Despite his supervisor’s racially-tinged comments, a VDOT employee’s termination was not plausibly connected to racial or religious discrimination but was instead the result of unsatisfactory performance. Background Appellant Sinan Rayyan is a Muslim Arab-American who worked as a professional engineer ...

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

An apartment management company could not categorically deny tenancy to an applicant with a prior conviction for indecent exposure, stemming from a period where he was not on medication for a mental-health condition. Background In 2016, Plaintiff Annette Simmons requested ...

Tagged with: Civil Rights Judge Norman K. Moon U.S. District Court - Western District

A jury should decide whether Russell County Public Schools is liable for sustained abuse of its students perpetrated by an elementary school custodian, the court held. Although Plaintiff John Doe sued two former principals who supervised the custodian while he ...

Tagged with: Civil Rights Judge James P. Jones U.S. District Court - Western District

The court upheld an administrative decision finding that Virginia Beach city schools had failed to provide appropriate education to a special-needs child for multiple years and, accordingly, her family was entitled to reimbursement for private placement as well as attorney ...

Tagged with: Civil Rights Judge Henry Coke Morgan Jr. U.S. District Court - Eastern District

The court held that a nonprofit group providing housing assistance did not fail to make reasonable accommodations and/or housing modifications at the request of a client who requested wheelchair-accessibility construction. Plaintiff Veda Evans is a disabled mother of three young ...

Tagged with: Civil Rights Judge Mark Davis U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In this case involving a prisoner who was attacked and injured by another inmate, the district court instructed the jury, “Deliberate indifference is established only if the defendants . . . had actual knowledge of a substantial risk that Anderson ...

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

Sims v. Labowitz (VLW No. 017-2-209, 30 pp.) (Keenan, J.) (King, J., dissenting) 16-2174; USDC at Alexandria. (Hilton, S.J.) 4th Cir. Holding: In a child pornography case involving teen sexting, a police detective consulted with an assistant prosecutor and obtained ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Civil Rights Judge Barbara Milano Keenan

Elhady v. Piehota (VLW No. 017-3-448, 20 pp.) (Trenga, J.) 1:16-cv-375; E.D.Va. Holding: Plaintiffs are 25 United States citizens, all Muslim, who claim they are included on the government’s terrorist watch list and contend that this status subjects them to ...

Tagged with: Civil Rights Judge Anthony J. Trenga U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Drewery v. Portsmouth City School Board (VLW No. 017-3-451, 14 pp.) (Smith, C.J.) 2:17-cv-20; E.D. Va. Holding:  For purposes of sovereign immunity, Virginia school boards act as independent local government agencies, not as arms of the state, and thus are ...

Tagged with: Civil Rights Judge Rebecca Beach Smith U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A plaintiff who claims he emigrated from Japan with his family based on an offer to work for his sister and her husband in their company, Advanced Systems Technology and Management Inc., but was forced to sign a noncompete agreement, ...

Tagged with: Civil Rights Judge James C. Cacheris U.S. District Court - Eastern District