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

Appellant, sentenced to prison for crimes involving powder and crack cocaine before Congress and the Sentencing Commission took steps to reduce the disparity in sentencing ranges between the two, sought declaratory and injunctive relief and possible damages after these efforts were directed at crimes involving lesser amounts of cocaine than his. The district court dismissed his suit on the ground that the only relief available to appellant was in habeas. Adopting Wilkinson v. Dotson's habeas-channeling rule, the court held that a federal prisoner need bring his claim in habeas only if success on the merits would "necessarily imply the invalidity of confinement or shorten its duration." Appellant's claim for declaratory relief avoided the habeas-channeling rule the court announced and its dismissal was improper. The court also concluded that the district court had jurisdiction to take up the merits of appellant's Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics claim because it was not based on plainly fictitious allegations and his pleading errors could be corrected through the liberal construction or amendment the court was accustomed to providing a pro se prisoner. Accordingly, the court reversed the district court's dismissal of appellant's complaint and remanded for further proceedings. View "Davis v. U.S. Sentencing Commission" on Justia Law

Appellant, a Guantanamo detainee, appealed from a judgment of the district court denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. On appeal, appellant argued that the district court erred in not affording him protection due "medical personnel" under the First Geneva Convention. Because appellant had not established that he was "medical personnel" as defined by the Geneva Conventions, and because all other issues have been determined in the previous proceedings, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court denying the petition for writ of habeas corpus. View "Al-Warafi v. Obama" on Justia Law

Appellants - AFGE, several AFGE locals that represent Air Reserve Technicians (ARTs), and ART Mark Winstead - challenged three Air Force instructions requiring ARTs to wear military uniforms while performing civilian duties. The district court dismissed the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction because appellants failed to exhaust their administrative remedies under the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA), 5 U.S.C. 1101 et seq. The court affirmed the district court's dismissal because the exclusive remedial scheme of the CSRA precluded AFGE's claims. View "American Federation of Government Employees, et al v. Secretary of the Air Force" on Justia Law

Judicial Watch appealed the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the CIA. Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552, request seeking disclosure by the CIA of 52 post-mortem images of Osama bin Laden. The agency refused on the ground that the images were classified as Top Secret. Because the images were properly classified and were exempt from disclosure from FOIA, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Dept. of Defense, et al" on Justia Law

Appellant, confined at St. Elizabeths Hospital since 1982, asserted a cause of action under, inter alia, 42 U.S.C. 1983, and alleged that DMH had violated his rights by seizing money from his patient account without affording him procedural due process. DMH responded that the hospital had lawfully transferred appellant's money to cover the cost of his care. It was clear from the record that appellant received proper notice before his funds were taken. The court also found that appellant's claim that he was denied due process lacked merit because he failed to invoke the remedies available to him under the D.C. Administrative Procedure Act, D.C. Mun. Regs. tit. 22-A, 308.9. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "English v. District of Columbia, et al" on Justia Law

Appellants, holders of senior notes issued by Washington Mutual - a failed bank - sought to intervene in litigation between Deutsche Bank, the FDIC (Washington Mutual's receiver), and J.P. Morgan Chase. The district court denied intervention under Rule 24. The court concluded that appellants lacked Article III standing and affirmed the district court's denial of intervention. View "Deutsche Bank National Trust v. FDIC, et al" on Justia Law

Plaintiff alleged that her employer denied her a promotion and a transfer in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. 2000e-1 et seq., and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, 29 U.S.C. 621 et seq. The district court granted summary judgment for the government. The court concluded that plaintiff had produced sufficient evidence that, when taken together, could lead a reasonable jury to conclude that the Secretary's proffered reason for cancelling the Lead Developmental Disabilities Specialist position plaintiff was seeking was pretext for racial discrimination. However, the court affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment for the government on the Executive Assistance detail claim because plaintiff failed to make a showing that the government's proffered explanation was pretext for racial discrimination. Accordingly, the court reversed in part and affirmed in part. View "Evans v. Sebelius" on Justia Law

Defendant pled guilty to crossing state lines to have sex with a minor. On appeal, defendant challenged his sentence. Defendant argued that the district court erred when it applied a sentencing enhancement based on his use of a computer to facilitate his crime. The court held that defendant waived this challenge when he stipulated to the enhancement in his plea agreement and raised no objection to its inclusion in the district court's calculation of his sentence. Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court's judgment. View "United States v. Laslie" on Justia Law

This case arose from actions taken by the Commission approving an application by Southern for combined licenses to construct and operate new Units 3 and 4 of the Vogtle Nuclear Plant and an application by Westinghouse for an amendment to its already-approved reactor design on which the Vogtle application relied. After the close of the combined-license hearing record, petitioners sought to reopen the hearing to litigate contentions relating to the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex in Japan. The court held that the Commission acted reasonably in denying petitioners' contentions where the Task Force Report, studying the implications of the Fukushima accident for the United States, alone was not a "new and significant" circumstance requiring a supplemental environmental impact statement and petitioners' contentions lacked specific links between the Fukushima Accident and the Vogtle Site. Accordingly, the court denied the petitions for review. View "Blue Ridge Env. Defense League, et al v. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, et al" on Justia Law

In 2007, FERC granted various rate incentives to encourage the construction of three projects by SoCal Edison. The beneficial rate treatment included incentives to be added to a base rate of return for the projects. Later that year, SoCal Edison filed revisions to its transmission tariff, pursuant to section 205 of the Federal Power Act (FPA), 16 U.S.C. 824d, to reflect changes to its transmission revenue requirements and rates, implementing the rate incentives and proposing a base return on equity (ROE). The Commission concluded that SoCal Edison's base ROE should be set at the median, rather than the midpoint as SoCal Edison proposed, of the range established by a proxy group of publicly-traded companies, and that the ROE for the locked-in period should be updated to reflect the most recently available financial data. SoCal Edison petitioned for review, challenging the Commission's conclusions. The court denied the petition as to the Commission's methodology for measuring the ROE, and the court granted the petition and remanded in view of the Commission's failure to comply with 5 U.S.C. 556(e) when it updated the ROE with information outside the record. View "So. California Edison Co. v. FERC" on Justia Law