In Feb. 2025, federal agents raided IJ client Mario Ayala Cruz's check cashing and money transfer business in Glendale, Ariz., seizing computers, cell phones, documents, and over $450k in cash and checks.
asserted
agents → raid → cash
Mario, who runs the business (by the book) with his wife and adult children, has not heard anything for 20 months.
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who → run → months
No charges have been filed, and the feds are way past the 60-day deadline to either initiate civil forfeiture or return the property.
asserted
feds → file → property
Which violates the Fourth Amendment and federal law—and was extra crummy because it forced Mario to cut short his final visit with his dying father in Mexico.
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it → violate → Mexico
New on the Short Circuit podcast: We get a Rocky Mountain high at the Tenth Circuit Bench & Bar Conference.
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We → get → Conference
Learn all about what makes the circuit tick from the experts we met there, including our first guest from a circuit historical society.
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we → learn → society
- For decades, federal guidance has limited immigration enforcement at "sensitive locations," including houses of worship.
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guidance → limit → worship
Recently, DHS and ICE release new policy guidance allowing "discretion" and "case by case" decisions regarding enforcement at churches, synagogues, and mosques.
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DHS → release → churches
Religious organizations sue.
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organizations → sue → ?
And they have standing.
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they → have → standing
- After spending 7.5 years in pretrial detention at Rikers, man is finally sentenced to a max of 7 years—time to let him out!
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man → spend → him
But prison officials drag their feet for another 17 days.
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officials → drag → days
He plausibly alleged the city and its officials are turning a blind eye to overdetention.
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city → allege → overdetention
Sure, says two-thirds of this Third Circuit panel, the plaintiff church has shown a good bit of evidence that Collier, Penn. officials rejected its application to build a 13k-square-foot shrine out of animus towards the church's pro-life advocacy, but that doesn't mean it gets a preliminary injunction because there's absolutely nothing "preliminary" about building a 13k-square-foot shrine.
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it → say → shrine
- Judge presides over 1993 murder trial in Philadelphia where the prosecutor is … also an eyewitness in a separate personal injury suit where the judge is the plaintiff.
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judge → preside → suit
- Federal prisoner is put in solitary for nearly three years without a hearing and then ultimately cleared of role in the death of another inmate.
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prisoner → put → inmate
He brings FTCA claims; they're dismissed; he doesn't find out in time to appeal.
uncertain
he → bring → time
And we agree with him (and the feds) that he did enough to reopen the case.
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he → agree → case
And we agree with him that his 2017 complaint was timely; he was Heck barred from filing earlier.
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he → agree → him
How about 173 pages from the Fourth Circuit about whether the church autonomy doctrine protects a Catholic social-services agency's decision to refuse to provide health-insurance benefits for an employee's same-sex spouse.
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doctrine → protect → spouse
- Trial-advocacy tip: If you're going to "cross[ ] the bounds of proper advocacy," try to make sure the court's enumeration of your misdeeds runs to no more than four pages.
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enumeration → go → pages
(Your humble summarist further recommends that readers ctrl-f for "skunk.")
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readers → recommend → skunk
- FBI agent: I accidentally shot a hostage dead in 2018 after he popped up unexpectedly on the other side of a window we were breaching, leaned out of the window, and then grabbed my gun.
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we → shoot → gun
The hostage was blindfolded, his hands were duct-taped, and he grabbed nada.
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he → blindfold → nada
The federal gov't must pay $2.3 mil for the intentional torts of its agent.
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gov't → pay → agent
Fifth Circuit: Make that $1.9 mil.
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Circuit → make → that
We should be focusing on punishing the hostage takers (now behind bars), not the agent (who got qualified immunity).
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who → focus → immunity
- Mississippi adopts a law cracking down on state-sponsored DEI programs.
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Mississippi → adopt → programs
District court issues a TRO, then a corrected TRO, then a P.I., finding a likely First Amendment violation.
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court → issue → violation
Fifth Circuit: The merits were wrong and require a do over.
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merits → require → ?
More importantly, the initial TRO had several legal and factual AI hallucinations (including non-existent defendants), even the corrected (and back-dated) TRO had a hallucination, and the P.I. incorporated that TRO by reference.
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P.I. → have → reference
"Because of the extraordinarily grave errors by the district court, we vacate and remand for assignment to a different district judge."
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we → vacate → judge
Stay for the definitely-not-just-a-form-of-intermediate-scrutiny Bruen analysis that leads the Fifth Circuit to conclude much of the Federal Switchblade Act violates the Second Amendment.
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much → stay → Amendment
- South Texas non-profit alleges FEMA has secret policies for determining disaster-relief eligibility and that it's violating the Freedom of Information Act by not posting them in an online "reading room."
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it → allege → room
Fifth Circuit: FOIA empowers district courts to compel posting materials online in appropriate cases.
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FOIA → empower → cases
Remand to determine whether this is such a case.
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this → determine → ?
- Friends, the LSIPA, as enforced by ERCOT's CEO, prevents GHAE from messing with Texas.
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LSIPA → enforce → Texas
But is the LSIPA conflict- or field-preempted by the DPA's CFIUS (to say nothing of FIRRMA)?
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conflict- → preempt → FIRRMA
Texas can indeed ban certain investments from China, Russia, etc. to protect its electric grid.
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Texas → ban → grid
- Michigan prisoners sue under the Eighth Amendment, alleging that their facility is overrun by toxic mold.
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facility → sue → mold
…and 36 more, not listed.
The Aporia