(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirmed: The juvenile offender of the DC Beltway sniper duo was convicted of capital murder for crimes committed when he was 17 years old. He was sentenced to 4 terms of life imprisonment without parole. After his conviction and sentence the US Supreme Court held that persons who committed serious crimes when under 18 could not be sentenced to death and that they could not be sentenced to life imprisonment unless the offenses reflected permanent incorrigibility and that these rules applied retroactively. Because of the new rules, the district court vacated the life sentences without parole and remanded for re-sentencing. The 4th Circuit affirmed.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Vacating and remanding the district court's finding that defendant did not face ineffective assistance of counsel where his attorney failed to raise a significant and obvious issue on appeal of his conviction for money laundering and fraudulent investment crimes. The issue would likely have resulted in a reversal of his money laundering conviction and the Fourth Circuit remanded for further proceedings.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Petition granted; reversed and remanded the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals which had found that payment of court costs qualified as a conviction under the Immigration and Naturalization Act. Plaintiff entered the US illegally and then several years later pled guilty to a misdemeanor marijuana charge where the court withheld adjudication of guilt and assessed $100 in court costs. The Fourth Circuit held that the assessment of court costs was not a punishment and therefore there was not a conviction.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirmed the convictions of the defendants for all crimes charged against them, including violent crimes in the aid of racketeering. Defendants alleged errors and Brady violations. The court held that a Brady claim must establish evidence that was favorable to the accused, suppressed, and material to the verdict, but did not find that there was any such evidence rising to the level of a Brady exclusion.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Summary judgment reversed. A municipal employee who was fired a single day after threatening to file a formal racial harassment grievance was entitled to a trial on her retaliation claim under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Reversed the district court's ruling which had denied immunity to North Carolina state agencies and officials which were sued by a videographer alleging that they violated his copyrights by publishing his video footage of an 18th-century shipwreck off the North Carolina coast. Plaintiff had obtained the rights to create the footage through a permit issued by North Carolina to the ship's salvors. Disagreeing with the district court's rulings on a motion to dismiss, the Fourth Circuit concluded that the defendant agencies and officials were protected from the lawsuit by sovereign immunity, qualified immunity, and/or legislative immunity.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirmed the denial of a habeas petition in a case where a murderer sentenced to death asked that the jury be instructed that he would have been ineligible for parole if sentenced to life in prison. In affirming the denial of his request, the appeals court noted that he only had a right to such a jury instruction if the prosecutor had argued that he would be a danger to society if released from prison, but the prosecutor here had not argued future dangerousness.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirming in part the dismissal of an African-American police officer's discrimination and retaliation claims against a state prosecutor for reading aloud criminal suspects' letters containing racial epithets at a trial preparation meeting that the officer attended. The Fourth Circuit held that the police officer did not state a claim for racial harassment or retaliation as no reasonable employee could believe that the prosecutor's conduct violated civil rights law and because the prosecutor was protected by absolute prosecutorial immunity.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirmed a conviction and sentence for federal drug trafficking conspiracy where a defendant pleaded guilty and waived his right to appeal except on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel or prosecutorial misconduct. Defendant's appeal argued that a factual basis did not support his guilty plea, which he could argue as this type of challenge falls outside the scope of a valid waiver. However, in affirming the Fourth Circuit held that a factual basis did, in fact, support his plea.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirmed the dismissals of three consumer lawsuits alleging that Hyundai Motor America misrepresented the estimated fuel economy of certain models of the Hyundai Elantra. In affirming the dismissals, the Fourth Circuit held that the complaints failed to satisfy federal pleading standards, except as to a single claim in one of the complaints, which the appeals court dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirmed the convictions and sentences for providing support to a foreign terrorist organization following a bench trial where the district court found that the two defendants had collected money to assist a foreign terrorist organization's activities. On appeal, the Fourth Circuit rejected the defendants' argument that the district court, among other things, should have suppressed evidence obtained pursuant to warrants issued under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirmed a sentence for violating the conditions of supervised release in a case where the defendant contended that the 24-month sentence he received was plainly unreasonable because the district court did not adequately address his arguments in favor of a downward variance. But in a 2-1 decision affirming the sentence, the Fourth Circuit concluded that the district court had adequately addressed the defense arguments for a downward variance.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Vacated the denial of an exemption from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's renewable fuel standard program. A small refinery sought an extension of its exemption from EPA's renewable fuel standard program, which requires refineries and other facilities to allocate a certain percentage of their fuel production to renewable fuels. When the EPA denied the request for an extension, the refinery petitioned the Fourth Circuit, which concluded that the EPA's decision was arbitrary and capricious. The panel therefore vacated the EPA's denial and remanded for further proceedings.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirmed an order enjoining the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from enforcing a Medicaid reimbursement policy that was set forth in a Frequently Asked Questions document. The plaintiff, a hospital, contended that the reimbursement policy was not validly promulgated because there was no formal rulemaking as required by the Administrative Procedure Act. Agreeing, the Fourth Circuit held that the FAQ document was insufficient and that notice-and-comment rulemaking was necessary.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirmed that the district court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over a constitutional challenge to the Natural Gas Act. Landowners along the path of a proposed natural gas pipeline brought this action disputing the constitutionality of various provisions of the Natural Gas Act. Agreeing with the district court, the Fourth Circuit held that the suit must be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction on the grounds that the landowners ought to have brought their claims through the agency review process laid out in the Natural Gas Act.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Vacated forfeiture orders in a case involving a fraudulent mortgage scheme. The defendant argued that she should not have been ordered to forfeit over $1 million when she had received only $230,000 in proceeds from the criminal scheme. On remand from the Supreme Court, the Fourth Circuit concluded that it was necessary to vacate and remand the forfeiture orders on the ground that joint and several forfeiture liability was precluded by the Supreme Court's recent decision in Honeycutt v. US, 137 S. Ct. 1626 (2017).

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirmed that a school district did not deprive a former student of his rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The student claimed he should have been identified as a candidate for special education and that the school district failed to provide him a free appropriate public education. While agreeing that the school district had committed a procedural violation of the Act, the Fourth Circuit agreed with the district court that the violation did not actually deprive the student of a free appropriate public education.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirmed in part and reversed in part a judgment that three police officers were terminated because they blew the whistle on what they viewed as corruption within a police department. After a jury found in the officers' favor, they appealed certain pre-trial and post-trial rulings. The Fourth Circuit held that the trial judge should not have dismissed the officers' First Amendment claims against the town, and also reversed the judge's conclusion that the town's insurance policy covered only $1 million of the aggregate damages.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Vacated a restitution order imposed against a postal employee who had pleaded guilty to mail theft. The postal employee, who had stolen video games that a rental service shipped to customers through the mail, appealed the amount of the restitution award, $50,000. The Fourth Circuit determined that the rental service's estimate of its losses was not supported by the record, and therefore vacated the restitution order and remanded.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Vacated federal agency decisions approving construction of a natural gas pipeline through a national forest. Several environmental groups challenged the Bureau of Land Management's and U.S. Forest Service's rulings allowing the pipeline to be built. On a petition for review, the Fourth Circuit agreed with the environmental groups that the federal agencies failed to fully comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, the Mineral Leasing Act, and the National Forest Management Act, and therefore the appeals court vacated and remanded to the agencies for further proceedings.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirmed that an insurance company did not improperly terminate an individual's long-term disability benefits. A former medical transcriptionist who had stopped working due to pain in his forearm and wrist that prevented him from typing argued that he was still disabled, as that term was used in his employee welfare benefit plan. However, the district court found no evidence that the insurer's decision to discontinue his benefits was unreasonable, and the Fourth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of his ERISA action.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Denied a legal challenge filed by environmental groups seeking to prevent the construction of a natural gas pipeline across part of Virginia. The environmental groups argued that the Commonwealth of Virginia had improperly certified that the pipeline project would not degrade the state's water. Unpersuaded, the Fourth Circuit, which had jurisdiction over the case by federal statute, concluded that Virginia's issuance of a Clean Water Act certification was not arbitrary and capricious, and thus denied the environmental groups' petition for review.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Vacated the lower court's denial of habeas relief in a death penalty case where the defendant alleged juror bias. The defendant, who was convicted in Virginia state court of murdering a law enforcement officer, claimed that a juror had failed to disclose that his brother was a law enforcement officer. Agreeing that there was a potential issue of bias, the Fourth Circuit concluded that Supreme Court precedent required a hearing in these circumstances, and therefore vacated in relevant part and remanded with instructions for the trial court to hold an evidentiary hearing on the juror bias question.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Held that the United States should be substituted as a party defendant in a lawsuit in which two defendants were tobacco industry businesspeople who had agreed to perform undercover work for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The question before the Fourth Circuit was whether the United States should be substituted as a party defendant. The panel held that the answer was yes, and thus reversed the district court's ruling on the matter.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Vacated actions taken by two federal agencies that provided necessary approvals for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. When the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service granted certain environmental authorizations that were needed to construct the 600-mile pipeline, which is designed to transport natural gas from West Virginia to the eastern portions of Virginia and North Carolina, environmental groups filed a petition for review of the agencies' actions. Agreeing with the environmental groups that both agency decisions were arbitrary and capricious, the Fourth Circuit vacated both administrative rulings.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirmed a judgment ordering forfeiture to the United States of seven ancient Cypriot coins and eight ancient Chinese coins. A numismatist organization that opposed import restrictions on ancient coins argued that the forfeiture order imposed in connection with international rules on ownership of cultural property was improper. However, the Fourth Circuit rejected each of the organization's contentions of error.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirmed an administrative decision ordering a lawful permanent resident removed from the United States. The British citizen had pleaded guilty under New Jersey's generic conspiracy statute to agreeing with another person to commit a crime. On appeal, he argued that the crime to which he pleaded guilty was not a controlled-substance offense within the meaning of the immigration law provision upon which his removal was based, but the Fourth Circuit rejected his argument and, in a 2-1 decision, denied his petition for review.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirmed the conviction of a Norfolk, Virginia, city council member for wire fraud, extortion under color of official right, conspiracy to commit such offenses, and two counts of perjury. The charges stemmed from the council member's solicitation of bribes from local real estate developers. He raised various substantive and procedural challenges to his conviction, but the Fourth Circuit found no merit in them and affirmed.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Rejected a constitutional challenge to Virginia's interdiction statute, under which a person can be civilly designated a habitual drunkard and subject to restrictions on using or possessing alcohol. Four homeless people suffering from alcoholism who each had been prosecuted at least eleven times for violating their interdiction orders challenged the statute's constitutionality under the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on criminalizing status, and the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of Due Process and Equal Protection. Affirming dismissal of their putative class action, the Fourth Circuit held that they failed to state a claim.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Held that the University of South Carolina did not violate students' First Amendment rights when it required a student leader to attend a meeting to discuss other students' complaints about a controversial campus event he had helped organize that was designed to highlight perceived threats to free expression on campus. The student, then president of the College Libertarians, and the other plaintiffs argued that the state university was chilling their free speech. Affirming summary judgment against the plaintiffs' claims, the Fourth Circuit held that the university's minimally intrusive resolution of subsequent student complaints did not rise to the level of a First Amendment violation. The panel also rejected a facial challenge to the university's general policy on harassment.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Reversed and remanded. Defendant received a mandatory sentence enhancement under the Armed Career Criminal Act based on three prior convictions. One of those convictions no longer qualifies as an ACCA predicate. The Fourth Circuit held that defendant’s sentence is unlawful in spite of the government’s argument that they could substitute another crime.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirmed. Pursuant to a plea agreement, defendant pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit access-device fraud and aggravated identity theft. The district court imposed a sentence of 49 months, but the defendant appealed the sentencing arguing that the court erred in allowing the government to decline to seek sentence reduction. The Fourth Circuit found no error.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Held that plaintiffs bringing three wrongful death nursing home malpractice claims were entitled to punitive damages. The nursing homes argued that they were not liable for punitive damages because there was no aggravating factor justifying such an award, and the trial court granted their JMOL motion. Reversing, the Fourth Circuit held that the plaintiffs had presented evidence sufficient for a reasonable jury to award punitive damages under North Carolina law.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Held that the National Labor Relations Board was not entitled to preliminary injunctive relief directing two hospitals to bargain in good faith with a labor union representing nurses and take other actions. The NLRB argued that the district court ought to have granted its request for a preliminary injunction under section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act. Finding no abuse of discretion, the Fourth Circuit explained that the Board had not demonstrated that the effectiveness of its remedial power would be in jeopardy unless a preliminary injunction were imposed.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirmed a conviction and sentence on drug-trafficking charges. The defendant lodged numerous challenges on appeal, including that the district court erred by admitting inculpatory statements obtained in violation of the defendant's Miranda rights and incorrectly imposed a mandatory minimum sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act. Unpersuaded by his arguments, the Fourth Circuit affirmed in a 2-1 decision.

(United States Second Circuit) - Reversed. The court reversed a district court denial of the City's and grant of the company's motions for summary judgment in a case involving a ban on advertisements in Uber and Lyft vehicles because the limited taxicab exception allows the ban on advertisements to survive First Amendment scrutiny.

(United States Second Circuit) - Partially affirmed, partially vacated and remanded. Affirming the dismissal of Americans with Disabilities Act claims arising from events in 2010-2011 that were untimely, but vacating the dismissal of 2013-2014 claims and Title IX claims.

(United States Second Circuit) - Partially affirmed, partially reversed. New York's Taxi and Limousine Commission's procedures to suspend taxi driver licenses failed to provide meaningful hearings to those whose licenses were suspended following criminal proceedings.

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirmed in part, vacated in part, remanded. The District Court erred in granting a petition to have a child returned to his habitual home of Italy under the Hague Convention. Although it was affirmed that Italy was the child's habitual residence if repatriating him would expose the child to a grave risk of harm the district court isn't necessarily bound to return him.

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirmed. A district court decision affirming a Bankruptcy Court order to remit funds to the trustee of a bankruptcy estate was part of the proceeds of an unauthorized post-petition transfer.

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirmed in part, vacated in part. Affirming that a court is not barred from considering additional attorney fees in cases involving settlement agreements, but disagreeing with the application of the standard in the instant case.

(United States Second Circuit) - Vacated and remanded. A complaint alleging claims for forced labor and human trafficking in violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act was improperly dismissed because the plaintiff plausibly stated claims.

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirmed. The admission of evidence, judgment of guilt, and sentencing were affirmed in a case arising out of the operation of an illegal Bitcoin exchange.

(United States Second Circuit) - Partially affirmed, partially reversed. A class action suit against energy providers was dismissed and a post-judgment request for leave to amend was refused. Plaintiffs should have been allowed to amend their complaint and their proposed amended complaint stated plausible claims.

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirmed. Various Connecticut Liqour Control Act and related regulations were hybrid restraints on trade but the plaintiff failed to plead facts that they constitute per se violations of the Sherman Act.

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirmed. Defendant appealed his conviction of producing child pornography, arguing the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress certain electronic communications at trial. Finding no merit in these claims, the court affirmed.

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirmed. Plaintiffs appealed a dismissal of their claims that Facebook unlawfully assisted Hamas in terrorist attacks in Israel. The court affirmed the claims were barred by a federal law that prohibits treating one provider of an interactive computer service as the publisher of information provided by another.

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirmed. Defendant-appellants argued their mandatory minimum life sentences for murder in aid of racketeering constituted cruel and unusual punishment because they were between the ages of 18-22 at the time of the crime. Finding their argument was foreclosed by Supreme Court precedent, the court affirmed.

(United States Second Circuit) - Reversed and remanded. The court concluded the 44 articles at issue were not works made for hire under the Copyright Act of 1976. District Court’s summary judgement in favor of RIT and denying the motion for partial summary judgement by the Estate reversed. Remanded for further proceedings.

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirmed. Defendant appealed the District Court’s order denying bail. The court of appeals affirmed Defendant is a flight risk, and Defendant is not permitted to avoid detention by using his own wealth to pay for private security guards.