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Prospective renter awarded $15,000 after groping
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A federal court in Arkansas concluded a no-jury trial with $15,000 in damages awarded to a single working mother with two young children who was sexually harassed by a landlord in his early 70s during a tour of a rental home. “Any reasonable woman would be offended by an unwelcomed touching of her breasts and a forced grazing of her hand across the prospective landlord's crotch. The accompanying words made the sexual motivation clear.” The man’s wife was found not liable for his conduct on behalf of their property rental business.
Wrongful conviction requires factual innocence
TOPEKA, Kan. — The Supreme Court of Kansas found that a former criminal defendant is not entitled to wrongful conviction compensation because his convictions were not overturned due to factual innocence. The man, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, was convicted of sex crimes against two young children and received a life sentence, but the appeals court threw out the convictions because he had been charged for causing the victims to be sexually assaulted by another person and not by him. His convictions were overturned and he could not be tried again.
Keystone Pipeline operator will pay $26.8M+
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The EPA and Kansas filed a proposed consent decree with the Keystone Pipeline’s owner and operator to resolve claims that a December 2022 rupture, which leaked almost 13,000 barrels of oil into Mill Creek, violated the Clean Water Act. The company agreed to pay $26.8 million in civil penalties, will complete about $40 million of work to prevent future discharges and agreed to put $3 million toward the state’s restoration projects to preserve natural resources.
No in-state tuition for Texas’ undocumented students
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit found that a Texas federal court correctly kept two advocacy groups, Austin Community College and a student from intervening in a lawsuit between the U.S. and Texas concerning whether the state can guarantee in-state tuition for undocumented students at Texas public colleges and universities. Federal law preempts the Texas Dream Act; the state cannot give education benefits to undocumented residents that are not given to all U.S. citizens, so it cannot extend tuition discounts to undocumented students unless in-state tuition is also offered to all citizens.
Rare manuscript theft
LOS ANGELES — A man in San Francisco was sentenced to a year of home confinement, followed by three years of supervised release, for stealing rare Chinese manuscripts dating back to the Qing dynasty from the UCLA library. He pleaded guilty to a single count of theft of major artwork after it was discovered he would borrow the manuscripts from the library and return a dummy to the library.
Dallas College faces Title VII claim
DALLAS — A federal court in Texas partially granted summary judgment to Dallas College on claims brought by a former biology professor who says she was forced to resign for representing fellow faculty members in discrimination grievances. The court dismissed the professor’s breach of contract claim, but allowed her Title VII retaliation to proceed because genuine factual disputes exist concerning whether an error in the community college’s new scheduling system was the true reason she lost her adjunct teaching assignments.
Feds face tort claim over CBP car collision
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit found a Texas federal court improperly granted summary judgment in favor of the government after an injured motorist was struck by a vehicle operated by a Customs and Border Protection agent. The court granted summary judgment on the government’s argument that the agent was engaged in union activities at the time of the incident, but no authority was cited that treats union employment differently for the purpose of “course and scope” analysis on vicarious liability claims.
Immigrants’ applications must be adjudicated
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal court in Ohio granted 15 immigrants’ request for an injunction that requires U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to adjudicate their applications for permanent resident benefits. The foreign nationals — hailing from Burma, Canada, Iran, Nigeria, Syria, Tanzania and Venezuela — sued to challenge the Trump-era proclamations that treat nationality from these countries as a negative factor when considering immigrant benefit applications. Their applications must be adjudicated within 30 days.
Omaha gas blast settlement
OMAHA, Neb. — During a Zoom court hearing, a lawyer for the special administrator of three estates said they settled with Lennox Industries, one of three defendants sued for wrongful death after the three people were killed in a house explosion allegedly caused by the negligence of Lennox, Thermal Services of Omaha and the Omaha area’s public gas utility. It will be at least 30 days for the settlement documents to be filed with the court. The public utility has already been dismissed as a defendant, so Thermal Services of Omaha remains as the sole defendant.
11th Circuit: Child predators have a right to live with their kids
ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit partially upheld an Alabama federal judge’s decision to strike down part of the state’s law barring sex offenders from sharing a home with their own children. All parents have “a fundamental right to live with” their children, though the state has some authority to “regulate or even abrogate that right” if their laws are narrowly tailored. The law keeping sex-offender parents from living with their children is motivated by a “compelling reason” of protecting children’s safety, but “the Supreme Court and our history and tradition doesn’t tolerate this type of exception.” Alabama must show the lower court that the law is narrowly tailored enough to survive strict scrutiny review.
DOJ enjoined from receiving minors’ medical info
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal court in California enjoined the acting U.S. Attorney General from requesting, receiving, disclosing or otherwise obtaining information about a class of minors who sought or received gender-affirming care at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. The Department of Justice may not seek their health information such as diagnoses and assessments, materials that describe the care provided to them or relate to parent or guardian authorization for their care. This information would violate the patients’ constitutional privacy rights.