Please enjoy the latest edition of Short Circuit, a weekly feature written by a bunch of people at the Institute for Justice
New cert petition: In March, the Eighth Circuit created a circuit split over how to calculate the just compensation owed to property owners when private companies condemn their land for natural gas pipelines. According to every other court, state-law rules govern property, so private companies have to pay you whatever state law says it's worth. But the Eighth Circuit says everybody else has been getting it wrong for 40 years and that private pipeline companies must be allowed to soar, like birds, free from pesky state property laws. And yet, "every other circuit court is wrong" seems like a job for SCOTUS, so that's where we're going.
New on the Short Circuit podcast: A crazy high speed chase leads to a crazy prosecution of a dude who was high and happened to own a rifle.
- FBI agent accepts $6,500 from a friend to look up contact information in a non-public database for tenants who are leasing property in D.C. so that he can buy the tenants' right to purchase the property and resell those rights at a profit. The (now-former) agent is charged with and convicted of bribery. D.C. Circuit: Looks like bribery to us. Dissent (furiose): This "ill-considered," "[i]nscrutable," "profoundly disturbing" decision "converts ethical constraints into federal criminal offenses."
- Your summarist finds it outrageous—indefensible!—that some judges brazenly use the phrase "Hobson's choice" to refer to mere dilemmas. In perhaps more significant news, the D.C. Circuit has granted mandamus relief to the Trump administration, which was facing a criminal contempt inquiry for removing alleged members of the transnational criminal gang Tren de Aragua to El Salvador in defiance of a TRO telling them not to. Judge Katsas argues the TRO was ambiguous. Judge Rao argues that there are serious separation-of-powers concerns. And Judge Pillard, in dissent, is not having any of it.
- Slovenian-American contender for the Most Interesting Man in the World (bodyguard, Special Forces member, kickboxing champion, model, football player, author, and man who has "done some very bad things") claims that he discovered billions in cash scattered across Africa following the death of Muammar Gaddafi. He hired a lawyer to repatriate the money to the U.S. but was unsuccessful due to skeptical law enforcement. He sued the lawyer and some feds who, he alleges, lied to him to try to discover the cash and get it for themselves. D.C. Circuit: Cool story, but it's not actionable.
- Little Vic, once the acting boss of the Colombo crime family, was sentenced to life in prison in the 1990s for mob things. Second Circuit (2022): No compassionate release (despite dementia leaving him thinking he's the warden). Second Circuit (2025): Even though one of his nine guilty counts is for using a gun in a crime of violence under a statute that has since been held unconstitutional, that does not mean he gets resentencing. Instead, the judgment can be amended to remove the bad count and leave the balance of the sentence (which is still life).
- Congress: Medicare may negotiate maximum prices for certain pharmaceuticals. Drug companies that don't reach a bargain face the unpalatable choice of paying excise taxes or withdrawing all the company's drugs from Medicare. Drug company: That violates all the rights. Second Circuit: It does not. Congress drives a hard bargain, but you're technically free to opt out.
- Richmond, Va. man driving with fake temporary tags is pulled over. (Weirdly, officers had pulled over two other cars with the exact same fake tag number within the previous few hours.) He flees; he's caught; contraband is found in his car. District court: Dismiss the indictment. There was probable cause for the stop, but statistical evidence shows traffic laws were big-time selectively enforced against Black motorists in Richmond. Fourth Circuit: Reversed. There's no evidence he was pulled over because of his race.
- Did federal and state officers need a warrant before having a drug dog sniff the exterior of an Owings Mills, Md. apartment door, in a multi-unit complex, accessible via a common hallway? Fourth Circuit: We now hold precedentially what we've previously held in two unpublished opinions: No. No reasonable expectation of privacy in contraband—the only thing that a trained dog alerts to—nor is the exterior of the door protected "curtilage" akin to a front porch. "[D]og sniffs are different."
- Allegation: Appomattox County, Va. high school staff are initially supportive of 14-year-old's gender transition. But fellow students are decidedly not, threatening her with rape, death. When she reports the threats, a school counselor and a police officer pressure her to recant. The teen's parents are not notified of the transition or the threats; she runs away from home and is abducted by sex traffickers. Fourth Circuit: It's possible the school did not take sufficient steps to protect her from other students. Case undismissed. Dissent: Sure, officials could have done more or different things to protect her, but there's no disputing officials did some things, which is all Title IX requires.
- In Jim Crow times, states used to require would-be voters to do things like write out their ages in months and days. Happily, federal law now bars such immaterial paperwork requirements. Plaintiffs: Like Texas's 2021 requirement that mail-in voters write out their driver's license numbers (or an alternative ID number), which has resulted in tens of thousands of legitimate ballots getting rejected—in part because the driver's license database is not particularly accurate. Meanwhile, there are other, ample measures in place to ensure mail-in voters are who they say they are. District court: Yup, permanently enjoined. Fifth Circuit: Reversed. States enjoy wide discretion to combat voter fraud.
- Louisiana man is fired for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine, then sues employer for religious discrimination. District court: Doesn't seem like a real religious objection because his request for an exemption was confusing about his beliefs and reasons he wanted an opt-out. Fifth Circuit: Indeed, but such confusion is just the sort of fact dispute for a jury to sort out.
- Is this West Texas tale of political feuding over oil money the plot of a Yellowstone episode or a judicial decision? Either way, the Fifth Circuit reckons the judge cast as the villain gets absolute immunity for conducting a (allegedly) sham jury selection to bamboozle and arrest his political adversaries. Dissent: Instead, we should rustle up a posse (aka federal jury) to decide this case; jury qualification is merely an administrative task that doesn't get immunity.
- Allegation: Due to days- and weeks-long water shutoffs at Tensas Parish, La. prison, "prison cells contained 'very extreme filth,' with human waste on the ground, in the shower, in the toilets, and smeared on the wall." Fifth Circuit (unpublished, per curiam): Case undismissed.
- Boyle County, Ky. sheriff's deputy is sentenced to over nine years for using excessive force on arrestees and lying to cover it up. DOJ (2024): When we looked at his phone, we found that he likes to brag about beating people up and take photos of injuries he caused to share with buddies. Sixth Circuit (unpublished): Conviction affirmed.
- Michigan law says hunters cannot use drones to locate injured game, which, the Sixth Circuit says, does not violate the First Amendment because it forbids using drones to locate injured game, not telling other people about it once you've done so.
- Suspect leading Indianapolis-area officers on a high-speed chase crashes into a bystander's car and kills him. Can the bystander's wife sue the officers and the municipality for deliberate indifference to his rights under the Fourteenth Amendment? Seventh Circuit: Because this was an emergency, the question is whether the officers had an "intent to harm" the bystander; both sides agree they did not.
- This one-page unsigned Seventh Circuit opinion reveals that the two judges on the panel agree that Indiana's law forbidding out-of-state retailers from shipping wine to Hoosiers is constitutional. The remaining 33 pages of dueling opinions reveals that they agree on basically nothing else.
- In Indiana, a "buffer" law makes it illegal to approach within 25 feet of a police officer who has ordered you to stop approaching. District court: preliminarily enjoined as vague. Seventh Circuit: Indeed. The law gives officers unfettered discretion to arbitrarily issue do-not-approach orders and then start making arrests. "The Fourteenth Amendment will not tolerate a law subjecting pedestrians to arrest merely because a police officer had a bad breakfast—no matter how bitter the coffee or how soggy the scrambled eggs."
- Under Title VII, an employer is required to accommodate an employee's religious practices unless doing so would pose an "undue hardship." Does letting a public-school orchestra teacher call students by their last names alone (and thereby avoid having to call any trans students by their new first names) pose an undue hardship? Seventh Circuit (2-1): The record is messy, so summary judgment for the school was unwarranted. Dissent: Actually, the record isn't messy at all—the teacher had the accommodation for several months, and disruption reigned supreme.
- University of Wisconsin–Madison operates social-media accounts on Instagram and Facebook. Former student (and erstwhile primate caretaker) starts posting comments on the university social-media posts criticizing the school's primate-research lab and urging it to stop testing on monkeys. Seventh Circuit (2-1): And the university is very much violating the First Amendment by using manual moderation and keyword filters (including, among many other keywords, "animal testing," "vivisection," and "#freebabycocoa") to suppress the critic's comments.
- Wisconsin corrections official is fired after local news coverage of his penchant for posting memes on social media that mock and belittle blacks, Muslims, liberals, and LGBTQ people and that refer to the Confederate flag as "our flag." A free-speech violation? Seventh Circuit (with pictures): No, corrections agencies enjoy wide discretion to police disruptive speech by employees.
- Arkansas teenager dies from a gunshot wound after a night at the duck club. His death is deemed a suicide, his family suspects foul play on the part of friends last to see him alive (reportedly a deadly game of Russian Roulette). His family sues the friends; the suit is thrown out for attorney and party misconduct (later overturned). The family's attorneys had voluntarily withdrawn by then but tried to intervene to clear their name. They were unsuccessful, then sued the friends and the friends' attorneys for conspiring with the trial judge. Should this case be barred by the Rooker-Feldman doctrine? Eighth Circuit: Given that they're not named Rooker or Feldman, no.
- Every wall is spattered with blood at scene of 2003 Corona, Calif. murder. The victim's girlfriend alerts the police. Yikes! She's convicted of the murder but ultimately exonerated. And, says the Ninth Circuit (unpublished), her suit can proceed against officers who allegedly suppressed, among other things, a report documenting the lack of blood on her clothes. No QI.
- Las Vegas firefighter sues the city for sex- and race-based discrimination. The case goes to a jury, which finds (1) that the firefighter was treated offensively, but not because of her race or sex, and (2) that the firefighter was not retaliated against for reporting the offensive incident. Despite finding no basis for liability, the jury awards the firefighter $150k in damages. District Court: Okay jurors, I just want to clarify that you're all agreed there was no retaliation or race-/sex-based discrimination. Jurors: That's correct. District Court: Judgment for the city, no damages. Ninth Circuit: Sounds about right.
- Ninth Circuit: The SEC's policy of settling civil-enforcement cases only if the defendant promises to never publicly assert his innocence runs the risk of suppressing dissent and working grave injustices—but you guys brought a facial challenge to the policy, so none of that really matters right now.
- St. George, Utah officer pepper sprays mentally ill man from less three feet away—a distance at which, the officer knows, it can be lethal. The man loses his eye. Tenth Circuit (unpublished, over a dissent): He may have been unarmed and pinned down by officers, but he was disobeying orders, squirming, and resisting cuffing. Qualified immunity.
- Tenth Circuit: We held off on deciding this case about gender-transition procedures for minors until the Supreme Court decided Skrmetti. And, well, the Supreme Court decided Skrmetti.
- Tulsa, Okla. police officer stops his car in the middle of the road, blocking traffic, to yell at protesters outside federal courthouse, who'd been demonstrating without incident. He tells them to leave. They tell him to leave. They chase him around. The officer falls and tears his ACL. A jury acquits one protestor of felony assault but finds him guilty of misdemeanor assault. Tenth Circuit: Conviction vacated. Simple assault, when committed by an Indian against an Indian in Indian country, is not a federal crime.
- Allegation: Florida man purchases for his wife some high-end swimwear touted by bikini-clad Instagram influencers. But he never would have bought it if he'd known that those influencers were paid to promote the swimwear. He files a class action under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act seeking $10 mil on behalf of himself and everyone else similarly duped. Eleventh Circuit: You don't say which posts you saw, when you saw them, or any of the other things you're required to allege when you have a claim that sounds in fraud. Case dismissed.
- Transgender Georgia inmate is allowed to receive cross-sex hormone therapy but prohibited from following female grooming and cosmetics standards regarding, e.g., make up, earrings, nail polish, and hair length. After being forcibly given a haircut, the inmate attempts self-castration and later sues prison officials for violating the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments by acting with deliberate indifference to serious medical needs. Eleventh Circuit: Qualified immunity. "Moving forward, district courts would be wise" to look for guidance from our published opinions, rather than our unpublished opinions.
- Allegation: After non-cancerous tumor is found on Alabama inmate's uterus, federal prison officials ignore doctors' recommendations to remove it via a quick, easy procedure. Over the course of five years, it grows to over 15 lbs., causing extreme pain, bleeding, and other complications. She files suit in 2020. District court: And she filled out the right form first, but officials didn't log it into the system. So she failed to exhaust her administrative remedies. Eleventh Circuit: Case undismissed.
- Drunk DeKalb County, Ga. commissioner asks woman at a bar how much it'll cost for her to come home with him. She tells him off. He mistakenly comes to believe she stole his wallet, causes a scene, orders police to arrest her and her friend. A jury awards them $150k for wrongful imprisonment, battery, and slander. Now-former commissioner: I declare bankruptcy! Bankruptcy court: The slander and battery weren't willful, so we'll knock a third off the award. Eleventh Circuit: Affirmed.
Zoning victory! Friends, way back in 2017, IJ filed suit over Nashville's home-based business ordinance, which heaps burdens and restrictions on some businesses, like our clients' recording studio and hair salon, but not others, like short-term rentals. Since then, the law has been amended (but not fixed), the case has been up to the state supreme court and sent back down, and a whole lot of evidence that the rules do not in fact promote neighborliness has been aired. And this week, we're excited to say that a state appeals court has ruled that the Tennessee Constitution forbids favoring some businesses over others for no good reason. Click here to learn more. Or click here for a lovingly crafted, documentary style podcast episode on challenging zoning in state court.
More zoning victory! Also this week, a state trial court held that Calhoun, Ga. can't apply its prohibition on building homes smaller than 1,150 square feet against a nonprofit that wants to build charming yet affordable cottages. After the City recognized it had been "beat … to death" on whether banning smaller homes bears a "substantial relation" to health, safety, or general welfare, it tried to argue it didn't matter, because the nonprofit could have built the homes under a different zoning classification. Oops! The City had actually said the exact opposite (we had the receipts) and then amended the zoning code to make extra clear that it wasn't an option. The judge said those deceptive antics separately violated the nonprofit's constitutional rights. Click here to learn more.
The post Short Circuit: An inexhaustive weekly compendium of rulings from the federal courts of appeal appeared first on Reason.com.
