2024 Fifth Circuit US Court of Appeals Case Law

Justia Opinion Summary: DC Operating, a strip club in El Paso, Texas, and two of its employees, Nuvia Medina and Michelle Corral, challenged the constitutionality of S.B. 315, a Texas law that raised the minimum age of employment at…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case involves a dispute between Sentry Insurance and James J. Morgan, who operates a business. Morgan's properties, insured by Sentry, suffered wind and hail damage from a storm. Sentry estimated the damages at…

Justia Opinion Summary: Dr. Randy Lamartiniere, an internal medicine doctor, was convicted of twenty counts of unlawful distribution of controlled substances. Lamartiniere had been practicing medicine for approximately thirty years and had a…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this case, Austin Thompson Hughes, a former police officer and Uber driver, reported a drunk driver swerving across a highway in Houston. After the drunk driver crashed, Hughes, still on the phone with 911, performed…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves Kholkar Vishveshwar Ganpat, an Indian citizen, who contracted malaria while working as a crew member on a Liberian-flagged ship managed by Eastern Pacific Shipping Pte., Limited (EPS), a Singaporean…

Justia Opinion Summary: Sonia Rangel and her two minor children, Luisa and Mary Loredo, citizens of Mexico who entered the United States illegally, sought asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT).…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves a dispute between BMC Software, Inc. (BMC) and International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) over a Master Licensing Agreement (MLA) and an Outsourcing Attachment. BMC, a software company, and IBM,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Levi Rudder, a non-lawyer, was sanctioned by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas for engaging in unauthorized practice of law. Rudder had contacted a detainee facing federal firearm…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves a dispute arising from the financial fallout of Winter Storm Uri, which severely impacted Texas's electrical grid in 2021. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), responsible for managing the…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves a challenge by the Sierra Club to the pre-construction permits issued by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) to Commonwealth LNG, LLC for its planned liquefied natural gas (LNG)…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves a challenge to the provisions of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022, which expanded background checks for firearm purchases by individuals aged 18 to 20. The plaintiffs, Ethan McRorey, Kaylee…

Justia Opinion Summary: A car accident occurred during Race Wars 2, an amateur drag racing event organized by Flyin’ Diesel Performance & Offroad, L.L.C. The accident resulted in injuries and deaths among spectators. The injured parties and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Kyle Lamar West was charged with seven counts of production of child pornography. He negotiated a plea agreement, pleading guilty to two counts in exchange for the dismissal of the other five. The plea agreement included…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves Thomas Perkins, who was convicted of one count of distributing child pornography and eight counts of possessing devices containing child pornography. Perkins, who has mental health issues, was deemed…

Justia Opinion Summary: A class of stock purchasers alleged that Anadarko Petroleum Corporation fraudulently misrepresented the potential value of its Shenandoah oil field project in the Gulf of Mexico, violating federal securities law. The…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves Elliott Sterling, who was convicted for engaging in a fraudulent scheme to obtain loan and grant funds from the Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid Program. Sterling submitted fraudulent…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case revolves around a dispute between Good River Farms and Martin Marietta Materials and TXI Operations, who own land directly across from each other along the Colorado River. In 2015, a "120-year flood" event…

Justia Opinion Summary: Nicholas Queen, a former federal prisoner, filed a lawsuit against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), alleging that prison officials physically assaulted him in January 2019. The incident…

Justia Opinion Summary: In September 2020, George Fluitt was indicted on three counts of fraud and offering kickbacks related to genetic testing services that his company, Specialty Drug Testing LLC, provided to Medicare beneficiaries. As part…

Justia Opinion Summary: Rick Milteer, a disabled veteran and an observant African American Messianic Jewish believer, was employed by Navarro County, Texas, in its Texoma High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) division as an Information…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case revolves around a series of maritime accidents caused by the breakaway of a drillship, the DPDS1, owned by Paragon Asset Company, during Hurricane Harvey in Port Aransas, Texas. Paragon had hired two tugboats…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves Maria E. Garcia and Liang Guo Yu, who were convicted for money laundering. The charges stemmed from their involvement with the Villalobos drug trafficking organization (DTO) in Houston, Texas. The DTO…

Justia Opinion Summary: Sandra Beatriz Bustamante-Leiva and her three children, natives and citizens of Honduras, entered the United States illegally near Hildalgo, Texas. They were charged with removability under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i)…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case revolves around a dispute over the eligibility of a dredging barge, the DB AVALON, to operate in U.S. waters. Federal law stipulates that only vessels "built in the United States" can dredge in U.S. waters, a…

Justia Opinion Summary: GFS Industries, a Texas limited liability corporation, entered into an agreement with Avion Funding to receive $190,000 in exchange for $299,800 of GFS’s future receivables. GFS stated it had not filed, nor did it…

Justia Opinion Summary: Danny Richard Rivers, an inmate in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, filed a second habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 while his first petition was still pending on appeal. The second petition…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves Marcus Anderson and Reed Clark, current and former employees of Harris County, who allege that Constable Christopher Diaz violated their First Amendment rights. They claim that Diaz instituted reforms…

Justia Opinion Summary: Elden Don Brannan was living with his sister and her three children in Corpus Christi, Texas. In 2022, Brannan's sister called 911 to report that Brannan had assaulted her boyfriend and was threatening suicide. She…

Justia Opinion Summary: Eric Demond Lozano, a Texas state prisoner and Sunni Muslim, filed a lawsuit against three officials of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) alleging violations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized…

Justia Opinion Summary: Two members of the Lipan-Apache Native American Church, Gary Perez and Matilde Torres, sued the City of San Antonio over its development plan for Brackenridge Park. They claimed that the plan, which involved tree removal…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case revolves around the procedural interplay between two Mississippi statutes—the Mississippi Tort Claims Act (MTCA) and the Mississippi Whistleblower Protection Act (MWPA). Mark Johnson, the plaintiff, filed a…

Justia Opinion Summary: A group of Indian nationals, legally present in the United States on employment-based visas, filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of State and the Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The…

Justia Opinion Summary: The estate and heirs of Dale O'Neal, a pre-trial detainee who was murdered by his cellmate in Clay County's jail, filed a lawsuit against several officers and the county under Section 1983. They alleged that the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Courtney D. Clayton was indicted on one count of possession with intent to distribute heroin, fentanyl, and cocaine. As part of a three-month drug trafficking investigation, officers conducted video surveillance of…

Justia Opinion Summary: A group of business associations, including the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of Texas against the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau (CFPB). The plaintiffs challenged a new…

Justia Opinion Summary: Highland Capital Management, L.P., a firm co-founded by James Dondero, filed for bankruptcy in 2019 due to litigation claims. As part of a settlement agreement, Dondero relinquished control of Highland to three…

Justia Opinion Summary: A group of individuals, including D&T Partners LLC and ACET Global LLC, alleged that Baymark Partners Management LLC and others attempted to steal the assets and trade secrets of their e-commerce company through shell…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case revolves around Susan Miller, who sued Michaels Stores, Inc. for negligence after she slipped and fell in one of their stores in Slidell, Louisiana, during a rainstorm. Miller claimed that she had entered the…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case revolves around a dispute between the Career Colleges and Schools of Texas (CCST) and the United States Department of Education over new regulations that will facilitate certain student loan discharges. The…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this case, a government agency had approved a license to construct and operate a massive deepwater oil facility off the coast of Texas. Several environmental organizations alleged that the approval was unreasonable,…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case involves a dispute between Sheet Pile, LLC and Plymouth Tube Company. The conflict arose from an exclusivity agreement, in which Plymouth agreed to manufacture certain products only for PilePro, Sheet Pile's…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this case, the plaintiffs, Carl and Mary Ellen Schnell, filed an insurance claim with their home insurer, State Farm Lloyds, after a hailstorm damaged their home's roof. State Farm accepted coverage for some claims…

Justia Opinion Summary: In an effort to curb illegal immigration, the Texas legislature passed Senate Bill 4 (S.B. 4), which amended various statutes. The new laws prohibited noncitizens from illegally entering or reentering the state and…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves Michael Garrett, a prisoner in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice system for over thirty years, who contends that the prison's schedule allows him only three and a half hours of sleep per night,…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed a verdict from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The plaintiffs, C. Sidney Johnston and Danette Johnston,…

Justia Opinion Summary: In a case before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the defendant, Clarence Santiago, appealed both his conviction and sentence related to drug trafficking and firearms charges. Santiago and his…

Justia Opinion Summary: In a case heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and other cigarette manufacturers and retailers challenged the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) new…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves a petition by Inhance Technologies, L.L.C. against orders issued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Inhance, a company that has been fluorinating plastic containers since 1983,…

Justia Opinion Summary: This federal appeal case involves the claim of Eric Cruz, a former pretrial detainee at the Lubbock County Detention Center (LCDC), against Officer Domingo Cervantez. Cruz alleged that Cervantez violated his…

Justia Opinion Summary: The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the conviction and sentence of defendant Vincent Marchetti, Jr., who was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit illegal remunerations in…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this case before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the plaintiff, Lebene Konan, alleged that the United States Postal Service (USPS) employees intentionally withheld her mail for two years.…

Justia Opinion Summary: In the case considered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, employee Michael Ashford sued his former employer, Aeroframe Services, and Aviation Technical Services (ATS), alleging unpaid wages and…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2015, Christopher Novinger and ICAN Investment Group, L.L.C. were sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for fraudulently offering and selling life settlement interests in violation of the Securities and…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case was heard in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit between former Blue Cube employee Elizabeth Cerda and her former employer, Blue Cube Operations, L.L.C. Cerda had been terminated for…

Justia Opinion Summary: Gold Coast Commodities, Inc., a company that converts used cooking oil and vegetable by-products into animal feed ingredients, was insured under a policy by Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America. The policy…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit examined a case involving widowed octogenarians Iris Calogero and Margie Nell Randolph, who received dunning letters from a Louisiana law firm,…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2022, Richard Schorovsky pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, violating 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). He had prior convictions in Texas for felony robbery, aggravated robbery, and burglary of a…

Justia Opinion Summary: The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reviewed a case involving the question of whether the federal Title X program preempts a Texas law that gives parents the right to consent to their teenagers’…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case involves a maritime personal injury claim brought by Plaintiff Shanon Roy Santee against his employer, Oceaneering International, Inc., and two other companies, Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling, Inc. and…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case involved an appeal by David Clapper, who had filed a lawsuit against American Realty Investors, Inc., and other associated entities. Clapper alleged that these entities had transferred assets to avoid paying a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Marvin Jackson attended a World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) event and alleges that a pyrotechnics blast caused him to lose most of his hearing in his left ear. The tickets were purchased as a surprise gift by his…