PER CURIAM: Ronald Bert Smith appeals the dismissal of his federal habeas corpus petition brought pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2254, as amended by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, ("AEDPA"), Pub.L. No. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214. The district court dismissed the federal petition because it was not filed within AEDPA's one-year statute of limitations. The only issues here involve tolling. The district court rejected Smith's argument that his application for state post-...
HULL, Circuit Judge: This appeal involves a county ordinance for permitting stevedores at the Port of Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Stevedores load and unload millions of dollars in cargo in interstate and foreign commerce at the Port each year. Stevedore permits expired annually and a county ordinance required each stevedore company each year to reapply and be reassessed, along with any new applicants, as to competency, safety record, financial strength, and need. Plaintiff Florida...
JORDAN, Circuit Judge: It may be that a "[c]ontradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth." BLAISE PASCAL, PASCAL'S PENS ES 104 (E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. 1958) (1670). But under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. 621 et seq., a contradiction of the employer's proffered reason for the termination of an employee is sometimes enough, when combined with other evidence, to allow a jury to find that the firing was the result of unlawful...
TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge: "[T]here is no better friend to any merchant than a fair competitor." 1 Intellectual property law walks a fine line in its quest to preserve such fair competition. On the one hand, it respects the policy of free copying and the free economic competition such copying encourages. See 1 J. Thomas McCarthy, McCarthy on Trademarks & Unfair Competition 1:2 (4th ed. 2012). On the other hand, it creates a set of exceptions — such as patents, trademarks, and copyrights —...
JORDAN, Circuit Judge: The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), 15 U.S.C. 1692 et seq., "imposes civil liability on `debt collector[s]' for certain prohibited debt collection practices," Jerman v. Carlisle, McNellie, Rini, Kramer & Ulrich LPA, ___ U.S. ___, 130 S.Ct. 1605 , 1608, 176 L.Ed.2d 519 (2010), but also exempts some individuals and entities from its provisions. The exemption at issue in this appeal, 1692a(6)(F)(i), provides that the Act does not apply to persons or...
WILSON, Circuit Judge: We sua sponte vacate and reconsider our original opinion in this matter. We substitute the following opinion for our original opinion. Plaintiff-Appellant Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta (Plaintiff Order) is a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church that undertakes charitable work internationally. Defendant-Appellee The Florida Priory of the Knights Hospitallers of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of...
HULL, Circuit Judge: Florida death row inmate Leroy Pooler appeals the district court's denial of his 28 U.S.C. 2254 petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Pooler argues that his trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective in the penalty phase of his murder trial for (1) failing to discover that certain information Pooler himself told counsel about his background was false, and (2) relying on court-appointed competency experts to testify instead of retaining defense experts to investigate...
GILMAN, Circuit Judge: The question in this case is whether a court may take into account a debtor's ability to pay his or her debts in determining whether "the totality of the circumstances... of the debtor's financial situation demonstrates abuse" of chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code under 11 U.S.C. 707(b)(3)(B). We hold that the court may do so. The judgment of the district court is therefore AFFIRMED. I. BACKGROUND Robert Alan Witcher and Jennifer Witcher filed for chapter 7...
MARCUS, Circuit Judge: At the heart of this appeal is whether a government delay of some 25 days in submitting an application for a search warrant while holding a computer based on probable cause is an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment. In the proceedings below, the defendant David Laist pleaded guilty conditionally to possession of child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2252(a)(4)(B), and receipt of child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2252(a)(2), but reserved...
DUBINA, Chief Judge: Appellant 907 Whitehead Street, Inc., d/b/a Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum ("the Museum"), appeals the district court's post-trial order denying the Museum declaratory and injunctive relief. The Museum challenges the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (collectively the "USDA") to regulate the Museum as an animal exhibitor under the Animal Welfare Act ("AWA"), 7 U.S.C. 2131 et seq. The district court...
COX, Circuit Judge: In late 2006, Donald Cameron Byers purchased a lot in the Bahamas. His purchase contract contains a provision that requires all disputes to be litigated in the Bahamas under Bahamian law. Byers financed the purchase with a mortgage loan made by Bahamas Sales Associate, LLC (Bahamas Sales), a mortgage lender. After Byers failed to make payments on the mortgage note, Bahamas Sales sued Byers in the Middle District of Florida. Byers counterclaimed against Bahamas Sales and...
TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge: In this case, we are called upon to determine whether a sublease transferred by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") to Iberiabank after it took over the assets of a failed bank is enforceable despite a clause purporting to terminate the sublease on sale or transfer of the failed bank. The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of Iberiabank, holding that the termination clause was unenforceable against Iberiabank under 12 U.S.C. 1821(e)(13)(A)...
PER CURIAM: The issue presented is whether a district court has the authority, under the Federal Debt Collection Procedures Act, to determine under state law the ownership interests in property against which the United States has obtained a writ of execution to collect a judgment of restitution in a criminal action. The United States obtained a judgment for restitution of more than $85 million against Lawrence Duran for crimes that he committed in a conspiracy to defraud Medicare. After the...
CARNES, Circuit Judge: Bob Dylan's recognition that "[b]ehind every beautiful thing there's been some kind of pain" 1 might seem painfully ironic to Amber Wright. Her quest for what she deemed to be more beautiful hair allegedly led not just to pain but also to emotional "scars that the sun didn't heal," 2 all of which led to this lawsuit. Wright filed this products liability action under Georgia law alleging that a hair bleaching product manufactured by Farouk Systems burned her scalp,...
BATTEN, District Judge: Roger Chavez is a customer of Mercantil Commercebank, N.A. ("the bank"). This case involves an allegedly fraudulent payment order that resulted in the bank's transfer of $329,500 from his account to someone in the Dominican Republic. Chavez sued the bank to recover the $329,500. In response to Chavez's complaint, the bank asserted, inter alia, an affirmative defense premised upon Fla. Stat. 670.202(2), which relieves a bank of liability for fraudulent payment orders...
BARKETT, Circuit Judge: The Jefferson County Board of Education (the "Board"), in the state of Alabama, challenges the district court's determination affirming the validity of a Department of Education regulation that requires state and local agencies to reimburse parents and guardians for an independent educational evaluation of their children with disabilities. See 34 C.F.R. 300.502(b)(1) (1999) (stating that a parent "has the right to an independent educational evaluation at public...
PER CURIAM: CERTIFICATION FROM THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT TO THE SUPREME COURT OF GEORGIA PURSUANT TO O.C.G.A. 15-2-9. TO THE SUPREME COURT OF GEORGIA AND ITS HONORABLE JUSTICES: This diversity action asks whether the property damage alleged in a California class action lawsuit brought by purchasers of homes built by Taylor Morrison Services, Incorporated (Morrison) was caused by an "occurrence" and therefore covered under the terms of Morrison's CGL policy...
PER CURIAM: A federal Clean Water Act lawsuit filed against the City of Atlanta in 1995 resulted in two consent decrees requiring Atlanta to clean up its sewer system. Ten years later Sandy Springs incorporated, which led to state court proceedings to determine whether Atlanta would be allowed to continue to supply Sandy Springs with water. Atlanta had pledged its water service revenue as part of the collateral for bonds that were issued to finance its compliance with the sewer system consent...
PRYOR, Circuit Judge: In these three consolidated appeals, we must decide issues about the enforceability of German bonds issued during the period between World War I and World War II. The first appeal involves a complaint against the Federal Republic of Germany filed by World Holdings, LLC, for breach of contract regarding its Dawes and Young bonds. The second appeal involves a complaint against Germany filed by Sovereign Bonds Exchange, LLC, for breach of contract regarding its Dawes,...
PER CURIAM: We sua sponte vacate and reconsider our original opinion in this matter. We substitute the following opinion for our original opinion. The main issue presented in this appeal is whether the Jefferson County Department of Health is a state agency entitled to sovereign immunity, under the Eleventh Amendment, from a complaint of discrimination by a former employee. Sherry Ross appeals the summary judgment in favor of her former employer, the Health Department, and against her...
