A marijuana addict who claimed he needed a gun for personal protection in his dangerous neighborhood loses his Second Amendment challenge to 18 U.S.C. § 933(g)(3)’s prohibition on gun ownership by an illegal drug user; empirical studies presented by the ...

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

It’s official. A business can no longer look the other way, or shrug helplessly, when a customer is harassing an employee of the business. An employer can be liable for a hostile work environment created by a third party not ...

Tagged with: Employment Federal Courts Judge Dennis W. Shedd Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

Although defendant contends his only documented incident of distributing child pornography occurred more than two years prior to his offense of possession, the 4th Circuit upholds a distribution sentencing enhancement under USSG § 1B1.3 and affirms defendant’s 78-month sentence, followed ...

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

In this case of first impression, the 4th Circuit says the Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses does not apply during the sentence-selection phase of a capital murder trial, and a split panel affirms the death penalty for an MS-13 ...

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

A drug defendant’s complaints about his first retained lawyer’s conduct of his case have failed to show ineffective assistance of counsel, and the trial court did not err in its handling of two law enforcement officers as both fact witnesses ...

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

A district court did not err in overturning a board of supervisors’ denial of a permit for a cell phone tower disguised as a silo on a Loudoun County farm because the board included alleged harmful health effects as one  ...

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

In this suit by employees of a Greenville, S.C., poultry processing plant, plaintiffs’ state-law wage claims are preempted by federal labor law, as the parties are subject to a collective bargaining agreement, but the 4th Circuit affirms an award for ...

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

Although federal funding makes a city’s street widening project subject to a federal statute governing land acquisitions, plaintiff car wash cannot use the statute to challenge the city’s “quick take” of the car wash property as the statute, 42 U.S.C. ...

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

Although general tax exemptions applicable to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do not apply to real property taxes, they do cover real property transfer taxes, and the 4th Circuit affirms decisions of district courts in Maryland and South Carolina that ...

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

A citizen of El Salvador who entered the U.S. without authorization wins remand of his request for withholding of removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3) as a “former member” of the MS-13 gang who allegedly faces death if he returns ...

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