Background: Joseph Berney Vasquez sought to adopt his wife Jennifer Lynn Vasquez’s two children without the consent of their natural father, Clay Alan Butler. The petition alleged that Butler had failed both to comply substantially with his child-support obligation and to maintain a substantial and positive relationship with the children during the statutory period.
Held: The Oklahoma Supreme Court vacated the Court of Civil Appeals’ opinion and affirmed the district court’s order determining that the children were eligible for adoption without Butler’s consent. Clear and convincing evidence supported the findings that Butler failed to maintain frequent and regular contact with either child for 12 consecutive months of the 14 months immediately preceding the adoption petition.…
Background: For more than 30 years, federal immigration authorities generally avoided enforcement operations at sensitive locations, including houses of worship. A 2021 Department of Homeland Security memorandum instructed officers, to the fullest extent possible, not to take enforcement action in or near protected areas and generally required advance approval from agency headquarters. In January 2025, DHS…
Held: In a 2-1 decision, the D.C. Circuit reversed. The majority held that all plaintiffs likely had associational standing on behalf of their member congregations based on the imminent threat of increased immigration enforcement at houses of worship. Because the case involved an agency policy allegedly burdening religious expression, the court applied the credible-threat standard for pre-enforcement challenges rather than the…
Background: Mr Cheng Meng Koon married Ms Dang Lan Anh, a Vietnamese national, in January 2011 and died intestate less than a year later. As his wife, Ms Dang stood to receive half his estate. His only son, Mr Cheng Tze Tzuen, sought a declaration that the marriage was void, relying on circumstantial evidence that it…
Held: By a 2–1 majority, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. Section 105 of the Women’s Charter exhaustively states the grounds on which a marriage may be void, including when a third party seeks a declaration through the High Court’s general civil jurisdiction. Section 11A, which makes certain marriages of convenience void, applies only to marriages solemnised on or after…
Background: Cory Marvin Baker was convicted of attempted receipt of child pornography under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252A(a)(2) and (b)(1). His probation officer discovered prohibited internet-capable devices in his home. The devices reflected searches using terms such as “young naked teen boys,” sometimes narrowed with “boys” or “young,” and contained cached images of young-looking people engaged in…
Held: The Eighth Circuit affirmed. Viewing the evidence in the government’s favor, the majority held that a reasonable jury could infer the required intent from Baker’s searches emphasizing young people and boys. It also held that the cached images permitted a finding that Baker repeatedly tried to access child pornography, constituting a substantial step toward receipt even though the apparent subjects’…
Background: Knife Rights, two Texas knife retailers, their owners, and several individuals brought a pre-enforcement action challenging two provisions of the Federal Switchblade Act. Section 1242 criminalizes knowingly introducing or manufacturing switchblades for introduction into interstate commerce, or transporting or distributing them in interstate commerce. Section 1243 restricts manufacturing, selling, or possessing switchblades in federal territories…
Held: The Fifth Circuit held that the plaintiffs had pre-enforcement standing to challenge both provisions. The government had expressly declined to disavow enforcement, and the plaintiffs alleged concrete plans to engage in conduct the provisions arguably prohibited. One plaintiff who lived on Muscogee Nation land therefore had standing to challenge § 1243 even though the Justice Department had identified no prosecution…
Background: Hayatullah Zahid, an Afghan citizen and former provincial education official, protested the Taliban’s closure of girls’ schools and shared photographs and video of the demonstration. Taliban officials arrested him in 2022, detained him for seven days, beat and interrogated him, and accused him of working for the United States. After his release, he remained in…
Held: The Fifth Circuit denied both petitions for review. It held that substantial-evidence review applies to the agency’s entire CAT-eligibility determination, including its application of the legal standard to the facts. The court rejected Zahid’s arguments that the BIA failed to review his claim de novo, that past persecution created a presumption of future torture, and that the BIA disregarded country-conditions…
Background: Mohammad Fawwaz Qaiymah, a Jordanian citizen, entered the United States lawfully in 2014. After he was convicted in Virginia of obtaining money by false pretenses through a fraudulent credit-card scheme, the Department of Homeland Security charged him with removability for committing a crime involving moral turpitude. Qaiymah sought asylum, humanitarian asylum, withholding of removal, and…
Held: The Fourth Circuit denied the petition. Substantial evidence supported the agency’s finding that Abdul targeted Qaiymah because of his youth, poverty, isolation, and vulnerability—not because Abdul perceived him as homosexual. Although the video and threat of disclosure helped Abdul coerce Qaiymah, the record did not compel a finding that imputed homosexuality was one central reason for the assaults. The court…
Background: Patients filed putative class actions against four health care providers in Indiana and Illinois, alleging that Meta Pixel tracking software embedded in the providers’ websites disclosed health information without consent. The claims arose under state law, including claims for breach of implied contract, unjust enrichment, and violations of state consumer-protection and wiretapping laws.
Held: The Seventh Circuit affirmed all four remand orders. It held that the providers were not “acting under” a federal officer or agency when they created and maintained their patient portals. Their participation in the federal Meaningful Use Program amounted to compliance with federal regulation and response to federal incentives—not performance of a governmental duty delegated to them.
Background: Members of the 1125 street gang suspected that Taliyah Jackson had helped arrange the shooting and carjacking of gang member Cortez Blake. They took Jackson to a vacant lot and then Blake’s house, where armed participants questioned and assaulted her during a detention lasting more than seven hours. A video showed Nasir Lewis standing over…
Held: The Sixth Circuit affirmed. It held that Lewis could not challenge warrants targeting other people’s Instagram or Google accounts because Fourth Amendment rights are personal and he had no property, possessory, or privacy interest in those accounts. His participation in a private group chat did not give him a reasonable expectation of privacy in copies of the messages stored in…
Background: Zhu Zhai Holdings Limited and Peter Pui Tak Lee obtained a roughly $4.5 million default judgment against Steven Ivankovich based on his guarantees of unpaid loans. To collect, they initiated supplementary proceedings under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 69 and Illinois law and served a citation on Walker & Dunlop, which was holding approximately $1.5…
Held: The Seventh Circuit affirmed the orders affecting the Pilgrim LLCs. It held that the district court’s November 14 order was final and appealable because it approved the agreed disbursement and resolved all parties’ rights in the contested funds. The court dismissed Ivankovich’s separate appeal for lack of standing because he did not identify a personal injury that an appellate ruling…
Background: Whitney Oil and Gas produces oil and gas in waters off Louisiana, while Quality Process Services supplied Whitney with contract laborers under a 2016 Master Service Agreement. QPS production operators ordinarily piloted vessels to Whitney’s offshore platforms, left the vessels, and performed production work such as reading gauges, checking pipes, and monitoring well operations. They…
Held: The Fifth Circuit affirmed that the MSA was not a maritime contract. Although the agreement facilitated offshore oil-and-gas production, the parties did not expect vessels to play a substantial role in completing QPS’s contracted work. The vessels principally transported operators to platforms, where they disembarked to perform nonmaritime production tasks. The operators’ piloting of those vessels was incidental to the…
Background: Zhu Zhai Holdings Limited and Peter Pui Tak Lee obtained a roughly $4.5 million default judgment against Steven Ivankovich based on his guarantees of unpaid loans. Seeking to collect, they served a citation on Walker & Dunlop, which held approximately $1.5 million that had been escrowed to secure tax and insurance obligations associated with loans…
Held: The Seventh Circuit held that it had jurisdiction over the Pilgrim LLCs’ timely appeal from the district court’s final November 14 disbursement order, which resolved all remaining claims to the funds. The court dismissed the LLCs’ earlier appeals as duplicative and dismissed Ivankovich’s appeal for lack of standing because he identified no personal injury from the ruling that the funds…