Where an employer hires an independent contractor to “perform or execute any work which is a part of his trade, business or occupation and contracts” the South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Law treats the contractor as if “the work[er] had been ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Pamela A. Harris Negligence

Where two Virginia Beach residents challenged the system used to elect members of the City Council, but the General Assembly changed the system before the trial court issued its decision, that mooted the suit. Background Two Virginia Beach residents sued, ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Judge Pamela A. Harris

Where the district court believed it was required to impose a mandatory minimum term of five additional years of supervised release after the defendant violated his sex-offender registration requirement, but the statute does not require a mandatory minimum term, the ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Pamela A. Harris

Where the defendant was sentenced after the Fair Sentencing Act, and there was no suggestion that the district court did not follow U.S. Supreme Court and Fourth Circuit caselaw which held that the statute applied to all post-act sentencings, even ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Pamela A. Harris

A Guatemalan man seeking asylum will get a review of his case because an immigration judge applied an improper standard when determining whether the man reasonably feared persecution or torture if he were sent back to his home country, a ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Immigration law Judge Pamela A. Harris

In an issue of first impression, where the government argued that an immigration judge’s decision should be upheld so long as it was based on a “facially legitimate and bona fide reason,” the court joined two circuits in rejecting this ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Immigration Judge Pamela A. Harris

Where the government chooses at sentencing to specify which of the convictions listed in the presentence report support an enhancement under the Armed Career Criminal Act, or ACCA, it cannot rely on collateral review on ACCA predicates that were not ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Pamela A. Harris

Where the defendant was sentenced to 26 months’ imprisonment for a drug conviction, which he served while also serving five other concurrent sentences, the concurrent sentences remain separate and distinct terms of imprisonment even though they are served simultaneously. Background ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Pamela A. Harris

Where a detainee alleged that prison officials acted with deliberate indifference by delaying his receipt of medications, but none of his communications suggested that urgent intervention was required to avoid a risk of harm and there was no evidence officials ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Civil Rights Judge Pamela A. Harris

The court joined two other circuits in holding that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, or ERISA, doesn’t prevent the government from garnishing the retirement assets of a defendant in order to satisfy a criminal restitution order under ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Pamela A. Harris