Recently in Civil Rights Law Category

In January, the D.C. Circuit gave the proverbial bench-slap to President Barack Obama and the National Labor Relations Board, holding that Obama’s appointments to the NLRB during a Senate recess were unconstitutional. Earlier this week, the D.C. Circuit did it again, invalidating a rule promulgated by the NLRB that required employers to post notices detailing workers’ rights regarding unions.

The court issued an injunction in April 2012 after two lower courts came to differing conclusions about whether the rules exceeded the board’s authority. The court noted in its opinion that the Fourth Circuit currently has a pending South Carolina case regarding the rule.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that the Obama administration can’t brag about using drones to kill terrorists overseas, but clam up about drone program documents at the drop of a FOIA request, NPR reports.

The appellate court phrased its opinion in less direct and more eloquent terms, so let’s turn to its reasoning.

The central legal issue in the case is whether government officials — including President Obama and former CIA Director and then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta — officially and publicly acknowledged the existence of the CIA’s use of drone airstrikes.

After a decade of litigation, Peter Atherton has finally lost his battle for a spot on a D.C. grand jury.

Atherton was sworn in as a District of Columbia Superior Court grand juror on April 9, 2001. The grand jury was scheduled to deliberate for 25 days, but Atherton was permanently removed from grand jury service on April 11, after an Assistant United States Attorney reported to the supervising AUSA, Daniel Zachem, that the jurors were complaining about Atherton.

Not every court-ordered record or report is available for public consumption, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week.

In 2004, after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged American International Group, Inc. (AIG) with securities violations, the parties entered into a consent decree that enjoined future violation. The decree also required AIG to retain an independent consultant to review transaction policies and procedures and to examine a number of AIG's completed transactions.

Malla Pollack, a lawyer and resident of Kentucky, wants work for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts in Washington, D.C. The Administrative Office rejected her application because she doesn't live or work in the Washington metropolitan area.

So she sued.

Considering that Pollack just wiped the floor with the government's lawyers in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, maybe they should consider hiring her.

Last week, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals gave a group of military chaplains another chance to pursue their 13-year-old discrimination case against the U.S. Navy, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The Navy maintains a Chaplain Corps of commissioned Naval officers who have the “responsibility … to provide for the free exercise of religion” for all members of the Navy and their families. Chaplains perform a “unique” role, serving both “as clergy or … professional representatives of a particular religious denomination and as … commissioned naval officers.” The Navy divides the Chaplain Corps into four “faith groups”: Catholic, liturgical Protestant, non-liturgical Protestant, and Special Worship.

In this case, “non-liturgical Protestant” military chaplains allege that the Navy systematically discriminates against members of their religious denominations when awarding promotions, thereby violating “the clearest command of the Establishment Clause … that one religious denomination cannot be officially preferred over another.”

Most people employ creative excuses to avoid jury duty. Peter Atherton has spent eight years arguing that he was improperly removed from a grand jury.

In 2009, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the officials who removed Atherton were not entitled to absolute immunity for their decision. Now, the appellate court is reviewing the case once more to decide if the officials should receive qualified immunity.

Will the Department of Health and Human Services be forced to carve out an Affordable Care Act exemption for religious institutions that are opposed to paying for health insurance that includes contraception?

There's a regulatory mandate under the Affordable Care Act which requires employers to include contraception coverage in their employer health plans. Some religious organizations are exempt from the regulation. The appellants, Bellmont Abbey College and Wheaton College, are not.

The D.C. Circuit is cutting the TSA some slack.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) submitted a Petition for Mandamus, asking the D.C. Circuit to require the Transportation Security Administration to issue a proposed rule on the airport body scanners within 60 days.

A D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled on Tuesday that 501(c)(4) organizations don't have to disclose the contributors who fund their "issue ads" during election cycles, reports CNN.

The decision upholds a Federal Elections Commission (FEC) rule providing that only those contributors who assent, in some reasonable way, to support an organization's electioneering must be disclosed to the public, National Review explains.