Appeals

Pennsylvania man convicted of making false statements to obtain food stamps challenged a federal law that prevented him from buying a hunting rifle, saying it violated his Second Amendment rights. Third Circuit panel: Based on history and tradition, we conclude that "the people" constitutionally entitled to bear arms are the "law-abiding, responsible citizens," so it excludes those who have demonstrated disregard for the rule of law through the commission of violent or non-violent felony and felony-equivalent offenses.

Joseph "Tiger King" Maldonado-Passage was sentenced to 22 years in prison for hiring two hitmen to take out his foe, an animal-rights activist. (Neither was successful; one went to the beach instead, and one was an undercover FBI agent.) Tenth Circuit (2021): Convictions stand but resentence the man. District court: Fine, 21 years. Tenth Circuit (2022): Fine, 21 years it is.

This en banc Tenth Circuit case has a little something for everyone. Bickering over en banc procedure as the court sua sponte ordered it to be heard en banc after the appeal was briefed and argued at panel but before the decision issued. Also, a prosecutor, Assistant U.S.

Allegation: Harrisburg, Penn. detective misrepresents and omits key facts in order to get man charged with a bevy of serious and not-so-serious crimes after 2017 shooting. Some charges are dropped, and he's acquitted of all the rest after spending 18 months in jail. Can he sue Detective Jacob Pierce for malicious prosecution? District court: Oh yes, he can.

Lansing, Mich. cop sees man passed out at the wheel of a running car early in the morning after a blizzard. Without knocking opens the driver's door to check. Man wakes up. Cop asks for ID. Things escalate quickly and cop finds a whole lot of bags of drugs and a gun. Man: Unreasonable search and the community caretaker exception does not apply. District court. Not unreasonable. Motion to dismiss denied. Here's a 204-month sentence.

Seventeen-year-old student is required to participate in police ride-along for a class, and Hammond, Ind. officer Jamie Garcia she shadows spends the day groping her, making lewd remarks, and even taking her to a remote location where he offers her to another officer for sex. Officer: This mere "boorish flirtation" was just "making for an exciting ride along." District court: Qualified immunity.

Allegation: After Montgomery County, Ky. officials are ordered to obtain exculpatory evidence from a witness and turn it over to the defense, a prosecutor instead tells the witness to destroy the evidence. (She does.) Man, age 56, spent two years in jail facing a potential death sentence for a crime he didn’t commit — all while fighting cancer. Sixth Circuit: That is "seemingly unbecoming" but nevertheless within the prosecutor's traditional role as an advocate. Absolute immunity.

Oregon law makes it a crime to surreptitiously record conversations with another person without their knowledge . . . unless you're a cop performing official duties, in which case, record away! Project Veritas—which has something of a history of secretly recording conversations—challenges the recording ban as a violation of the First Amendment. Ninth Circuit: And they're right. The ban is unconstitutional. Dissent: We should just sever the exceptions for law enforcement and then the ban is fine.

It is obviously unreasonable for an off-duty, out-of-uniform police officer to lose his temper on the road, follow another motorist home, box him in his driveway, scream profanities, all before identifying himself as law enforcement, and point a gun at the nonthreatening motorist. At least so says the Tenth Circuit, reversing a grant of qualified immunity to a (now-former) Chaves County, N.M. sheriff's deputy David Bradshaw.

In en banc news, the Ninth Circuit will not reconsider its decision that the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause prevents Grants Pass, Oregon officials from ticketing people  experiencing homelessness for, among other things, sleeping in public parks or in their cars.