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

Defendant challenged the district court's denial of his ineffective assistance of counsel claim. The DC Circuit affirmed in part and held that defendant's trial counsel was constitutionally deficient because counsel failed to investigate the possibility of impeaching the government's central witness as biased against defendant, despite ample indication that he should and could do so. However, counsel's deficient performance did not prejudice defendant as to the drug trafficking charge. In regard to the narcoterrorism charge, the court could not determine on the record whether defendant was prejudiced. Therefore, the court vacated in part and remanded for further proceedings. View "United States v. Mohammed" on Justia Law

The DC Circuit affirmed the dismissal of Nueva's application to the FCC for a license to construct and operate a Lower Power FM Radio (LPFM) station in Philadelphia. Because Nueva's interpretation of a Blog Post authored by the Chief of the Media Bureau, which was intended to give guidance to applicants, was not correct, the court affirmed the Commission's denial of the application for review without reaching Nueva's claim that the Blog Post was binding upon the Commission. In this case, the Commission's interpretation of the Blog Post was not arbitrary and capricious. The court also held that Nueva forfeited its argument that it did not have fair notice of the Commission's interpretation of the Blog Post. View "Nueva Esperanza, Inc. v. FCC" on Justia Law

Defendant and her son appealed from their convictions for conspiracy to commit tax fraud and related offenses. The DC Circuit held that the prosecutor's blatant misstatements of key evidence during closing arguments, in the absence of any steps to mitigate the resulting prejudice, required reversal of the son's convictions; because the evidence against the son was insufficient, he was not subject to retrial; defendant was not prejudice from the closing arguments; and defendant's evidentiary challenges were unpersuasive. The court affirmed defendant's convictions but remanded her case for resentencing and for reconsideration of her claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. View "United States v. Davis" on Justia Law

Casinos petitioned for review of the Board's order concluding that the casinos violated section 8(a)(1) and (5) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. 158(a)(1), (5), when they refused to bargain with the Union, which represents several non-guard employees of the casinos. The DC Circuit granted the casinos' petitions, denied the Board's cross-applications for enforcement, and vacated the Board's decisions and orders. The court held that, under section 9(b)(3) of the Act, surveillance techs are guards who can be represented only by an all-guard union. The court explained that the techs' day-to-day duties—sensitive ones peculiar to the modern gaming industry—call for them to enforce against coworkers and others the rules that protect the casinos' property and guests. View "Bellagio, LLC v. NLRB" on Justia Law

Sierra Club petitioned for review of EPA's determination that EPA satisfied its responsibilities under 42 U.S.C. 7412(c)(6) to establish "maximum achievable control technology" (MACT) standards for emissions of certain hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). The DC Circuit held that the petition was timely and EPA did not adequately respond to petitioners' comments raising the issues concerning the use of surrogacy in the administrative proceedings. Accordingly, the court denied EPA's motion to dismiss and ordered the matter remanded to EPA for further proceedings. View "Sierra Club v. EPA" on Justia Law

The DC Circuit affirmed defendant's 172 month sentence after he pleaded guilty to distribution of child pornography. The court held that the government's recidivism comment was only that—a comment—and appeared to have had no influence on the length of imprisonment to which defendant was sentenced. Defendant's sentence was also procedurally reasonable. However, the court vacated two conditions of supervised release: notifying the probation office when he establishes a significant romantic relationship and informing the other party of his prior criminal sex offenses, and penile plethysmograph testing. View "United States v. Rock" on Justia Law

Taxpayers who failed to report and pay tax on foreign income filed suit after the IRS denied their applications for the expanded Streamlined Procedures program. The Streamlined Procedures' reduced benefits were counterbalanced by fewer compliance requirements; as relevant here, the Streamlined Procedures participant need not pay any accuracy-based penalty. The DC Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of the complaint, holding that the district court was without jurisdiction to resolve taxpayers' claims in light of the jurisdiction-stripping provision contained in the Anti-Injunction Act (AIA), 26 U.S.C. 7421 et seq. View "Maze v. IRS" on Justia Law

Orangeburg challenged the Commission's approval of an agreement between two utilities, alleging that the approval constituted an authorization of the North Carolina Utilities Commission's (NCUC) unlawful regime. The DC Circuit held that Orangeburg has standing to challenge the Commission's approval because, among other reasons, the city has demonstrated an imminent loss of the opportunity to purchase a desired product (reliable and low-cost wholesale power), and because that injury was fairly traceable to the Commission's approval of the agreement at issue. On the merits, the court held that the Commission failed to justify its approval of the agreement's disparate treatment of wholesale ratepayers; to justify the disparity, the Commission relied exclusively on one line from a previous FERC order that, without additional explication, appeared either unresponsive or legally unsound. Accordingly, the court vacated in part the orders approving the agreement and denying rehearing, and remanded. View "Orangeburg, South Carolina v. FERC" on Justia Law

In this contract dispute between Getma and the Republic of Guinea, the Common Court of Justice and Arbitration of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (CCJA), a court of supranational jurisdiction for Western and Central African States, set aside an award in favor of Getma. Getma sought to enforce the annulled award in the United States. The D.C. Circuit held that the CCJA is "a competent authority" for purposes of article V(1)(e) of the New York Convention, and for reasons of international comity, the court declined to second-guess a competent authority's annulment of an arbitral award absent extraordinary circumstances. Because Getma's arguments failed under this stringent standard, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court refusing to enforce the award. View "Getma International v. Republic of Guinea" on Justia Law

Precedent requires the district court to consider each and every non-frivolous argument for mitigation, but does not require the judge to address expressly each argument on the record when pronouncing the sentence. The D.C. Circuit affirmed defendant's 132 month sentence after he was convicted of criminal conduct involving child pornography, holding that the district court committed no obvious or plain error. In this case, defendant failed to show that it was an obvious error for the district court to fail to expressly state that all of defendant's mitigation arguments were appropriately considered but nonetheless rejected. View "United States v. Pyles" on Justia Law