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In a prisoner civil rights action brought under 42 U.S.C. 1983, summary judgment for defendant is vacated and remanded where: 1) plaintiff’s appeal of the administrative hearing was sufficient to exhaust all available administrative remedies as required by the PLRA; and 2) there is a dispute of fact as to the conditions of plaintiff’s confinement to administrative segregation, and the factual record is not fully developed as to the actual conditions of his confinement in comparison to ordinary prison conditions....

Although the Supreme Court passed on eight qualified immunity cases during its 2019-2020 term, a dispute on the docket for this fall asks a fundamental question on excessive force. The case began outside an Albuquerque apartment complex on an early summer morning in 2014. Police officers arrived on the scene to carry out an arrest warrant, clad in dark tactical gear. The plaintiff, Roxanne Torres, was standing outside the building near her car....

The Girl Scouts are known far and wide for their cookies, but the Girl Scouts proved to be less than sweet when it came to Megan Runnion. Runnion, a deaf girl, received sign language interpreters in order to help her participate in Girl Scout activities. When the Girl Scouts pulled the interpreters, Runnion’s mother complained. The Girls Scouts’ response? They disbanded her troop. Megan’s mother alleged that ran afoul of a federal law called the Rehabilitation Act....

More than 50 people have died from common paint strippers, and laborers are suing the Environmental Protection Agency to stop the deadly trend. The EPA proposed regulations to ban methylene chloride two years ago, but since then at least four more people have died from exposure to the toxic compound. In Labor Council for LatinAmerican Advancement v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, the plaintiffs say that’s too many. The nonprofit groups allege the environmental agency has delayed action long enough....

Facebook grossly overstated the amount of time viewers watched videos on its platform, according to a new lawsuit. It reportedly did not relate directly to paid advertisements, but could have misled companies into thinking Facebook was holding on to viewers longer than it was. The complaint says the social media company actually admitted it. If you think you’ve seen this movie before, that’s because you have. The plaintiffs are suing Facebook again....

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action alleging that the state unlawfully established an involuntary conservatorship over plaintiff, dismissal of the complaint is affirmed in part where the judge responsible for the conservatorship did not act in the clear absence of subject matter jurisdiction, and he was not aware of the defects in personal jurisdiction, making judicial immunity appropriate. However, as to the issue of quasi-judicial immunity under Connecticut law, the court certified the following question to the Connecticut Supreme Court: What is the role of conservators, court-appointed attorneys for conservatees, and nursing homes in the Connecticut probate court system, in light of the six factors for determining quasi-judicial immunity outlined in Cleavinger v....

Dismissal of Appeal for Lack of Jurisdiction In Houbigant, Inc. v. IMG Fragrance Brands, LLC, No. 10-361, plaintiff’s appeal from the dismissal of a complaint in one of two related cases, the court dismissed the appeal where the district court’s order was a nonfinal judgment that is not independently appealable, because, although the district court directed the Clerk of the Court to “close” the dismissed case, the district court also instructed that the dismissal was not to affect, inter alia, pending motions in the case with which the dismissed action was consolidated....

In an appeal brought by a class of inmates challenging the constitutionality of Delaware’s new capital punishment by lethal injection, district court’s grant of summary judgment is affirmed and the stay dissolved as, under Baze, an execution protocol that does not present a substantial risk of serious harm passes constitutional muster and, on the record, Delaware’s protocol presents no such risk. Read Jackson v. Danberg, No. 09-1925 Appellate Information On Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Delaware...

It’s almost a maxim that half of the people in a courtroom – other than the judge and staff – go home unhappy. Judge Joseph W. Kirby knows that; appeals are a given for trial judges. However, he didn’t expect the legal backfire that hit him after he denied name changes to parents of transgender children. In Whitaker v. Kirby, the plaintiffs have sued the Ohio judge for allegedly discriminating against transgender children....

Is filing a lawsuit is a good marketing ploy? Do we really have to ask this question? Seriously, that would be like hitting your thumb with a hammer because it stuck out like a sore thumb. Litigation is painful enough without all the attention. But if you are going to seek attention this way, here are some things to think about before you file a lawsuit for publicity purposes. First, put away your hammer and take a look at some recent examples of the Streisand Effect run amok....

Pre-pandemic, one of the hottest debates regarding flying the friendly skies concerned the noticeable influx of furry — and feathery and scaly — friends showing up in the main cabin. This had to do with the increase in emotional support animals (ESAs). These are generally animals prescribed by a doctor or mental health professional to live with someone with depression, anxiety, or other mental health condition for therapeutic benefits. ESAs require no formal training or certification and can come in many forms....

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that a woman who induced her own abortion with Internet-prescribed medications is likely to succeed on her claim challenging the Idaho’s Unlawful Abortion law, but found that a lower-court overstepped its authority by barring a Bannock County prosecutor from enforcing the law against other women, The Wall Street Journal reports. According to the Ninth Circuit opinion, Jennie McCormack learned that she was pregnant in the fall of 2010, and sought an abortion....

Two track-and-field students sued for the love of the game and minimum wage, but came up short at the finish line. The Seventh Circuit ruled that the plaintiffs could not make a case for minimum wage claims because of the “long tradition of amateur sports” that students play for reasons “wholly unrelated to immediate compensation.” “Simply put, student-athletic ‘play’ is not ‘work,’” Judge Michael S. Kanne wrote for the unanimous court in Berger v....

In a capital habeas matter, grant of petitioner’s habeas petition is affirmed where defense counsel provided petitioner ineffective assistance at the penalty phase because: 1) petitioner properly challenged the district court’s legal conclusions, as opposed to its factual ones; 2) counsel spent almost no time preparing for the penalty phase hearing; 3) counsel failed to obtain any of the readily available medical, psychological, law enforcement, or school records for petitioner or his siblings; and 4) properly presented evidence of petitioner’s brain injury, and its profound effect on his behavior, could have altered the jury’s impressions of his detrimental guilt phase testimony and of his boastful, disrespectful demeanor by indicating an organic basis for his inappropriate expressions and for his tendency to exaggerate his past....

America has a love/hate relationship with criminal defense lawyers, particularly those that manage to transcend their profession to become household names. One of the best-known criminal defense lawyers of the 20th century, perhaps no one was simultaneously more admired or more criticized than F. Lee Bailey. Bailey is best known for representing Sam Sheppard, the doctor charged with murder who later became the subject for television’s “The Fugitive," and as part of the “Dream Team" defense for O....

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that South Dakota can require doctors to warn women seeking abortions that they face an increased risk of suicide if they go through with the procedure, reports The Associated Press. The 7-4 en banc decision reverses a previous panel decision finding that the suicide warning in South Dakota’s informed consent law required unconstitutional compelled speech. South Dakota enacted House Bill 1166 in 2005, amending the requirements for obtaining informed consent to an abortion....

The Supreme Court won’t be hearing an appeal from high school students who sued after school administrators asked them to remove American flag T-shirts or take excused leave. That leaves intact the Ninth Circuit’s ruling from a year ago, holding that the school did not violate the students’ rights when it asked them to change their clothing in an attempt to avoid violence. Plaintiffs, three students from Morgan Hill in northern California, had argued that their First Amendment free speech rights were violated when they were asked to cover up their flags on Cinco de Mayo while students in Mexican flags were not....

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed suit in the Western District of Washington this week, aiming to prevent the sale of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) building in Seattle. His office is joined in the suit by the state of Oregon, several historical societies, and 29 tribal communities. The Public Buildings Reform Board, a federal agency that rarely makes headlines, approved the plan to sell the facility on January 24, 2020....

The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit just granted the State of Ohio’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Libertarian Party of Ohio in what had become a “long struggle.” The Party had previously tasted defeat when the district court granted partial summary judgment to the State, ruling that Ohio’s voting statutes did not violate the First Amendment or the Fourteenth Amendment; and that Sovereign Immunity clothed the state in Teflon....

The USPTO is asking for public comment on the impact of artificial intelligence on intellectual property law and policy. With just one month left for those interested to submit their thoughts, it’s worth exploring some of the questions AI brings to the conversation surrounding intellectual property. Can AI Be “Creative?” Over the last several years, artificial intelligence programs have been taught to mimic the style of famous painters - creating “new” works that look like the real thing....