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

After the FLRA ordered the Air Force to bargain collectively with its civilian employees over access to an on-base shopette, the Air Force challenged the decision arguing that the issue is not a proper subject of bargaining. The court agreed with the Air Force that Congress has given the military unfettered discretion to determine whether civilians may patronize commissaries and exchanges, though for reasons that are slightly different from those offered by the Air Force. Given the relevant legislative directives, the court cannot imagine that Congress intended to empower a civilian agency like the Federal Labor Relations Authority to second-guess the military’s judgment about non-military access to commissaries and exchanges. In this case, by requiring negotiation over the Shoppette proposal, the Authority has similarly second-guessed the Secretary’s judgment in deciding how best to use a military benefit to achieve military purposes. Therefore, the court held that civilian access to commissaries and exchanges is not a proper subject of collective bargaining because Congress has vested the military with “unfettered discretion” over the matter. Accordingly, the court granted the petition for review and vacated the Authority's order. View "USAF v. FLRA" on Justia Law

Plaintiff, on behalf of herself and others similarly situated, filed suit against Evercore under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. 1109(a), 1132(a)(2)-(3). Plaintiff is a former J.C. Penney employee and investor in a J.C. Penney employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) managed by Evercore. Plaintiff claims that Evercore breached its fiduciary duties of prudence and loyalty when it failed to take preventative action as the value of J.C. Penney common stock tumbled between 2012 and 2013, thereby causing significant losses. Applying Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer, the court concluded that plaintiff's complaint was properly dismissed because she failed to allege additional allegations of "special circumstances." In this case plaintiff failed to allege that the market on which J.C. Penney stock traded was inefficient. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Coburn v. Evercore Trust Company, N.A." on Justia Law

This appeal arises from efforts to recover Secretary of State Clinton's private emails during her time at the State Department. Although the current Secretary (with the help of the National Archivist) has made efforts to recover those emails, neither the Secretary nor the Archivist has asked the Attorney General to initiate enforcement proceedings, as provided for in the Federal Records Act, 44 U.S.C. 3105(1). Appellants Judicial Watch and Cause of Action filed suit for agency action unlawfully withheld in violation of Section 706(1) of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. 706(1). The district court dismissed the suits as moot. The court concluded that, because the current Secretary and Archivist have neither asked the Attorney General for help nor shown that such a request could not lead to recovery of additional emails, the suits were not moot. Accordingly, the court reversed the judgment. The court remanded the case so that the district court can consider the merits in the first instance. View "Judicial Watch v. Kerry" on Justia Law

After ENPH filed under a power purchase agreement (PPA) for arbitration by the ICC, the ICC issued an award in ENPH's favor. Nigeria now appeals from the order granting enforcement of the Award. The court rejected Nigeria's contention that enforcement of the Award violates the public policy of the United States not to reward a party for fraudulent and criminal conduct pursuant to Article V(2)(b) of The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (known as the “New York Convention”), 21 U.S.T. 2517. The court rejected Nigeria's contention, concluding that the ICC’s findings, to which an enforcing court owes substantial deference, doom Nigeria’s public policy defense in the absence of evidence or equities warranting the piercing of Enron’s corporate veil. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Enron Nigeria Power Holding, Ltd. v. Federal Republic of Nigeria" on Justia Law

Defendant was convicted of conspiracy and bank fraud stemming from a scheme to obtain mortgage loans using straw purchasers, false loan applications, and forged appraisals. The district court sentenced her to 48 months in prison, as well as supervised release and restitution. The court concluded that the district court did not misapply Federal Rule of Criminal Evidence 608(b), and its decision to disallow questioning about two prior acts by the government's witness, defendant's mortgage broker, that could reflect on his character for truthfulness was within the ample bounds of the district court’s discretion in matters of recross-examination. The court also concluded that the district court did not err by excluding testimony about an alleged invitation by the witness to participate in “shady” mortgages. Finally, the court rejected the claim that defendant's right to counsel was violated when she elected to proceed pro se at sentencing. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "United States v. O'Neal" on Justia Law

Plaintiff, a retired Major in the Marine Corps and a certified NJROTC instructor, filed suit after he was decertified to contest his removal from the NJROTC program. The district court granted summary judgment to the Navy. The court found no merit in plaintiff's contention that the regulation on which the Navy relied to revoke his certification is unconstitutionally vague; that the Navy denied him due process because it failed to accord him adequate notice and opportunity to be heard when determining whether he should be permitted to continue to serve as a NJROTC instructor; and that the Navy’s decertification decision was arbitrary and capricious and unsupported by substantial evidence. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Crooks v. Mabus, Jr." on Justia Law

After the Postal Service determined that appellants were ineligible for a discounted rate for folded self-mailers, the Postal Service assessed revenue deficiencies for over $1.25 million. The Postal Service determined that appellants were ineligible for the discounted rate because their mailers, which exceeded seven inches in length, had been sealed only on the left edges, and not on the top and bottom edges. The PCSC upheld the assessments. Appellants then filed suit in district court to overturn the PCSC's decision, but the district court affirmed. The court found no inconsistency in the Postal Service’s interpretation of the Domestic Mail Manual. The court also found that the Postal Service’s interpretation of the sealing requirements is perfectly consistent with the terms of the Manual and entirely reasonable. Accordingly, the court denied appellants' challenges and affirmed the judgment. However, the court reversed and vacated the district court's award of surcharges after the government confessed error. View "Sears Roebuck Co. v. USPS" on Justia Law

Defendant pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin from the Potomac Gardens, a housing project, and was sentenced to 62 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release. Without saying why, the district court conditioned defendant's supervised release on his staying away from Potomac Gardens. The court concluded that defendant's appeal waiver contained ambiguities that the district court compounded during the plea colloquy. Construing the ambiguities against the government, the court nonetheless upheld the stay-away condition because defendant's claims fail on the merits. In this case, defendant did not object to the district court's failure to explain the condition and, to the extent there was procedural error, it was not plain and did not affect his substantial rights. Furthermore, the condition is well within the district court's wide discretion because it will keep him away from a neighborhood in which he has conducted numerous drug deals. And because he neither lives in the neighborhood nor alleges that he has family there, the condition does not unduly restrict his liberty. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "United States v. Hunt" on Justia Law

Petitioner is a trade association representing the domestic biofuel industry. In this appeal, petitioner challenges EPA's decision to allow a group of Argentine biofuel producers and other companies to use certain recordkeeping practices in connection with sales of their product in the United States. Petitioner separately challenges the regulation, promulgated in 2010, pursuant to which EPA granted the Argentine application. The court concluded that petitioner's challenge to the 2010 regulation is untimely, and EPA’s decision to grant the Argentine application was neither arbitrary nor capricious, as it comports with agency regulations and rests upon the kind of highly technical judgments to which the court owes agencies great deference. Accordingly, the court dismissed the petition in case number 15-1073 and denied the petition in case number 15-1072. View "National Biodiesel Board v. EPA" on Justia Law

The company seeks review of the Board's decision and order that the company violated Sections 8(a)(1) and (5) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. 158(a)(1), (5). The court rejected the company's challenges to three Board rulings, involving the company’s failure to provide the Union with requested information, its unilateral changes to the grievance procedure under the parties’ collective bargaining agreement (CBA), and its failure to process a discrimination complaint as a grievance. Accordingly, the court denied the petition for review and affirmed the Board's cross-application for enforcement of its decision and order. View "Public Service Company v. NLRB" on Justia Law