DIFTCL: Federal Narrative Summaries

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The fifth-circuit granted the appointed attorney’s motion to withdraw and dismissed the appeal after reviewing the Anders brief, the record, and the appellant’s response. The court concurred with counsel’s assessment that the appeal presented no nonfrivolous issues for appellate review. Consequently, th...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The fifth-circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of a jury instruction regarding the defendant’s knowledge of the victim’s age in a prosecution under 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a) for sexual exploitation of a child. The court held that the statute does not require the government to prove a defendant knew hi...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The fifth-circuit reversed the district court’s judgment and rendered judgment in favor of the defendant, finding that the city could not be held liable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for the removal of plaintiffs from a public meeting. The court first addressed the defendant’s argument that the case was moot due to...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of Yvette Atkinson’s § 1983 claims against Fort Bend County Medical Examiner Stephen Pustilnik, the County Defendants, and others with prejudice. The court held that the individual defendants are entitled to qualified immunity and that the County Defen...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The fifth-circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of Desirae Mata’s federal habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, rejecting her claims that her conviction violated the Constitution due to prosecutorial misconduct involving a jailhouse informant. The court applied the deferential standard of revi...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal with prejudice of Plaintiffs’ claims against Tarrant County and Keefe Group, L.L.C. arising from a fentanyl overdose death of a jail detainee. The court applied de novo review to the Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal, requiring that complaints allege sufficient...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The Fourth Circuit denied petitioner Rodney Dale Class’s petition for a writ of mandamus, which sought to compel the district court to set a preliminary or pretrial hearing for his civil complaint following its dismissal. The court held that mandamus is a drastic remedy reserved for extraordinary circumstances and...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The Fourth Circuit dismissed Debra Williams’ appeal for lack of jurisdiction because her notice of appeal was not timely filed. The court applied Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(1)(A), which requires a party to file a notice of appeal within 30 days after the entry of the district court’s final judg...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The Fourth Circuit dismissed the appeal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction because the appellant filed a notice of appeal one month after initiating his complaint and before the district court entered any orders. The court held that it may exercise jurisdiction only over final orders under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, or spec...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The fourth-circuit dismissed the appeal for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction because the appellant filed a notice of appeal one month after initiating his civil complaint and before the district court entered any orders. The court applied the final judgment rule under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, noting that appellate jurisdict...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The Fourth Circuit dismissed the appeal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction because the appellant filed a notice of appeal approximately one month after initiating the civil case, prior to the district court entering any orders. The court applied the statutory requirement under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, which limits appella...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The fourth-circuit dismissed the appeal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction because the appellant filed his notice of appeal approximately one month after initiating his civil complaint and before the district court entered any orders. The court applied the statutory requirement under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, which limits...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The fourth-circuit dismissed the appeal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction because the appellant filed a notice of appeal approximately one month after filing his complaint and before the district court entered any orders. The court held that it may exercise jurisdiction only over final orders under 28 U.S.C. § 129...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The Fourth Circuit dismissed the appeal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction because the notice of appeal was filed after a magistrate judge recommended dismissal but before the district court entered a final order or an appealable interlocutory or collateral order. The court applied 28 U.S.C. § 1291, which limits ap...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The Fourth Circuit dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction because the appellant failed to file a timely notice of appeal. The court applied Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(1)(A), which mandates that parties in civil cases must file a notice of appeal within 30 days after the entry of the district court&#...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s order granting the defendant’s motion to dismiss Adams’ discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The court held that Adams forfeited his right to review regarding the dispositive holdings...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s order granting summary judgment to United Parcel Service, Inc., dismissing Kayla McClary’s retaliation and hostile work environment claims brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and her state law claims. The court limited its review to issues...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s orders granting the defendants’ motions to dismiss and for judgment on the pleadings, holding that the plaintiff’s complaint failed to state a valid claim for relief. The court determined there was no reversible error after reviewing the record and the d...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The Fourth Circuit affirmed the judgment of the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, upholding a 100-month prison sentence and three years of supervised release imposed on Tristan Dylan Gray for possession of a firearm by a felon in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924(a)(8). Th...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The Fourth Circuit denied a certificate of appealability and dismissed the appeal from the district court’s order denying relief on Daryl G. Bank’s 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion. The court applied the standard set forth in 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c), which requires a prisoner to make a “substantial showing of the d...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s order denying Osama Mahmud Mustafa’s second motion for compassionate release under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A). The court held that Mustafa’s appeal was moot regarding his request to hold the case in abeyance because he conceded on appeal that recent Supre...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s order dismissing Walter Ray Beasley’s amended civil rights complaint alleging violations of his rights under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and the First Amendment Free Exercise Clause while he was detained at Riverside Regio...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The fourth-circuit remanded the case to the district court for a limited purpose of determining whether the appellant is eligible to reopen the appeal period under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(6). The court held that while the notice of appeal was clearly filed beyond the standard 30-day deadline, the distri...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment dismissing Tyrone Perry’s amended 42 U.S.C. § 1983 complaint against prison officials. The appellate court held that the district court correctly applied the standard under 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b) to dismiss the majority of claims for failure to state a...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-01 The fourth-circuit vacated Scott David Bixler’s 120-month sentence and remanded the case for resentencing because the district court committed a procedural error by failing to address Bixler’s non-frivolous mitigation arguments for a within-Guidelines sentence. Under the abuse of discretion standard of revie...