Short Circuit: An inexhaustive weekly compendium of rulings from the federal courts of appeal
New on the Short Circuit podcast: We recorded an episode at our tenth anniversary show last week. Hear from Eugene Volokh and Raffi Melkonian about video dissents and one arbitration to rule them all.
- California assesses a tax on in-state hospitals that it uses to generate matching federal Medicaid funding and then distributes the funds as supplemental payments to hospitals treating Medicaid patients. The funds are supplemental, acting as a bonus to hospitals for treating the state’s Medicaid patients. But wait! Out-of-state hospitals treat California Medicaid patients and can’t get any of those supplemental payments. D.C. Circuit: Which is totally fine. Because it’s merely a supplement after the base costs are paid (to in-state and out-of-state providers alike), it doesn’t discriminate against interstate commerce. Dissent: But it violates a federal regulation that requires the state to pay for out-of-state services to the same extent it does in-state services.
- Two types of passes are available for journalists wishing to access the White House Press Area: hard pass (expedited security line, no escort needed) or day pass (daily application and escort from gate to press area). Hard passes are only available to reporters already accredited by the SCOTUS or congressional press galleries. First Amendment violation? D.C. Circuit: No. It’s a reasonable and viewpoint neutral policy for accessing a nonpublic forum.
- An expelled Tar Heel alleges (among other things) that after a fellow UNC student testified against him in a Title IX hearing, he is somehow allowed to cross-examine only her attorney, not the complainant herself. Fourth Circuit: Going forward, some kind of cross-examination of witnesses must be available in Title IX proceedings at state universities, even if just by a neutral panel. For now, though, a mishmash of immunity doctrines bar the expellee’s claims for damages. He might still be able to get equitable relief.
- To discourage vexatious litigation, prisoners who have filed three or more particularly weak lawsuits can’t file more federal lawsuits without paying the usual filing fee, unless they’re in “imminent danger of serious physical injury.” Which one Virginia prisoner might be, holds the Fourth Circuit, at least when he’s alleged that prison officials made him spend six hours in the cold in a dog cage, and they continue to retaliate against prisoners who complain about mistreatment.
- Thankfully, you don’t see too many concurrences these days about the 13th Amendment’s authorization for Congress to pass laws against slavery. But if you want to read a sad Fourth Circuit case affirming convictions under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which definitely covers forced labor inside the home as well as outside it, here you go.
- The caption caused your middle-aged summarist to do a double-take, but the appellant referenced in this unpublished Fourth Circuit decision is a different convicted murderer named Willie Horton.
- Texas judge refuses to perform same-s
Article from Reason.com
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