Eighth Circuit Upholds Verdict Against Missouri Judge Who Had Children Locked in Cells
The court affirmed $10,000 in damages and $326,637.22 in fees and costs, and held Judge Eric Eighmy waited too long to press judicial immunity.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
Eighth Circuit Upholds Dismissal of Fired Remington Plant Worker's Bias Suit
A federal appeals panel held that a Black woman fired from Remington Ammunition's Arkansas plant lacked evidence to take her discrimination and retaliation claims to a jury.
Eighth Circuit Rules Heck-Barred Prisoner Suits Count as Strikes Under PLRA
A Missouri inmate lost his bid to sue without prepaying the filing fee after the court held that a prior suit dismissed under Heck v. Humphrey counted as a strike.
Eighth Circuit Rejects Fire Department Manager's Age Bias Suit Over Demotion
A unanimous panel held that a demotion carrying a nearly $12,000 pay cut did not force a 60-year-old Rochester, Minn., fire department manager into retirement.
Eighth Circuit Upholds Missouri Sex-Offender Registry Against Constitutional Challenge
A unanimous panel rejected registrants' Eighth Amendment, ex post facto, vagueness, free-speech and due process claims against Missouri's sex offender registry.
Eighth Circuit Upholds Iowa Trespass-Surveillance Law Against First Amendment Challenge
Court rejects as-applied challenge by activists who recorded on private property after being told to leave.
Eighth Circuit Upholds Child Pornography Sentence Enhancement
A published panel said a distribution enhancement did not double count conduct already captured by the federal child pornography guideline.
Eighth Circuit Vacates Campsite-Lease Injunction In Speech-Retaliation Fight
The panel said likely success on a First Amendment retaliation claim did not eliminate the need to separately show irreparable harm.
Eighth Circuit Upholds Iowa Drug Stop, Rejects Suppression Bid
The Eighth Circuit said officers lawfully stopped and searched Robert Lee Drayton Jr.'s car during a Cedar Rapids drug investigation, affirming the denial of his motion to suppress evidence tied to drug and firearm charges.
Eighth Circuit Upholds Drug-User Gun Case After Bruen Remand
The panel said prosecutors needed only a preponderance showing that Keshon Baxter’s firearm possession fit a historical analogue, while a concurrence warned the circuit’s Section 922(g)(3) cases are drifting.
Eighth Circuit Says First Step Act Sentencing Changes Do Not Support Compassionate Release
The panel affirmed denials for two defendants seeking sentence cuts based on nonretroactive Section 924(c) amendments, applying the Supreme Court's new Rutherford ruling.
Eighth Circuit Affirms Omaha Drug, Gun Convictions Despite Evidence Concerns
The panel upheld convictions and sentences for three defendants while a concurrence warned that a phone-extraction PowerPoint and gang testimony pushed evidentiary limits.
Eighth Circuit Upholds Continental Resources Fee Awards In North Dakota Landowner Fight
The panel affirmed more than $793,000 in attorneys' fees for surface landowners, while a concurrence said the district court's lodestar analysis erred but did not warrant reversal.
Eighth Circuit Upholds SD Man's Kidnapping, Assault Convictions
The panel said evidence of force, fear and corroborating injuries supported the jury's verdict against Ellery Zephier Sr.
8th Circ. Keeps Exonerated Missouri Man's Police, Prosecutor Suit Alive
The Eighth Circuit said two Kansas City detectives and a prosecutor must face claims tied to an overturned murder conviction that kept Keith Carnes imprisoned for 18 years.
Eighth Circuit Says Minnesota Third-Degree Murder Counts As Guidelines Crime Of Violence
The panel affirmed a firearms sentence after holding that Minnesota third-degree murder qualifies as generic murder under the federal sentencing guidelines.
Eighth Circuit Keeps Minnesota Murder Habeas Denial Intact
The panel said a state court reasonably found that an improperly admitted confession was harmless despite a Miranda violation.
Eighth Circuit Says OSHA Penalty Collection Suit Came Too Late
The Eighth Circuit held that the government cannot use the Debt Collection Improvement Act to sidestep the five-year limitations period for collecting OSHA civil penalties.