Justia U.S. D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

Petitioners, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Secretary Clinton's former Chief of Staff, Cheryl Mills, sought mandamus relief preventing the district court's order granting Judicial Watch's request to depose each petitioner on a limited set of topics. The petition for writ of mandamus arose from a Freedom of Information Act case brought by Judicial Watch against the U.S. Department of State.The DC Circuit held that, although Secretary Clinton meets all three requirements for mandamus relief, Ms. Mills does not. In this case, Ms. Mills could appeal either a civil or a criminal contempt adjudication and thus, unlike Secretary Clinton, she does have available an "adequate means to attain the relief" and as such her petition fails at prong one. In regard to the second prong, the court held that petitioners have demonstrated a "clear and indisputable" right to issuance of the writ where the district court clearly abused its discretion by failing to meet its obligations under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26, by improperly engaging in a Federal Records Act-like inquiry in this FOIA case, and by ordering further discovery without addressing this court's recent precedent potentially foreclosing any rationale for said discovery. Finally, in regard to the third prong, the court held that the totality of circumstances merits granting the writ. Accordingly, the court granted the petition for mandamus as to Secretary Clinton, denied it as to Ms. Mills and dismissed Ms. Mills' petition for lack of jurisdiction, and remanded the case for further proceedings. View "In re: Hillary Clinton" on Justia Law

Plaintiffs filed suit against CareFirst after hackers allegedly stole sensitive customer information from the health insurer's data system, alleging tort, contract, and statutory claims. The district court dismissed all claims of five plaintiffs and most claims of two plaintiffs. At issue was whether the district court permissibly certified the dismissed claims under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b), so as to make the dismissal order final and immediately appealable.The DC Circuit held that it lacked appellate jurisdiction over the certified claims of the Tringlers and of the other plaintiffs. Under basic principles of claim preclusion, the court explained that the Tringlers could not have litigated to judgment one action involving the claims still pending before the district court and another involving the claims already dismissed. Under Tolson v. United States, 732 F.2d 998, 1001–03 (D.C. Cir. 1984), they likewise cannot sever the latter claims for an immediate appeal under Rule 54(b). In regard to the non-Tringler claims, the court stated that it is unclear whether the district court would have certified these claims for immediate appeal had it properly declined to certify the claims of the Tringlers. Therefore, the court cannot determine whether the district court would have certified only the non-Tringler claims, much less whether it could have come up with a permissible justification for doing so. View "Attias v. CareFirst, Inc." on Justia Law

After Strike 3's investigators recorded IP address 73.180.154.14 illegally distributing Strike 3's pornographic films via the BitTorrent network, the company filed a complaint against the IP address subscriber. However, because Internet service providers are the only entities that can link an IP address to its subscriber, Strike 3 could not serve its complaint without first subpoenaing the subscriber's ISP, Comcast, for information identifying the anonymous defendant. Strike 3 filed a Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(d)(1) motion seeking leave to subpoena Comcast for records identifying the John Doe IP address subscriber. The district court denied Strike 3's discovery motion.The DC Circuit reversed the district court's denial of the motion and held that the district court abused its discretion by assigning improper weight to what it viewed as the "aberrantly salacious nature" of Strike 3's films, by concluding that Strike 3 could not state a plausible claim for infringement against the IP address subscriber, and by drawing unsupported, negative inferences against Strike 3 regarding its litigation tactics. Because the court found that the district court abused its discretion in denying Strike 3's discovery motion, its dismissal for failure to state a claim is also reversed. The court remanded for further proceedings. View "Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. Doe" on Justia Law

Plaintiff filed suit against the DOJ under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, alleging discrimination on the basis of his race and his sex, as well as retaliation for protected activity. Plaintiff cited seven instances of being passed over for positions for which he believes he was qualified. The district court granted the DOJ's motion for summary judgment, denying plaintiff's Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(d) motion requesting to be allowed to take discovery.The DC Circuit held that the district court acted within its discretion in finding that plaintiff failed to make a showing as to each one of the disputed nonselections, with the notable exception of the handling of plaintiff's request for discovery on his first nonselection. The court stated that, in that respect, the district court's denial of plaintiff's Rule 56(d) motion was premised on error and was thus an abuse of discretion. Accordingly, the court vacated the district court's entry of judgment as to that nonselection and reversed its denial of the relevant portion of plaintiff's Rule 56(d) motion. The court affirmed in part the district court's entry of judgment in DOJ's favor and its denial of plaintiff's Rule 56(d) motion. View "Jeffries v. Barr" on Justia Law

The DC Circuit dismissed the petition for permission to appeal in No. 19-8004 and related appeal in No. 19-7083 for lack of jurisdiction. In this case, the district court certified an order for interlocutory appeal but no petition was filed by 28 U.S.C. 1292(b)'s deadline. The district court then granted a motion to recertify its order and the litigants filed both a petition for permission to appeal and a notice of appeal within ten days after recertification. The court held that a district court cannot restart the jurisdictional clock in this manner. View "Strange v. Islamic Republic of Iran" on Justia Law

Members of the Valambhia family filed an action to recognize the High Court of Tanzania's judgments in the District of Columbia. The DC Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of Tanzania's motion to dismiss the amended complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under the commercial activity exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA).The court held that the Valambhias have not explained how even a loose construction of the third clause of the FSIA commercial activity exception could support the conclusion that Tanzania's previous and optional use of a New York bank account constitutes a direct effect or an immediate consequence in the United States of Tanzania's conduct abroad. Furthermore, the Valambhias' claim of a direct effect stemming from the family's citizenship and residence in the United States is insufficient. The court dismissed the remaining claims and affirmed the district court's judgment. View "Valambhia v. United Republic of Tanzania" on Justia Law

In the underlying lawsuit, voting rights organizations alleged that the new Executive Director, Brian Newby, acted outside the scope of his authority by changing the Commission's policy on documentary proof of citizenship requirements. Eagle Forum subsequently moved, under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24(b), to permissively intervene for the limited purpose of gaining access to the sealed briefs and exhibits containing materials related to Commissioner Christy McCormick's testimony. Two years later, the district court denied Eagle Forum's motion in a Minute Order.The DC Circuit first held that the district court's order qualifies as an appealable collateral order. Under MetLife, Inc. v. Financial Stability Oversight Council, 865 F.3d 661 (D.C. Cir. 2017), the court held that Eagle Forum may intervene for the limited purpose of seeking to unseal references to the McCormick deposition. In so ruling, the court emphasized that this does not mean that those materials must be unsealed. Under the court's decision in United States v. Hubbard, 650 F.2d 293 (D.C. Cir. 1980), the district court will still need to determine whether countervailing interests, including the government's privilege claims, justify continued sealing. View "League of Women Voters v. Newby" on Justia Law

Four professors of American studies filed suit against the American Studies Association (ASA) and individual ASA leaders after the ASA endorsed a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, alleging that the individual defendants breached various statutory, contractual and fiduciary duties in connection with the boycott. The district court dismissed their ultra vires claim and all derivative claims brought on the ASA's behalf. The professors then filed a second amended complaint.The DC Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of the second amended complaint based on lack of subject matter jurisdiction, holding that the district court did not err in revisiting its jurisdictional determination, applying the legal certainty test or valuing the amount in controversy. View "Bronner v. Duggan" on Justia Law

The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) does not permit courts to contemplate how much merits litigation is too much. Instead, they must resolve colorable assertions of immunity before the foreign sovereign may be required to address the merits at all.The DC Circuit held that it has jurisdiction to review the district court's order under the collateral order doctrine, because the district court conclusively rejected Nigeria's assertion of immunity from having to defend the merits in this case. The court held that Nigeria's immunity defense is at least colorable enough to support appellate jurisdiction, and thus the court need not determine whether Nigeria will ultimately prevail on that defense. The court also held that the district court erred in requiring Nigeria to defend the merits before resolving its colorable immunity assertion. Therefore, the court denied P&ID's motion to dismiss the appeal. The court reversed and remanded for further proceedings. View "Process and Industrial Developments Ltd. v. Federal Republic of Nigeria" on Justia Law

After DSCI filed suit against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom removed the case to federal district court and filed a motion to dismiss the complaint on the grounds of forum non conveniens, pointing to the forum-selection clause in the parties' contract. In this case, the contract provided that the Board of Grievances, a Saudi Arabian administrative court, shall be the assigned settlement of any disputes arising out of the contract. The DC Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of the Kingdom's motion, holding that the contract's forum-selection clause is mandatory and the dispute thus belonged before the Board of Grievances. View "D&S Consulting, Inc. v. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" on Justia Law