Where detainees at supermax facilities alleged that solitary confinement violated their Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment and their 14th Amendment right to receive sufficient process, prison officials were properly denied qualified immunity at the ...

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

Where a man alleged that Virginia held an election in 2021 for the House of Delegates based on outdated population data, thereby unconstitutionally diluting his vote, his complaint was dismissed for lack of standing. Background This matter comes before the ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Judge David J. Novak U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A public transit system had a legitimate interest in avoiding some politically charged advertisements, but its lack of a formal definition of “political” or written guidelines clarifying how its prohibition on political ads was to be applied doomed its policy ...

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

Where the Richmond Transit Authority had a legitimate interest in avoiding some class of politically charged advertisements, but had no formal definition of “political” and no written guidelines clarifying how the ban on all political ads was to be applied, ...

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

Where voters filed a challenge with the North Carolina board of elections, alleging that Madison Cawthorn was ineligible for office because of his conduct in connection with the Jan. 6, 2022, insurrection, the district court erred when it held the ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Judge Toby Heytens

Where the Democratic Party of Virginia alleged a state requirement that applicants disclose their nine-digit Social Security number to register to vote violates the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the Privacy Act and the U.S. Constitution, its claims survive motions ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Judge Henry E. Hudson U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where a church was aware of zoning restrictions when it purchased property, it could not have had a reasonable expectation of religious land use, dooming its claim under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, or RLUIPA. Because the ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Judge Stephanie Dawn Thacker

Where a change to the admission requirements of a highly-selective high school had a substantial disparate impact on Asian American students, racial balancing is not a compelling interest and the school board’s actions were not narrowly tailored, the new admission ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Judge Claude M. Hilton U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where a correctional institution’s policy prohibited a detainee’s email recipients from forwarding messages, and his emails were allegedly censored because of their content, he plausibly asserted a violation of his First Amendment rights. Background Askari Dansa M. S. Lumumba alleges ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Judge Michael F. Urbanski U.S. District Court - Western District

Where a practicing Muslim detainee argued that he should not be forced to purchase his prayer oils from a commissary that sells “swine and idols” because Islam prohibits buying religious items from such vendors, the corrections department properly prevailed at ...

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