Appellate Law & Practice

CA1: Stay away from job fairs

Wilson v. City of Boston, No. 04-1310 is a 1983 case.  Police performed a mass arrest of people under the guise of a job fair.  They arrested someone who was not only innocent but had no outstanding warrants – because she was not a person to whom an advertisement was addressed.  (Pretty amazing considering that she was 18, and therefore presumed to have done something.   Or, as the friendly police said, "We know you're lying and until you tell us the truth, you'll sit out here.” )  She sued.  District Court granted summary judgment to the city, but a jury found against the arresting officers on 1983, false imprisonment, and state civil rights claims.  The District Court found that the commanding officer (that planned the mass arrest) was entitled to qualified immunity and granted a motion for a JNOV even though the jury had awarded nominal damages of one dollar.  The First goes through the traditional qualified immunity analysis, and concludes that even though she was detained 30 minutes more than necessary, it was close, and therefore plaintiff loses.  I wonder if the result would have been any different if Westchester law students were detained at an on-campus interview event.

two immigration appeals

• Tai v. Gonzales, No. 04-2567, denies a petition for review.  Affirms credibility determination of IJ, affirms denial of petition to reopen for IAC.
• Maryan v. Gonzales, No. 04-2567, also denies a petition for review.  Again, BIA affirmed on credibility determination.  Includes these choice words, “Lastly, the BIA correctly noted that petitioners' showing of generalized disorder and even terrorist violence in Indonesia is insufficient to make them eligible for relief.”

Public access to bankruptcy filings

In re Gitto Global Corp., Nos. 05-1658, 05-1666.  11 U.S.C. § 107(b)(2) provides that bankruptcy filings are generally open unless they are “scandalous or defamatory.”  The debtors asserted that a report compiled by a court-appointed examiner is, indeed, scandalous or defamatory, and lost at the District Court.  On appeal (by some newspapers) the court holds that 1) there is a common law presumption of access to judicial records; but 2) courts can seal them using their supervisory power; and 3) the burden lies on the party seeking the 11 U.S.C. § 107(b)(2) exception must meet a two pronged test:

1. [the filing contains] potentially untrue information that would alter his reputation in the eyes of a reasonable person; and
2. in the context of potentially untrue material, the information would also have to be irrelevant [or] included for improper ends (analogizing to caselaw under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(f))

See commentary at Media Law.

Scalia on Antelope

• Scalia said, "What in the world is a moderate interpretation of a constitutional text? Halfway between what it says and what we’d like it to say?"
• Supreme Court building [filled] with a massive herd of wild male antelopes here.

CA5 - Fifth Circuit Destroyed

In case you've been under a rock, New Orleans, where the Clerk's office for the Fifth Circuit is, has been destroyed.  So the flow of new Fifth Circuit opinions has been cut off for a bit.  I'll keep you updated.

Perjury, STA, and some evidence

US v. Richardson, No. 04-1617, is today’s only opinion from the First.  Defendant was convicted under 18 U.S.C. § 1623 for making false statements during immunized testimony before a grand jury.  She loses.  Keep reading.

CA1: Campbell v. General Dynamics discussed

In the ContractsProf blog.  See our coverage here.  See the opinion here.  (This is the case which holds that an emailed notice of a change in a contract was not good enough.)

CA 5

Praylor v. Texas Department of Criminal Justice (per curiam)

Transsexualixm is a "serious medical condition" that the Eighth Amendment requires states to provide "some form of treatment" to prisoners for. But hormone therapy is not one of the forms of treatment to which the inmate has a constitutional right.

CA1: Selya appointed to FISC

Howard Bashman provides us here with a link to a Providence Journal Article about Judge Selya's appointment to the FISC.  Bashman's point ("Not only is this federal court secretive, but now it will be using big words that few are likely to understand.")  is well taken.

Commercial and government feeds

At least three firms seems to be putting out (several dozen) RSS feeds:  Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr; Clark Wilson LLP; Stark & Stark.  Tnx Larry Bodine.  See our earlier post on RSS here.  Firstgov has a list of government feeds here.