Although the plaintiff alleged the Army’s decision to suspend him pending review of his security clearance was in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, or ADEA and the Whistleblower ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Employment Discrimination Judge Robert B. King

There was no error in the wiretaps used to identify defendant’s participation in a drug distribution ring. Moreover, the evidence was sufficient to support the convictions and there was no error in calculating the amount of heroin for sentencing purposes. ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Per Curiam Opinion

An officer involved in a shooting was not entitled to qualified immunity because there were disputed issues of material fact over whether the danger had passed when he shot into a car. The same disputed issues meant immediate interlocutory appeal ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Civil Rights Per Curiam Opinion

The Libertarian Party of Maryland’s challenge to the state’s requirement for placing a candidate on the ballot –  the signatures of 10,000 registered Maryland voters collected within two years of the filing date – was properly dismissed. As a matter ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Per Curiam Opinion

After officers observed a still-smoldering marijuana cigarette lying in an open trash can in the kitchen, a fair probability existed that further evidence of the defendant’s crime would be uncovered elsewhere in the house, thus supporting a warrant to search ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

Although Marriott franchises, licenses or manages 90 hotels in South Carolina, the injury did not arise out of those contacts so there was no specific jurisdiction, even considering Marriott’s interactive website. Background Bud Fidrych and his wife, both South Carolina ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge William B. Traxler Jr. Negligence

Although the defendant’s legal objection to the criminal history calculation was addressed by the sentencing judge, it was error to not address the defendant’s equitable argument for a variance from the sentence for illegal reentry. Background Apolonio Torres-Reyes pleaded guilty ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Julius N. Richardson

The defendant’s argument that one use of a firearm in the simultaneous commission of two predicate drug-trafficking offenses will not support separate § 924(c) convictions and sentences is foreclosed by Fourth Circuit precedent. And he was not entitled to relief ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Pamela A. Harris

Where the claims and arguments in a death row inmate’s habeas petition did not “fundamentally alter” those previously rejected by the post-conviction court, the district court did not err in rejecting them under a deferential standard of review. A new ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Judge Julius N. Richardson

A motion to suppress a “substantial” quantity of illegal drugs discovered after the defendant was stopped at a traffic checkpoint was correctly denied because the stop was for a proper purpose and the officers acted reasonably. Background In July 2014, ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III