8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Digest: June 29, 2022

Civil Rights

Prison Inmate

Denial of Access to the Courts; Violation of Regulations

Plaintiff, an inmate, appealed from the dismissal of her complaint alleging that BOP officials denied her access to the courts and violated the APA by not following bureau regulations.

Where the court found no error in the district court’s reasoning, it affirmed the dismissal of plaintiff’s action.

Judgment is affirmed.

21-3615 Biron v. Carvajal, per curiam. Appealed from U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota.

Prison Inmate

Inadequate/Delayed Medical Care; Pattern of Unconstitutional Conduct

Plaintiff appealed from the district court’s grant of summary judgment to defendants.

Where plaintiff had failed to plead sufficient facts that defendants were involved in the allegedly inadequate medical care or bunk assignments, or sufficient facts to show a pattern of unconstitutional conduct, the district court properly granted adverse summary judgment on plaintiff’s civil rights claim.

Judgment is affirmed.

21-3211 Miles v. Higgins, per curiam. Appealed from U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas.

Constitutional Law

Public Contracts

Prohibition on ‘Boycotts’; First Amendment

Plaintiff appealed from the district court’s dismissal of its action challenging an Arkansas law that required public contracts to include a certification stating that the contractor will not “boycott” Israel. Plaintiff argued that the law violated the First Amendment

Where the Arkansas law solely concerned commercial, non-expressive speech or conduct, it did not run afoul of the First Amendment’s protections for free speech or against compelled speech.

Kelly, J., dissenting: “Thus, at a minimum, the State can consider a company’s speech and association with others to determine whether that company is participating in a ‘boycott of Israel.’ And the State may refuse to enter into a contract with the company on that basis, thereby limiting what a company may say or do in support of such a boycott. In this way, the Act implicates the First Amendment rights of speech, assembly, association, and petition recognized to be constitutionally protected boycott activity.”

Judgment is affirmed.

19-1378 Arkansas Times LP v. Waldrip, Kobes, J. Appealed from U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas.

Criminal Law

Compassionate Release

First Step Act; Availability of Medical Care

Defendant appealed from the denial of her motion for compassionate release under the First Step Act. Defendant argued that she was entitled to release due to her medical issues, the availability of care from the BOP, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Although the court declined to consider whether defendant’s refusal of a COVID-19 vaccine or other treatment rendered her ineligible for compassionate release, it found no abuse of discretion in the district court’s evaluation of the compassionate release factors.

Judgment is affirmed.

22-2151 U.S. v. McAllister, per curiam. Appealed from U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri.

Conspiracy to Distribute

Sentencing Enhancement; Failure to Appear

Defendant pled guilty in 2005 to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. Prior to sentencing, defendant absconded to Mexico. Defendant only returned to the U.S. in 2019 to seek medical treatment. On appeal, defendant challenged the district court’s upward adjustment for failure to appear, claiming he returned to Mexico to protect his family against threats over their cooperation with the government. Defendant also appealed the denial of a downward adjustment for acceptance of responsibility.

Where defendant had avoided sentencing for more than a decade, whatever his motivations for doing so, the district court did not err in its adjustment of defendant’s offense level for his efforts to avoid the consequences of his criminal conduct.

Judgment is affirmed.

21-2131 U.S. v. Barraza, per curiam. Appealed from U.S. District Court, District of Nebraska, Buescher, J.

Drug Distribution

Bottom of Guidelines Sentence; Substantive Reasonableness of Sentence

Defendant appealed from the bottom-of-Guidelines sentence imposed following his guilty plea to distributing methamphetamine. Defendant challenged the procedural and substantive reasonableness of his sentence.

Where the district court was not obligated to specifically explain why it chose not to use the “safety valve” to sentence below the Guidelines range, the district court did not abuse its discretion in sentencing defendant at the bottom of the range after considering all relevant sentencing factors.

Judgment is affirmed.

21-1243 U.S. v. Owens, Kobes, J. Appealed from U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri.

Drug Offense

Criminal History Calculation; Substantive Reasonableness of Sentence

Defendant appealed from the judgment of sentence imposed after he pled guilty to a drug offense. Defendant challenged the district court’s criminal history calculation and the substantive reasonableness of the sentence.

Where the district court considered the appropriate sentencing factors, it did not err in calculating the sentence to impose on defendant.

Judgment is affirmed.

21-2727 U.S. v. Triplett, per curiam. Appealed from U.S. District Court, Southern District of Iowa.

Felon in Possession of Firearm

Appeal Waiver; Substantive Reasonableness of Sentence

Defendant appealed from his sentence imposed after he pled guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm pursuant to his negotiated plea agreement that contained an appeal waiver. Defendant challenged the substantive reasonableness of his sentence and the enforceability of the appeal waiver.

Where defendant’s appeal waiver was valid and enforceable, the court declined to consider the merits of the appeal.

Appeal is dismissed.

21-3285 U.S. v. Staten, per curiam. Appealed from U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri.

Felon in Possession of Firearm

Controlled Substance Offense; Sentencing Enhancement

Defendant appealed from the judgment of sentence imposed following his guilty plea to being a felon in possession of a firearm. Defendant challenged the district court’s finding that his Iowa marijuana offense was a “controlled substance offense” because Iowa law included substances not banned under federal law, and challenged the imposition of a sentencing enhancement for altering or obliterating a firearm’s serial number.

Courts had previously ruled that the Iowa marijuana statute qualified as a controlled substance offense under the Sentencing Guidelines, and the district court also properly applied the sentencing enhancement where defendant had removed a serial number plate from a handgun and thereby “altered” the number by making it less accessible.

Judgment is affirmed.

21-3767 U.S. v. Fenton, per curiam. Appealed from U.S. District Court, Southern District of Iowa.

Felon in Possession of Firearm

Revocation of Supervised Release; Upward Sentence Departure

Defendant appealed from the sentence imposed following his revocation of supervised release. After being released from prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm, defendant twice violated the terms of his supervised release by using drugs and refusing to provide urine samples. The district court varied upward from the Guidelines range.

Where defendant argued that the district court had failed to give adequate weight to his drug addiction, defendant’s challenge to the substantive reasonableness of his sentence merely constituted a disagreement over how the district court weighed the sentencing factors.

Judgment is affirmed.

21-3351 U.S. v. Roundtree, per curiam. Appealed from U.S. District Court, Northern District of Iowa.

Habeas Petition

Right to Public Trial; Exclusion from Courtroom

Defendant appealed from the denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus, challenging his conviction for first-degree murder, arson, and vehicular theft. Defendant claimed that the state court denied him his right to a public trial after sequestering his girlfriend, who was on a joint witness list, from the courtroom, while also directing the brother of one of the murder victims to watch trial from the observation room after he was removed from the state’s witness list.

Where the trial court had only conducted a partial closure of the courtroom and where the Supreme Court had not directly addressed the constitutionality of partial closures, the state court’s decision was not contrary to clearly established federal law.

Judgment is affirmed.

20-3013 Zornes v. Bolin, Colloton, J. Appealed from U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota.

Possession of Firearm by Drug User

Substantive Reasonableness of Sentence; Improper Sentencing Factors

Defendant appealed from the judgment of sentence imposed following his guilty plea to being a drug user in possession of a firearm. Defendant argued that his sentence of 120 months was substantively unreasonable, contending that the district court considered an improper factor and failed to consider the effect of defendant’s incarceration on his children.

Where the district court found multiple aggravating and mitigating factors, defendant was not entitled to relief based on his disagreement with the district court’s weighing of the factors.

Judgment is affirmed.

21-3545 U.S. v. Day, per curiam. Appealed from U.S. District Court, Northern District of Iowa.

Possession of Firearm by Felon/Drug User

Offense-Level Calculation; Expungement of Conviction

Defendant appealed from the 120-month sentence imposed after he pled guilty to being a felon and unlawful drug user in possession of firearms and ammunition. Defendant challenged the offense-level calculation and further argued that his conviction should be vacated based on his reasonable belief that his civil rights had been restored following his prior felony conviction.

Where the district court exercised its discretion to apply sentencing enhancements and denying an acceptance-of-responsibility reduction, and where there was no evidence that defendant’s firearm rights had been restored, the court affirmed defendant’s conviction and sentence.

Judgment is affirmed.

21-3919 U.S. v. Woolsoncroft, per curiam. Appealed from U.S. District Court, Southern District of Iowa.

Possession of Firearm During Drug Trafficking

Career Offender; Motion to Withdraw Guilty Plea

Defendant appealed from the judgment of sentence imposed following his negotiated guilty plea to possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. The parties agreed that defendant was a career offender and that a below-Guidelines sentence should be imposed. Defendant unsuccessfully moved to withdraw his guilty plea or for rejection of the plea agreement.

Where defendant’s plea agreement included an appeal waiver, the court declined to consider the merits of his appeal from his negotiated sentence.

Appeal is dismissed.

21-3042 U.S. v. Perkins, per curiam. Appealed from U.S. District Court, Northern District of Iowa.

Employer-Employee

Collective Bargaining Agreement

Railway Labor Act; Injunctive Relief

Plaintiff appealed from the denial of injunctive relief in its action alleging that defendant violated the Railway Labor Act by impermissibly resorting to self-help, setting daily pay rates, and ending deduction of union dues. The district court denied a preliminary injunction to restore the status quo ante after finding that plaintiff was unlikely to succeed on the merits.

Where defendant complied with Section 6 of the RLA by providing plaintiff with notice of defendant’s intent to make pay changes, affording plaintiff the opportunity to request mediation, and where there was a material issue of fact regarding plaintiff’s compliance with its statutory duties, the district court correctly found that plaintiff was not likely to succeed on the merits of its claim.

Judgment is affirmed.

21-2608 International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers v. Iowa Northern Railway Company, Loken, J. Appealed from U.S. District Court, Northern District of Iowa.

Discrimination

Adverse Employment Action; Hostile Work Environment

Plaintiff appealed from the dismissal of his employment discrimination claim.

Where plaintiff failed to adequately plead that he suffered an adverse employment action due to his race, skin color, or national origin, and where the incidents alleged by plaintiff were not severe or pervasive enough to create a hostile work environment, the district court correctly dismissed plaintiff’s suit.

Judgment is affirmed.

21-3901 Alexis v. Sholom Shaller Family East Campus, per curiam. Appealed from U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota.

Immigration Law

Withholding of Removal

Convention Against Torture; Cognizable Social Groups

Petitioner appealed from the denial of her application for withholding removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture.

Where petitioner had only alleged fear of harm from an individual personally motivated to harm petitioner, she failed to establish a sufficient nexus with a cognizable social group to warrant protection under the CAT.

Judgment is affirmed.

21-1222 Lopez -Zamora v. Garland, per curiam. Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Insurance

All-Risk Policy

Business Interruption Coverage; COVID-19 Pandemic

Plaintiff appealed from the dismissal of its suit against defendant, its insurer, after defendant denied plaintiff business interruption coverage under its all-risk policy due to plaintiff having to curtail operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Where there had been no physical loss of or damage to plaintiff’s property, including no documented viral contamination, defendant was not obligated to cover plaintiff’s losses from business interruption.

Judgment is affirmed.

21-1663 Torgerson Properties, Inc. v. Continental Casualty Company, Kobes, J. Appealed from U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota.

Real Property

Ownership of Sale Proceeds

Future Advances/Dragnet Clause; Business Loans

Defendant appealed from the grant of summary judgment for plaintiff. Defendant and her then-husband purchased a condo financed by a mortgage from plaintiff. The mortgage included both a homestead waiver and a future advances clause granting plaintiff a security interest in future funds that defendant’s husband might borrow. Defendant’s husband later took out business loans with plaintiff before ultimately filing for bankruptcy. When the condo was sold, plaintiff filed suit arguing that defendant’s share of the proceeds was subject to the future advances clause.

Where defendant’s husband’s business loans fell within the scope of the mortgage’s future advances clause that covered all future debts taken out by defendant’s husband from plaintiff, the district court correctly ruled that the sale proceeds of the condo could be used to satisfy the mortgage.

Judgment is affirmed.

21-2816 Sanborn Savings Bank v. Freed, Erickson, J. Appealed from U.S. District Court, Northern District of Iowa.

Torts

Quid Pro Quo Sexual Abuse

Probation Officer Liability

Defendant appealed from the district court’s denial of her motion to dismiss plaintiff’s complaint. Defendant was plaintiff’s parole officer; plaintiff alleged that defendant invited the then county sheriff to plaintiff’s probation meetings, where the sheriff threatened plaintiff not to disclose the sexual relationship he had allegedly forced her into. Plaintiff asserted an IIED claim against defendant. The district court denied defendant’s assertion of statutory immunity, finding the statute only applied to “final judgments.”

Where protection from personal liability for a judgment was different from protection from having a suit initiated against oneself, the district court correctly ruled that the statutory immunity asserted by defendant did not bar plaintiff’s suit.

Judgment is affirmed.

21-2335 Doe v. Worrell, Benton, J. Appealed from U.S. District Court, Western District of Missouri.