The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (in case citations, 1st Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:
MoreTORRUELLA , Circuit Judge . In 2012, appellant Shawn Sayer ("Sayer") pled guilty to one count of cyberstalking in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2261A(2) and 2261(b)(5). He commenced his supervised release term in 2016, but it was revoked in 2017 because he violated some of his conditions. On appeal, Sayer contends that the district court's upwardly-variant sentence following revocation is procedurally and substantively unreasonable. Moreover, he challenges the district court's imposition of a...
BOUDIN , Circuit Judge . Mickey Gilley pled guilty pursuant to a plea agreement to one count of distribution of heroin and fentanyl. 21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C). The plea agreement included a stipulated sentencing range of 132 to 180 months that bound the district court upon its acceptance of the agreement. The district court accepted the agreement and sentenced Gilley to 168 months. Gilley now appeals his sentence as substantively unreasonable. On September 20, 2016, Gilley and a...
BOUDIN , Circuit Judge . In October 2016, Franklyn Morillo pled guilty in New Hampshire district court to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute oxycodone and cocaine. In May 2017, the district judge sentenced Morillo to 168 months in prison. Morillo now appeals to contest his sentence. Morillo challenges the application of particular sentencing enhancements and the imposition of certain supervised-release conditions. At the threshold, the government says that...
STAHL , Circuit Judge . This is an appeal from a sentence imposed following a criminal conviction. On June 1, 2017, Appellant Michael Vicente ("Vicente") pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute oxycodone in violation of 21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1) and 846. On appeal, Vicente argues that the court improperly assigned points for a prior sentence that should have been excluded as conduct that was "part of the instant offense," U.S.S.G. 4A1.2, namely his...
SELYA , Circuit Judge . This case involves a constitutional challenge to the Massachusetts firearms licensing statute, as implemented in the communities of Boston and Brookline. All of the individual plaintiffs sought and received licenses from one of those two communities to carry firearms in public. The licenses, though, were restricted: they allowed the plaintiffs to carry firearms only in relation to certain specified activities but denied them the right to carry firearms more generally....
KAYATTA , Circuit Judge . Drug manufacturer Warner Chilcott Limited pulled one of its products — Asacol — from the market just months before the drug's patent protection expired. Warner simultaneously introduced a similar but not exactly identical substitute drug called Delzicol, the patent protection for which ran years longer. This coordinated withdrawal and entry of the two drugs allegedly precluded generic manufacturers from introducing a generic version of Asacol, which would have...
KAYATTA , Circuit Judge . After their convictions on charges arising out of a large-scale marijuana-farming operation, Rodney Russell and Malcolm French sought a new trial based on claims that one juror lied in filling out the written questionnaire given to all prospective jurors prior to trial, and that a second juror lied in voir dire. As we will explain, we agree that the district court's investigation concerning the answers given by one of the jurors was inadequate, so we vacate its...
KAYATTA , Circuit Judge . The Narragansett Indian Tribe (the "Tribe") appeals the district court's dismissal of its complaint against a handful of federal and Rhode Island agencies concerning a highway bridge reconstruction over historic tribal land. At base, the Tribe contends that the state of Rhode Island broke a promise made to the Tribe. Because this is not the type of claim federal courts may adjudicate, we affirm the district court's dismissal of the complaint. I. We take the...
BARRON , Circuit Judge . In these consolidated appeals from orders dismissing two putative antitrust class actions, purchasers of a brand-name, prescription drug allege that the drug maker unlawfully delayed the entry of generic versions of the drug into the United States market. Specifically, the plaintiffs allege that the drug maker committed antitrust violations by obtaining through a fraud on the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("Patent Office") a patent for a particular form...
TORRUELLA , Circuit Judge . This case concerns the requirement that administrative remedies be exhausted before a claim under the "whistleblower" protection provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 ("SOX"), 18 U.S.C. 1514A, can reach federal court. Plaintiff Barbara Newman ("Newman") claims to have suffered retaliation for reporting violations of federal laws and regulations at her workplace, Lehman Brothers, Inc. ("Lehman Brothers") in 2008. The district court dismissed these claims...
LYNCH , Circuit Judge . This sentencing appeal follows Joshua Harrison's plea of guilty to possession of child pornography. Harrison kept on his computer and tablet over 300 child pornography images, many of prepubescent minors, toddlers, and infants. Harrison's criminal history includes a juvenile adjudication and adult criminal conviction for abuse of, or misconduct with, boys as young as eight years old. The district court sentenced Harrison to 120 months' imprisonment followed by...
TORRUELLA , Circuit Judge . The City of Taunton, Massachusetts (the "City"), objects to the decision of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to impose a limit — through a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit — on the amount of nitrogen that the Taunton Wastewater Treatment Plant (the "Facility") may discharge. After considering all of the City's challenges, both procedural and substantive in nature, we uphold the EPA's permitting decision. I. A. It is...
THOMPSON , Circuit Judge . In today's story of why it's generally not a good idea to orchestrate and then participate in an illegal narcotics distribution ring, meet Roger Belanger of Corinna, Maine. Belanger was indicted on one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and an unspecified amount of oxycodone, in violation of 21 U.S.C. 846, 841(a)(1), and 841(b)(1)(A), as well as a separate count of using and maintaining a...
SOUTER , Associate Justice . The defendant, Derrick Favreau, pleaded guilty to a serious drug offense, violation of 21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(C), but he reserved his right to appeal the district court's denial of his motion to suppress the drug evidence as having resulted from a search unlawful under the Fourth Amendment. We affirm. Police stopped Favreau's car for a highway offense. After police officers had completed the license check that is usual when a car is stopped for a...
TORRUELLA , Circuit Judge . In this sentencing appeal, the Defendant-Appellant Santos Daniel Rond n-Garc a ("Rond n") insists that his eighteen-month sentence is both procedurally and substantively unreasonable. After careful review, we affirm. I. Background As this appeal concerns the imposition of the defendant's sentence, we briefly summarize the relevant facts and charted course of this case. We note that, because Rond n pled guilty and does not challenge the factual background,...
LYNCH , Circuit Judge . This petition for review presents the question of whether the Board of Immigration Appeals' ("BIA") decision is sustainable on the reasoning it used to conclude that a violation of Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 266, 2 ("Massachusetts Arson") is categorically a crime involving moral turpitude ("CIMT") under the Immigration and Nationality Act ("INA"), Pub. L. No. 82-414, 66 Stat. 163 (1952) (codified as amended in scattered sections of 8 U.S.C.). The consequence of this BIA...
TORRUELLA , Circuit Judge . During the early hours of August 24, 2014, an unidentified group of individuals assaulted Appellant Henry Mu ("Mu") in the lobby of the Omni Providence Hotel (the "Hotel"), which Appellee Omni Hotels Management Corporation ("Omni") operates. Mu sued Omni for negligence. The district court granted summary judgment to Omni, finding Mu's claims deficient with respect to three elements of negligence: duty, breach, and causation. We, however, conclude otherwise,...
THOMPSON , Circuit Judge . Sticks and stones may break some bones, but harassment can hurt forever. "Cunt," "bitch," "lesbo": all are but a smattering of the vile verbal assaults the plaintiff in this gender discrimination case, Lori Franchina, a former lieutenant firefighter, was regularly subjected to by members of the Providence Fire Department ("the Department"). She was also spit on, shoved, and — in one particularly horrifying incident — had the blood and brain matter of a suicide-...
KAYATTA , Circuit Judge . In 2011, Rhode Island enacted legislation modifying various state-run pension plans for government employees, including a plan that covered municipal firefighters and police officers. Generally speaking, the modifications reduced the value of the benefits payable under the plan in order to ameliorate what the State perceived to be a serious and growing liability that would be difficult to fund. The unions representing the firefighters and police officers employed...
MATTHEW GOULET, Corrections Officer;evidence to withstand summary judgment as to causation.4 To be clear, Leite makes no argument that Bergeron, knew that he (or any other inmate) was injured, had been, attacked, or was in a cell that was not his own, when she, conducted the 3:40 p.m. round.
