Unpublished Decisions

Morales v. Holder, 2013 WL 5912092 (11/5/13) (unpub'd) - A sad immigration story. The alien entered the U.S. from Mexico when he was 7, married a U.S. citizen and had 4 U.S. citizen children. While represented by counsel, during a removal hearing, the alien testified he used a copy of the birth certificate of his U.S. citizen brother-in-law to obtain work when he was 18. The immigration authorities determined this constituted a false claim to citizenship in order to obtain a benefit under the law, automatically rendering him inadmissible. The fact that there was pending legislation in Congress that might make him admissible was not helpful. "Pending legislation is not applicable law."

Thomas v. Rios, 2013 WL 5930861 (11/6/13) (Okl.) (unpub'd) - A state court ordered revocation of 2-years' worth of good time credits can be revoked and then suspended as long as the petitioner stopped seeking post-conviction collateral relief.

Bleck v. City of Alamosa, 2013 WL 5878802 (11/4/13) (Col.) (unpub'd) - The plaintiff was "seized" for 4th Amendment purposes when an officer tried to push the resisting plaintiff down on a bed while holding a gun as a show of authority and the gun accidentally discharged a bullet into the plaintiff's hip. Even though the gun accidentally discharged, it was enough that the officer intentionally used the gun as a show of authority to restrain the plaintiff's movements. The 10th remanded for a determination whether the seizure was reasonable and a city policy or custom caused the unlawful seizure. The 10th let the officer off the hook on qualified immunity grounds---a defense not available to the city. The law the 10th ruled upon in the plaintiff's favor was not clearly established. The 10th relied on dicta from a S. Ct case, Brower v. County of Inyo, 489 U.S. 593 (1989), for its constitutional ruling, but it wouldn't be beyond debate in the mind of an officer that the officer had to follow that dicta.