Swear on the Stand

In  State v. Mardeontae J. Lee , the  Supreme Court of Louisiana  reviewed the convictions of a defendant found guilty of aggravated arson and three counts of attempted first-degree murder after he poured gasoline around a home and ignited a paper bag. The  majority reversed  all convictions, ruling that the evidence failed to prove the statutory definition of a "movable" for arson and l...

In United Parcel Service v. Benitez De Chavez , the Fifth Circuit addressed a federal diversity jurisdiction dispute regarding whether a district court could sua sponte remand a case to state court due to a pleading flaw. The appellate court established that while residency and citizenship are distinct concepts, a defendant's initial reliance on residency to allege citizenship upon information...

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reviewed a dispute where Motorola sought U.S. discovery under 28 U.S.C. § 1782 to obtain an unredacted patent purchase agreement from Advanced Standard Communication (ASC) for use in ongoing European patent litigation. Although the Unified Patent Court (UPC) in Europe had already denied Motorola's request for these documents at the curre...

Rashon Harris appealed his 240-month prison sentence for a methamphetamine conviction after the Fifth Circuit previously dismissed his case based on an appeal waiver . Following the Supreme Court's ruling in Hunter v. United States —which established that appeal waivers are unenforceable only if they result in a severe miscarriage of justice —the case was remanded for further review. Harris ar...

In Scott v. Harris , the Supreme Court of the United States addressed whether a police officer used unconstitutionally excessive force by ramming a fleeing motorist's car to end a dangerous high-speed pursuit. The petitioner deputy argued that his actions were necessary to protect the public from the driver's reckless behavior, whereas the respondent driver contended that the maneuver cons...

In Eva Kristine Stramaski v. Mark Lawley , the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit addressed whether a public supervisor can claim qualified immunity in a retaliation lawsuit filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) . After Eva Stramaski disputed potential paycheck delays, her supervisor, Mark Lawley, penalized and ultimately fired her, prompting her to sue him personally f...

The Fifth Circuit affirmed a lower court's decision to exclude the plaintiff's expert witnesses and grant summary judgment in favor of BP in a toxic tort lawsuit arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The plaintiff, Richard DuFour, Jr., alleged that toxic exposure during cleanup work severely worsened his pre-existing asthma. Writing for the majority, Circuit Judge Priscilla Ri...

The Fifth Circuit reversed the district court's dismissal of James Bien's lawsuit against Union Pacific Railroad Company , concluding that his claims were protected by American Pipe tolling . Bien had previously worked as a conductor before receiving a color vision restriction, and he later sought reinstatement after mistakenly passing a subsequent vision test. When Union Pacific denied hi...

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...