A parole board is not required to consider age-related mitigating characteristics of a defendant who was sentenced in 1988 when he was 17, to life with the possibility of parole. While the Supreme Court has addressed the sentencing of minors ...

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

Where a state law prohibited plaintiffs from offering certain postsecondary educational programs without obtaining certification, plaintiffs could proceed on their claim that the law violated their First Amendment rights, but they were unable to demonstrate a likelihood of success on ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Judge Robert E. Payne U.S. District Court - Eastern District

The majority of the panel accepted new districts proposed by the court-appointed special master whose methodology suggests the voting rights of black voters would not be diluted. Eleven districts had been held as racial gerrymanders in violation of the Equal ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Judge Barbara Milano Keenan U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where the City of Alexandria moved to dismiss a suit brought by an opera singer arrested for violating the city’s ordinance after singing on the sidewalks, the motion was denied in part because the Noise Control Code uses vague, standard-less ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Judge Leonie Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where a motion to seal documents in a criminal case mistakenly included two references to criminal proceedings against a person named Assange, but there was no public record that the government had filed criminal charges against Julian Assange, the application ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Judge Leonie Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A school did not violate the Establishment or Free Speech clauses by presenting an 11th-grade history unit that provided information about Islam, and tested a student’s understanding of that knowledge through a test. Background During the 2014-2015 school year, Caleigh ...

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

Plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights were not violated when a transit authority revoked their access to certain restricted property even though the revocation was made in retaliation to activities protected under the First Amendment. Background Plaintiff David McClure is the president ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Judge Diana Gribbon Motz

Although neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor any Circuit has addressed whether a governmental social media page constitutes a public forum, the court found aspects of the Loudoun County Board chair’s Facebook page bear the hallmarks of a public forum. ...

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

In rejecting the commonwealth’s challenge to a decision that the “Incumbent Protection Act” violates the First Amendment, the court found the law’s operative provisions are unconstitutional and impose a “severe” burden on the associational rights of Virginia’s political parties. Background ...

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

Plaintiffs who challenged the constitutionality of a Virginia law that requires the automatic suspension of drivers’ licenses for failure to pay state court fines and costs won a preliminary injunction, as they demonstrated there were insufficient procedures in the law ...

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