OPINION SILER , Circuit Judge . Plaintiffs are Ohio death-row inmates challenging Ohio's execution protocol and practice. Defendants include Ohio officials as well as anonymous drug manufacturers, compounders, intermediaries, and others involved in Ohio's execution process. Plaintiffs appeal from a district court's entry of a protective order precluding the disclosure of any information that could reveal the identity of suppliers or manufacturers of Ohio's legal-injection drugs as well as...
ORDER PER CURIAM . On October 24, 2016, the district court preliminarily enjoined the State of Michigan from enforcing its bans on ballot exposure and photography at the polls against voters taking "ballot selfies." On October 28, this panel stayed the district court's injunction. The presidential election has now come and gone, but the merits of the preliminary injunction are still before us. Meanwhile, the district court is proceeding to trial on the permanent injunction. Both parties...
OPINION JULIA SMITH GIBBONS , Circuit Judge . United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, Local 1700 (Local 1700) was charged with violating its duty of fair representation in processing the grievance of Aretha Powell, a Local 1700 member, who was terminated from her position as an automotive plant janitor after threatening a fellow employee. The charge stemmed from the allegations that Margaret Faircloth, Powell's union steward, had submitted a false...
OPINION SUTTON , Circuit Judge . This dispute concerns a conflict between a provision of the Medicaid statute and a corresponding Kentucky state regulation. In 2006, in an effort to tighten loopholes in the Medicaid Act that had allowed individuals to transfer assets below fair market value in order to qualify for Medicaid coverage, Congress amended the language of 42 U.S.C. 1396p(c)(1)(F)(i). A corresponding Kentucky regulation, promulgated just four months later, mistakenly included...
OPINION McKEAGUE , Circuit Judge . An Ohio jury convicted Genesis Hill of kidnapping and murdering his infant daughter and sentenced him to death. The district court held that the prosecution violated the rule of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 , 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), by suppressing favorable evidence — a police report and the baby's mother's grand jury testimony — and granted a conditional writ of habeas corpus. However, Hill violated a congressionally mandated...
OPINION JANE B. STRANCH , Circuit Judge . The State of Michigan contracted with E.L. Bailey & Company, Inc., a general contractor, to construct a prison kitchen. After delays, Bailey and the State sued each other for breach of contract in the Michigan Court of Claims. As required by Michigan law, Bailey had obtained surety bonds guaranteeing its performance from Great American Insurance Company (GAIC) in exchange for which Bailey agreed to assign GAIC the right to settle claims related...
OPINION ROGERS , Circuit Judge . The City of Chattanooga amended the cost-of-living adjustment in its Fire and Police Pension Fund in 2000 to create a fixed three-percent annual increase in retirement benefits. The city amended the COLA again in 2014 to a lower, variable annual increase. Four Fund participants — Johnny Frazier, Reuben Salter, William Melhorn, Jr., and James Gaston — challenged the 2014 amendment under the Contract Clause of the United States Constitution, claiming a right...
ORDER SUTTON , Circuit Judge . One hundred and twenty-five years ago, Michigan enacted a law designed to protect the secret ballot by forbidding voters from exposing their marked ballots to others. Nine years ago, Apple introduced a cell phone capable of taking photographs and uploading them to the Internet. Thirty-two days ago, Joel Crookston sought a preliminary injunction to prevent the State from enforcing the Michigan law in the upcoming election so that he could take a "ballot selfie"...
OPINION BOGGS , Circuit Judge . More than twelve years ago, Antonio Franklin, an Ohio prisoner sentenced to death, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal district court. The district court denied Franklin's petition on the merits and this court affirmed. Five months later, Franklin moved the district court for relief from judgment pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b), seeking to avail himself of the Supreme Court's decisions in Martinez v. Ryan, ___ U.S. ___,...
OPINION CLAY , Circuit Judge . The A. Philip Randolph Institute ("APRI"), the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless ("NEOCH"), and Larry Harmon (collectively "Plaintiffs") filed suit seeking to enjoin the defendant, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted ("the Secretary"), from removing the names of registered voters from Ohio's voter rolls pursuant to the state's so-called Supplemental Process, which Plaintiffs allege violates the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 ("NVRA"), 52 U.S.C....
OPINION PER CURIAM . In 2013, Thomas Crangle filed a habeas petition in federal court under 28 U.S.C. 2254. His petition included three ineffective assistance of counsel claims. He also alleged that his plea was constitutionally invalid because it was not made knowingly, intelligently, and with sufficient awareness of the relevant circumstances and likely consequences. See United States v. Ruiz, 536 U.S. 622 , 629, 122 S.Ct. 2450, 153 L.Ed.2d 586 (2002). Specifically, he argued that...
OPINION JULIA SMITH GIBBONS , Circuit Judge . Plaintiff-Appellant Clifford Charles Tyler, a prospective gun purchaser, was involuntarily committed thirty years ago following an emotional divorce. Despite being three decades removed from this brief depressive episode, and despite a currently clean bill of mental health, Tyler is ineligible to possess a firearm because of his prior involuntary commitment, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(4). After the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and...
OPINION ROGERS , Circuit Judge . Great Lakes Wine and Spirits contracted with LexisNexis to carry out criminal history checks for employment applicants. Great Lakes provided Lexis with David Alan Smith's date of birth but not his middle name. Lexis's check returned a fraud conviction of a man named David Oscar Smith, resulting in six weeks' delay in David Alan Smith's being hired. Lexis had requested, but not required, the input of a middle name, and did not cross-reference the...
OPINION SUTTON , Circuit Judge . Sharon Turbiak, a twelve-year special education veteran, taught a preschool class that required sensitivity to mentally and physically disabled children. The allegations contained in this lawsuit, filed by the mother of one of her students, suggest she had considerable trouble on that score, as do the school district's actions in firing her. The question at hand is whether her conduct also violated the United States Constitution, two federal statutes (the...
OPINION ALICE M. BATCHELDER , Circuit Judge . Plaintiff Tamesha Means miscarried at eighteen weeks' gestation. She sought treatment at a Catholic hospital in western Michigan, which allegedly failed to provide her accurate information or diagnose and treat a serious bacterial infection. Three years later, Means sued, not the hospital or any of its physicians, but the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and three individuals who have served as chair of the unincorporated...
OPINION McKEAGUE , Circuit Judge . Plaintiffs-appellants Lowestco Ballard and Geneva France were framed during Operation Turnaround, a corrupt investigation into the Mansfield, Ohio drug trade by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the Richland County Sheriff's Office (RCSO). The federal government prosecuted Ballard and France for allegedly selling drugs to law-enforcement officials and confidential informant Jerrell Bray. After Operation Turnaround ended, however, Bray...
OPINION SUTTON , Circuit Judge . A revealing difficulty with this matter is what to name it. At the district court, the caption read "IN RE: 2016 Primary Election." That's all the court could say because the matter arose out of an anonymous phone call to the district court clerk's office. The caller complained about an accident in the Cincinnati area that might make it difficult for voters to reach the polls before they closed at 7:30 p.m. on March 15, 2016, the date of Ohio's primary...
OPINION CLAY , Circuit Judge . In this case arising out of the sale of an automobile, Defendants Sterling Rental, Inc., dba Car Source ("Car Source"), Al Chami, and Rami Kamil appeal from the district court's order granting Plaintiff SeTara Tyson summary judgment on her claim that Defendants violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act ("ECOA" or "the Act"), 15 U.S.C. 1691 et seq., by changing the terms of her credit arrangement without providing a written notice setting forth the...
OPINION McKEAGUE , Circuit Judge . Plaintiff in the action from which these two appeals arise, David Gavitt, was sentenced to life in prison in 1986 after a jury found him guilty of arson and felony murder, charges stemming from a house fire that took the lives of his wife and two daughters. In June 2012, the state court granted Gavitt's unopposed motion for relief from judgment based on newly discovered evidence. The newly discovered evidence is in the nature of advancements in fire...
OPINION BOGGS , Circuit Judge . In 2015, John Nathan Coleman used marijuana and cocaine while serving a term of supervised release from federal prison. After Coleman admitted his offense to a probation officer, the government moved to revoke his supervised release. In response to Coleman's dissatisfaction with his court-appointed attorney, the district court appointed new defense counsel minutes before holding a revocation hearing in Coleman's case. The district court proceeded to find...
