DIFTCL: Federal Narrative Summaries

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The Fifth Circuit dismissed Nestor Alexander Cortez-Mejia’s petition for review of a Department of Homeland Security order reinstating his prior removal order as untimely. The court applied the mandatory claim-processing rule under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(b)(1), which requires that a petition for review be filed within 30...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment upholding Deandre Rashaun Hulbert’s sentence following the revocation of his supervised release. Applying plain error review because Hulbert failed to object in the district court, the court held that the district court did not commit clear or obvious l...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The Fourth Circuit denied petitioner Kenneth Wayne Watford’s petition for a writ of mandamus seeking an order directing the district court to update its records to reflect the expungement of state court arrest records and criminal proceedings. The court held that mandamus is a drastic remedy available only in extr...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The fourth-circuit denied James R. Watson, Jr.’s petition for a writ of mandamus seeking to compel the district court to rule on his civil action. The court determined that the petition was moot because the district court had recently entered an order dismissing Watson’s underlying civil action, thereby elim...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s orders dismissing Daniel W. Phoenix’s 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claims against certain defendants and granting summary judgment to the remaining defendants. The court reviewed the record and found no reversible error, concluding that the district court’s rulings...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s order denying Ernest Tulsida Carpenter’s motion for compassionate release filed under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i). The court conducted a review of the record and determined that no reversible error existed in the district court’s decision. Additionally,...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The Fourth Circuit affirmed James William Wilson Jr.’s conviction and 144-month sentence for insurance fraud, mail and wire fraud, money laundering, filing a false tax return, and aggravated identity theft. The court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting lay witness testimony from...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The Fourth Circuit affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded the district court’s judgment upholding the Administrative Law Judge’s (ALJ) denial of Ronda Chappelle’s application for disability insurance benefits and supplemental security income. The court applied the substantial evidence standar...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The Fourth Circuit affirmed Oliver Matheny’s conviction for production of child sexual abuse material under 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a), (e). The court held that the district court correctly denied Matheny’s motion to suppress evidence seized from a SanDisk SD card, ruling that the private search doctrine applied de...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The Fourth Circuit affirmed Ralph Brooks’s 168-month sentence for conspiring to distribute drugs while dismissing his challenge regarding the substantive reasonableness of that sentence. The court held that the Government did not breach its plea agreement because it provided sufficient factual details regarding Br...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The Third Circuit denied Gerry De Jesus Marte-Hernandez’s petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ final order of removal. The court held that Marte-Hernandez was removable as a crime involving moral turpitude, specifically conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and rejected his claims regarding the...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The Fourth Circuit dismissed the petition for review, holding that it lacks jurisdiction to consider the Board of Immigration Appeals’ denial of a motion for sua sponte reopening. The court applied the standard established in *Lawrence v. Lynch* and *Mosere v. Mukasey*, which preclude judicial review of the Board&...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 Docket: 2:23-cv-02493) The Third Circuit affirmed the District Court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the United States in a Federal Tort Claims Act action alleging medical negligence. The court held that the plaintiff failed to exhaust administrative remedies for claims regarding pre- and post-surgical negl...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The Second Circuit denied the petition for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals decision affirming an Immigration Judge’s denial of asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). The court applied substantial evidence review to the agency’s factual findings and de...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The third-circuit dismissed the appellant’s challenge to his criminal history calculation as moot because he had already completed his prison sentence and received the statutory minimum term of supervised release, leaving no effectual relief available for that specific issue. However, the court affirmed the distric...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment on Plaintiff-Appellant Zinnat Rahman’s retaliation claims brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the New York State Human Rights Law (NYSHRL). The court applied the burden-shifting framework established in *McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Gree...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The Second Circuit affirmed the District Court’s dismissal of Plaintiff-Appellant McGraw Property Solutions, LLC’s implied-in-fact contract and unjust enrichment claims against Defendant-Appellee Fortress Investment Group LLC for failure to state a claim under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). The co...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the plaintiffs’ lawsuit challenging a denial of an application for adjustment of status under 8 U.S.C. § 1255. The court held that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the appeal because 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(B)(i) expressly precludes federa...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 Docket: 1:26-cv-04401-VMC The eleventh-circuit dismissed the appeal sua sponte for lack of jurisdiction. The court held that it cannot review a district court’s order remanding a case to state court based on a lack of subject matter jurisdiction, as such orders are unreviewable under 28 U.S.C. § 1447(c) and (d)....

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 Docket: 1:25-cr-00071-TFM-B-5 The eleventh-circuit dismissed in part and remanded in part Wilson Robert Mero-Castro’s appeal of his 108-month sentence for conspiracy to distribute cocaine on board a vessel. The court held that Mero-Castro’s challenges regarding the district court’s failure to inquire...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 Docket: 6:25-cr-00107-JA-LHP-1 The eleventh-circuit granted the government’s motion to dismiss the defendant’s appeal and dismissed the case. The court held that the defendant’s appeal waiver in her plea agreement was enforceable and barred her challenge to the substantive reasonableness of her below...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 Docket: 1:25-cr-00071-TFM-B-4 The eleventh-circuit dismissed the appeal because the defendant’s valid appeal waiver in his plea agreement barred his challenge to the reasonableness of his sentence. The court applied the standard that an appeal waiver is enforceable if it was made knowingly and voluntarily, which...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 Docket: 3:24-cv-00129-CDL The eleventh-circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment in favor of defendant Pamela Thaxton, ruling that plaintiff Alice Felts failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Thaxton unduly influenced David Silvian to change the beneficiary of his annuity from Felts to Thax...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 Docket: 6:23-cr-00017-JRH-BKE-2 The eleventh-circuit granted the government’s motion to dismiss Woodrow Scott’s appeal based on a valid waiver of appellate rights contained in his plea agreement. The court held that the waiver bars Scott’s challenge to his 235-month sentence for conspiracy to distrib...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 Docket: 8:22-cr-00003-WFJ-TGW-3 The eleventh-circuit dismissed the appeal as moot because the appellant, Jose Enrique-Gomez, had completed his term of imprisonment while the case was pending. The court applied the Article III jurisdictional requirement that a federal court cannot adjudicate moot questions where the pa...