Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Please enjoy the latest edition of Short Circuit, a weekly feature written by a bunch of people at the Institute for Justice.
This week on the Short Circuit podcast: A dog named Thor not behaving as man’s best friend and speculation as to why “bigamy” is in the Mississippi Constitution.
And, over at the Fed Soc teleforum, IJ’s own Robert McNamara moderates a debate on the merits of qualified immunity between Michael Perloff, interim head of the ACLU, and Prof. Chris Walker of the University of Michigan. Click here to check that out.
- During the COVID-19 pandemic, the CDC imposed a temporary eviction moratorium that the Supreme Court held was beyond the agency’s statutory authority. CDC: Which means the eviction moratorium couldn’t possibly have worked a taking, right? Because takings are lawful, and we acted unlawfully, right? So, y’know, neener neener neener, right? Federal Circuit (over a dissent): That is very clever and entirely wrong. Case undismissed!
- During 2020 police-brutality protests, D.C. police arrested quite a few people and then released them in relatively short order. They did not, however, release their cell phones for months and years—despite not pressing charges or seeking search warrants. District court: Which is fine. The Fourth Amendment only applies to the initial act of seizing the phones, not retaining them. D.C. Circuit: Vacated. Text, history, and tradition say otherwise. Concurrence: And the five circuits that have gone the other way on this employed unpersuasive reasoning. (IJ—with some friends—urged this course of action in an amicus brief.)
- Maryland man who shares name and DOB with a fugitive wanted for a 40-year-old Illinois murder is repeatedly arrested by D.C. police. Egregiously, Illinois police had put the Maryland man’s SSN on their warrant. But eventually, they correct that and instruct officers not to detain the Maryland man. Despite this, D.C. police detain him two more times. Jury: And D.C. owes him $100k for false imprisonment. District court: Vacated! Just because a D.C. officer knew the Maryland man had a different SSN than the one on the (corrected) warrant doesn’t mean the officer knew he was a different person. D.C. Circuit: Doesn’t it? The jury’s verdict is reinstated.
- Defendant robs a Maine bank, has a rap-sheet “longer than” the sentencing judge’s “arm,” and early in his subsequent prison term engaged in a fair amount of poor behavior. However, it’s also true that falling on his head when he was four “‘annihilated’ his brain’s impulse control center,” that he has recently taken remedial classes in prison and has been much better at following prison rules. Worthy for compassionate release under the First Step Act? First Circuit: These are not “extraordinary and compelling reasons” for early release.
- The Satanic Temple challenges the City of Boston’s failure to invite them to give an invocation before its city council as a violation of the Establishment Clause. City: It’s not that city councilors are favoring certain religions, it’s that they’re inviting people they like for non-religious reasons, like their good works in the community. First Circuit: Oh, well that’s fine. Concurrence: The city also says that city councilors “might find it politically expedient to curry favor with a religious group and its constituent members,” which seems at least a little problematic.
- Virgin Island prisoner files a habeas petition with the territorial court in 2014, and all that court has done is since is hold a single status conference—seven years ago. So petitioner files his petition in federal court, where he has to show “inordinate delay” to excuse a failure to exhaust state-court remedies. District court: Sure, you kept filing motions and discovery requests while the territorial court dawdled, but you also could have sought the extraordinary relief of mandamus from the territorial high court, so the delay is your fault. Third Circuit: Are you kidding me? If the gov’t doesn’t have a very good reason for the delay, this habeas petition needs to be considered on
Article from Reason.com
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