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

Defendant appealed his conviction and sentence for unlawful possession of 100 grams or more of PCP with intent to distribute. The court affirmed the conviction, but reversed as to the district court's imposition of the career-offender enhancement pursuant to USSG 4B1.1(a). In this case, the district court's plain error under the residual clause affected defendant's substantial rights because his sentence cannot be saved under the elements clause. The unlawfulness of his sentence necessarily affects the fundamental fairness and integrity of his conviction. Defendant is entitled to a resentencing without the career-offender enhancement. Accordingly, the court vacated the sentence and remanded for resentencing. View "United States v. Sheffield" on Justia Law

Petitioners seek review of the Commission's decision imposing sanctions for violations of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, 15 U.S.C. 80b-21, and the rule against misleading advertising. Here, the Commission instituted an administrative enforcement action against petitioners for alleged violations of anti-fraud provisions of the Investment Advisers Act based on how they presented their “Buckets of Money” retirement wealth-management strategy to prospective clients. The court rejected petitioners' contention that the Commission’s decision and order under review should be vacated because the ALJ rendering the initial decision was a constitutional Officer who was not appointed pursuant to the Appointments Clause. The court also concluded that there is substantial evidence to support the Commission’s finding that petitioners’ “Buckets-of-Money” presentation promised to provide an historical-data-only backtest where the analysis would account for “rebucketizing.” Paying deference to the Commission's choice of sanctions, the court upheld the district court's imposition of the lifetime industry bar on Raymond J. Lucia. The court rejected petitioners' remaining contentions and denied the petition for review. View "Raymond J. Lucia Co. v. SEC" on Justia Law

Southwest petitioned for review of the DOT's guidance letter addressing “accommodation” policies at Love Field. Accommodation is a process by which an airline can gain access to operate flights from an airport at which it leases no gates. The court dismissed the petition for review, finding that DOT’s letter does not constitute a final agency action, a prerequisite to the court's review. In this case, the letter does not reflect the consummation of DOT’s decisionmaking on the issues it discusses. DOT in fact has instituted an administrative proceeding (which remains ongoing) that will address and resolve, among other things, the precise issues and policies broached in the letter. View "Southwest Airlines Co. v. DOT" on Justia Law

Defendant appealed his conviction and sentence after pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. 1962(d). The district court sentenced defendant to 156 months in prison. The court agreed with defendant that the case should be remanded to the district court for resentencing in light of a retroactive amendment to section 2D1.1 of the Guidelines. The court concluded that, with the promulgation of Amendment 782, the lower adjusted offense level for the drug conspiracy makes a difference. The amendment reduces defendant’s base offense level for the drug conspiracy from 28 to 26. Without the three-level leadership bump that defendant now contests, his adjusted offense level would remain 26. As before, the adjusted offense level for the murder conspiracy (36) would continue to serve as the starting point. But, unlike before, the combined offense level in that circumstance would be 36 (instead of 37). After the reduction for acceptance of responsibility, defendant’s final offense level would be 33 (instead of 34), with a lower sentencing range of 135 to 168 months. In light of that potential effect, the court concluded that resentencing is appropriate to enable defendant to challenge the application of the leadership adjustment in calculating his Guidelines range. Accordingly, the court vacated the sentence and remanded for resentencing. The court affirmed as to defendant's remaining contentions of error. View "United States v. Melgar-Hernandez" on Justia Law

Plaintiffs filed suit against the IRS and several of its individual employees, seeking money damages by way of relief under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Fed. Bureau of Narcotics, and equitable relief by way of injunction and declaratory judgment. Additionally, the complaints alleged that the IRS invaded plaintiffs’ statutory rights by violating 26 U.S.C. 6103, by conducting unauthorized inspection and/or disclosure of tax return information from their applications and the other information improperly obtained from them. The court affirmed the district court's dismissal of the Bivens actions under Rule 12(b)(6). The court held, however, that the equitable actions are not moot. After the initiation of the suits, the IRS took action to end some unconstitutional acts against at least a portion of plaintiffs. Based on these actions, the district court dismissed the equitable claims as moot. Even if the court accorded deference to the district court, the government has not carried its heavy burden of showing mootness under the voluntary cessation doctrine. Therefore, the court vacated and remanded for further proceedings with respect to the equitable claims. View "True the Vote, Inc. v. IRS" on Justia Law

Plaintiff, identified as an anarchist extremist by an FBI agent, filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552 et seq., with the FBI, seeking information about himself. The FBI released some records but withheld others, citing various grounds. The district court upheld the FBI's withholdings and redactions in full and granted summary judgment to the agency. The court affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the government on the claims under Exemption 7(D) and under the exclusion set forth in 5 U.S.C. 552(c)(1); reversed the grant of summary judgment on both challenges to withholdings under Exemption 3 and remanded for further proceedings; and vacated the district court’s opinion with regard to Exemption 7(A). View "Labow v. DOJ" on Justia Law

In 42 U.S.C. 433, Congress authorized the President to enter into social security coordination agreements - known as totalization agreements - with other countries. This case involves a totalization agreement between the United States and France. At issue is whether or not two French taxes enacted into law after that totalization agreement was adopted amend or supplement the French social security laws covered by the agreement, and thus fall within the agreement’s ambit. The court concluded that the trial court committed legal error in declaring the status of those French laws not by analyzing the text of the totalization agreement or the understanding of the parties, but by resorting to American dictionaries. The court reversed and remanded because insufficient consideration was given to the text and the official views of the United States and French governments. View "Eshel v. Commissioner" on Justia Law

In these consolidated appeals, debtor filed numerous, frivolous challenges to the settlement and the district court entered a pre-filing injunction barring him from filing any new civil actions in the district court without court permission. At issue is whether the injunction encompasses appeals to the district court from bankruptcy court. The court concluded that, as written, the injunction does not cover those appeals with sufficient clarity, and that the district court thus erred in striking these three appeals for violating the pre-filing injunction. Nonetheless, the court affirmed the district court's dismissal of two of the three appeals (adversary proceeding numbers 14-10024 and 14-10043) for failure to state a claim, and remanded for the district court to resolve the third appeal (number 14-10014). View "US ex rel. Yelverton v. Federal Ins. Co." on Justia Law

After the Service issued Buckeye an incidental take permit to build a wind farm in Ohio, Union Neighbors filed suit challenging the issuance of the permit. Union Neighbors claimed that the Service failed to comply with its obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq., and failed to make required findings under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), 16 U.S.C. 1531. The court concluded that the Service failed to comply with its NEPA obligations when it failed to consider an economically feasible alternative that would take fewer bats than Buckeye’s proposal. Therefore, the court reversed the district court on this issue. The court concluded, however, that the Service’s interpretation of the ESA is entitled to deference, and the Service complied with its ESA obligations. Therefore, the court affirmed as to this issue. View "Union Neighbors United, Inc. v. Jewell" on Justia Law

The Board determined that Enterprise violated the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. 151 et seq., by telling employees it was terminating short-term disability benefits on account of their union membership, encouraging an employee to circulate a petition to decertify the Union as its employees’ bargaining representative, unilaterally terminating employees’ short-term disability benefits, interfering with a union representative’s contractual right of access to Enterprise’s facility, unlawfully decertifying the Union as its employees’ bargaining representative based on a petition tainted by unfair labor practices, and thereafter refusing to bargain with the Union or collect or remit union dues. Enterprise petitioned for review. The court denied the petition and granted the Board's cross-application for enforcement, holding that substantial record evidence supports each of the Board’s findings and conclusions. The court also concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to consider Enterprise’s additional claim that the Board’s remedy was unlawfully punitive because Enterprise failed to raise the argument before the Board. View "Enterprise Leasing Co. v. NLRB" on Justia Law