A North Carolina municipality escaped liability under Section 1983 after the Fourth Circuit held that prior incidents of on-duty consensual sexual conduct by officers were too dissimilar to coercive assault to establish the deliberate indifference required...
A Chesterfield County officer deployed his police dog on a one-legged man who was in a fetal-like position on a storage room floor, then took a considerable amount of time to separate the animal as it attacked the man's buttocks, scrotum, and amputated stum...
A North Carolina veteran and federal employee argued that the bankruptcy means test shielded his plan from good-faith review — and a unanimous appeals panel held that the Code does not work that way.
The Fourth Circuit vacated the dismissal of a pro se excessive force complaint against two Montgomery County police officers, holding that the district court erred by ignoring an officer identified in the body of the complaint and by dismissing a claim that...
The Fourth Circuit affirmed a district court’s protective order prohibiting defendants from disclosing the identities of Afghan evacuees, holding that the content-based prior restraint survives strict scrutiny to protect national security interests.
The Fourth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for Merrill Lynch, holding that its WealthChoice Award program is a bonus plan exempt from ERISA coverage rather than an employee pension benefit plan.
The Fourth Circuit reversed and vacated the conviction of Nathaniel Martin for felon in possession of a firearm, holding that a U.S. Forest Service officer unlawfully extended a traffic stop to conduct a criminal investigation unrelated to the initial viola...
Willie Junior Lilly’s conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm stands after the Fourth Circuit rejected his constitutional challenge to 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) and his claim that the district court miscalculated his sentencing range.
The Fourth Circuit reversed a district court’s denial of a preliminary injunction against Maryland’s 2024 law restricting how drug manufacturers distribute discounted medications under the federal 340B program.
The Fourth Circuit reversed a district court's denial of a motion to dismiss in a wrongful-death suit stemming from a detainee's death from opioid withdrawal, holding that the complaint failed to connect any named officer to specific acts or omissions.
A unanimous Fourth Circuit panel vacated the 19-month supervised release revocation sentence of Naeem Deonte Jones on Saturday, holding that the district court committed plain error by treating his positive drug tests as a Grade B violation when the petitio...
A unanimous Fourth Circuit panel has vacated summary judgment for a Fairfax County police sergeant who shot an unarmed suspect during a drug sting operation, holding that genuine disputes of material fact exist as to whether the sergeant used excessive force.
The Fourth Circuit reversed the conviction of a noncitizen who escaped ICE custody to prevent his deportation, holding that the execution of a removal warrant does not constitute a pending proceeding under the federal obstruction statute.
A divided Fourth Circuit applied the Supreme Court's new totality-of-circumstances standard and still held that Chesterfield County Corporal Gordon Painter violated clearly established Fourth Amendment law when he shot and killed Charles Byers, a man with s...
A published Fourth Circuit decision holds that Merrill Lynch's WealthChoice Award program — a deferred cash bonus paid to select high-performing financial advisors after eight years of continued employment — is a bonus plan exempt from ERISA, not a covered...
The Fourth Circuit affirmed the conviction of Trent Russell, a hospital contractor who accessed and posted Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s private medical records to the anonymous message board 4Chan. Chief Judge Diaz, writing for a unanimous panel, rejected...
The Fourth Circuit reversed a district court’s dismissal of an individual Chapter 13 appeal, holding that the doctrine of equitable mootness is reserved for complex reorganizations and does not apply to simple, small-dollar consumer bankruptcy disputes.
Four Black women who lost their assistant principal positions in a Harford County, Maryland school district reduction-in-force could not show the process was discriminatory, the Fourth Circuit held.