If a patient commits suicide while in hospital care, does the decedent’s estate have a valid wrongful death lawsuit against the hospital?
Not in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed an appeal this week from the family of a woman who committed suicide as a patient at Arkansas State Hospital.
Last Thursday, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in a First Amendment free speech case involving the University of Minnesota.
The Eighth Circuit ruled in favor of the University of Minnesota’s right to free speech, with regard to its suggestion that the Turkish Coalition of America’s website was an unreliable source of information on the Armenian Genocide.
Despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on warrantless GPS tracking, an Eighth Circuit feeder court has ruled that evidence gathered by DEA agents from warrantless GPS tracking can be admitted in court, under the “good faith” exception.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the warrantless attachment of a GPS tracking device on a suspect’s car constituted an unreasonable search.
On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the way judges are vetted in the state of Iowa.
The lawsuit, which was brought by four Iowa residents, challenged the composition of the Judicial Nominating Commission at the time when the commission was vetting applicants for judgeships.
It’s election year again and the timing is perfect for the Eighth Circuit’s recent decision on the solicitation of campaign funds. In a 7-5 en banc decision, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals held in favor of a Minnesota rule that would limit the ability of judicial candidates to personally solicit campaign funds, reports Thomson Reuters News & Insight.
The Wersal v. Sexton case has been before the Eighth Circuit before, when a three-judge panel held that the Minnesota rules in question failed strict scrutiny. En banc, however, the Eighth Circuit reached a different conclusion.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit addressed the issue of attorney fees in a long standing desegregation case, awarding legal fees to the prevailing parties.
On March 26, 2012, a panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled again in a case that has been before the courts since 1982. This time, the court didn’t rule on the merits of the case, but on the awarding of attorneys’ fees and costs to the “Joshua Intervenors”, a group of African-American parents who appealed the desegregation practices of the Little Rock School District, reports the Associated Press.
When does a prison need to accommodate the right to practice religion in prison? Where do courts draw the line? The Eighth Circuit addressed this question in a decision involving dietary requests and the doctrine of qualified immunity.
So were the First Amendment rights of prisoner Charles E. Sisney violated when he was denied the right to eat his meals in accordance with his Jewish traditions?
According to a March 19 opinion of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, the prisoner’s First Amendment free exercise rights were not violated. As such, the Eighth Circuit affirmed the decision of the district court, where the district court entered a summary judgment on the prisoner’s pleas for compensatory damages.
Should the district court have suppressed the evidence in the felony firearm possession conviction of Tony Robinson?
The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals said yes, after Robinson challenged the district court’s denial of a motion to suppress the evidence.
The opinion stems from the incidents of September 26, 2009, where Robinson was kicked out of a nightclub in Little Rock, Arkansas, for engaging in an altercation.
Racial discrimination in the workforce is a common claim in employment lawsuits, but last week the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals looked at a case involving reverse race bias.
The appeals court reinstated a jury verdict on the race-bias issue, ruling in favor of a Caucasian school district administrator who alleged that he was the victim of racial discrimination by a majority-black school board in Arkansas.
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that a police officer who used a leg sweep to interrupt a child custody argument was not entitled to qualified immunity from an excessive force lawsuit.
Police officers in Flandreau, South Dakota intervened in two child custody arguments between Shaylene Montoya and her ex-boyfriend. The first police visit ended calmly, with a warning that someone would be arrested if the police had to return. The second argument concluded with Officer Justin Hooper breaking Montoya’s leg and arresting her on the way to the hospital.
