Where the estate of James “Whitey” Bulger alleged that the United States and prison officials should be held responsible for failing to protect him from an attack by fellow inmates and failing to prevent his transfer to a “violent” facility, ...

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

Cybersquatters may violate federal law even if they aren’t the original registrants of the challenged domain, according to a ruling from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In a matter of first impression, the Fourth Circuit affirmed summary judgment ...

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

In an issue of first impression, the court held that although a company was not the initial registrant of the relevant domain name, it could nonetheless be held liable for cybersquatting because the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, or ACPA, encompasses ...

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

A lower court’s recognition of a new cause of action against Transportation and Security Administration, or TSA, officers who seized a man’s cell phone and prohibited him from recording his husband’s pat down at an airport has been grounded by ...

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

Where a man alleged that two Transportation and Security Administration, or TSA, officers, violated the First Amendment by prohibiting him from recording a pat-down search and the Fourth Amendment by seizing him and seizing and searching his cell phone, but ...

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

Where a party argued that it should not be required to exhaust administrative remedies because the administrative process would effectively result in a complete preclusion of review, but then admitted that it was currently participating in an administrative appeal where ...

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

Where the government obtained the defendant’s historical cellular site location information, or CSLI, in good-faith reliance upon then-existing law, the defendant’s counsel did not render ineffective assistance by failing to move to suppress the information. The motion likely would not ...

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

Where a detainee’s motion for compassionate release argued that his convictions and sentence were unlawful, his motion was denied. Because 28 U.S.C. § 2255 is the exclusive method of collaterally attacking a federal conviction or sentence, a criminal defendant is ...

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

Where procedural and substantive reasonableness requirements are necessary to ensure the broad remedial purposes of the First Step Act, but the district court here did not explain why it believed a large upward variance was warranted when it resentenced the ...

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

Where a federal employee claimed his suit challenging the Drug Enforcement Agency, or DEA’s, failure to select him for any of the GS-15 positions for which he applied was a “mixed case” under the law, but guidance from prior cases ...

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