Sixth Circuit Revives First Amendment Suit Over Parking Citations Issued to Political Activist
Panel declines to extend Hartman and Nieves probable-cause rules to minor civil enforcement actions like parking tickets.
Practice area · Civil Rights
Ninth Circuit Refuses to Rehear Oak Flat Mining Case as Eleven Judges Say Court Got It Wrong
The denial clears the way for a copper mine to destroy a Western Apache sacred site, though separate writings call for Supreme Court review.
Eleventh Circuit Revives Alabama Bail Class Action, Limits Schultz Ruling on Mid-Suit Policy Changes
A certified class saves challenges to Randolph County's prior bail practices from mootness despite mid-litigation policy swap.
Fourth Circuit Affirms Pre-Discovery Summary Judgment in Prisoner Shackling Case
Panel holds that requested video and witnesses could not alter outcome because alleged facts did not amount to constitutional violation.
Fourth Circuit Rules Stingray Tracking Is a Search but Grants Officers Immunity
A federal appeals court holds for the first time that cell-site simulators require a warrant, then shields the detectives who used one without one.
Ninth Circuit Shields Officers Who Drew Guns on Man Wanted for Drug Charges
Panel finds no Fourth Amendment violation where officers kept firearms trained on suspected fugitive during felony arrest.
Supreme Court Revives Modified Voter-Verification System Weeks Before Midterms
A 6-3 stay order holds that IIRIRA's 'notwithstanding' clauses likely override the Privacy Act and Social Security Act to allow SSA data sharing with DHS.
Fourth Circuit Revives Prisoner’s Excessive-Force Suit Over Broken Arm, Chokehold Allegations
The court held that Patrick Nichols plausibly alleged excessive force at the pleading stage and that a pro se civil-rights complaint can identify an intended defendant in its body even when the officer is omitted from the caption.
Fifth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of First Amendment Challenge to Harris County Order Restricting Bail-Bond Data
The court held the order is a restriction on access to government information, not a prohibition on speech, and thus does not violate the First Amendment.
Sixth Circuit Upholds Billboard Restrictions After Severing Unconstitutional Public-Service Exemption
The panel held that the Village of St. Bernard's remaining billboard rules survive intermediate scrutiny and are severable from the invalidated public-service sign carve-out, offering guidance on Ohio severance law.
Sixth Circuit Vacates Summary Judgment on Michigan Fair and Just Treatment Claim
Panel says the district court should have declined supplemental jurisdiction over an unresolved Michigan constitutional issue after dismissing the federal claims.
Eleventh Circuit Erases $8.2 Million Roy Moore Defamation Verdict Over Senate Majority PAC Ad
The court held that Roy Moore failed to offer clear and convincing evidence that Senate Majority PAC intended, or recklessly disregarded, the allegedly defamatory implication created by two frames in a campaign advertisement.
Sixth Circuit Affirms Denial of Qualified Immunity, Rejects Deputy's Factual Account at Summary Judgment
The panel held disputed issues about whether a man with schizoaffective disorder posed a threat must go to the jury, and the officer could not relitigate facts on interlocutory appeal.
Fourth Circuit Sets Two-Year Limitations Period for West Virginia Section 1983 Claims
The panel revived Ashley Cooper’s federal malicious-prosecution claim by holding that West Virginia’s two-year personal-injury period governs Section 1983 actions, but affirmed dismissal of the City of Wheeling because the complaint did not allege a municipal policy or custom.
Fourth Circuit Upholds Protective Order Barring Disclosure of Afghan Plaintiffs' Identities Under Strict Scrutiny
The en banc court ruled that a content-based prior restraint on defendants' speech survives the heavy presumption against its validity because it is narrowly tailored to the compelling national-security interest in protecting perceived foreign collaborators.
Fourth Circuit Vacates Summary Judgment for Skipping Pending Spoliation Sanctions Motion
The panel held that a district court abused its discretion by entering summary judgment for prison officials while a magistrate judge still had under advisement a sanctions motion over missing exculpatory video footage central to the inmate's claims.
En Banc Ninth Circuit Upholds Oxnard Campaign Contribution Caps, Applies Deferential Review to Anti-Corruption Interest
The full court affirmed municipal limits of $500 per individual for city council candidates, holding that the city met the low evidentiary bar for its anti-corruption interest and that the limits were closely drawn under Randall v. Sorrell.
Ninth Circuit Holds IDEA Claims for Failure to Assess Accrue When Parents Knew or Should Have Known of FAPE Denial; Later Diagnosis Does Not Restart Clock
Panel reverses $510,960 compensatory education award, adopting Third Circuit's interpretation of § 1415(f)(3)(C) and rejecting per se rule that a new diagnosis tolls the two-year deadline.
SCOTUS Revives Parental-Notification Injunction Against California Schools, Vacates Ninth Circuit Stay
In a per curiam order, the Court found parents likely to prevail on free exercise and due process claims against policies that withhold student gender-transition information without child consent, drawing a sharp dissent over the emergency docket's use.
Fifth Circuit Revives Texas Councilwoman's Retaliatory Arrest Suit
A Fifth Circuit panel revived much of a former Godley, Texas, councilwoman's civil rights suit alleging city officials used a tampering charge to keep her from a key council vote.
High Court Revives Counselor's Challenge To Colo. Conversion-Therapy Ban
The U.S. Supreme Court said Colorado's law regulating conversion therapy for minors likely targets protected speech when applied to a licensed counselor's talk therapy.
Supreme Court Reverses D.C. Court In Police Stop Case
The justices said a D.C. appeals court improperly parsed the facts of an early-morning car stop rather than considering the full circumstances supporting reasonable suspicion.
NY, States Sue Education Department Over Mental Health Grant Cuts
New York Attorney General Letitia James and 14 other attorneys general say the U.S. Department of Education is trying to sidestep an earlier injunction by terminating school mental health grants under a new label.
DC Judge Tosses Pro Se Suit Over Illinois Custody Dispute
A D.C. federal court dismissed a grandmother's pro se complaint tied to an Illinois child custody matter, saying the dispute belonged in state court.
High Court Revives D.C. Juvenile Case In Police Stop Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court said a D.C. appellate court wrongly parsed reasonable suspicion factor by factor when it tossed a juvenile adjudication tied to a late-night vehicle stop.
Eighth Circuit Affirms Omaha Drug, Gun Convictions Despite Evidence Concerns
The panel upheld convictions and sentences for three defendants while a concurrence warned that a phone-extraction PowerPoint and gang testimony pushed evidentiary limits.
Alito Dissents As Justices Pass On School Speech, Capital Cases
The Supreme Court declined to hear two disputes that Justice Samuel Alito said warranted review, including a student-speech fight over anti-abortion club flyers and an Alabama capital case involving a prosecutor's closing argument.
Seventh Circuit Backs Elgin Officers In Standoff Force Suit
The Seventh Circuit held that an Illinois man shot with nonlethal police rounds during a standoff failed to identify clearly established law defeating qualified immunity.
Gorsuch Urges High Court To Revisit Civil Jury Rights
Justice Neil Gorsuch said the Supreme Court should soon reconsider a century-old precedent holding that the Seventh Amendment civil jury trial right does not bind the states.
Supreme Court Grants Cert In 3 Cases, Defers Mootness Fight
The justices added three cases to their merits docket while putting off a mootness request in Little v. Hecox until oral argument.
Justices Split Over High Court's Refusal To Review New Orleans Jail Order
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a challenge to a New Orleans jail-construction order, prompting a dissent that said lower courts misapplied the Prison Litigation Reform Act.
Justices Take Up Mississippi Jury-Strikes Waiver Fight
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review whether the Mississippi Supreme Court unreasonably found that a petitioner waived his chance to rebut prosecutors’ race-neutral explanations for peremptory strikes against four Black jurors.
Justice Alito Temporarily Pauses Fifth Circuit Order In GenBioPro Case
The administrative stay remains in place until May 11 while a response to GenBioPro's application is due May 7.
4th Circ. Revives Muslim Prisoner's Ramadan Diet Claim
A Fourth Circuit panel said a Virginia prisoner's Free Exercise damages claim must return to district court for a Turner analysis after officials denied him a diet that met both his Ramadan fasting and kosher-supervision beliefs.
Supreme Court Seeks Briefing In Trump-Illinois Emergency Fight
The justices asked the parties to address how a disputed statutory phrase affects 10 U.S.C. § 12406(3) before acting on a stay request.
Supreme Court Denies Stay In Alabama Nitrogen Execution Fight
The justices declined to stop Anthony Boyd's execution by nitrogen hypoxia, over a three-justice dissent saying the method risks minutes of conscious suffocation.
Gorsuch, Thomas Dissent As High Court Leaves Tribal Power Precedent Intact
The justices declined to revisit United States v. Kagama, drawing a dissent that said the precedent's theory of federal plenary power over tribal affairs lacks a constitutional foundation.
Supreme Court Lets Texas Use New Congressional Map In 2026
The justices stayed a lower-court order blocking Texas’ mid-decade redistricting plan, splitting over whether the state’s new map reflected partisan line-drawing or unconstitutional racial gerrymandering.
Supreme Court Lets Texas Use New House Map For 2026
The justices stayed a lower-court injunction blocking Texas' congressional redistricting plan, saying the state was likely to show serious errors in the racial-gerrymandering ruling.
Justices Let Street Preacher Pursue Brandon Speech Suit
The U.S. Supreme Court said Heck v. Humphrey does not bar a Section 1983 suit seeking only prospective relief from future enforcement of a city ordinance.
Justices Restore Vermont Officer’s Immunity In Protest Arrest Force Suit
The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Second Circuit and held a Vermont police sergeant was entitled to qualified immunity in a Fourth Amendment suit over his use of a rear wristlock during a state capitol sit-in.
High Court Won't Revisit Reed DNA Testing Fight
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented from the Supreme Court's refusal to take up Rodney Reed's latest bid for DNA testing in his Texas death-penalty case.
High Court Reverses D.C. Ruling On Police Stop Suspicion
The justices said a D.C. officer had reasonable suspicion to stop a juvenile driver after a late-night suspicious-vehicle call, two passengers fled and the car began backing out with a door open.
8th Circ. Keeps Exonerated Missouri Man's Police, Prosecutor Suit Alive
The Eighth Circuit said two Kansas City detectives and a prosecutor must face claims tied to an overturned murder conviction that kept Keith Carnes imprisoned for 18 years.
Justices Fault 11th Circ. Use Of Later DNA In Death Row Habeas Case
The U.S. Supreme Court vacated an Eleventh Circuit habeas ruling for relying on post-trial DNA evidence when judging whether disputed jailhouse-informant testimony influenced a Florida murder jury.
High Court Denies Texas Death Row Cert Despite State’s Remand Bid
Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson, dissented from the Supreme Court’s refusal to take up Victor Saldaño’s bid for review of his intellectual-disability claim.
Justices Thomas, Gorsuch Dissent As High Court Rejects Dershowitz Defamation Case
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Alan Dershowitz's defamation fight with Cable News Network, Inc., but two justices said the case was a vehicle to revisit the actual-malice standard for public figures.
4th Circ. Keeps Jail Death Suit Alive Against NC Officers
A Fourth Circuit panel said two detention officers were not entitled to qualified immunity at this stage over allegations they delayed checking on an inmate they suspected had been beaten.
Fourth Circuit Reverses Habeas Win For South Carolina Prisoner
The panel said federal courts owed AEDPA deference to state-court rulings rejecting K.C. Langford's speedy-trial and ineffective-assistance claims.