Fourth Circuit

Battle of the Bishops. Parallel jurisdiction in the Fourth Circuit (Round 2)

By / April 7, 2017

The Right Reverend Charles G. Vonrosenberg v. The Right Reverend Mark J. Lawrence. Plaintiff sued seeking declaratory and injunctive relief and claiming that Defendant violated the Lanham Act by falsely advertising himself as the Bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina. At Defendant’s request, the district court deferred to related state court proceedings. In Round …

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Police chief entitled to immunity after firing officers who encouraged citizen complaint – Fourth Circuit

By / April 6, 2017

Crouse v. Town of Monks Corner. In October, 2013, a man, Berkeley, fell asleep in his car in a Wal-Mart parking lot. HIs three sons could not wake him and alerted securit, who then called the police. The responding officer, Roach, pulled the man from the car and threw him to the ground. He and another …

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Assistant county attorney properly terminated for election to city council – Fourth Circuit

By / April 3, 2017

Loftus v. Bobzien. Bobzien, the Fairfax, Virginia, County Attorney, fired Loftus, an assistant county attorney, after she was elected to Fairfax City Council. The termination was “solely because she had been elected to the City Council.” Loftus sued claiming the termination violated her First Amendment rights, as well as Virginia Statute and a local Fairfax …

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Puffery alive and well in TLD operator marketing – Fourth Circuit

By / March 31, 2017

Verisign, Inc. v. XYZ.COM LLC. Verisign sued XYZ for false advertising under the Lanham Act. XYZ’s ad campaign for it’s new top level domain “.xyz” included claims that there was a scarcity of .com domains. Verisign is the exclusive operator of the .com and .net domains and so was understandably not thrilled with this ad …

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State secrets doctrine bars claim against CIA for employment discrimination/retaliation – Fourth Circuit

By / March 8, 2017

Abilt v. Maryland. The Fourth Circuit barred a claim of discrimination and retaliation by a clandestine CIA operative because the claim necessarily implicated state secrets. The opinion provides a good overview of the state secrets privilege doctrine. Abilt (not his real name) was hired as an applications developer for the CIA in June 2006. About the …

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No standing for speculative harm in data breach – Fourth Circuit

By / February 17, 2017

Beck v. McDonald. At a VA hospital, a laptop holding 7,400 patients personal information was secured to a medical device by only a strip of Velcro. Unsurprisingly, it was stolen. Two veterans sued the VA over the compromise of their personal information. The veterans sued for violations of the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Administrative Procedures …

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City of Petersburg, Virginia Police Social Media Policy Unconstitutional

By / February 9, 2017

Liverman v. City of Petersburg. Late last year (I know; I’m way behind), the Fourth Circuit struck down the unconstitutional social media policy of the City of Petersburg Bureau of Police. The policy prohibited sharing information that would discredit or reflect poorly on the department or any other city department or employee. The policy said: …

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Evidence of prior arrests irrelevant to claim of police battery of woman who filmed another’s arrest – Fourth Circuit

By / December 18, 2016

Smith v. Baltimore City Police Dept. I’m way behind the calendar on this one. The TL;DR version: this woman was beat up by Baltimore police for filming the arrest of a juvenile. She sued the police. At trial, the trial court allowed evidence of her prior arrests to be admitted. The Fourth Circuit said this was error. It …

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Fourth Circuit talks legislative prayer – Lund v. Rowan County

By / October 3, 2016

Lund v. Rowan County. Rowan County, North Carolina opens its board of commissioners meetings with a prayer. It is a routine practice, and the invocations rotate between board members. The bulk of the prayers invoke Christianity in some form. In 2012, the ACLU sent a letter to Rowan County objecting to the invocations, asserting a …

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