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.
New cert petition! Friends, if an FBI SWAT team ever raids your home by mistake, terrifying your family, because they couldn’t be bothered to double check they had the right address, you might like to sue over it. And you might think the Federal Tort Claims Act, which Congress amended in 1974 specifically to ensure there’s a cause of action for federal police raids, lets you do just that. But you’d be wrong, at least in the Eleventh Circuit, which earlier this year ruled (unpublished and per curiam) that FBI agents have the discretion to do anything or nothing at all when it comes to making sure they raid the correct house. Today, IJ asked the Supreme Court to step in, resolve some circuit splits, and tell the Eleventh Circuit that the Supremacy Clause doesn’t conflict with federal statutes.
New on the Short Circuit podcast: Michael Perloff of the ACLU joins us to discuss how the D.C. Circuit said your “effects” receive Fourth Amendment protection for as long as the police hold onto them.
- Three individuals are arrested for murder of Boston pizza delivery man in 2010; one pleads guilty and the other two are tried together. Co-defendant “A” makes inculpatory statements about co-defendant “B.” The state wants to use A’s statements against B, so it creates a redacted transcript of the statements, replacing all references to B’s name with a blank space. The state shows the jury that transcript at the close of B’s trial and he’s convicted. Sixth Amendment violation? First Circuit: Yes, but we have “no grave doubt” that the jury would have reached the same verdict without the redacted statement. Conviction affirmed. Partial dissent: “I entertain ‘grave doubt’ about whether the statement had such an influence” because it was “plainly critical to the prosecution.”
- Not the worst news NYC Mayor Eric Adams received this week, but the Second Circuit has un-dismissed a lawsuit alleging that changes to the admission process for some of the city’s most prestigious and highly selective high schools discriminated against Asian-American students.
- Drugmaker Merck has been in court for quite some time over the question as to whether federal law preempts state-law claims related to the labeling of its anti-osteoporosis drug Fosamax. How long? Longer than the publication of George R.R. Martin’s most-recent novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire series (July 2011). And just like the book-version of that series, there’s no telling when the end will be. After multidistrict consolidation in 2011, a “bellwether trial” in 2013, a Third Circuit ruling in 2017, a SCOTUS reversal in 2019, and a district court ruling in 2022, the Third Circuit has once again penned a chapter, this time reversing the district court, determining the claims are not preempted and remanding for further writing.
- Pennsylvania death-row prisoner with a history of mental illness is held in solitary confinement for 26 years. He sues a prison official, who does not dispute whether that violates the Eighth Amendment, arguing only that he is entitled to qualified immunity. Third Circuit (over a dissent): There’s “no room for doubt that individuals with a known history of serious mental illness have a clearly established right not to be subjected to prolonged solitary confinement without penological justification.” No QI.
- Two fishermen challenge a federal fishing rule limiting their catch in the Mid-Atlantic region. Unlike federal rules issued by agencies headed by Senate appointees, this one emanates from the Mid-Atlantic Council, run by people appointed to various degrees by state governors and are not Senate-confirmed. The Council can “pocket veto” the Senate-appointed Secretary of Commerce in certain situations. Third Circuit: Pocket vetoes are right there in the Declaration of Independence. As a remedy, though, we won’t do anything so drastic. Let’s just sever the pocket-veto powers.
- Octogenarian, disabled, good-h
Article from Reason.com
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