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

Sierra Club filed suit under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq., seeking review of the Commission's authorization of an increase in production capacity at a liquefied natural gas terminal in Louisiana. The court concluded that Sierra Club has standing but that its challenges to the Commission’s orders fail on the merits, largely for the reasons stated in the companion case, Sierra Club v. FERC (Freeport), No. 14-1275 (D.C. Cir June 28, 2016). The court also concluded that the court otherwise lacks jurisdiction over challenges to the Commission’s cumulative impacts analysis because Sierra Club failed to exhaust its administrative remedies. Accordingly, the court dismiss the petition in part and denied the petition in part. View "Sierra Club v. FERC" on Justia Law

Plaintiff filed suit against the Authority, alleging disability discrimination under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. 701 et seq. The district court granted summary judgment to the Authority. The court concluded that the district court erred by focusing on only the first definition of "disability" and failed to consider whether plaintiff met either the record-of-impairment or regarded-as-impaired definitions of disability. Compounding the error, the district court also applied an outmoded statutory standard, overlooking material changes to the governing law worked by the 2008 Amendments. Given the legal standard prescribed by the 2008 Amendments, the court held that petitioner came forward with sufficient evidence to permit a reasonable jury to find that his alcoholism substantially limited major life activities compared to most people in the general population. Furthermore, petitioner's complaint was timely filed under both the three-year and one-year limitations periods provided by District law. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Alexander v. WMATA" on Justia Law

Petitioner, a former pilot with Spirit Airlines, challenges the DoT's refusal to consent to the release of the urine sample it says petitioner produced for a mandatory drug test. Because the sample tested positive for controlled substances, petitioner lost his job and airman medical certificate. The court held that neither the DoT’s general rule against releasing urine samples for DNA testing, nor its refusal to release the sample in this case, is arbitrary, capricious, or contrary to the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991, Pub. L. No. 102-132, 105 Stat. 952. The court also held that petitioner's constitutional challenges to the rule fail. Accordingly, the court denied the petition for review. View "Swaters v. DOT" on Justia Law

Petitioner seeks review of the Board's denial of his request to reopen the Board's 1999 benefits determination. The court concluded that the Railroad Retirement Act, 45 U.S.C. 231g, grants the court jurisdiction to review Board decisions denying requests to reopen initial benefits determinations. The court concluded, however, that the Board’s decision to deny petitioner's request to reopen was reasonable where it was reasonable for the Board to conclude that there were no errors in the allocation of petitioner's earnings that, if corrected, would have given him insured status at the time of the decision. Further, petitioner provided little to no explanation of how his initial decision contained a clerical error or an error that appears on the face of the evidence. Accordingly, the court denied the petition for review. View "Stovic v. RRRB" on Justia Law

Defendants Martinez Vega and Cuevas, affiliated with a left-wing guerilla group called FARC, were indicted with more than 50 other individuals for conspiring to commit crimes associated with the importation, manufacture, and distribution of cocaine into the United States. After defendants' extradition to the United States, defendants were convicted for violating 21 U.S.C. 812, 952, 959, 960, and 963. The district court then sentenced Martinez Vega and Cuevas to 330 and 348 months’ imprisonment, respectively. The court concluded that the proffered circumstantial evidence is sufficient to support the jury's guilty verdicts; the district court did not err where the mens rea jury instructions unambiguously and accurately reflected the state of the law; and defendants' failure to show any prejudice, let alone substantial prejudice, is fatal to their prosecutorial misconduct claim. The court vacated Martinez Vega’s sentence and remanded to the district court for resentencing in view of the legally required elements for a “manager or supervisor” enhancement where the district court failed to make the required findings on the second and third elements. The court affirmed in all other respects. View "United States v. Vega" on Justia Law

Relator filed a qui tam action against Phillip Morris, alleging that the company violated the False Claims Act (FCA), 31 U.S.C. 3729-3733, by charging NEXCOM and AAFES prices for cigarettes that violate the terms of their contracts. The district court concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the claim under the FCA's public disclosure bar. The court concluded that the transactions that relator contends create an inference of fraud were publicly disclosed through a statutorily enumerated channel, triggering the jurisdictional bar. The court further concluded that relator does not possess any direct information about the underlying transactions that would allow him to rescue his claim from the jurisdictional bar by qualifying as an original source. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "United States v. Philip Morris USA Inc." on Justia Law

Morris Days (a/k/a Jamil Days) held himself out to the public as a civil rights attorney working for a regional chapter of CAIR, when he was not in fact a lawyer. Plaintiffs, individual CAIR clients who were negatively impacted by Days' conduct, filed suit alleging that CAIR is responsible for the bad acts of Days because Days was CAIR’s agent. The district court granted summary judgment for CAIR. The court concluded that, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, and drawing all inferences in their favor, it would be reasonable to infer based on these facts that CAIR had the ability to control Days, and in fact exerted that control. Accordingly, the court found that genuine issues of material fact exist as to whether or not Days was the agent of CAIR. The court reversed and remanded for further proceedings. View "Lopez v. Council on American-Islamic Relations Action Network" on Justia Law

The collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the union and Verizon provided for arbitration of disputes arising out of that agreement. After an arbitration panel interpreted the CBA in Verizon's favor, the union took the matter to the NLRB. After the ALJ ruled in favor of Verizon, the union appealed to the Board. The Board overruled the arbitration decision, determining that the union’s waiver of its members’ right to picket did not waive their right to visibly display pro-union signs in cars on Verizon property. The court concluded that, under the Spielberg-Olin standard, the arbitration panel’s decision in this case was not clearly repugnant to the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. 151 et seq. First, the arbitration panel’s decision was susceptible to an interpretation consistent with the Act, because under the Act unions may waive their members’ right to display signs in cars on the employer’s premises. And second, the arbitration panel’s decision was not a “palpably wrong” interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement. Therefore, the court concluded that the Board’s contrary decision was unreasonable. The court granted Verizon's petition for review and denied the Board's cross-application for enforcement. View "Verizon New England Inc. v. NLRB" on Justia Law

Petitioners seek review of the Board's finding that G/M and the Carpenters Union committed unfair labor practices. The court held this case in abeyance pending the Supreme Court’s consideration of the validity of the President’s recess appointments to fill vacancies on the Board in NLRB v. Noel Canning. Member Becker, who was on the Board panel in this case, had been appointed to the Board by the President during a 17-day intra-session recess of the Senate. Following the Supreme Court’s decision, this court held that Becker’s appointment was valid. The court removed the case from abeyance and now hold that the Board’s orders failed to provide a reasoned justification for departing from precedent. In this case, G/M and the Carpenters Union filed a motion for reconsideration, arguing that the Board’s determination had ignored its holding in Coamo Knitting Mills, Inc. The court concluded that the Board’s order denying reconsideration relies solely on the absence of a claim of unlawful surveillance in distinguishing Coamo, not on any factual differences between the cases. Because the Board did not adequately distinguish Coamo and grant the petitions for review on that ground, the court need not reach the remaining arguments. Accordingly, the court granted the petitions for review, vacated the orders, and remanded. View "NLRB v. Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters" on Justia Law

The General Counsel issued a complaint against the union, alleging that the union violated federal labor laws by failing to tell Laura Sands when she began work at Kroger how much less in dues she would have to pay if she did not join the union. The Board dismissed the complaint. Sands petitions for review. The court joined the Second Circuit in holding that an unfair labor practice case is moot when the petitioner lacks an ongoing personal interest in the proceedings. Sands ended her relationship with the union when she quit her job at the grocery store in 2005, and her counsel conceded at oral argument that there is no reason to think she will work there again. Thus, even if posting a notice about the labor violation might affect a current store employee, it cannot redress Sands’ injury. Accordingly, the court dismissed the petition for review as moot and vacated the Board's order under the court's equitable authority. View "Sands v. NLRB" on Justia Law