Where members of a West Baltimore gang challenged their convictions on numerous grounds, including that the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, statute was void for vagueness, that their Sixth Amendment rights were violated or that there was ...

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

Where officers partially corroborated an anonymous tip of suspected drug activity, and one of the officers then concluded that a glass stem pipe in plain view was contraband, the district court did not err in upholding the warrantless search of ...

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

Where the district court abstained from a suit challenged West Virginia’s administration of child welfare services because it believed it would interfere with state-court proceedings, that was error. The principles of federalism are not served by abstention and, if plaintiffs ...

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

Where a bunker trader asserted a maritime lien based upon nonpayment of fuel bunkers, but it failed to show the owner or a person authorized by the owner ordered the bunkers, its lien was denied. Background This dispute concerns whether ...

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

Where a pilot returning from military leave was offered an equivalent position, albeit in a different city, and implementing regulations by the Department of Labor, or DOL, specify that a reemployment position may involve transfer to another location, but the ...

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

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 the plaintiffs were bound by a prior settlement with the defendants related to royalty claims for a defined period of time, and the plaintiffs are now pursuing trespass claims for a different time period, the district court did not ...

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

Where a parent claimed the school board violated his First Amendment rights by restricting his speech at meetings, the board took that action because he had personally attacked individual board members. To the extent the speech of other parents was ...

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

Although a jury did not include any person with darker skin, because the codefendant struck two jurors with darker skin, and the prosecutor provided a non-pretextual reason for striking a third such juror, the Batson challenge failed. Background Terrence Deandre ...

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

Where a class of pharmaceutical buyers claimed two manufacturers allegedly reached an anticompetitive settlement in a patent dispute, the district court erred in focusing on whether denial of certification would result in “multiple individual trials” when it certified a class. ...

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