DIFTCL: Federal Narrative Summaries

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/or rehearing en banc regarding a challenge to the denial of a preliminary injunction against a land exchange mandated by the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act. The court affirmed the district court’s decision, which...

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 in a bankruptcy adversary proceeding involving Hawaii Island Air, Inc., remanding for further proceedings. The court held that it possessed appellate jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 over the district cou...

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 Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee and employee unions against former owners and lenders of Hawaii Island Air, Inc. The panel held that it possessed app...

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 an adversary proceeding involving Hawaii Island Air, Inc.’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The panel held that it possessed appellate jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 over the distr...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The dc-circuit affirmed the dismissal of federal statutory claims but vacated the dismissal of District of Columbia law claims and remanded the case for further proceedings. The court held that the federal claims were properly barred by res judicata because Remus had raised, or could have raised, those cla...

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 an adversary proceeding involving Hawaii Island Air’s bankruptcy estate. The panel held that it possessed appellate jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 over the district court...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The Ninth Circuit affirmed the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel’s order denying the debtor’s motion for appellate attorneys’ fees. The court first denied Wolverine Endeavors VIII, LLC’s motion to dismiss the appeal, ruling that the appellant’s counsel had sufficient authorization to file the notic...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The Fourth Circuit dismissed in part and affirmed in part the appeals filed by Ging-Hwang Tsoa regarding the district court’s denial of her 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion, motions to dismiss and set aside, motions for a new judgment, and various writs of error coram nobis. The court held that the motions challenging the...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The eighth-circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of Troy Scheffler’s pro se civil rights action brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against various defendants, including a judge in her individual capacity. The court applied de novo review to the grant of the motion to dismiss and reviewed the denial of...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The Fifth Circuit dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction because there was no timely notice of appeal filed in the case. The court applied the rule established in *Bowles v. Russell*, 551 U.S. 205, 214 (2007), which holds that the time limit for filing a notice of appeal is a mandatory jurisdictional requirement t...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The fifth-circuit granted the Federal Public Defender’s motion to withdraw and dismissed the appeal. The court based this decision on its review of the Anders brief filed by counsel, which asserted that the appeal presented no nonfrivolous issues for appellate review. After examining the brief and the relevant port...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The Fifth Circuit granted the appointed attorney’s motion to withdraw and dismissed the appeal after reviewing the Anders brief filed in accordance with *Anders v. California* and *United States v. Flores*. The court concurred with counsel’s assessment that the record reflected no nonfrivolous issues for appe...

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 notice of appeal was not timely filed. The court applied Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(1)(A), which requires parties to file a notice of appeal within 30 days after the entry of the district court’s final judgment or order. Cit...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The fifth-circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of the defendant’s motion to suppress evidence obtained during a traffic stop. The court held that law enforcement possessed reasonable suspicion to extend the stop for a K-9 sniff based on the totality of the circumstances. Specifically, the court found...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The fourth-circuit denied a certificate of appealability and dismissed the appeal because the petitioner failed to make a substantial showing that the district court’s procedural dismissal of his habeas petition was debatable or that the underlying claim involved the denial of a constitutional right. Under 28 U.S....

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The fifth-circuit affirmed the defendant’s 24-month sentence for illegal reentry, which was imposed above the advisory guideline range. The court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion by giving greater weight to the defendant’s criminal history and character than to the advisory range unde...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The Fourth Circuit dismissed the appeal as both untimely and duplicative. The court held that the notice of appeal was jurisdictionally barred because it was filed in April 2026, well beyond the 60-day deadline required by Fed. R. App. P. 4(a)(1)(B) for civil cases involving a government party, which expired on June 9,...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The fourth-circuit affirmed the district court’s order denying Andrivia Frances Wells’ pro se motion for reconsideration under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(1), (3), (4), and (6). The court found no reversible error in the lower court’s decision after reviewing the record. As a practical conseq...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The fourth-circuit affirmed the district court’s order denying Peter Rafael Dzibinsk Debbins’s motions to amend or correct his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion, for a new trial, and for a sentence reduction, including under Amendment 821 to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. The court reviewed the record and found no re...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s order denying Joshua N. Wright’s motions for compassionate release and sentence reduction under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A) and § 3582(c)(2). The court applied an abuse of discretion standard of review, citing *United States v. Centeno-Morales* and *United State...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The Fourth Circuit denied a certificate of appealability and dismissed the appeal because the appellant failed to make the requisite “substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right” under 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c). The court applied the standard from *Gonzalez v. Thaler*, requiring the prisoner to dem...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The Fourth Circuit affirmed the defendant’s 18-month sentence for failure to register as a sex offender under 18 U.S.C. § 2250(a). The court applied an abuse-of-discretion standard to review the procedural reasonableness of the sentence, requiring the district court to conduct an individualized assessment and adeq...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The Fourth Circuit denied Jonathan Michael Brown’s motion for a certificate of appealability, his motion for appointment of counsel, and dismissed his appeal from the district court’s denial of relief on his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas petition. The court held that a certificate of appealability will not issue a...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The fourth-circuit affirmed the district court’s order denying Deontae J. Hargrave’s second motion for compassionate release. The court held that there was no abuse of discretion in the district court’s determination that Hargrave failed to assert an extraordinary and compelling basis for release under...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-09-29 The Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s order granting Gabriel Daniel Morrison-Mitchell’s motion for a reduction of sentence under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2). The court reviewed the record and discerned no reversible error, noting that while the district court granted the motion, it did not reduce the s...