DIFTCL: Federal Narrative Summaries

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 Docket: 1:24-cv-05323-LMM The eleventh-circuit affirmed the district court’s orders dismissing Mohamed Hussein Asker’s complaint, denying him leave to amend, and partially denying his motion for reconsideration. The court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying leave to amend b...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The First Circuit dismissed the petitions for review filed by IPCS service providers (Securus Technologies, LLC and Pay Tel Communications, Inc.) in full following their voluntary request to withdraw after the Federal Communications Commission issued a new 2025 Order revising its regulations on incarcerated people’...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 Docket: 2:24-cr-00003-SPC-KCD-1 The eleventh-circuit affirmed Gabriel Cossio, Jr.’s sentence of 123 months’ imprisonment to run consecutively to multiple undischarged state court sentences for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine. The court applied plain error review becau...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The eleventh-circuit granted United States Circuit Judge Pauline Newman’s request to disclose the existence of a judicial misconduct complaint filed against her under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980, 28 U.S.C. §§ 351–364. The court based this decision on Judicial-Conduct Rule 23(b)(1) and (b)(7),...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 Docket: 5:24-CV-00564-G) The tenth-circuit denied Patrick Henry Hill, II’s application for a certificate of appealability (COA) and dismissed his appeal from the district court’s dismissal of his federal habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 as untimely. The court held that reasonable jurists would no...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The tenth-circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of motions to dismiss the indictment, suppress evidence, and sever Siraj Ibn Wahhaj’s trial from his co-defendants. The court held that the defendants waived challenges to the motion to dismiss by failing to address the district court’s reasoning re...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 Docket: 4:22-CV-00074-GKF-SH) The tenth-circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of a habeas corpus petition filed by Tavarreon Dickerson under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, rejecting his claim that his appellate counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to argue that trial counsel was ineffective for not invest...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The First Circuit dismissed the petitions for review filed by IPCS service providers (Securus Technologies, LLC and Pay Tel Communications, Inc.) in their entirety following their voluntary request to withdraw after the FCC issued a new 2025 Order revising inmate calling services regulations. The court also dismissed por...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 Docket: 1:24-CV-03547-CNS-SBP) The tenth-circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of James Massey’s motion to remand the case to state court and its dismissal of his civil action against Rithm Capital Corporation and Newrez LLC. The court held that federal diversity jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 The Tenth Circuit affirmed the Tax Court’s decision upholding the IRS’s assessment of approximately $655,000 in back taxes against Steven and Tobie Ness for the tax years 2015 through 2018. The court applied a de novo standard to legal conclusions and a clearly erroneous standard to factual findings under 26...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 Docket: 4:20-cv-00484- The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the plaintiffs and vacated the permanent injunction that had struck the word “operation” from Arizona’s birth certificate amendment statute. The court held that Arizona’s statutory scheme does...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-06 Docket: 4:20-cv-00484- The ninth-circuit reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment to plaintiffs and vacated the permanent injunction that had struck the word “operation” from Arizona’s birth certificate amendment statute. The court held that Arizona’s statutory scheme does not...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-05 The Tenth Circuit denied Gerald Paul Headley, Jr.’s request for a certificate of appealability (COA) and dismissed his appeal from the district court’s denial of his Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b) motion. The court held that Headley failed to make a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-05 Docket: 2:25-CV-00046-HCN) The Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of Leland William Calder’s pro se civil rights complaint for failure to state a claim. The court reviewed the dismissal de novo under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii) and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), applying the st...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-05 The Sixth Circuit affirmed Deangelo Smith’s 96-month prison sentence and three years of supervised release following his conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). The court held that the district court properly released the government from its plea agreement because Smith...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-05 The Fifth Circuit denied Jamaal Howard’s motion seeking authorization for the district court to consider a successive habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 and his alternative request for a stay of execution pending Supreme Court review. The court held that relief was barred because Howard’s claim is...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-10-05 Docket: 6:24-cv-00141-JSS-DCI The eleventh-circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of judgment on the pleadings in favor of Progressive Select Insurance Company, dismissing the Chapter 7 Trustee’s third-party bad-faith claim. The court held that Florida’s 2023 statutory “safe harbor”...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-05 Docket: 2:24-CV-00887-JNP-CMR) The Tenth Circuit vacated a district court’s injunction that had halted state criminal proceedings against a religious leader for the possession and distribution of psilocybin, ruling that the federal court erred by failing to abstain under the *Younger* doctrine. The court held that...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Filed: 2026-10-05 Docket: 1:24-cv-03329-VMC The eleventh-circuit affirmed the district court’s orders dismissing the plaintiffs’ post-judgment filings as moot and rejecting their claims of judicial bias. The court held that because the underlying case was dismissed with prejudice on December 23, 2024, and the appeal deadlin...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-05 Docket: 2:21-cv-08769- The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of Jonathan Schmidt’s § 1983 action against the City of Pasadena and individual employees regarding the city’s COVID-19 vaccination, testing, and masking policy. The court held that all claims are barred by immunity under t...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-05 The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment dismissing the constitutional challenges brought by registered sex offenders and their family members against Missouri’s Sex Offender Registration Act (Mo. SORA). The court held that the plaintiffs failed to establish that Mo. SORA violates the Eighth...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Filed: 2026-10-05 The federal-circuit court held that the district court abused its discretion by denying Simon Property Group’s post-judgment motion to reinstate a third-party indemnification claim dismissed as moot. The court determined that although the motion was styled under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(a), it must be c...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-05 Docket: 5:24-cv-00828-KK-SP The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court’s dismissal of Everest Reinsurance Company’s counterclaims seeking to void development and subdivision contracts with the City of Calimesa. The appellate court held that the four-year statute of limitations under California Government C...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Filed: 2026-10-05 The Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment of non-infringement for independent claim 1 and dependent claims 2, 4, 8, 9, and 10 of U.S. Patent No. 9,871,324, while affirming the grant of summary judgment of non-infringement for all other asserted claims of the ‘324 patent and...

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Filed: 2026-10-05 Docket: 3:20-cv-03754- The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment to Align Technology, Inc., and remanded the antitrust class actions brought under Section 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 2. The panel held that Plaintiffs established a genuine dispute of material fact regarding whet...