Justia U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

A confidential informant notified the Kalamazoo, Michigan, Department of Public Safety (KDPS) that methamphetamine was being sold from 913 Cooper Avenue and that two firearms were in the home. KDPS linked the Gates brothers, Trevon and Deonte, to the residence. In total, the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services concluded that the brothers were accountable for distributing 1.41 kilograms of methamphetamine during the relevant time. Trevon received a 72-month sentence for pleading guilty to one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, 18 U.S.C. 924(c)(1)(A)(i). Deonte received a 110-month sentence for pleading guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, 21 U.S.C. 846, 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(B)(viii).The Sixth Circuit affirmed Deonte’s sentence, rejecting an argument that the district court improperly considered juvenile conduct when calculating his Guidelines range. The court vacated Trevon’s sentence as procedurally unreasonable. The district court did not openly address the Guidelines as they related to Trevon’s section 924(c) conviction. After the district court imposed a 12-month above-Guideline sentence, Trevon objected. The district court responded, incorrectly: “The crime itself is without a guideline,” and later stated, “all right. If that’s correct, then I have varied upward for the reasons that I stated.” View "United States v. Gates" on Justia Law

Officers were dispatched to the Campbells’ residence after a 9-1-1 dispatcher received two hang-up calls from the residence. Officer Fox knocked on the door. He did not announce himself as law enforcement. Through the closed door, Mark asked “you got a gun?” and later stated, “I got one too.” Fox drew his gun. Mark opened the door. Mark says he may have had a cell phone in his hand. Both officers contend they thought Mark had a gun. Video footage does not resolve the dispute. Fox fired two shots. Mark fell to the floor and kicked the door shut. He yelled to his wife to call 9-1-1 because somebody was shooting at them. Although Fox fired eight shots, no one was hit. Other officers arrived and apprehended Mark. No firearms were found in the home. Mark was charged with aggravated assault; the charges were ultimately dismissed.The Campbells sued Fox in his individual capacity under 42 U.S.C. 1983. The Sixth Circuit affirmed the denial of qualified immunity summary judgment. Fox’s actions constituted a “seizure” under the Fourth Amendment; a reasonable person would not believe that he was free to leave a house while an officer repeatedly fired at the door. Accepting the Campbells’ version of the facts, a reasonable jury could find that Fox’s use of deadly force was objectively unreasonable. View "Campbell v. Cheatham County Sheriff's Department" on Justia Law

Ethicon manufactures a mesh sling, used to treat stress urinary incontinence, and a posterior mesh “Prolift, “designed to treat pelvic organ prolapse. In 2009, Dr. Guiler surgically implanted both devices to treat Thacker. Before the surgery, Thacker reviewed and signed an informed consent form that listed several risks, including: “infections and/or erosions of the mesh” which could require additional follow-up surgeries, urinary retention, “[p]ainful intercourse and vaginal shortening,” and treatment failure. After the surgery, Thacker’s incontinence worsened, and she suffered from shooting pain in her groin area and severe abdominal swelling and bloating. In 2010, Thacker started experiencing severe and unbearable pain during intercourse.Thacker ultimately sued Ethicon, alleging strict liability and negligence claims under the Kentucky Product Liability Act for design defect and failure to warn. The district court granted Ethicon summary judgment. The Sixth Circuit reversed. Dr. Guiler’s testimony suggested that he likely would have recommended a different course of treatment had Ethicon given adequate information. Thacker’s expert testified that no reasonable physician would have used the Pelvic Mesh Devices to treat Thacker had Ethicon given adequate information in 2009. A jury could accept that expert’s opinion that a feasible alternative design would have prevented Thacker’s injuries. View "Thacker v. Ethicon, Inc." on Justia Law

Richards sold her home six days before filing a chapter 7 bankruptcy petition, netting $36,793.60, which Richards placed into escrow with the Wilkey law firm, which represents Richards in her bankruptcy proceeding. Richards disclosed the sale of her residence on her Statement of Financial Affairs and provided a copy of the escrow ledger to the Trustee. Richards claimed that the proceeds from the sale were exempt under 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(1) as proceeds from the sale of Richards’s residence. The chapter 7 Trustee filed an objection, which the bankruptcy court sustained, finding no language in section 522(d)(1) that would permit the exemption of the proceeds from the prepetition sale of the Richards’s homestead.The Sixth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel affirmed. The proceeds were not being “used as a residence” at the time the petition was filed. Section 522(d)(1) provides for an exemption in “the debtor’s aggregate interest, not to exceed $25,150 in value, in real property or personal property that the debtor or a dependent of the debtor uses as a residence.” The language of the Code is unambiguous, vesting no exemption power in the proceeds arising out of the prepetition sale of a debtor’s homestead. View "In re: Richards" on Justia Law

Corporations with foreign subsidiaries frequently disagree with the IRS about calculating prices in transactions between the U.S. corporation and such subsidiaries. Eaton and the IRS entered advance pricing agreements (APAs) to govern Eaton’s tax calculations concerning its foreign subsidiaries from 2001-2010. The APAs described a transfer-pricing methodology (TPM) that requires Eaton to calculate the transfer price using two steps: The APAs required Eaton to file annual reports. After a few years, Eaton reviewed its records and caught some inadvertent calculation errors. After informing the IRS, Eaton corrected the mistakes. The IRS thought that Eaton’s mistakes warranted its unilateral cancellation of the APAs for tax years 2005 and 2006. The IRS issued a notice claiming a deficiency of tens of millions of dollars.The Tax Court found that the IRS had wrongfully canceled the APAs and rejected the IRS’s claim for 40 percent penalties under 26 U.S.C. 6662(h) for Eaton’s self-reported corrections. The Sixth Circuit affirmed in part, in favor of Eaton. The grounds for cancellation do not extend beyond the four corners of the APAs and do not include errors in “the supporting data and computations” used in applying the TPM. View "Eaton Corp. and Subsidiaries v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue" on Justia Law

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) oversees the Section 8 low-income housing assistance program, 42 U.S.C. 1437f. New Lansing renewed its Section 8 contract with Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority in 2014 for a 20-year term. In 2019, at the contractual time for its fifth-year rent adjustment, New Lansing submitted a rent comparability study (RCS) to assist CM Authority in determining the new contract rents. Following the 2017 HUD Section 8 Guidebook, CM Authority forwarded New Lansing’s RCS to HUD, which obtained an independent RCS. Based on the independent RCS undertaken pursuant to HUD’s Guidebook requirements, the Housing Authority lowered New Lansing’s contract rents amount.The Sixth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of New Lansing’s suit for breach of contract. The Renewal Contract requires only that the Housing Authority “make any adjustments in the monthly contract rents, as reasonably determined by the contract administrator in accordance with HUD requirements, necessary to set the contract rents for all unit sizes at comparable market rents.” HUD has authority to prescribe how to determine comparable market rents, the Renewal Contract adopted those requirements, and thus the Housing Authority was required to follow those HUD methods. The Housing Authority did not act unreasonably by following the requirements in the 2017 HUD guidance. View "New Lansing Gardens Housing Limited Partnership v. Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority" on Justia Law

ACT publishes “WorkKeys”—“a system of workforce-development assessments that measure skills affecting job performance” and “Skill Definitions,” descriptions of the skills tested by each assessment. ACT collaborated with WIN to promulgate those assessments, from 1997-2011. The contractual relationship ended in 2011. WIN developed and promoted its own career-readiness-assessment materials. In 2017, ACT contracted with the South Carolina Department of Education and Workforce to provide its WorkKeys assessments to state employers. The state later solicited competing bids for new assessments, ultimately awarding the contract to WIN. WIN’s “Learning Objectives” for Applied Mathematics, Locating Information, and Reading for Information assessments were virtually indistinguishable from ACT’s Skill Definitions. ACT sued.The district court granted ACT partial summary judgment on copyright claims. When the COVID-19 pandemic caused prolonged delays in the litigation, WIN enlisted an education consultant to revise its product. The court ordered ACT to amend its complaint to include allegations about the revised Learning Objectives. WIN then unsuccessfully tried to assert a new defense: derivative sovereign immunity. The district court entered a preliminary injunction, restraining WIN from knowingly infringing ACT’s copyrights in its Skill Definitions, 17 U.S.C. 106, barring WIN from distributing the original and revised Learning Objectives and WIN’s corresponding assessments. The Sixth Circuit affirmed the imposition (and scope) of that preliminary injunction and the rejection, as untimely, of WIN’s argument that because WIN designed the Learning Objectives to bid on state contracts, it was entitled to assert state sovereign immunity. View "ACT, Inc. v. Worldwide Interactive Network, Inc." on Justia Law

On November 17, 1997, an Ashtabula Police dispatcher advised officers that Jones, who had outstanding felony warrants, had been spotted. Days earlier, Jones had told his cousin that he “was facing a lot of time” and “was going to shoot at the police if they ever tried to arrest him.” Officer Glover found Jones, who pulled a revolver from his pocket and fired several shots at Glover. Jones kicked Glover in the chest, then fled the scene. Officers apprehended Jones and recovered the weapon, which used hollow-point bullets. Officer Glover died the following morning.Jones was convicted of murder. During the penalty phase, Jones’s counsel presented testimony from a clinical psychologist who diagnosed Jones with Antisocial Personality Disorder and testified that Black men with this disorder (including Jones) would commit more murders—he claimed that about one in four “African-American urban males” suffered from the disorder, and the only treatment was to “throw them away, lock them up.” The jury recommended and the court imposed the death penalty. The district court denied Jones’s petition for habeas relief. The Sixth Circuit reversed. The issue of whether Jones received ineffective assistance of counsel during the penalty phase because his attorneys failed to prepare expert witnesses properly, as shown by the psychologist’s racialized testimony, was not procedurally defaulted. On de novo review of the merits, the court held trial counsel performed ineffectively and Jones is entitled to a new sentencing. View "Jones v. Bradshaw" on Justia Law

Several members of the Romania-based “Alexandria Online Auction Fraud Network,” including Nedelcu, were charged with conspiracy to violate RICO, 18 U.S.C 1962(d); conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 18 U.S.C. 1349; and conspiracy to commit money laundering, 18 U.S.C. 1956(h). Romania extradited Nedelcu to the U.S. He pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy in exchange for the dismissal of his other charges and admitted that the government could prove certain facts beyond a reasonable doubt including that a Confidential Source would, in accordance with Nedelcu’s instructions, launder the proceeds of fraud by exchanging fraud proceeds into bitcoin to conceal the source, nature, ownership, and control of those proceeds. Nedelcu and the CS laundered approximately $5,600. The PSR concluded that two money-laundering provisions applied: U.S.S.G. 2S1.1(b)(2)(B) increases a defendant’s offense level by two “[i]f the defendant was convicted under 18 U.S.C. 1956” and section 2S1.1(b)(3), provides that, if 2S1.1(b)(2)(B) applies and the offense involved “sophisticated laundering” a further two-level increase is necessary.With a Guidelines Range of 78-97 months’ imprisonment, the court imposed a sentence of 82 months. The Sixth Circuit affirmed. Because the factual basis for Nedelcu’s plea agreement specifically established that he committed money laundering as a predicate for his RICO conviction, the Guidelines compelled the district court to sentence him “as if” he had been convicted of money laundering. View "United States v. Nedelcu" on Justia Law

TVA's “15-foot rule” provided that TVA would remove all trees from rights-of-way if the trees had the potential to grow over 15 feet tall, even if the trees did not pose a threat to power lines. Owners claimed that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) required the TVA to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the rule because it was a new major federal action. Following two remands, TVA conceded that the rule violated NEPA and asserted that it had published a notice in the Federal Register to inform the public that it would prepare a programmatic EIS to evaluate the 15-foot rule. The court issued an injunction but stated that the plaintiffs would need to file a separate lawsuit to challenge the sufficiency of the EIS. TVA later successfully moved to dissolve the injunction, claiming that it had held a statutory public comment period and issued a final programmatic EIS, rejecting the 15-foot rule and adopting “Alternative C: Condition-Based Control Strategy.”The Sixth Circuit reversed. The district court has not yet determined, in light of the administrative record, whether TVA took a hard look at the environmental consequences of its action, and TVA’s action has not been shown to be so different from the 15-foot rule as to warrant a whole new suit to obtain judicial review. View "Sherwood v. Tennessee Valley Authority" on Justia Law