Justia Civil Rights Opinion Summaries

Stepp sued his former employer, Covance, alleging violations of 42 U.S.C. 2000e–3, by refusing to hire him permanently in retaliation for his earlier complaints about discrimination. Stepp received positive performance reviews in his first nine months. Two of Stepp’s temporary coworkers were made permanent around their nine-month anniversary. While a temporary worker, Stepp, an African-American male, complained that Casteel, his team leader, treated female and white employees better than male and African-American employees and confronted Casteel directly. A manager investigated Stepp’s complaints but found them baseless. Stepp filed formal charges with the EEOC Casteel complained to Ball, a supervisor, that Stepp often stared at him, shook his head, smirked, and said “uh oh.” Shortly thereafter, with Stepp still in temporary status, Covance froze new hires in his department. Stepp asked Ball if Covance did not give him permanent status before the freeze because Casteel had complained about him; she responded “yes.” Stepp’s one-year term as a temporary worker ended soon after. Grubb, a human resources partner, planned to give a 90-day extension to temporary workers whose terms ended near the December holidays but Covance advised him that a 90-day extension was too long, so he shortened the extensions. The Seventh Circuit vacated a judgment in favor of Covance. A reasonable jury could conclude that Covance refused to promote Stepp to permanent status because of his complaints. View "Stepp v. Covance Central Laboratory Services, Inc." on Justia Law

Wilson, an inmate at Illinois’s Stateville Correctional Center, had an inguinal hernia that was first spotted in the 1990s, but then apparently subsided. In 2011, it reappeared in the identical spot. Wilson says that the recurrence was extremely painful. He claims that the prison’s medical officers refused to listen to him and delayed giving him hernia-repair surgery, instead forcing him repeatedly and fruitlessly to push the herniated tissue back into his abdominal cavity. In September 2014 Wilson received surgery, which was successful. Wilson alleged violation of his Eighth Amendment rights through deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs and sought damages under 42 U.S.C. 1983. The court dismissed a defendant, Dr. Carter, on statute of limitations grounds, and excluded several reports and ultimately dismissed the case. The Seventh Circuit reversed with respect to one defendant, Dr. Obaisi too quickly, but otherwise affirmed. Construing the facts in Wilson’s favor, a reasonable jury could believe Wilson’s testimony over Obaisi’s insistence on the completeness of his notes and could conclude that Dr. Obaisi not only learned of the painful hernia in January 2013, but also explicitly refused to hear potentially relevant medical details and was dismissive about Wilson’s pain. View "Wilson v. Wexford Health Sources, Inc." on Justia Law

Lewellen, a Chicago Police Department “dirty cop,” arrested Ruiz-Cortez for possessing cocaine and served as the key witness at his trial Ruiz-Cortez was convicted. Ruiz-Cortez spent a decade in prison before the federal government discovered Lewellen’s crimes, which included drug conspiracy, racketeering, and, according to the government, perjury at Ruiz-Cortez’s trial. The government prosecuted Lewellen and moved to vacate Ruiz-Cortez’s conviction. Ruiz-Cortez sued the city and Lewellen under 42 U.S.C. 1983 for withholding material impeachment evidence of Lewellen’s crimes. The district court dismissed the claim against the city, finding no evidence of municipal liability. A jury later found for Lewellen, despite his refusal to testify based on the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the city but vacated as to Lewellen. Ruiz-Cortez failed to marshal the evidence needed to meet Monell’s high standard. The district court allowed Lewellen to offer innocent explanations for his Fifth Amendment invocation, that “fly in the face of Fifth Amendment law,” and failed to instruct the jury about when a Fifth Amendment invocation is proper. If the jury believed that Lewellen could invoke the Fifth Amendment simply because there was other ongoing litigation, and not because truthful answers may have incriminated him, the jury was almost certainly less likely to penalize Lewellen for his invocation. View "Ruiz-Cortez v. Lewellen" on Justia Law

Hanson, age eight. was killed by shots fired into his grandmother’s Rockford home in 2002. Anderson, Johnson, and Ross were convicted of the murder and each received a 50-year sentence. The men spent more than a decade in prison before an Illinois court ordered a new trial based on the delayed disclosure of Brady material—specifically, the recorded jail calls of the prosecution’s key witness in which he contradicted his trial testimony. Anderson, Johnson, and Ross were retried and acquitted. They sued the city and officers under 42 U.S.C. 1983, alleging that the officers not only withheld the recorded jail calls and other exculpatory information but also fabricated evidence. The Seventh Circuit reversed summary judgment in favor of the defendants. Anderson, Johnson, and Ross have brought forth sufficient evidence to move forward against particular defendants on particular aspects of their alleged due process violations. No physical or forensic evidence linked the plaintiffs to the Hanson murder, so the withheld evidence was material. The court rejected some of the claims of fabricated evidence. View "Anderson v. City of Rockford" on Justia Law

Jackson was charged with throwing boiling oil at his wife, knifing her in front of their children, and later, threatening her from prison. Jackson asked the judge to remove his appointed counsel. The court granted the motion and barred Jackson from communicating with anyone but his attorney of record because of his threatening phone calls. A second appointed lawyer reported that Jackson asked him to withdraw. The court ruled that Jackson’s reasons were inadequate and refused to appoint another lawyer but allowed Jackson to seek a private attorney in compliance with the restrictions on his outside communications. The court denied Jackson’s request to represent himself. Months later, the court returned to Jackson’s request. It stressed the complexity of the case and stated that Jackson “can’t do this.” The court denied Jackson’s request. Jackson pleaded guilty to felony intimidation of a witness, first-degree reckless injury, and aggravated battery and was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment. Jackson filed an unsuccessful post-conviction petition in Wisconsin, seeking to withdraw his guilty plea. In his federal habeas action, Jackson argued that, because he was competent to plead guilty, he was competent to represent himself at trial. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the denial of that petition. Although the Wisconsin appeals court unreasonably applied Supreme Court precedent on the Sixth Amendment right to self-representation at trial, Jackson waived the error by validly pleading guilty. View "Jackson v. Bartow" on Justia Law

Illinois inmate Donelson was moved to Stateville, where a prison nurse screened him for medical issues. Donelson is asthmatic and stated that he needed a new inhaler. The nurse responded that he could get one from a doctor. Donelson had to wait 16 days to see a doctor but apparently could have gone to the commissary at any time for an inhaler. Donelson received an inhaler 20 days after arriving at Stateville. He sued, 42 U.S.C. 1983, alleging violations of the Eighth Amendment (deliberate indifference to his asthma) and the First Amendment (delaying his care to retaliate for prior lawsuits). During discovery, the court encountered several problems: Donelson’s conflict with his recruited lawyer and that lawyer’s withdrawal; Donelson’s false assertion that Wexford refused to respond to his document requests; and Donelson’s obstructive behavior during his deposition. Donelson professed not to understand simple questions, no matter how often rephrased, then refused to answer. Donelson accused opposing counsel of bringing contraband (an inhaler) into Stateville. The judge described Donelson’s responses as “evasive and argumentative,” then ruled that dismissal with prejudice and an award of costs was a proper sanction. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, finding the sanction reasonable. Donelson acted willfully and in bad faith; the dismissal was proportional and appropriate given Donelson’s grossly unacceptable conduct, the need to convey the seriousness of his violations, the obvious insufficiency of any warning, and his inability to pay any meaningful monetary sanction. View "Donelson v. Wexford Health Sources, Inc." on Justia Law

Schmidt was camping in a national forest in Wisconsin when a Forest Service Officer approached and discovered that Schmidt, who had three felony convictions, had a handgun in his tent. Schmidt agreed to pay $1,600 in restitution to the Forest Service for having cut down trees in the national forest without authorization and pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm as a convicted felon, 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1). During a presentence interview, Schmidt told his probation officer of his belief in white supremacy, his hatred for minority races, and his desire to relocate to Germany to embrace his Nazi roots. Schmidt had 17 adult criminal convictions for bail jumping, child abuse, taking and driving a vehicle without the owner’s consent, unlawful use of the phone to threaten harm, criminal damage to property, carrying a concealed weapon, and disorderly conduct and resisting an officer. His Guidelines range was 51-63 months imprisonment. The district court sentenced him to 48 months’ imprisonment. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, rejecting Schmidt’s argument that consideration of his beliefs at sentencing violated his First Amendment rights. Schmidt’s statements, in light of his criminal history and his continued disrespect for the law, raised a serious question in the sentencing judge’s mind as to whether he posed a threat of violent or anti-social conduct; Schmidt’s beliefs were reasonably related to a legitimate sentencing purpose. View "United States v. Schmidt" on Justia Law

Alden and his ex-wife shared custody of their children. Alden’s ex-wife complained that Alden was trying to turn the children against her. The court-appointed psychologist, Gardner, evaluated the children, concluded that Alden was using “severe alienation tactics,” and recommended that the court limit Alden to supervised visitation and give full custody of the children to their mother. The court terminated Alden’s custody and ordered all of Alden’s visitation to be supervised. The Appellate Court affirmed. After three unsuccessful attempts to change the decision in state court, Alden filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983 against Gardner, challenging the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act as permitting state courts to take parents’ constitutionally-protected speech into consideration when deciding the best interests of the child and treating parents differently based on whether they are divorced. The district court dismissed for lack of standing. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, noting that Alden could challenge the Act in his state custody proceedings. The court stated: “This is abusive litigation. Alden, a lawyer representing himself, seems determined to continue the child-custody litigation in another forum even if that means exposing an innocent person such as Gardner to travail and expense. He concedes—indeed, he trumpets—that he has sued someone who he knows is not responsible for enforcing the state’s child-custody laws” and referred the matter to Illinois authorities for determination of whether Alden’s misuse of the legal process calls into question his fitness to practice law. View "E.A. v. Gardner" on Justia Law

In 2005 Paramount leased a parcel of highway-adjacent property in Bellwood, Illinois, planning to erect a billboard. Paramount never applied for a local permit. When Bellwood enacted a ban on new billboard permits in 2009, Paramount lost the opportunity to build its sign. Paramount later sought to take advantage of an exception to the ban for village-owned property, offering to lease a different parcel of highway-adjacent property directly from Bellwood. Bellwood accepted an offer from Image, one of Paramount’s competitors. Paramount sued Bellwood and Image, alleging First Amendment, equal-protection, due-process, Sherman Act, and state-law violations. The Seventh Circuit affirmed summary judgment in favor of the defendants. Paramount lost its lease while the suit was pending, which mooted its claim for injunctive relief from the sign ban. The claim for damages was time-barred, except for an alleged equal-protection violation. That claim failed because Paramount was not similarly situated to Image; Paramount offered Bellwood $1,140,000 in increasing installments over 40 years while Image offered a lump sum of $800,000. Bellwood and Image are immune from Paramount’s antitrust claims. The court did not consider whether a market-participant exception to that immunity exists because Paramount failed to support its antitrust claims. View "Paramount Media Group, Inc. v. Village of Bellwood" on Justia Law

A certified class claimed that during 2011 female inmates at an Illinois prison were strip-searched as part of a training exercise for cadet guards; the inmates were required to stand naked, nearly shoulder to shoulder with other inmates in a room where they could be seen by others not conducting the searches, including male officers. Menstruating inmates had to remove their sanitary protection in front of others, were not given replacements, and many got blood on their bodies, clothing, and the floor. The naked inmates had to stand barefoot on a floor dirty with menstrual blood and raise their breasts, lift their hair, turn around, bend over, spread their buttocks and vaginas, and cough. The district court awarded summary judgment to defendants on the 42 U.S.C. 1983 Fourth Amendment theory, because Seventh Circuit precedent holds that a visual inspection of a convicted prisoner is not subject to analysis under that amendment. The jury returned a defense verdict on the Eighth Amendment claim. Because analysis under the Fourth Amendment is objective, while a successful claim under the Eighth Amendment depends on proof of a culpable mental state, the plaintiffs argued on appeal that they could succeed on a Fourth Amendment theory despite the jury’s verdict. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, reasserting that the Fourth Amendment does not apply to visual inspections of prisoners. Their convictions allow wardens to control and monitor prisoners’ lives, extinguishing the rights of secrecy and seclusion. View "Henry v. Reynolds" on Justia Law