Tenth Circuit -- Frontier State Bank Oklahoma v. FDIC

Statute bars Article III review of FDIC minimum capital requirements, as there are no discoverable standards to assess them.

Board & ALJ skepticism as to revenue model was reasonable.

FDIC's requirement that bank both increase capital and decrease risk was reasonable.

Agency decisions on liquidity reasonable, as the substantial evidence supporting the agency's conclusions can be a macro assessment of total risk as opposed to assessment of individual strategies.

Given findings on capital, liquidity and risk, per se substantial evidence for mismanagement.

Frontier State Bank Oklahoma v. FDIC

Tenth Circuit -- Barlow, Jr. v. C.R. England Inc.

No prima facie case for race-based workplace discrimination, given lack of evidence of racially charged situations.

Given corporate shell created by worker, service-industry worker properly characterized as independent contractor.

Retaliatory firing presents genuine issue, as the firing happened around the one-year anniversary of the claim/start of benefits, triggering internal review.

Barlow, Jr. v. C.R. England Inc.

Ninth Circuit -- GRISELDA SANCHEZ V. ERIC H. HOLDER JR.

Admission of statements in agency record of interrogation not fundamentally unfair/hearsay, as the FRE don't apply to immigration proceedings.

As petitioner was attempting to aid another's illegal passage into the country, mens rea requirement as to her own passage is established.

GRISELDA SANCHEZ V. ERIC H. HOLDER JR.

Ninth Circuit -- VERONICA GUTIERREZ V. WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A.

No error in denying arbitration, as demand for arbitration was not filed until well into the pendency of the case and subsequent to the Scotus decision requiring such requests to be honored.

State good faith requirement is preempted by federal statute allowing banks to set posting order for transactions.

State law prohibiting fraudulent or misleading characterizations as to transaction posting order is not preempted.

No clear error as to standing, class certification. 

Sufficient proof of misleading statements.

VERONICA GUTIERREZ V. WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A.

Ninth Circuit -- REDOIL V. EPA

Deference to agency finding resolving statutory ambiguity as to the classes of vessels to which the statute applies.

Agency's interpretation of own regulations legally permissible under Auer.

REDOIL V. EPA

Ninth Circuit -- USA V. MARK PHILLIPS

Plain error in trial court holding that buying a watch through the mail with the loot is sufficient to trigger the mail fraud statute.

As the money laundering was sufficiently separate from the fraud, there is no merger problem that would require the court to hold that the money laundering was conducted with profits as opposed to gross proceeds of fraud.  (The funds can be characterized one way for one underlying offense, and the other for the other.)

No plain error in prosc's description in closing of deft's testimony as lies.

No plain error in sentencing instruction that deft not frequent areas where illegal drugs are used or sold - condition implies a mens rea element.

Where government seeks only monetary forfeiture, no jury/Apprendi requirement - court below erred in denying.

USA V. MARK PHILLIPS

Ninth Circuit -- LAURA ARTEAGA-DE ALVAREZ V. ERIC H. HOLDER JR.

Inconsistency with a prior immigration adjudication does not present a Due Process claim sufficient for jurisdiction.  Jurisdiction is proper only for errors of law.

No Chevron deference to agency finding, as the principle is not in any published adjudication.

Alternative means of immigration is not a categorical bar to hardship defense.

Concur/Dissent - No jurisdiction over the claimed error of law, as it's actually a factual holding.


LAURA ARTEAGA-DE ALVAREZ V. ERIC H. HOLDER JR.

Eighth Circuit -- Dairy Farmers of America v. Bassett & Walker International

Communication by phone, email, and fax insufficient to establish the transaction of business under state long-arm statute.

Given the totality of the factors, insufficient minimum contacts to satisfy Due Process.

Dairy Farmers of America  v.  Bassett & Walker International

Seventh Circuit -- Shontay Humphries v. Milwaukee

County official who denies license based on state administrative finding is not subject to S1983 liability for not investigating the facts of the state finding.

Shontay Humphries v. Milwaukee

Seventh Circuit -- Douglas Richards v. NLRB

Where plaintiff seeking relief before an agency claims both personal harms and harms to persons not before the Board, complete agency relief to the plaintiffs removes standing for purposes of the appeal without regard to the relief (or lack of relief) granted to those unnamed others.

Charging Party status before the NLRB does not change this.

 Douglas Richards v. NLRB

Seventh Circuit -- Appleton Papers Inco v. EPA

No clear error in denying FOIA request under work product exception where the documents are a mix of relevant facts and protected opinions.

Work product is distinct from attorney/client -- partial disclosure/waiver does operate as a waiver for the whole.

Appleton Papers Inco v. EPA

Sixth Circuit -- USA v. Mario Washington

Sufficient evidence for the conviction.

No error in exclusion of witness conviction for theft of utility services, as not categorically a crimen falsi.

Jury questions on collateral matters appropriately unanswered.

Sentencing bump for obstruction of justice appropriately & constitutionally imposed after deft, in testimony at trial, denied committing the crime. 

Permanent injury to victim sentencing bump correcty imposed.

USA v. Mario Washington

Sixth Circuit -- USA v. Solomon Carpenter

'Where the condition of supervised release says that the prisoner "shall" participate in a drug treatment program, it is not an impermissible delegation of authority to the probation officer. 

USA v. Solomon Carpenter

Fourth Circuit -- Philip Decohen v. Capital One, N.A.

Where local lender originates loan before transferring it to a national bank, state regulatory statutes are not preempted by federal loan origination statutes.

No field preemption for debt cancellation agreements.

Reference to state statute in loan agreement elected that state's law, and the lender is therefore bound by another term of the statute.

Philip Decohen v. Capital One, N.A.

Second Circuit -- Langrock Sperry v. Citigroup

District court cannot impose fees as sanction absent finding of bad faith.

Due Process requires that imposition of fees requires notice and an opportunity to be heard.

Langrock Sperry v. Citigroup

Second Circuit -- MacDermid, Inc. v. Deiter

Use of a computer server in Connecticut suffices for jurisdiction in CT by long-arm statute.

Servers are computers.

Deft knew the location of the company servers, therefore there was sufficient purposeful  availment for Due Process.

MacDermid, Inc. v. Deiter

First Circuit -- Bachorz v. Miller-Forslund

Conduct of parties evinced waiver of lease requirement that written consent be obtained prior to subleasing.

Statutory violations by landlord too trivial to affect the equities of the agreement.

Bachorz v. Miller-Forslund