Circuit Briefs: Weekly, non-exhaustive digest of U.S. Courts of Appeal rulings

Delight in the newest installment of Short Circuit, a weekly feature crafted by a collective from the Institute for Justice.

New to the Short Circuit podcast: attorneys and bond hearings shuffled out of order, and in #12Months12Circuits we tackle the Sixth.

Puerto Rico completed a distinctive bankruptcy mechanism aimed at reorganizing its obligations under a plan approved by the court. It now contends that civil-rights lawsuits brought against individual police officers for constitutional violations are barred by that plan because the government must defend those actions and can opt to indemnify the officers. First Circuit: The plan does not purport to extinguish these civil-rights claims, and it’s doubtful it could discharge them even if it tried.
In Buffalo, authorities had to raze a building on an emergency basis because it functioned as an abandoned drug den and was on the verge of collapse. Owner of the property disputed this. Second Circuit: And this, children, is what we call a fact dispute. To the jury it goes!
Second Circuit: The matter involves the FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, and the SOL reference.
The Secretary of the Interior directed the removal of certain exhibits from the President’s House at Independence National Historical Park that conflicted with the administration’s focus on showcasing the greatness of American achievements and progress. They concerned slavery. Philadelphia filed suit. Third Circuit: But the Administrative Procedure Act bars the city’s claims.
The Castro regime seized the Havana Club rum trademark from its rightful owner, first registering it in the United States in 1976. It consistently renewed the mark every decade, as required, until the Treasury Department withheld a license for the 2006 renewal (which the D.C. Circuit upheld as constitutional in 2011). Treasury reversed in 2016 and retroactively authorized the decade-old renewal. Bacardi, which had acquired the rightful owner’s interest, argued that the registration had lapsed; there’s no time travel. Fourth Circuit: Indeed, there is.
In Fairmount Heights, Maryland, a police officer arrests a teenage girl, seizes her car, coerces her into sexual activity at a facility where officers are not supposed to take arrestees, and then returns the car. He is convicted in state court of having sex with a person in custody and sentenced to time served. He is also convicted in federal court of filing a false report and given three years of probation. Fourth Circuit (unpublished): And by all accounts, he will serve that probation.
Would-be short-term rental operators argued their properties sit near busy commercial zones in a vacation town with hundreds of existing short-term rentals. They claimed they would not be a nuisance, and indeed the city itself found no harm. They sought permission to operate. Fifth Circuit: Ah, but the record shows some neighbors opposed the plan. [IJ filed an amicus brief urging a different course.]
Sixth Circuit: If there is one enduring American truth, it is our deep-seated wariness of unaccountable bureaucrats wielding unchecked power against ordinary citizens. That sentiment showed up here against a scrappy entrepreneur, who nevertheless lost.
While serving a 35-year sentence, a Kalamazoo, Michigan drug offender developed meningitis that left him partially blind and paralyzed from the waist down. Compassionate release? The district court said no, arguing it might not be safe for the public. Sixth Circuit: Yes, you should treat prison nurses with more consideration. Affirmed.
For decades, an elected Illinois county coroner kept several skulls as trophies, including from a murdered high-school student. The student’s family sued the county, alleging Constitutional violations. Seventh Circuit: The coroner’s actions were so egregious they also violated state law—and that means the county cannot be held liable because the policy to violate state law could not have been the county’s own. Dissent: That line of reasoning is crazy. The coroner was an elected official with ultimate authority over handling bodies; his actions effectively reflected the county’s policies. [For context on color-of-law issues, we point listeners to podcast episodes covering related themes.]
Although not directly in its path, Jacksonville, Arkansas, officers shot and killed a would-be thief driving a truck away from them at a low speed. Eighth Circuit: No qualified immunity. The video does not clearly resolve the factual disputes, which remain for a jury to decide.
When it comes to water rights in the western United States, much of the allocation was decided long ago. In the Klamath River basin—roughly 12,000 square miles spanning California and Oregon—a federal initiative beginning in 1905 sought to appropriate water for irrigation, while recognizing senior rights of certain tribes. The federal efforts, which have recently endangered fish relied upon by the tribes, were described by the Ninth Circuit (over a dissent) as needing compliance with the Endangered Species Act. And it isn’t a judicial taking, since the court isn’t adjudicating new water rights at this time.
Georgia law permits certain incumbent officials to run “leadership committees” that escape campaign-finance limits. The question is whether the proper remedy is to block those committees. Eleventh Circuit: Yes. Dissent: The right approach is to sue the state to stop applying limits to him, rather than curtailing campaigns.
“Keying” is described as a long-standing practice within the Piedmont High football program in Alabama, where players allegedly force a car or truck key into a younger player’s anus and twist it. Eleventh Circuit (over a partial dissent): The case is not to be dismissed!
Two brothers, dressed in gym attire, depart a gym around 3 a.m. and walk through an empty lot toward their cars in a neighboring lot. They do not wish to stop and explain themselves to a Miami-Dade, Florida officer, resulting in a confrontation with body slams and tasers. Eleventh Circuit (2024, unpublished): Some of the claims proceed. Eleventh Circuit (2026, unpublished): We’re not retracting what we said earlier.
In en banc developments, the Ninth Circuit will revisit its ruling that Washington state’s actions—potentially prohibiting a Christian ministry from hiring coreligionists who share its views on marriage and sexuality for non-ministerial roles—likely violates the First Amendment.

And in white whale news, we are pleased to report that Hawaii has repealed its licensing requirement for natural-hair braiders to obtain a full cosmetology license just to braid hair. Back in 1991, IJ filed its first-ever lawsuit challenging the same requirement in the District of Columbia. Indeed, at that time all fifty states (plus D.C.) demanded roughly 1,500 hours of cosmetology training, most of which bore little relation to braiding. Today, fourteen lawsuits and extensive grassroots activism later, no jurisdiction imposes a full-service license for braiding. Hawaii was the last holdout. Maika’i loa!