Where the district court wrongly concluded that the defendant’s prior conviction for conspiracy qualified as a controlled substance offense under the Sentencing Guidelines, the defendant was not entitled to resentencing because the defendant failed to raise his objection before the ...

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

Where a prisoner’s three separate civil rights actions against corrections employees were dismissed on the same day, the prisoner could appeal the dismissals in forma pauperis because a dismissal does not count as a “prior occasion” under the Prison Litigation ...

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

The Board of Immigration Appeals acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it upheld the decision of an immigration judge denying asylum to a victim of domestic violence whose uncontroverted testimony established that the police in her home country frequently ignored her ...

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

A majority of the panel upheld a jury’s conclusion the defendant terminated a 30-year employee because of her age, 61. It said the decision was supported by the evidence, including her tenure and comments made around her termination, and found ...

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

A film festival’s use of a stylized photo of a Washington D.C. neighborhood known for its vibrant nightlife was not a fair use protecting it from a copyright infringement lawsuit, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The ...

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

Although a defendant satisfied the requirements to receive temporary protected status, or TPS,  and would have been granted TPS had the Immigration and Naturalization Service reviewed all documents in its possession, the denial of TPS was not fundamentally unfair because ...

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

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

A defendant who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery and  brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a “crime of violence” (the Hobbs Act conspiracy) had his sentence vacated after a sharply divided en banc court ...

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

Students from the University of Virginia law school persuaded the court to join other circuits in holding the statute of limitations was equitably tolled during the period the prisoner was exhausting his administrative remedies, thus making his § 1983 excessive ...

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

In a case involving a qui tam suit against four student loan corporations, the appellate panel rejected claims of error by the trial court for refusing to admit an audit of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Agency, and for faulty jury ...

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