Swear on the Stand

In Mervilus v. Union County , the Third Circuit evaluated a wrongful conviction lawsuit brought by Emmanuel Mervilus, who spent over a decade in prison after being convicted using disputed polygraph evidence. The appellate court vacated the district court's summary judgment in favor of the detective, ruling that a reasonable jury could conclude the examiner acted in bad faith by utilizing an u...

This federal appeals court case centers on a lawsuit filed by Marc Lucio , a teacher and coach, alongside his family against the Brownsville Independent School District and multiple administrators following two distinct controversies. The first dispute involved an investigation into Lucio's son, where the family claimed officials violated Fifth Amendment rights through coercive interrogations...

In Rachelle Rand v. Eyemart Express, L.L.C. , the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed a lower court's dismissal of a class action lawsuit filed by Facebook users whose private health information was allegedly shared with Meta without their consent. The Plaintiffs argued that Eyemart's integration of the Meta Pixel tracking tool on its website intercepted and expos...

This case concerns the en banc review of consolidated habeas corpus petitions filed by three unadmitted aliens who were detained by immigration authorities under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A) pending their removal proceedings. The Petitioners argued that their prolonged detention without individualized bond hearings violated their Fifth Amendment right to due process , a position that the district cour...

This episode outlines a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision regarding an appellant named Jose Estrada , who contested the jurisdiction of a Texas district court after his supervised release was transferred from Pennsylvania . Estrada argued that the transfer was invalid because a separate appeal was pending at the time, and he further challenged the denial of his motion to terminate his superv...

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reviewed a preliminary injunction that had blocked the enforcement of Mississippi House Bill 1193 , a state statute designed to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion funding and mandates in public education. The appellate court vacated the injunction and ordered the case reassigned to a different district judge, citing severe flaws in th...

This appellate court ruling addresses a long-standing legal battle between La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regarding transparency in disaster relief. LUPE alleged that FEMA systematically violated the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reading-room provision by relying on unpublished, secret rules to evaluate assistance applications instead of ma...

In a recent Fifth Circuit decision, the court evaluated a Second Amendment challenge against the federal restrictions on switchblade knives . The judges determined that switchblades qualify as protected arms , meaning the government bears the burden of proving that the ban aligns with historical regulatory traditions. While the court concluded that the supply chain restrictions under Section 1242...

This federal appellate case centers on whether a Master Service Agreement between Quality Process Services and Whitney Oil and Gas qualifies as a maritime contract. Because the agreement involved oilfield staffing rather than direct maritime work, the court determined that the contract is non-maritime under standard legal tests. Consequently, state law applies, which invalidates the contested inde...

This United States Court of Appeals case addresses a tragic hostage rescue incident where a federal agent accidentally shot and killed the bound hostage, Ulises Valladares , during a tactical operation in Houston, Texas. Following a bench trial, the district court found the government liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act and awarded substantial financial damages and attorney fees to the victim...

The federal appeals court denied an Afghan native's petitions seeking protection under the Convention Against Torture, alongside requests to reconsider his case or remand it for new evidence. The petitioner, who previously worked for the Afghan Ministry of Education and participated in demonstrations regarding girls' education, argued that he faced a severe probability of torture upon retu...

Following a Supreme Court remand, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals evaluated whether an appeal waiver should be set aside for Devin Chaney , who challenged his sentence. Although Chaney argued that his classification as a career offender and the trial court's swift dismissal of his objection constituted a miscarriage of justice, the appellate court disagreed. The panel explained that the Sup...

In Joy Banner v. Michael Wright et al. , the plaintiff appealed a lower court's refusal to grant a new trial following a unanimous jury verdict against her in a First Amendment lawsuit . Banner had been silenced at a public parish meeting after attempting to discuss a pending ethics complaint against the parish president, using a statute that had been ruled unconstitutional nearly a decade pri...

In GH America Energy, L.L.C. v. Fohn , the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit addressed whether the federal Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) regime preempts the Texas Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act (LSIPA) . GH America Energy, a subsidiary of a Chinese company, argued that LSIPA—which bans certain foreign-owned entities from accessing critical...

The Fifth Circuit considered an appeal regarding whether a customer, Todd McCain, suffered a valid Article III injury after purchasing what he believed was local premium seafood at a restaurant that secretly substituted it with imported frozen fish . Previously, restaurant executives and suppliers pled guilty to a multi-year conspiracy involving the fraudulent sale of dozens of tons of mislabeled...

In this federal appellate court case, the Fifth Circuit evaluated a challenge to the Federal Communications Commission regarding its Universal Service Fund contribution rates. The petitioners , which included various corporate entities and individual consumers, argued that the agency unlawfully relied on data from a private organization known as the Universal Service Administrative Company . The c...

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed a legal dispute involving SEACOR Marine and GOL , a maritime broker that secured vessel charters for oil and gas companies like Cox Operating . After Cox filed for bankruptcy, it issued a $13 million partial payment toward GOL’s massive prepetition claim, which included roughly $2.7 million owed to SEACOR for unpaid services. Although GOL collected these...

Chiropractor Benjamin Tekippe appealed his conviction and sentence for multiple counts of health care fraud and wire fraud involving Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana . Investigators discovered that Tekippe routinely submitted identical service codes , charged more for massage therapy than any other chiropractor in the state, and pressured his staff to fabricate treatment notes . Although Te...

This legal dispute centers on a federal appeal regarding mortgage-backed securities and the authority of Ginnie Mae to extinguish a bankrupt lender's mortgage interests. When a reverse mortgage issuer defaulted, Ginnie Mae assumed control of the underlying loans, which effectively wiped out a third-party lender's security interest in unsecuritized mortgage balances known as tails . The app...

A federal appeals court affirmed the dismissal of a habeas corpus petition filed by prisoner Dennis Michael Hogan, who sought First Step Act time credits for the period between his sentencing and his arrival at his designated Bureau of Prisons facility. Hogan argued that he was entitled to accrue these credits during his pre-transfer detention, contending that Bureau of Prisons regulations imprope...

In Bill Word v. U.S. Department of Energy , appliance consumers appealed a lower court's dismissal of their lawsuit challenging federal energy and water-consumption rules for dishwashers and clothes washers. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals first determined that the plaintiffs possessed proper standing because regulatory market compression restricted their product choices and constituted a c...

In a legal battle concerning a natural gas supply contract, MIECO, L.L.C. appealed a district court decision favoring producer Pioneer Natural Resources USA, Inc. after Winter Storm Uri disrupted deliveries. Following an earlier appellate remand, the lower court conducted a bench trial and concluded that the severe weather constituted a force majeure event that legitimately prevented performance w...

Debbie Navejas filed a lawsuit as the representative of her deceased father, Armando Navejas , against Officer Steven Jaso and the City of El Paso following a tragic domestic-violence response where Armando was tased and subsequently died. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reviewed the district court's decision to grant summary judgment in favor of both defendants. The a...

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed the federal sentence of David Daniel Koan , who was convicted of producing child pornography after serving nearly forty months in Texas state custody for a related sexual assault. During his federal sentencing, defense counsel requested a sentence adjustment to account for the time already served in state prison, but the district court mistakenly believe...

In Frankfort v. Metropolis Technologies , the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed a lower court's dismissal of a class-action lawsuit filed by drivers Curtis Goodban and Todd Frankfort against parking technology company Metropolis Technologies . The plaintiffs claimed that Metropolis violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) through an alleged scheme of issuing exorbitant Vio...