NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 ORDER Over a period of months in 2015, Ricardo Burgos sold small amounts of drugs to undercover officers six times, handing over a total of 4.02 grams of crack and 1.4 grams of heroin. A few weeks after the last of these transactions, Burgos recorded a music video at a hotel in Deerfield, Illinois in which he brandished a .45 caliber pistol at the camera—a pistol that he later admitted was stolen and that...
NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 ORDER Coralynn White was charged with battery, but a jury found her not guilty. She asserts that Officer Thomas Wuest and Sergeant Mark Berndsen of the Breese, Illinois, Police Department falsely charged her with assaulting Joseph Fitzpatrick, the father of her child, to bolster Fitzpatrick's position in a custody hearing. White further alleges that Fitzpatrick, his wife Amber, and their neighbor, Jay Staser,...
Sykes , Circuit Judge . Michael Thomas, an Illinois prisoner formerly confined at Hill Correctional Center, alleged that prison guards attacked him with excessive force and that the beating and subsequent disciplinary proceedings were in retaliation for lawsuits and grievances he filed. He sued the guards and other prison officials seeking damages under 42 U.S.C. 1983. In the course of pretrial proceedings, the district judge required the parties to stipulate to the events preceding the...
Hamilton , Circuit Judge . Raul Plaza-Ramirez is a citizen of Mexico. He petitions for judicial review of a Board of Immigration Appeals order denying his application for withholding of removal based on a threat of persecution if he were to return to Mexico. The immigration judge denied relief, finding no nexus between Plaza-Ramirez's membership in a "particular social group" and the persecution he described. The Board affirmed. We deny the petition because substantial evidence supports the...
Kanne , Circuit Judge . The Commissioner of Social Security separately denied benefits to Staci Harrington and Andrew Banks. Both individuals sought judicial review of those decisions. To that end, each separately engaged the services of The de la Torre Law Office LLC, which agreed to represent them in federal court. In exchange, the two plaintiffs assigned to counsel any legal fees to which they might be entitled under the Equal Access to Justice Act ("EAJA"), 28 U.S.C. 2412(d). After...
NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 ORDER In this appeal, Jordan Williams seeks to challenge the revocation of his supervised release. His attorney has moved to withdraw from the appeal, arguing that it is frivolous. See Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967). We agree, grant the motion to withdraw, and dismiss the appeal. Williams is serving a sentence for sex-solicitation and pornography crimes. He was charged with befriending...
Rovner , Circuit Judge . Helping Hand Caregivers, Ltd., ("Helping Hand") filed a suit against Darden Restaurants, Inc., Mid Wilshire Consulting, Inc. ("Mid Wilshire"), Brian Kang, and Greg Jones, alleging a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA"), 47 U.S.C. 227. Specifically, Helping Hand asserted that Mid Wilshire, through Kang and Jones, sent an unsolicited fax advertisement to Helping Hand on behalf of Darden. The district court granted Darden's motion for summary...
Kanne , Circuit Judge . The City of Naperville owns and operates a public utility that provides electricity to the city's residents. The utility collects residents' energy-consumption data at fifteen-minute intervals. It then stores the data for up to three years. This case presents the question whether Naperville's collection of this data is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article I, 6 of the Illinois Constitution. I. BACKGROUND The American Recovery...
NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 ORDER Marshall Spiegel appeals the entry of summary judgment for Associated Community Services ("ACS") in this suit under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. As relevant here, the Act and its implementing regulations prohibit telemarketers from calling numbers listed on the national Do Not Call Registry to solicit "the purchase or rental of, or investment in, property, goods, or services" unless the call...
Hamilton , Circuit Judge . Petitioner-appellant Mhammad Abu-Shawish was tried and convicted on a federal fraud charge, but that conviction was reversed after he served the entire prison sentence. Abu-Shawish was acquitted in a second trial. He now seeks damages under 28 U.S.C. 1495 and 2513 for unjust conviction and imprisonment. Abu-Shawish petitioned for a certificate of innocence — a prerequisite to a damages claim against the United States under those statutes. In this appeal, the...
NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 ORDER Vernon Ellison filed suit alleging that his pension benefits have been wrongfully withheld by James Jorgensen, the administrator of his union's pension fund. Ellison says that Jorgensen ignored evidence that he qualifies for benefits, even after a majority of the fund's board of trustees voted to award him benefits. The district judge dismissed the original complaint on Jorgenson's motion but also...
NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 ORDER Vincent Raygoza's lawsuit against prison medical staff was dismissed with prejudice as a sanction for his uncooperative behavior during his deposition. Raygoza now appeals the denial of his latest postjudgment motion seeking to reopen the case. Because the district judge acted reasonably in denying the motion, we affirm. Raygoza sued Wexford Health Sources, a private company that provides medical care...
Per Curiam . Sentencing judges ordinarily "group" counts of conviction when they involve "substantially the same harm." U.S.S.G. 3D1.2. In United States v. Sinclair, 770 F.3d 1148 (7th Cir. 2014), we ruled that when facing a particular combination of counts — the same combination in this case — a judge may not group them. Aaron Lamon pleaded guilty to three counts: (1) possessing cocaine with intent to distribute, 21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1); (2) possessing a firearm in furtherance of that...
Rovner , Circuit Judge . Employees of Advocate Health and Hospitals Corporation (Advocate) claim that they were treated unfairly based on their race. The district court granted Advocate's motion for summary judgment, finding that the plaintiffs failed to offer evidence necessary to support an element of their claim. We agree with the district court on all issues but the question of the hostile work environment, and remand to the district court for a determination of that claim. I....
NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 ORDER Zachary Rodriguez solicited explicit photographs from several teenage girls via Snapchat. He pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2251(a). The district court applied several enhancements at sentencing, including for the four additional victims not charged in the indictment, resulting in a Guidelines range of 210-262 months, with a statutory minimum...
NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 ORDER A grand jury returned a six-count indictment against Miguel Barrios-Ramos for drug and gun crimes, including conspiring to possess knowingly cocaine and heroin with intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C. 846. He was convicted on all counts and sentenced to 204 months' imprisonment. On appeal, he asks this court to issue an order vacating his conspiracy conviction and dismissing that charge...
Flaum , Circuit Judge . In Citadel Securities, LLC v. Chicago Board Options Exchange, Inc., we held that "the district court did not abuse its discretion in dismissing [the] case [of certain securities firms] for failure to exhaust administrative remedies." 808 F.3d 694 , 701 (7th Cir. 2015) [hereinafter Citadel I ]. Following that decision, the securities firms filed a petition before the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC" or "Commission") seeking damages from various securities...
NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 ORDER In 2012, Eric Wanger consented to the entry of an order by the Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") that barred him from the securities industry. The order afforded him the right to apply for reentry to the industry after one year. In 2016, Wanger filed an application for consent to reenter the industry. The Commission denied his application on July 10, 2017. Wanger now petitions for...
Rovner , Circuit Judge . This appeal is from the grant of a preliminary injunction in favor of the City of Chicago (the "City") and against Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, the Attorney General of the United States, enjoining the enforcement of two conditions imposed upon recipients of the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program (the "Byrne JAG program"). See 34 U.S.C. 10151 (formerly 42 U.S.C. 3750). The Byrne JAG grant, named after a fallen New York City police...
Rovner , Circuit Judge . CNH Industrial America LLC ("CNH"), which manufactures farming and construction machinery (including tractors, combines, backhoes, and the like) under the New Holland brand name, hired the global real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle America, Inc. ("JLL") to manage a corporate re-branding program that involved the replacement of signage at each of CNH's more than 1,400 dealers in North America. The program ran into problems when it was discovered that the...
