U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

The Tenth Circuit denied Julio Cesar Hernandez's petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals' denial of his cancellation of removal application, affirming the immigration judge's finding that the hardship to his U.S.-citizen son was not "exceptional and extremely unusual." The court applied a deferential…

The Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment because the pro se appellants failed to comply with the procedural requirements for appellate briefing, thereby waiving review of the district court’s rulings.

The Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the plaintiff’s §1983 action, holding that Younger abstention barred the equitable claims, Eleventh Amendment and quasi‑judicial immunity barred the claims against the judge and guardian ad litem, and the plaintiff failed to state a claim against private…

The Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of an extension of time to file a notice of appeal and declined to review the underlying compassionate release motion, finding no abuse of discretion.

The Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of Mr. Hollers’s civil‑rights action, finding that his complaint failed to state a plausible claim and that the defendants were protected by Eleventh Amendment immunity, judicial immunity, Younger abstention, and the Anti‑Injunction Act.

The Tenth Circuit affirmed Mr. Gomez's 84‑month prison sentence for arson, finding the district court's upward variance and consideration of sentencing factors were not substantively unreasonable.

The Tenth Circuit denied Larry Collins's petition for a certificate of appealability and dismissed the case, finding that none of his asserted claims were debatable under the standards for a COA.

The Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment on the plaintiff’s §1981 and §2000a discrimination claims, finding she failed to establish a prima facie case because she offered no comparator.

The court held that the officer had probable cause to arrest Sigala-Baray for failing to present proof of insurance after considering the totality of the circumstances, including the incorrect insurance document, the owner's statements and search efforts, and the apparent license-plate mismatch.

The court dismissed Bayne’s interlocutory appeal for lack of jurisdiction because an order requiring an already-detained defendant to undergo a competency evaluation does not satisfy the collateral-order doctrine’s importance requirement.

The court dismissed the petition for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction because the Board of Immigration Appeals had not issued a final order of removal. It held that neither APA final-agency-action principles nor the INA provision concerning constitutional claims and questions of law independently supplied…

The court reversed the denial of the defendants’ motions to compel arbitration because the district court defined the relevant transportation-worker class by focusing on the named employees’ individual duties rather than the typical work of the class as a whole.

The court reversed summary judgment for ENMU on the Does’ Title IX deliberate-indifference claims. It held that control over a harasser is a functional, fact-specific inquiry and that ENMU had sufficient indirect control over Glen and the circumstances of the alleged abuse to allow the claims to proceed, although the…

The court affirmed the denial of default judgment and the dismissal of the amended complaint. It held that the defendants' response deadline was measured from the later service on the United States Attorney, that the district court properly extended the response period, and that the defendants timely filed a motion to…

The court independently reviewed the record, granted appointed counsel’s motion to withdraw, denied a certificate of appealability, and dismissed the matter. It concluded that the governing Sixth Amendment rule required Gaines to show prejudice from the government’s intrusion into attorney-client communications, and…

The court affirmed George’s 180-month sentence, holding that the above-Guidelines sentence was substantively reasonable under the deferential abuse-of-discretion standard. The sentencing court reasonably weighed the extraordinary violence of the offense, the gang’s use of violence to advance its criminal enterprise…

The court affirmed Dutton's 84-month sentence, concluding that the district court properly applied the four-level enhancement for possessing firearms in connection with another felony offense.

The court affirmed the denial of Clark's second coram nobis petition because all three asserted grounds were procedurally barred. The first two grounds could have been raised on direct appeal or in an earlier collateral attack, while the restitution-disparity claim was untimely because Clark could have discovered the…

The court dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction because the plaintiffs’ notice of appeal did not identify the interlocutory order denying a preliminary injunction against Utah’s flavored e-cigarette ban.

The court affirmed dismissal of the consolidated class action because the plaintiffs' fraud-based claims were untimely under Utah's three-year discovery rule. It held that the widespread 2019–2020 publicity concerning the alleged misuse of donated funds gave reasonably diligent plaintiffs constructive knowledge of…

The court affirmed summary judgment for Linde on Bo Zou's race, age, and retaliation claims because his evidence was circumstantial and did not show that Linde's stated reduction-in-force rationale was pretextual.

The Tenth Circuit affirmed the denial of Jaime Valdez's motion to suppress the drugs and firearms underlying his convictions. It held the stop was supported by reasonable suspicion because Valdez had thrown a duffel bag over a stranger's fence while fleeing, retrieved it, and then loitered nervously in a high-crime…

The court dismissed Ronald Irving’s appeal from the denial of his motion for a sentence reduction under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) after granting appointed counsel’s motion to withdraw under the Anders procedure.

The court dismissed the appeal as moot because the defendant had fully served his seven-month revocation sentence, received no additional supervised-release term, and could no longer obtain meaningful relief.

The court denied Hamilton a certificate of appealability and dismissed his appeal from the denial of his § 2254 petition. It held that Hamilton failed to show that reasonable jurists could debate either the district court’s ruling that his perjury-based due-process claim was untimely or its rejection of his…

The court held that the Board of Immigration Appeals misapplied clear-error review when it rejected several factual findings supporting the petitioner's protection under the Convention Against Torture.

The court denied a certificate of appealability because Martinez did not show that reasonable jurists could debate the district court's procedural rulings. His actual-innocence evidence did not satisfy the gateway standard, and his objections were untimely and insufficiently specific under the firm-waiver rule.

The Tenth Circuit affirmed dismissal with prejudice of Miller’s claims against Chief Judge DeGiusti because the challenged conduct consisted of judicial acts performed while presiding over a case within the court’s jurisdiction.

The court affirmed dismissal of Twitty’s coram nobis petition challenging his prosecution under the Assimilated Crimes Act. It held that coram nobis relief is unavailable because the challenge was raised, or could have been raised, on direct appeal or in a motion under § 2255.

The court dismissed Foster’s sentencing appeal because he expressly waived his right to appeal, and the alleged error did not satisfy the miscarriage-of-justice exception. The court held that an allegedly unsupported factual finding supporting an upward variance was a standard sentencing error, not an egregious error…

The court affirmed dismissal without prejudice of the prisoner's § 1983 complaint because the second amended complaint did not comply with Rule 8(a). The complaint was lengthy, repetitive, conclusory, and failed to identify clearly what each defendant did, when the conduct occurred, how it caused harm, and which…

The court denied the petition for review because the petitioner failed to exhaust his equitable-tolling theory before the agency, despite having argued that the agency should use an alternative age-calculation method.

The Tenth Circuit affirmed the denial of Alin Dumitrascu's motions for judicial recusal and extraordinary post-judgment relief under Rule 60(b)(6). The court held that several arguments were waived because Alin did not preserve them below, and that the district court acted within its discretion in rejecting the…

The court affirmed the denial of the defendant's motion for a sentence reduction because the district court gave two independent reasons for denying relief and the defendant challenged only one.

The court affirmed the denial of Fuston's federal habeas petition on both claims. It held that the state court reasonably applied the lesser-included-offense rule because the trial evidence did not permit a rational juror to find that Fuston lacked the intent to kill, and that existing constitutional precedent did not…

The court affirmed Kahn's convictions after concluding that the district court properly admitted expert testimony addressing prescribing standards, sufficient evidence supported both the continuing-criminal-enterprise conviction and the conviction involving Burch's death, and the prescribing regulation properly…

The court affirmed Dawson’s 60-month sentence, holding that the government proved by a preponderance of the evidence that he was still serving two juvenile sentences within five years of the federal firearm offense.

The court affirmed the denial of Stokes's Rule 60(b) motion seeking relief from a judgment dismissing his § 1983 action as duplicative of a parallel suit. It held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding no excusable neglect under Rule 60(b)(1) and no basis for relief under Rule 60(b)(6)…

The court affirmed all three district-court judgments arising from Reuter’s proposed federal actions and attempted removal filing. It held that Reuter’s briefs failed to present coherent arguments showing error in the first two dismissals, and that she failed to comply with filing restrictions and failed to challenge…

The court affirmed dismissal without prejudice of the prisoner’s civil-rights action because the requested relief would imply that his federal conviction or sentence was invalid.