17/17-7046.pdf

Ninth Circuit: Martinez De Ryan v. Sessions

Crimes of moral turpitude is not an unconstitutionally vague category for purposes of deportation review.

http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2018/07/17/15-70759.pdf

Ninth Circuit: True Health Chiropractic v. McKesson Corp.

Court's reference to implicit ascertainability requirement in denial of class certification does not suffice to establish that the court imposed a heightened standard of administrative feasibility.

DC Circuit's invalidation of FCC rule in an action commenced to challenge another rule is binding inter-circuit precedent.

Prior consent to fax communications is a compulsory affirmative defense that can defeat predominance in class certification; a class composed of non-consenting recipients satisfies predominance requirements, and a class with varying levels of personal consent does not; remand to determine the character of predominance in a class composed of boilerplate consent claims.

http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2018/07/17/16-17123.pdf

Ninth Circuit: Automotive Industries Pension Trust Fund v. Toshiba

Federal jurisdiction over the securities transaction arises from the purchaser's acceptance of irrevocable liability; the fact that a foreign entity might not ultimately be held liable for the events arising from the transaction does not preclude the court's jurisdiction over a purchase of a non-ownership beneficial interest in foreign stock by means of a domestic alternative trading system.

http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2018/07/17/16-56058.pdf

Ninth Circuit: Shorter v. Baca

Plaintiff's separate challenge to a jury instruction requiring deference to jail's policies sufficiently preserved a more general challenge to the instruction.

Juries should be instructed to give deference to jail's policies only where the treatment is a necessary, justified, and proportional security-based policy.

Absent any security-based reason, deference to the policy should be denied as a matter of law.

Pretrial detainees are entitled to a grievance procedure upon changes in their classification that increases the severity of the conditions of confinement.

Deliberate indifference claims arising from medical treatment should be judged under a standard of objective deliberate indifference.

http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2018/07/16/16-56051.pdf

Ninth Circuit: Coffman v. Queen of the Valley Medical Center

Given the substance of the issues discussed at the meetings following certification, there is substantial evidence for the Board's finding that the employer entered into unconditional bargaining during the informational meetings prior to challenging the certification; additionally, sufficient evidence for harms, remedy.

Employee's schedule changes following appearance of photo on pro-union social media site sufficed for a prima facie case for retaliation.

http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2018/07/16/17-17413.pdf

Ninth Circuit: US v Buenrostro

As a Presidential commutation is simply a mitigation of punishment, it does not set aside the initial judicial sentence, and therefore does not establish separate grounds for a habeas petition; a petition is therefore considered a second or successive challenge to the initial judicial sentence.  Similarly, the commutation cannot shift the sentence from one based on a statutory minimum to one based on a gudelines range,  making the sentence susceptible to a challenge based on a subsequent revision of the guidelines.

http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2018/07/13/16-10499.pdf

Eighth Circuit: United States v. DNRB, Inc.

Sufficient evidence for conviction of corporation, as the relevant regulation requires that the workers "shall be protected" by the safety device, so mere provision of the device, followed by the supervisor's observation that it wasn't being used sufficed; the fall was a foreseeable and natural result.

Evidence of other safety omissions was properly admitted, as it helped to establish a knowing violation of the rules.

Sentence was procedurally correct, as there was no need to mechanically recite all of the factors, and a fine beyond the apparent means of the corporation might legitimately have been aimed at revealing any hidden funds.

http://media.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/18/07/173148P.pdf

Eighth Circuit: United States v. Michael Bordman

No procedural error in when mitigating circumstances in the defts past are described as "reported," rather than as established by court documents.

600-month sentence not substantively an abuse of discretion; restitution order is comparable to similar cases.

Release conditions barring possession of obscene materials or entering any business that sells them, or possessing certain electronic devices have previously been held sufficiently well-tailored to their purpose.

http://media.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/18/07/172395P.pdf

Eighth Circuit: Bottoms Farm Partnership v. Sonny Perdue

Agency's interpretation of the statute requiring surveying of the rice fields as a condition of insurability is valid under Chevron deference; there is no implicit requirement that the policy be good farming practice.

Under the terms of the insurance contract and the governing agency's construction of its own jurisdiction, an agency submitted a binding and dispositive interpretation of the relevant guideline during the arbitration process.

http://media.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/18/07/172164P.pdf

Eighth Circuit: Qwest Corporation v. City of Des Moines, Iowa

Locality's regulation of telecommunication carriers' cable rights of way is not preempted by the federal statute, since the local regulation does not bar any market participants from the local market.

Locality's fees are permitted under state law where they are actually incurred by the carrier's actions and a reasonable regulation of the market.

http://media.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/18/07/171257P.pdf

Fifth Circuit: Whole Woman's Health, et al v. Charles Smith

Revised opinion.

http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/18/18-50484-CV0.pdf

Fifth Circuit: Dennis Kirchner, et al v. Deutsche Bank Natl Trust

Where one spouse does not sign the loan note, but does sign the deed of trust which contains similar terms of consent, the loan is held to be sufficiently voluntary against both spouses.

http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/17/17-50736-CV0.pdf

Fifth Circuit: Shudde Fath, et al v. Texas Dept. of Transportation

Regulation requiring a reasonably unitary environmental review for road-building projects incorporates an implicit requirement of sufficient length for discrete segments in its requirement that the segments have distinct terminii; a separate review of segment length is unnecessary.

A cumulative environmental review is unnecessary when the construction segments are de minimis.

http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/17/17-50683-CV0.pdf

Fifth Circuit: John Stroy v. Department of Veterans Affairs

Mere proximity to a filing's cutoff date is not a sufficient basis for equitable relief; a reason for relief must be articulated.

Convening of a physician review panel is an insufficiently adverse employment action to present an issue for trial as to retaliation.

http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/17/17-30373-CV0.pdf