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

Heartland successfully petitioned this court to review the Board's order finding Heartland violated its collective-bargaining agreement (CBA) by failing to bargain over the effects of reducing employee hours. Heartland moves here for an award of attorney fees. Because the Board’s actions go beyond whatever limited justification nonacquiescence may have, the court agreed with Heartland that the Board is guilty of bad faith, granted Heartland’s motion for attorney fees, and awarded it $17,649.00. View "Heartland Plymouth Court v. NLRB" on Justia Law

In 1992, OSHA issued the Process Safety Management Standard to protect the safety of those who work with or near highly hazardous chemicals. After a catastrophic chemical explosion at a Texas fertilizer company that qualified as an exempt retail facility, OSHA narrowed the scope of the retail-facility exemption so that the safety standard’s requirements would now apply to formerly exempt facilities like the Texas plant. Petitioners seek review of OSHA's narrowed definition of retail facilities. The court held that, when an action by OSHA corrects a particular hazard, as opposed to adjusting procedures for detection or enforcement, it amounts to a “standard.” Applying that understanding, the court concluded that the agency’s narrowing of the substantive scope of the exemption for retail facilities qualified as issuance of a “standard.” Therefore, the court has jurisdiction to review it and OSHA was required to adhere to notice-and-comment procedures. Consequently, the court granted the petitions for review and vacated OSHA's action. View "Agricultural Retailers Assoc. v. Dept. of Labor" on Justia Law

After a group of DirecTV employees aired their grievances publicly in an interview with a reporter for a local television news station, DirecTV responded by terminating the employees. The Board found that DirecTV committed an unfair labor practice and ordered the employees reinstated. DirecTV and another company involved in the employees' termination (MasTec), seek review of the Board's decision. DirectTV relies on contractors such as MasTec to install satellite television receivers in subscribers’ homes. The court concluded that the Board acted within its discretion when the Board held that the employees' participation in the news segment was protected concerted activity relating to their ongoing dispute about the new pay policy. In the Board’s view, the technicians’ statements in the interview were neither so disloyal and incommensurate with their labor grievances, nor so maliciously untrue, as to fall outside the protection of the National Labor Relations Act, 20 U.S.C. 157. Accordingly, the court enforced the Board's order. View "DirecTV, Inc. v. NLRB" on Justia Law

After Consolidated disciplined several employees for alleged misconduct during a Union strike and eliminated a workplace position held by a union worker, the Board found that both Consolidated's disciplinary actions and its unilateral elimination of a bargaining-unit position violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), 29 U.S.C. 158(a)(1), (3) and (5). The court enforced the portions of the Board’s order determining that Consolidated’s suspensions of Michael Maxwell and Eric Williamson, as well as the company’s elimination of the bargaining-unit position, violated the Act. The court granted, however, Consolidated’s petition for review and denied cross-enforcement for that portion of the order addressing Consolidated’s discharge of Patricia Hudson, and remanded because the Board applied an erroneous legal standard in evaluating Hudson’s strike misconduct. In this case, Hudson did not engage in misconduct punishable under the Act because the Board’s determination rests on a misapplication of the Clear Pine Mouldings standard and the Burnup & Sims burden of proof. View "Consolidated Commc'ns v. NLRB" on Justia Law

Rothe filed suit alleging that the statutory basis of the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 8(a) business development program, Amendments to the Small Business Act, 15 U.S.C. 637, violates its right to equal protection under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Rothe is a small business that bids on Defense Department contracts, including the types of subcontracts that the SBA awards to economically and socially disadvantaged businesses through the 8(a) program. The court rejected Rothe's claim that the statute contains an unconstitutional racial classification that prevents Rothe from competing for Department of Defense contracts on an equal footing with minority-owned businesses. The court concluded that the provisions of the Small Business Act that Rothe challenges do not on their face classify individuals by race. In contrast to the statute, the SBA’s regulation implementing the 8(a) program does contain a racial classification in the form of a presumption that an individual who is a member of one of five designated racial groups (and within them, 37 subgroups) is socially disadvantaged. Because the statute lacks a racial classification, and because Rothe has not alleged that the statute is otherwise subject to strict scrutiny, the court applied rational-basis review. Under rational-basis review, the court concluded that the statutory scheme is rationally related to the legitimate, and in some instances compelling, interest of counteracting discrimination. Finally, Rothe's evidentiary and nondelegation challenges failed. Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court's judgment granting summary judgment to the SBA and DOD. View "Rothe Development v. DOD" on Justia Law

Scenic filed suit challenging a guidance memorandum issued by the FHWA in 2007, which interpreted the prohibition on “flashing, intermittent or moving” lights to permit state approval of those digital billboards that met certain timing and brightness requirements. The Highway Beautification Act (HBA), 23 U.S.C. 131, requires the FHWA and each state to develop and implement individual federal-state agreements (FSAs), detailing, among other things, “size, lighting and spacing” standards for the billboards now found towering over many of our country’s interstate highways. The court held that it lacks jurisdiction to hear Scenic's notice-and-comment claim because Scenic failed to demonstrate that it has standing to bring that challenge. The court concluded that Scenic has standing to bring a claim under section 706 of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. 706, and that the Guidance constitutes final agency action. On the merits, the court concluded that, because the FHWA’s interpretation of the FSA lighting provision was reasonable, the interpretation cannot be “contrary to customary use.” Accordingly, Scenic's claim under section 706 fails. Accordingly, the court affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded for dismissal of Scenic's notice-and-comment claim. View "Scenic America, Inc. v. US DOT" on Justia Law

Defendant was convicted of second-degree murder and witness tampering for his role in the hazing and in covering up information about Army Sergeant Juwan Johnson’s death. Defendant was the leader of a group called "Brothers of the Struggle" (BOS), which was made up of members of the U.S. Army and Air Force at Ramstein but was not affiliated with the military. The BOS regularly initiated new members by beating them up in a ritual known as a “jump-in.” During a typical jump-in, approximately six members of the BOS hit the initiate for about six minutes. An autopsy report revealed that blunt force injuries inflicted during the initiation caused Johnson's death. The court rejected defendant's challenges to the sufficiency of the government’s evidence at trial. The court concluded, however, that the government misstated the law in its closing argument. Because the misstatement implicated a central issue - the state of mind with which defendant acted - and was not sufficiently cured, the court reversed defendant's murder conviction. Finally, the court rejected defendant's remaining claims of evidentiary errors. Therefore, the court affirmed the witness-tampering conviction. View "United States v. Williams" on Justia Law

The Spectrum Act, Pub. L. No. 112-96, 126 Stat. 156, responds to the rapidly growing demand for mobile broadband services by granting the FEC authority to reallocate a portion of the licensed airwaves from television broadcasters to mobile broadband providers. The Act contemplates the repurposing of licensed spectrum through a multi-step auction process. The statutory framework governing the repacking process is set out in 47 U.S.C. 1452. This case involves a challenge to the Commission’s implementation of the Spectrum Act brought by a particular species of broadcasters - low-power television (LPTV) stations. Determining that it has jurisdiction, the court rejected petitioners’ contention that the terms of section 1452(b)(5) unambiguously compel protecting LPTV stations from displacement in the repacking process called for by the Act. Furthermore, the court concluded that the Commission’s treatment of LPTV stations in the challenged orders rests on a reasonable understanding of subsection (b)(5) for purposes of Chevron step two, and the court rejected petitioners’ arbitrary-and-capricious arguments to the same effect. Finally, the court rejected petitioners' procedural challenge. Accordingly, the court denied the petitions for review. View "Mako Commc'n v. FCC" on Justia Law

Petitioner is the alleged mastermind of the bombings of the U.S.S. Cole and the French supertanker the M/V Limburg, as well as the attempted bombing of the U.S.S. The Sullivans. Petitioner seeks a writ of mandamus to dissolve the military commission convened to try him and appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to preliminarily enjoin that trial. The court concluded that the district court did not err as a matter of law by extending the abstention principles established in Schlesinger v. Councilman, which dealt with courts-martial, to petitioner's pretrial challenge to the subject matter jurisdiction of a military commission. The court also concluded that the district court's ultimate decision to abstain based on the unique circumstances to petitioner's case was appropriate. Because petitioner cannot show that his conduct clearly and indisputably took place outside the context of hostilities, the court denied his petition for mandamus relief. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "In Re: Abd Al-Rahim Hussein Al-Nashir" on Justia Law

This case concerns the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. Oil companies depositing crude oil extracted from their fields on the North Slope into the pipeline receive the same proportion of oil they initially contributed at the southern end of the pipeline at Valdez, but the companies do not receive the same quality of oil because the oil has been commingled in the pipeline. FERC oversees a mechanism for calibrating payments known as the Quality Bank, which assigns each company’s crude oil a value based on the quality of its components or "cuts." At issue is the formula used to value one of these cuts, called Resid. The court concluded that the Commission failed to respond meaningfully to evidence presented by Petro Star, rendering its decision arbitrary and capricious, and that Petro Star’s purported failure to provide a viable methodology does not provide an independent ground for the Commission’s decision. Therefore, the court granted the petition for review and remanded for the Commission to reconsider the methodology used to value Resid or to provide a more reasoned explanation for its approach. The court also found that Alaska lacks standing to intervene. View "Petro Star Inc. v. FERC" on Justia Law