The Environmental Protection Agency was not required to accept a standard proposed by a wastewater treatment plant that utilized an older methodology previously used by the EPA. Moreover, the EPA’s decision to examine the standard using the most innovative technology ...

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

Defendant’s counsel did not render ineffective assistance by failing to argue that defendant’s conviction for attempted abduction did not constitute a crime of violence for purposes of applying the career offender sentencing enhancement because the existing case law at the ...

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

The Department of Education will not face a suit from a borrower alleging the department violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by not conducting an investigation into the borrower’s dispute because the department has not waived its sovereign immunity against ...

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

In reversing dismissal of a plaintiff’s claim that defendant unlawfully accessed emails in his web-based email account, the court held, in an issue of first impression, that previously opened and delivered emails stored in a web-based email client are within ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Consumer Protection Judge James A. Wynn Jr.

Where a contract required that the plaintiff spud wells on defendant’s property but did not define the term “spud,” the contract was interpreted as requiring only the drilling of the wells, not their production, consistent with the plain meaning of ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Contract Judge Roger L. Gregory

Officers were not entitled to qualified immunity on plaintiff’s excessive force claims where they may not have fired any shots at plaintiff’s vehicle until the vehicle had already passed them because there was no longer an immediate risk to their ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Civil Rights Judge Henry F. Floyd

A defendant who had his supervised release revoked after sideswiping a trooper’s patrol car with his vehicle was entitled to be resentenced because the offense he was found to have committed, assault with a deadly weapon on a government official, ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Roger L. Gregory

Even if the district court erred in concluding the defendant’s prior assault conviction was a crime of violence under the current version of the sentencing guidelines, that error was harmless in light of its stated conclusion it would have imposed ...

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

An appeal waiver did not prevent the court from reviewing the defendant’s claim her plea was tainted by constitutional error. On the merits, however, the court agreed the relevant statute applied to the defendant’s admitted conduct. Background Mary Mooney pleaded ...

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

The court joined its sister circuits in holding that, where a party obtains a judgment against an insured, and then sues that insured’s carrier, that second suit is not a “direct action” within meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 1332(c)(1). Furthermore, ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Insurance Judge Albert Diaz