DIFTCL: Federal Narrative Summaries

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of Gabriel Amador’s motion for reconsideration following his resentencing. The court held that the district court lacked statutory authority and jurisdiction to entertain the motion under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(b)–(c) and Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 35,...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 The fifth-circuit granted the appointed attorney’s motion to withdraw and dismissed the appeal after reviewing the Anders brief filed by counsel and the relevant record portions. The court applied the standard established in *Anders v. California* and *United States v. Flores*, concurring with counsel’s asses...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 The Fifth Circuit affirmed the defendant’s conviction and sentence for distributing visual depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(2). The court rejected the defendant’s argument that the district court erred by imposing the mandatory $5,000 special asses...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Christian Brothers Automotive Corporation, dismissing Plaintiff Evan Domanic’s claim for racial discrimination under 42 U.S.C. § 1981. The court held that while § 1981 prohibits discrimination based on Jewish ancestry or eth...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 The Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s order granting the Government’s motion for a turnover order to seize funds from the appellant’s inmate trust account to satisfy outstanding restitution obligations. The court held that the district court did not reversibly err in issuing the order withou...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 The Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s order dismissing Eric Andrew Perez’s pro se complaint pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B). The court reviewed the record and found no reversible error, concluding that the dismissal was proper under the statutory standard for in forma pauperis cases where a...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 The fifth-circuit granted the appointed attorney’s motion to withdraw and dismissed the appeal. The court’s decision was based on its independent review of the record and counsel’s Anders brief, which concluded that the appeal presents no nonfrivolous issues for appellate review. As a result, the appell...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 Docket: 4:21-cv-00513-WS-MAL The eleventh-circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of Brady Adams’s post-judgment motions, granting the government’s motion for summary affirmance. The court held that Adams abandoned his argument regarding the district judge’s refusal to recuse himself by fa...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 The Fourth Circuit denied Samuel Harry Schiccatano a certificate of appealability (COA) and dismissed his appeal from the district court’s order denying relief on his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas petition. The court held that an appeal in such cases is not permissible unless a circuit justice or judge issues a COA, whi...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 The Third Circuit vacated the District Court’s dismissal of a securities fraud class action and remanded the case for further proceedings. The court held that the District Court erred by applying the “Oran–Burlington rule,” a categorical standard previously used in the Third Circuit which deemed false s...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 Docket: 1:25-cr-00006-AW-MAL-1 The eleventh-circuit affirmed the 36-month prison sentence imposed on Oscar Cruz-Baldo for unlawfully possessing a firearm as a noncitizen in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(5). The court reviewed the substantive reasonableness of the sentence under a deferential abuse-of-discretion stan...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 The eleventh-circuit dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction because the petitioner’s notice of appeal was untimely. The court held that under 28 U.S.C. § 2107(b), a notice of appeal in a civil case involving a federal party must be filed within 60 days of the judgment, and Walker’s filing on Novembe...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 Docket: 3:25-cr-00189-MCR-1 The eleventh-circuit affirmed the defendant’s conviction and ten-month prison sentence for possessing a firearm as an illegal alien in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(5)(A). The court held that the statute is constitutional under the Second Amendment, relying on binding Eleventh Circu...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 Docket: 5:19-CR-40081-TC-2) The tenth-circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of Defendant Bounsouay Khanya’s motion under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) seeking a sentence reduction based on Amendment 821 to the United States Sentencing Guidelines. The court held that while Amendment 821 retroactively lowered K...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 Docket: 3:23-cr-00009-TKW-1 The eleventh-circuit affirmed Shannon Wilkerson’s conviction for second-degree murder and his sentence of 360 months’ imprisonment. The court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Wilkerson’s pretrial motions to admit evidence of a third part...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 Docket: 5:26-cv-03090-JWL) The tenth-circuit granted Barbara Frantz’s motion to proceed in forma pauperis but denied her application for a certificate of appealability (COA) and dismissed the appeal. The court held that reasonable jurists would not debate whether the district court correctly ruled that Frantz faile...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 Docket: 1:23-cv-21190-JEM The eleventh-circuit affirmed the district court’s order denying Raziel Ofer’s motion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(4) to vacate a dismissal with prejudice of his § 1983 civil rights complaint against U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurel M. Isicoff. The court held that Ofer...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 Docket: 8:23-cv-02939-MSS, The eleventh-circuit dismissed the appeal filed by BAMC Development Holding, LLC because it lacked standing under the “person aggrieved” doctrine. As a Chapter 7 debtor, BAMC divested itself of all rights to the estate’s property upon conversion, and the court found no exce...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 Docket: 4:12-cv-00019-WMR The eleventh-circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of Nicholas Cody Tate’s federal habeas corpus petition challenging his death sentence. The court held that the Georgia Supreme Court’s rejection of Tate’s claims did not involve an objectively unreasonable deter...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-09-30 Docket: 6:21-cv-01364-WWB-NWH The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants on Marie Jean Charles’s Title VII retaliation claim. The court held that Charles failed to prove that her protected activity—filing an EEOC charge alleging discrimination—wa...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Wal-Mart, dismissing Fernando Rios’s premises-liability claim with prejudice. The court held that Rios failed to present sufficient evidence to establish that Wal-Mart had actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous co...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 Docket: 1:19-cv-00574- The ninth-circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part the district court’s judgment following a jury trial in adversary proceedings brought by a bankruptcy trustee and employee unions against former owners and lenders of Hawaii Island Air, Inc. The panel held that it possessed appellate jur...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The Fourth Circuit dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction because the district court’s order was neither a final order nor an appealable interlocutory or collateral order. The court held that under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and § 1292, as well as Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(b) and the standard set forth in *Cohen v. Benefici...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 Docket: 1:24-cv-04497-JPB The eleventh-circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of Darshon Crudup’s employment discrimination complaint against the City of Atlanta as time-barred. The court held that Crudup’s claims under Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), and 42 U.S.C...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 Docket: 2:21-cv-00122- The ninth-circuit denied petitions for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc regarding a request for a preliminary injunction to block a land exchange mandated by the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act. The court affirmed the district court’s denial of relief, holding that t...