TATEL , Circuit Judge : Appellant Ayanna Blue alleges that while attending a District of Columbia school for emotionally disturbed students, she and a teacher had a consensual sexual relationship — a relationship that led to the birth of a child. Blue seeks damages from the District of Columbia under 42 U.S.C. 1983, Title IX, and various D.C. tort laws. The district court dismissed her complaint for failure to state a claim. For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we affirm. I....
SENTELLE , Senior Circuit Judge : Appellant Fayetteville City Hospital is an inpatient psychiatric hospital that provides services to Medicare patients. Fayetteville challenges the method used by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to calculate the hospital's reimbursement for services it provided during 2003 and 2004—the two years after statutory caps on reimbursements for psychiatric hospitals expired but before psychiatric hospitals were moved to a prospective-payment system....
WILKINS , Circuit Judge : Margaret Sowerwine and Jane Foran, individual consumers of poultry, and Food & Water Watch, Inc. ("FWW"), their organizational advocate, fear that new regulations promulgated by the United States Department of Agriculture ("USDA") may result in an increase in foodborne illness from contaminated poultry. To prevent the regulations from going into effect, Plaintiffs sought declaratory and injunctive relief. The District Court concluded that Plaintiffs failed to...
SENTELLE , Circuit Judge : Appellants the District of Columbia, the District's Mayor, and the Director of the District's Department of Human Services (collectively, the "District") appeal two separate awards of attorneys' fees and expenses for work performed from 2010 to 2012 on this 42 U.S.C. 1983 Medicaid class action. In this consolidated appeal, the District raises three grounds for its position that the district court's decisions amounted to an abuse of discretion. First, the...
SENTELLE , Senior Circuit Judge . Appellants District of Columbia and the District's Police Chief appeal from the grant of a preliminary injunction restraining enforcement of a "good reason" standard in the D.C.Code provision governing the issuance of licenses for the carrying of concealed weapons. D.C. Law 20-279, 3(b). Although the parties fully briefed the case on the merits, we will not reach the substantive issues raised in their original submissions, as we must dispose of the...
SENTELLE , Senior Circuit Judge . Petitioner Adebisi Adenariwo petitions for review of two Federal Maritime Commission decisions relating to the loss of concrete masonry equipment shipped from the United States to Nigeria in two separate shipping containers. Transportation of the equipment was organized and carried out by BDP International (BDP) and Zim Integrated Shipping, Ltd. (Zim). Adenariwo filed with the Commission two identical complaints against Zim and BDP, alleging that they had...
EDWARDS , Senior Circuit Judge : The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, governing imposition of criminal sentences in federal courts, 18 U.S.C. 3551 et seq., imposes certain "indispensable" procedural obligations on sentencing judges. In re Sealed Case, 527 F.3d 188 , 191 (D.C.Cir. 2008). Among these obligations are the requirements of 18 U.S.C. 3553(c), which prescribe how trial judges must explain their sentencing decisions. See id. The nature and degree of explanation required by...
KAREN LECRAFT HENDERSON , Circuit Judge . Salem Hospital Corporation (Salem) petitions for review of the National Labor Relations Board's (Board) certification of a bargaining unit and its subsequent determination that Salem unlawfully refused to bargain. The thrust of Salem's petition is that the Board's misapplication of its own adjudicatory procedures denied Salem a fair opportunity to contest the bargaining unit's certification. Although the Board's proceedings are indeed gaffe-ridden,...
SILBERMAN , Senior Circuit Judge : Mike-sell's, a snack food manufacturer and distributor, challenges an NLRB determination that petitioner violated the NLRA 8(a)(5) when it unilaterally instituted terms and conditions of employment for its employees represented by the Teamsters. Mike-sell's claims that it was entitled, under our precedent, to do so because negotiations with the Union had reached an impasse. The Board, however, adopted the ALJ's determination that no impasse existed....
ROGERS , Circuit Judge : Nova Southeastern University petitions for review of the decision and order of the National Labor Relations Board, 357 N.L.R.B. No. 74 (2011), finding that it violated 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA"), 29 U.S.C. 158(a)(1), by maintaining an overly broad no-solicitation rule on its Fort Lauderdale campus; enforcing that rule against an employee of its onsite contractor and disciplining that employee through its contractor; and making coercive...
GARLAND , Chief Judge : A jury convicted the appellants of conspiring to traffic in narcotics and numerous related crimes. The scope of the conspiracy, and the appellants' role in distributing powder cocaine, crack cocaine, and heroin over the course of seven years, is detailed in the opinion of a panel of this court that considered the appellants' first appeal of their convictions and sentences. See United States v. Law, 528 F.3d 888 (D.C.Cir.2008). In that opinion, the court affirmed...
WILLIAMS , Senior Circuit Judge . Peter Zagorski appeals the sentence he received after pleading guilty to distributing child pornography. Zagorski argues that the district court miscalculated the applicable Sentencing Guidelines range by erroneously applying two provisions: a cross-reference to the guideline governing production of child pornography, U.S.S.G. 2G2.2(c)(1) (the "cross-reference"), and a two-level enhancement for using a computer to "solicit participation with a minor" in...
GARLAND , Chief Judge . The petitioner's employees conducted a strike that they said was intended to protest the company's unlawful termination of and failure to reinstate a prominent union supporter. At the same time, they honored a clause in an agreement they had with the company not to strike—for any reason—on one particular construction project. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found that the strike was indeed aimed at unfair labor practices, and that the employees were...
WILLIAMS , Senior Circuit Judge : We review an order of the National Labor Relations Board invalidating five rules in the employee handbook maintained by the Hyundai America Shipping Agency. Though the case was argued in February 2013, we placed it in abeyance the same month, pending the Supreme Court's decision in NLRB v. Noel Canning, ___ U.S. ___, 134 S.Ct. 2550 , 189 L.Ed.2d 538 (2014). That decision made clear that the three Board members on the panel in this case were validly...
WILLIAMS , Senior Circuit Judge : The Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. 7401-7671q, directs the Environmental Protection Agency to establish air concentration levels above which certain pollutants may endanger public health and welfare, called National Ambient Air Quality Standards ("NAAQS"), id. 7408-7409. On June 22, 2010 EPA exercised this authority to issue a new standard for sulfur dioxide, SO 2 . 75 Fed.Reg. 35,520/1. The new NAAQS imposes a 1-hour ceiling of 75 parts per billion,...
BROWN , Circuit Judge : "Hell hath no fury like a lawyer scorned." Tom Gordon, Hell Hath No Fury Like a Lawyer Scorned, WALL ST. J., (Jan. 28, 2015), http://www.wsj.com/articles/tom-gordon-hell-hath-no-fury-like-a-lawyer-scorned-1422489433. The problem with scorning a lawyer is that lawyers tend to sue. So it is here. A law firm based in the District of Columbia, Bode & Grenier, LLP, provided legal services to three Michigan-based companies owned and managed by Carroll Knight ("appellants"...
GINSBURG , Senior Circuit Judge : At issue in this suit is the constitutionality of certain gun laws enacted by the District of Columbia. The district court determined as a matter of law that the District's efforts "to combat gun violence and promote public safety" by means of its registration laws were "constitutionally permissible." Heller v. District of Columbia, 45 F.Supp.3d 35, 38 (D.D.C.2014). Before this court, Dick Anthony Heller and his co-appellants challenge both the...
SENTELLE , Senior Circuit Judge : Appellant Wayne M. Anderson is a freelance journalist. In July of 2010, he was working as an embed journalist at a NATO base in Afghanistan. After he reported on a controversial shooting incident at an adjoining Afghan national army base over the objections of United States military personnel assigned to the NATO operation, his embed status was withdrawn, and he was returned to the United States. Anderson brought the present action against the Secretary of...
GRIFFITH , Circuit Judge : In NLRB v. Noel Canning, ___ U.S. ___, 134 S.Ct. 2550 , 189 L.Ed.2d 538 (2014), the Supreme Court determined that the National Labor Relations Board lacked authority to act during the time that three of its five members held office via appointments that violated the Recess Appointments Clause. This petition for review asks whether a Regional Director of the Board had authority to conduct a union election and certify its result during that same time. We conclude...
GARLAND , Chief Judge : Anderson Lumber Company 1 petitions for review of a determination by the National Labor Relations Board that Anderson unlawfully withdrew recognition from a union. For the reasons set forth below, we deny the company's petition for review and grant the Board's cross-application for enforcement. I Anderson Lumber is a lumber supply company located in North Highlands, California. Since the late 1960s, it has recognized and bargained with Chauffeurs, Teamsters, and...
