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

After the Association filed suit alleging that the District's school funding practices inadequately fund charter schools, the district court rejected the Association's claims. The DC Circuit did not reach the merits of the Association's claims, holding that the district court lacked jurisdiction over the claims. In this case, none of the Association's claims under the School Reform Act, Home Rule Act, and Constitution arose under federal law within the meaning of the federal question statute. Accordingly, the court vacated the district court's judgment and remanded for dismissal of the complaint for want of jurisdiction. View "D.C. Association of Chartered Public Schools v. District of Columbia" on Justia Law

After President Trump issued three executive orders regarding relations between the federal government and its employees, unions representing federal employees brought suit in the district court challenging various aspects of the orders. The district court concluded that some of the provisions were unlawful and enjoined their implementation.The DC Circuit vacated the district court's judgment and held that the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction. The court held that the unions must pursue their claims through the scheme established by the Federal Service Labor Management Relations Statute, which provides for administrative review by the Federal Labor Relations Authority followed by judicial review in the court of appeals. View "American Federation of Government Employees v. Trump" on Justia Law

After GLH acquired radio spectrum licenses from Leap, who had originally purchased some licenses from the FCC, it assumed the obligation of the installment payments. When GLH failed to make the payments for some of the licenses, the Commission canceled them and reauctioned the underlying spectrum to new providers. GLH challenged both the Commission’s decision to cancel the licenses and its refusal to give GLH a credit against its debt for the proceeds of the reauction.The DC Circuit held that the Commission acted appropriately in cancelling GLH's licenses for failure to make the installment payments and in refusing to apply the reauction proceeds against GLH's debt. In this case, the Commission appropriately explained the legal standard, examined the particular facts of GLH's case, and reasonably applied that standard to those facts. Therefore, the Commission's denial of GLH's waiver request was not arbitrary and capricious. The court also held that GLH may initiate consideration of its equitable argument for debt forgiveness by filing a petition for debt compromise. Accordingly, the court affirmed the Commission's decision. View "GLH Communications, Inc. v. FCC" on Justia Law

Petitioners sought review of the National Transportation Safety Board's decision revoking their air agency certificate. The DC Circuit upheld the Board's determination concerning petitioners' performance of maintenance without the appropriate technical data. However, the court set aside the Board's intentional-falsification charge, because the Board departed from its own precedents when considering whether petitioners had acted with the requisite knowledge. Accordingly, the court granted the petition for review in part and vacated the Board's revocation of petitioners' air agency certificate. The court vacated the sanction imposed by the Board and remanded for further consideration. View "Kornitzky Group, LLC v. Elwell" on Justia Law

In this labor dispute, the NLRB assumed arguendo that the doctrine of judicial estoppel applied in NLRB proceedings but relied on the factors in New Hampshire v. Maine, 532 U.S. 742 (2001), to determine that judicial estoppel was inappropriate in this case. The DC Circuit held that the NLRB misapplied New Hampshire v. Maine and therefore remanded for the NLRB to consider whether judicial estoppel was available in NLRB proceedings and, if so, whether to invoke it. View "Temple University Hospital, Inc. v. NLRB" on Justia Law

Relator filed suit under the False Claims Act (FCA), alleging that a handful of large chemical manufacturers violated the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) by repeatedly failing to inform the EPA of information regarding the dangers of isocyanate chemicals. The DC Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of the action, declining relator's invitation to be the first court to recognize FCA liability based on defendants' failure to meet a TSCA reporting requirement and on their failure to pay an unassessed TSCA penalty. View "United States ex rel. Kasowitz Benson v. BASF Corp." on Justia Law

The District violates the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 if it cares for a mentally or physically disabled individual in a nursing home notwithstanding, with reasonable modifications to its policies and procedures, it could care for that individual in the community. Plaintiffs, a class of physically disabled individuals who have been receiving care in District nursing homes, sought an injunction requiring the District to alter its policies and procedures in order to help them transition to the community.The DC Circuit reversed the district court's judgment in favor of the District, holding that plaintiffs need not identify "concrete, systemic deficiency" in the District's transition services; there was no class certification issue; and the district court has not yet concluded, in clear terms and under the correct burden of proof, that the District's Olmstead Plan (a comprehensive, effectively working plan for placing qualified persons with physical disabilities in less restrictive settings) was adequate. Accordingly, the court remanded for further proceedings. View "Brown v. District of Columbia" on Justia Law

The DC Circuit affirmed the district court's issuance of a preliminary injunction enjoining a union's efforts to gain leverage over two commercial air carriers during negotiations over an amended collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The court held that the district court had jurisdiction to enter a status quo injunction in this major dispute, and did not abuse its discretion in enjoining this conduct.In light of the Railway Labor Act and the Norris- LaGuardia Act, the court held that Atlas presented compelling evidence in support of its assertion that this case involved a major dispute, because the existing CBA did not even arguably speak to whether the relevant conduct was permissible when done in furtherance of a particular goal. The court also held that Atlas demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits, where Atlas showed that the status quo changed during a major dispute in violation of the RLA. The court held that the union encouraged strict compliance with the terms of the existing CBA in an effort to gain leverage in negotiations for a new or amended contract by encouraging pilots to block out on time, to make short notice sick calls, and to make filling open time more difficult. View "Atlas Air, Inc. v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters" on Justia Law

Petitioners challenged EPA's promulgation of a final rule that treated material transferred from a waste generator to a third-party reclaimer as legitimately recycled, rather than "discarded" and subject to Subtitle C regulation, if several conditions were met (the Transfer-Based Exclusion).The DC Circuit denied the petition for review and held that the Transfer-Based Exclusion was not arbitrary or capricious. The court held that EPA did not act contrary to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) in adopting the Transfer-Based Exclusion because hazardous secondary materials are not necessarily "discarded" each time they are transferred from a generator to a reclaimer along with payment. The court also held that EPA has provided a reasoned explanation for applying different standards to materials that are not yet part of the waste disposal problem RCRA addresses where they meet conditions EPA concluded were adequate for safe transfer and legitimate recycling. View "California Communities Against Toxics v. EPA" on Justia Law

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003's truncation requirement imposes on the merchant the duty not to print "more than the last 5 digits of the card number or the expiration date." The duty applies at the "point of the sale or transaction" and a violation occurs regardless whether a plaintiff ever becomes the victim of any crime. The interest protected by FACTA—avoiding an increased risk of identity theft—is concrete.The DC Circuit reversed the district court's grant of Centerplate's motion to dismiss plaintiff's action alleging that Centerplate violated FACTA. In this case, plaintiff made a credit card purchase at a Centerplate location and received a receipt that displayed her sixteen-digit credit card number and credit card expiration date. Although not every FACTA violation creates a concrete injury in fact, the court concluded that the alleged violation of plaintiff's right does so. The court held that plaintiff has pleaded enough facts to establish standing, because she was not able to use her credit card without incurring an increased risk of identity theft and, as a result, suffered a concrete injury in fact. View "Jeffries v. Volume Services America, Inc." on Justia Law