Justia U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of petitioner's claim that the cell phone found in the victim's home, and the subsequently discovered call records linking him to the scene of the murder, were obtained from an unconstitutional search conducted pursuant to a deficient warrant. The court rejected petitioner's defaulted Fourth Amendment claim and held that the evidence fell within the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule. View "Evans v. Davis" on Justia Law

The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of defendant's motion to dismiss based on qualified immunity. After police shot and killed her father, plaintiff alleged that defendant picked her up, threw her over his shoulder, and carried her to a police car, where she sat handcuffed against her will. The court held that plaintiff sufficiently pled unconstitutional seizure and excessive force; in regard to the unconstitutional seizure claim, it was not clearly established at the time that defendant needed probable cause to detain plaintiff; and, in regard to the excessive force claim, plaintiff waived her argument as to the clearly established law prong and could not overcome qualified immunity. View "Lincoln v. Turner" on Justia Law

A pre-trial detainee denied access to the judicial system for a prolonged period has been denied basic procedural due process. In this case, plaintiff was indicted by a grand jury, arrested, and put in jail where she waited for 96 days to be brought before a judge and was effectively denied bail. The Fifth Circuit held that this excessive detention deprived plaintiff of liberty without legal or due process in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Accordingly, the court reversed the district court's judgment and remanded for further proceedings. View "Jauch v. Choctaw County" on Justia Law

The Fifth Circuit treated plaintiff's petition for rehearing en banc as a petition for panel rehearing and denied the petition for panel rehearing. The court withdrew its prior opinion and substituted the following opinion.The court affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment against plaintiff on his failure to accommodate and hostile work environment claims. The court held that plaintiff's failure to accommodate claim could reasonably be expected to, and in fact did, grow out of his charge of discrimination; there was insufficient evidence to prove defendants' knowledge of plaintiff's disability where defendants did not attribute plaintiff's limitation -- sensitivity to noise -- to a physical or mental impairment; a jury could find that the harassment plaintiff experienced was sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the terms and conditions of his employment; but, because plaintiff did not challenge on appeal the district court's determination that he unreasonably failed to avail himself of the procedures set forth in the anti-harassment policies maintained by defendants, he forfeited his objection to this determination. View "Patton v. Jacobs Engineering Group" on Justia Law

The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of plaintiff's claims under common law, Texas statutes, and 42 U.S.C. 1983. Because plaintiff's section 1983 claims should have been brought in a second state court action, the dismissal with prejudice barred those claims from relitigation. Therefore, the court held that res judicata barred all of plaintiff's claims. The court vacated the attorney fee award because the district court did not make a finding of frivolousness and approved an award supported by insufficient evidence. The court remanded for further proceedings. View "Portillo v. Cunningham" on Justia Law

After negotiations failed between plaintiff and Trans-Pecos regarding the construction of a pipeline on plaintiff's land, Trans-Pecos invoked Texas eminent domain power via Tex. Util. Code 181.004. The Fifth Circuit affirmed the denial of plaintiff's application for a preliminary injunction under the Anti-Injunction Act. The district court held that the Act barred the injunction because the injunction would enjoin a state condemnation process that culminates in a judicial proceeding. As a preliminary matter, the court denied a motion to dismiss on mootness grounds. The court then held, on alternative grounds, that plaintiff could not meet the demanding standard for issuance of an injunction. The court explained that the significant differences between the Texas delegation of power to private entities and those delegations the Supreme Court has held unconstitutional mean that plaintiff's due process challenge faced long odds. Because of plaintiff's inability to establish a likelihood of success, much less a substantial one, he was not entitled to a preliminary injunction. View "Boerschig v. Trans-Pecos Pipeline, LLC" on Justia Law

Plaintiff filed suit against Texas law enforcement officers under 42 U.S.C. 1983, alleging violation of her due process rights during a murder investigation. The Fifth Circuit dismissed Deputy Keith Pikett's appeal of the district court's denial of his motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity. The court held that it lacked appellate jurisdiction because of material factual disputes concerning qualified immunity. View "Winfrey v. Pikett" on Justia Law

Plaintiff, a state prisoner, filed suit pro se under 42 U.S.C. 1983, alleging deliberate indifference on the part of personnel at SMCI. The Fifth Circuit vacated the grant of summary judgment as to the claims against Dr. Kumar, a psychiatrist, and nurses, insofar as those claims arose out of plaintiff's July 2014 suicide attempt. The court affirmed summary judgment in all other respects. In this case, plaintiff failed to show that his psychiatric policy preferences were embodied in constitutional standards, and thus his preferences did not state a claim for a constitutional violation; the court rejected plaintiff's claims that the general course of his treatment by the medical defendants amounted to deliberate indifference; but a genuine dispute existed as to whether plaintiff attempted suicide in 2014, and if he did, whether Kumar and the nurses responded in a reasonable manner. The court vacated a narrow portion of a discovery order to allow plaintiff to renew his motion for subpoenas if the case proceeds to trial. View "Grogan v. Kumar" on Justia Law

The Fifth Circuit affirmed the denial of a petition for habeas relief in a case where petitioner pleaded guilty in state court to failure to register as a sex offender. Based on representations by his counsel, petitioner mistakenly believed that by pleading he could receive a one-year sentence. In actuality, petitioner faced a sentence ranging from five to twenty yeras and was sentenced to twenty. The court reasoned that, even though defense counsel was ineffective in his advice about the sentence, petitioner failed to show that the state court's rejection of his claim was unreasonable because he had not shown he would have gone to trial had he known his true sentencing exposure. View "Young v. Spinner" on Justia Law

The Texas Legislature enacted SB 5 in 2016 to cure any statutory and constitutional violations related to SB 14 after Veasey v. Abbott, 830 F.3d 216 (5th Cir. 2016) (en banc). The district court permanently enjoined the enforcement of relevant sections of SB 14 and SB 5 and also enjoined upcoming elections under an interim order. The Fifth Circuit granted a stay pending appeal, stayed the district court's injunction orders, and stayed proceedings in the district court until a final disposition of this appeal. In this case, SB 5 allows voters without qualifying photo ID to cast regular ballots by executing a declaration that they face a reasonable impediment to obtaining qualifying photo ID. The court explained that this declaration is made under the penalty of perjury, and each of the 27 voters identified—whose testimony the plaintiffs used to support their discriminatory-effect claim—can vote without impediment under SB 5. The court held that the State has made a strong showing that it is likely to succeed on the merits because its reasonable-impediment procedure remedies plaintiffs' alleged harm and foreclosed plaintiffs' injunctive relief. The State has also made an adequate showing as to the other factors considered in determining a stay pending appeal. View "Veasey v. Abbott" on Justia Law