D.C. Circuit Court

Will Merrick Garland continue to hear appeals while nomination is pending?

Judges who are nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court have a decision to make: Should they continue to hear cases? There are several options, Politico reports. Judges could decline new cases, could stop all pending work, could continue with their usual workload, or could even quit the bench. Supreme Court…

Mar 18, 2016 8:41 AM CDT

What do Merrick Garland’s financial reports reveal?

Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland apparently shuns outside income and gifts, according to financial disclosure reports he files as a federal appeals judge. Garland didn’t report any outside income for gigs such as teaching for the years 2012 through 2014, the National Law Journal (sub. req.) reports. He also reported…

Mar 18, 2016 7:09 AM CDT

Meet Merrick Garland, Supreme Court nominee

Judge Merrick Garland has been a federal appeals judge since 1997, but his long tenure may provide little grist for opponents of his Supreme Court nomination. Garland, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, is considered a centrist. A White House press release describes him…

Mar 16, 2016 10:29 AM CDT

Will liberals oppose Srinivasan if nominated for SCOTUS? He would be court’s first Hindu

Liberal groups are unlikely to oppose federal appeals Judge Sri Srinivasan if he is nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, despite some misgivings when he was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In 2013, liberals had pointed to Srinivasan’a defense of international companies accused of…

Mar 11, 2016 7:47 AM CST

Federal appeals court partially blocks FCC rules cutting cost of prison phone calls

As a lawsuit continues seeking to overturn new Federal Communications Commission rules cutting the cost prisoners pay for phone calls, a federal appeals court has partially stayed the imposition of the new rules. The Hill provides a copy of the order (PDF) on Monday by the U.S. Court of Appeals…

Mar 7, 2016 4:50 PM CST

DC Circuit: EPA must make rules to stop companies from filing bankruptcy to avoid pollution cleanup

The Environmental Protection Agency has been ordered by a federal appeals court to issue long awaited, long-overdue rules to end the practice of mining companies declaring bankruptcy to avoid cleaning up pollution, the Associated Press reports. The ruling (PDF) issued Friday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District…

Jan 29, 2016 6:45 PM CST

As East Coast snowstorm looms, courts, law libraries and other government offices close their doors

Due to a predicted monster snowstorm that could be one of the worst ever to hit the East Coast, courts, law libraries and other government offices in the Washington, D.C., area and beyond are closing early on Friday or not opening at all. Centered on Washington, D.C., where it is…

Jan 22, 2016 11:35 AM CST

Uber-type flight app shuts down after DC Circuit decision

A federal appeals court has rejected an appeal by an airplane ride-arranging app that contended pilots finding passengers through its website didn’t need to have commercial licenses. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied review in a Dec. 18 decision (PDF) involving Flytenow, which was…

Dec 28, 2015 5:45 AM CST

Judge didn’t have the authority to rule in Second Amendment case, appeals court says

A federal judge didn’t have the authority to rule when he found a Washington, D.C., gun law likely violated the Second Amendment, a federal appeals court has ruled. The error was “quite understandable,” according to the decision (PDF) on Tuesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of…

Dec 16, 2015 6:15 AM CST

Appeals court upholds limits on SCOTUS protests

A federal appeals court on Friday upheld restrictions on protests outside the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled on Friday, report the New York Times, the National Law Journal (sub. req.), the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal Law Blog.…

Aug 31, 2015 2:20 PM CDT

Injunction against NSA phone records program is vacated by DC Circuit

A federal appeals court on Friday vacated a preliminary injunction that would have stopped the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of phone metadata, while allowing the plaintiff to try to prove standing on remand. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in a suit by…

Aug 31, 2015 9:07 AM CDT

DC prosecutors must now follow stricter standards for disclosing information to the defense

In a series of decisions starting with Brady v. Maryland in 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court carved out a rule stating essentially that prosecutors violate the due process clause of the 14th Amendment if they withhold evidence from the defense in criminal cases that, if disclosed, likely would have been…

Jul 1, 2015 6:40 AM CDT

Federal appeals court narrows the type of crimes that can be tried by military commissions

A federal appeals court on Friday overturned the conspiracy conviction of Osama bin Laden’s spokesperson in an opinion that narrowed the types of crimes that can be tried by military commissions. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in a 2-1 decision (PDF) that military commissions may…

Jun 15, 2015 7:36 AM CDT

Check your briefs for acronym overuse, DC Circuit clerk tells lawyers in campaign finance case

Acronyms continue to bedevil the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Parties before the court are advised in circuit rules to avoid little-known acronyms; lawyers who didn’t heed the advice were called out in a 2012 opinion. Now the clerk’s office is doing its part to police the…

Apr 15, 2015 8:02 AM CDT

Stranger returns backpack containing nearly $18K, but feds try to forfeit the cash

Authorities had good news and bad news for an Amtrak passenger whose backpack went missing at a Washington, D.C., train station last March. The good news: The stranger who accidentally picked the backpack up at Union Station, mistaking it for his own, returned it, along with $17,900 in cash he…

Mar 19, 2015 2:15 PM CDT