Congressional Court Watcher: Recent Appellate Decisions of Interest to Lawmakers (April 3-April 7, 2023)
Legal Sidebari
Congressional Court Watcher: Recent
Appellate Decisions of Interest to Lawmakers
(April 3-April 7, 2023)
April 11, 2023
The federal courts issue hundreds of decisions every week in cases involving diverse legal disputes. This
Sidebar series selects decisions from the past week that may be of particular interest to federal lawmakers,
focusing on the orders and decisions of the Supreme Court and precedential decisions of the courts of
appeals for the thirteen federal circuits. Selected cases typically involve the interpretation or validity of
federal statutes and regulations, or constitutional issues relevant to Congress’s lawmaking and oversight
functions.
Some of the cases identified in this Sidebar, or the legal questions they address, are examined in other
CRS general distribution products. Members of Congress and congressional staff may contact the authors
to subscribe to the CRS Legal Update newsletter and receive regular notifications of new products
published by CRS attorneys.
Decisions of the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court did not issue any opinions or agree to review any cases this week.
Decisions of the U.S. Courts of Appeals
Topic headings marked with an asterisk (*) indicate cases in which the appellate court’s controlling
opinion recognizes a split among the federal appellate courts on a key legal issue resolved in the opinion,
contributing to a nonuniform application of the law among the circuits.
*Civil Rights: The Sixth Circuit held that children seeking redress for the wrongful
incarceration of a parent, absent state action against the children themselves, do not have
a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which creates a private cause of action if a state actor
violates rights established by the Constitution. The court held that the claim at issue
failed because, even assuming that the children had a right to family integrity under the
Fourteenth Amendment, they did not prove the state acted with the intent to disrupt their
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family integrity. The case creates a circuit split with at least the Ninth Circuit, which
allows children to sue for harm caused by the wrongful incarceration of a parent without
additional state action (Chambers v. Sanders).
Civil Rights: A divided Seventh Circuit rejected a Title VII religious discrimination and
retaliation suit brought by a former teacher who objected on religious grounds to using
the first names of transgender students to the extent that he deemed those names to be
inconsistent with their sex recorded at birth. The majority first determined that, at this
stage, the plaintiff had established that his refusal to use the preferred names and
pronouns of transgender students was based on a sincerely held religious belief. The
majority then held that the school had met its burden under Title VII of showing that
accommodating the plaintiff’s religious beliefs would constitute an undue hardship, as the
accommodation (i.e., allowing the plaintiff to call all students by their last names) was
tried, and the school found that it emotionally harmed transgender students and disrupted
the overall learning environment. As to the retaliation claim, the majority concluded that
the plaintiff failed to draw a causal connection between his request for a religious
accommodation and his alleged constructive termination from the school (Kluge v.
Brownsburg Community School Corporation).
Criminal Law & Procedure: A divided D.C. Circuit held that individuals who allegedly
assaulted law enforcement officers while participating in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot
can be charged with corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official
proceeding in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2). Section 1512(c)(2) makes it unlawful
to corruptly (1) alter, destroy, mutilate, or conceal a record, document, or other object, or
attempt to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in
an official proceeding; or (2) otherwise obstruct, influence, or impede any official
proceeding, or attempt to do so. The district court determined that a violation of this
provision requires some action with respect to a document, record, or other object in
order to corruptly obstruct, impede, or influence an official proceeding. The majority
held, instead, that Section 1512(c)(2) applies to all forms of corrupt obstruction of an
official proceeding, including the defendants’ efforts to stop Congress from certifying the
results of the 2020 presidential election (United States v. Fischer).
Criminal Law & Procedure: The Eleventh Circuit concluded that home confinement of
federal criminal offenders—as authorized under 18 U.S.C. §§ 3563(b)(19) and
3583(e)(4)—may only be imposed as an alternative to incarceration. Based on this
understanding, the court vacated a criminal defendant’s revised sentence that included
both the relevant statutory maximum period of imprisonment and an additional one-year
term of home confinement. The court held that it is illegal to impose home confinement
in addition to, rather than as a part of, a maximum period of imprisonment (United States
v. Hall).
*Criminal Law & Procedure: The Sixth Circuit upheld the denial of a motion to
suppress incriminating statements under the Fifth Amendment, where Miranda warnings
were provided “midstream,” or in the middle of the defendant’s statements. The court
applied an objective standard to determine the admissibility of statements made after
“midstream” warnings, under which the court probed whether a reasonable suspect under
the circumstances would believe that they had a genuine choice to speak to law
enforcement after the warnings. The court held that such a genuine choice existed here,
pointing to the defendant’s eagerness to speak to the officers and the officers’ relative
disinterest in having the defendant talk. The court acknowledged that other circuits weigh
subjective considerations, particularly the intent of the officers, in assessing the
admissibility of post-warning statements (United States v. Woolridge).
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Environmental Law: In its second case relating to the Mountain Valley Pipeline in two
weeks, the Fourth Circuit vacated the West Virginia Department of Environmental
Protection’s (DEP’s) water quality certification for a portion of the pipeline project.
Under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act (CWA), applicants for a federal license or
permit to conduct activity that may discharge pollution into navigable waters must obtain
certification that the discharge will comply with applicable provisions of the CWA. The
court held that DEP’s water quality certification was arbitrary and capricious because
DEP did not sufficiently address the pipeline developer’s history of CWA violations,
require compliance with a state general permit program for oil and gas construction,
apply the correct standards for the proposed activities, or provide a reasoned explanation
for forgoing location-specific antidegradation review (Sierra Club v. West Virginia DEP).
*Firearms: The Eighth Circuit upheld the constitutionality of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(5)(A),
which provides that any alien unlawfully present in the United States is prohibited from
possessing a firearm. The appellant argued that § 922(g)(5)(A) violates the Second
Amendment, among other things. The court disagreed, holding that under circuit
precedent, illegally present aliens are not part of “the people” covered by the Second
Amendment. The Eighth Circuit’s decision places it in tension with the Second, Seventh,
Ninth, and Tenth Circuits, which have either held or assumed without deciding that such
aliens can be considered part of “the people” in at least some circumstances. The Fourth
and Fifth Circuits, like the Eighth Circuit, have held that illegally present aliens are
categorically excluded from “the people” (United States v. Sitladeen).
Immigration: A divided Fifth Circuit panel held that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction
to review a status-adjustment decision by United States Citizenship and Immigration
Services under the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires a final agency action.
The court held that status-adjustment decisions are not final because an alien retains the
right to de novo review of that decision in final removal proceedings under the
Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), and the INA allows status-adjustment
applications to be renewed during removal proceedings. Here, the plaintiff had not
exhausted those administrative remedies (Elldaki v. Garland).
Labor & Employment: The Third Circuit held that statutory deadlines for enforcement
of whistleblower protections of employees of government contractors enacted in the 2017
National Defense Authorization Act and codified at 41 U.S.C. § 4712 are not
jurisdictional. A federal contractor claimed that the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI)
lacked authority to issue an order that the contractor violated the statute’s provision
prohibiting reprisals against whistleblower employees because the statutory deadlines
passed before the order was issued. The court held that Congress intended for the
deadlines to encourage prompt agency action, not prevent a claim from proceeding under
§ 4712, and as such DOI retained jurisdiction to issue the order even after the deadlines
had passed (Jacobs Project Management Co. v. Dep't of the Interior).
Veterans: The Federal Circuit affirmed the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims’
interpretations of 38 U.S.C. §§ 5107 and 7261. The “benefit of the doubt rule” under
§ 5107(b) provides that when the evidence relating to a matter before the Board of
Veterans’ Appeals cuts both ways, the Board must give the benefit of the doubt to the
claimant. The circuit court held that while § 5107 requires the Board to identify the
probative value of positive and negative evidence in making its determination, it does not
need to precisely list all of the evidence it considered in its benefit of the doubt analysis.
In turn, § 7261(a)(4) provides that findings of fact adverse to the claimant can be reversed
if they are “clearly erroneous,” and § 7261(b) provides that the Court of Appeals for
Veterans Claims “shall take due account of the Secretary’s application of section
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5107(b).” The Federal Circuit looked to legislative history to hold that § 7261(b) is
constrained by § 7261(a), meaning that a court reviewing under § 5107(b) can only
review adverse findings of fact for clear error (Roane v. McDonough).
Author Information
Dave S. Sidhu
Madeline W. Donley
Legislative Attorney
Legislative Attorney
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