The 4th Circuit grants a petition for review filed by a Tanzanian national who sought asylum by alleging he was tortured by nurses and prison guards because of his severe bipolar disorder; the BIA’s findings are logically contradictory. At petitioner’s asylum hearing, an expert witness testified that Tanzanians consider mental illness to be shameful and ...
Mentally Ill Are ‘Social Group’ Under INA
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Bias Suit Barred by Sovereign Immunity
A long-term employee of the Maryland Department of Transportation who alleges she was terminated during a round of budget cuts due to age and disability discrimination, is barred from suing because defendants are protected by sovereign immunity, but the 4th Circuit says dismissal of plaintiff’s Title VII claim was premature under Fed. R. Civ. P. ...
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Inmate May Sue Over Ramadan Policy
A district court erred in dismissing a Muslim inmate’s suit challenging a Virginia correctional policy that required Muslim prisoners to provide physical evidence of faith, such as a Koran or a prayer rug, in order to participate in the daytime fast during the month of Ramadan; the 4th Circuit says the suit was not mooted ...
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Assignee is Oil & Gas Lease BFP
Tracing the transfer of rights conveyed under an oil and gas lease in 1892, the 4th Circuit says there was no severance of the two interests and the lease conveyed gas rights as well as oil rights; the 4th Circuit affirms a district court judgment that a 2004 assignee was a bona fide purchaser who ...
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Lawyer Should Have Been Allowed to Withdraw
In a proceeding to consider civil commitment of respondent as a sexually dangerous person, the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to allow his lawyer to withdraw from the case after he filed a bar complaint against her based on her failure to timely renew a motion to appoint a second expert to evaluate ...
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Company President Firing Not SOX Violation
A former president of a company that manufactures security and surveillance equipment cannot establish that his alleged whistleblower activity some 20 months earlier, including reporting alleged export violations, were a contributing factor in his termination, in violation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002; the 4th Circuit affirms summary judgment for defendant company. Appellant argues he ...
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Drug Analyst Testimony Needed at Revocation Hearing
A district court cannot rely on a lab report showing a man on supervised release possessed marijuana, prepared by a forensic examiner who did not testify at the hearing and could not be cross-examined; the 4th Circuit emphasizes its “displeasure with the government’s barefaced failure” to follow precedent and vacates the revocation of supervised release. ...
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No ‘Sophisticated Means’ Used in Bank Fraud
The 4th Circuit affirms bank fraud and aggravated identity theft convictions for a defendant who worked with a confidential informant on a plan to open phony bank accounts with a real person’s identification information and then withdraw funds, but the court vacates a sentencing enhancement because the facts do not show “sophisticated means” used in ...
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Tax Credit Works for State & Federal ACA Exchanges
The 4th Circuit upholds the validity of an IRS Rule implementing the premium tax credit provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for individuals who purchase health insurance on both state-run insurance Exchanges and federally facilitated Exchanges, creating a split with the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Plaintiffs contend the IRS’s interpretation ...
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No Interlocutory Review of Class Certification
In this class action litigation, the 4th Circuit denies interlocutory review of the district court’s refusal to decertify a class alleging hostile work environment claims. This litigation concerns substantive allegations of racial discrimination, however, only the procedural history is relevant to this order. The district court initially denied plaintiffs’ motion for class certification, and we ...
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Maid’s Trafficking, Wage Claims May Survive
A plaintiff hired from the Philippines in 2002 to work for defendant’s family, who allegedly was kept a virtual prisoner and forced to work long hours for a few hundred dollars a month until her escape in 2008, may still have viable claims under the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act and the Fair ...
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Judges clash on race factors in traffic stop case
A case once cited as evidence of Mexican drug cartels fueling U.S. drug trafficking is now provoking conflicting views among appellate judges about racial factors involved in police traffic stops. Three federal appeals court judges split in analyzing the possibility of racial selection in a police stop that led to a life prison sentence for ...
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Doctor doesn’t cite a statute, but still has Bowman claim
A physician who said he was fired for refusing to participate in his employer’s unlawful “scheme” to distribute stockpiled medicine can sue for wrongful discharge in violation of Virginia public policy, a federal appeals court said on Jan. 8. Richard Weidman, a former senior physician at Exxon Mobil’s Fairfax office, alleged that in 2009 he ...
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No Suit Against Va. Subcontractor
An employee of a North Carolina company that hired a Virginia subcontractor for site preparation for a new drugstore in Virginia Beach cannot sue the Virginia subcontractor for negligence for his injuries when a bulldozer backed over him; the 4th Circuit rejects appellant’s claim that the Virginia federal court had to apply North Carolina law ...
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IJ Credibility Finding Faulty, Court Says
In assessing a Congolese citizen’s application for asylum under the Convention Against Torture, an immigration judge erred in finding his account of torture less than credible, based on alleged inconsistencies between petitioner and his former cellmate; the inconsistencies were more likely attributable to difficulties with the French translation and the 4th Circuit grants the petition ...
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EEOC expert slammed in background check case
A federal appeals court has rejected a statistical expert offered in a legal challenge to an employer’s use of background checks brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the fourth federal appellate court to find fault with statistician Kevin Murphy’s work, according to one of the judges, ...
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Court Excludes EEOC ‘Background Check’ Expert
The EEOC cannot make a prima facie case that employer credit and criminal background checks violate Title VII with a statistical report that is “rife with analytical errors” and “completely unreliable”; the 4th Circuit accepts the district court’s assessment of the expert report and affirms summary judgment for employer. Defendant Freeman provides integrated services for ...
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No Burden-Shifting on Lawyer-Advice Defense
The 4th Circuit affirms a defendant’s criminal contempt conviction for failure to comply with a grand jury subpoena, despite her claim that the district court violated her due process rights by requiring her to prove her advice-of-counsel defense. Defendant received a grand jury subpoena in connection with an IRS investigation, requiring her to produce specific ...
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Writ Granted for Missing Jury Instruction
At defendant’s trial for the fatal stabbing of a man who purportedly provoked a fight with defendant, the district court should have granted defendant’s habeas petition alleging his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to request a jury instruction defining “heat of passion”; the 4th Circuit reverses and remands with instructions to grant a ...
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Court Reverses Post-Wal-Mart Class Decertification
In this case concerning the certification of a class of black steel workers who allege endemic racial discrimination at a South Carolina plant owned by Nucor Corporation, a split panel of the 4th Circuit reverses the district court’s decertification of both discriminatory job promotion practices and a racially hostile work environment classes under Title VII ...
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