Latest 3 Cases: Illinois Tool Works, Inc. v. Rust-Oleum Corp. (Business Law), Dyer v. Houston (Civil Rights), Inestroza-Antonelli v. Barr ...

How Allen v. Cooper Breaks Important New (if Dubious) Ground on Stare Decisis

VIKRAM DAVID AMAR

Illinois Law dean and professor Vikram David Amar comments on language in a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Allen v. Cooperdiscussing constitutional stare decisis in the context of state sovereign immunity. Amar points out some of the problems with the Court’s jurisprudence on state sovereign immunity and Congress’s Section 5 power, and he questions the Allen majority’s embrace of a “special justification” requirement for constitutional stare decisis.

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Illinois Tool Works, Inc. v. Rust-Oleum Corp.

Docket: 19-20210

Opinion Date: April 9, 2020

Judge: Edith Brown Clement

Areas of Law: Business Law, Intellectual Property

Illinois Tool Works, maker of Rain-X, filed suit against Rust-Oleum over a commercial for its competing product, RainBrella. Illinois Tool Works alleged that the commercial made three false claims. After a jury ruled in favor of Illinois Tool Works, it awarded the company over $1.3 million. The district court then reduced the corrective-advertising award. The Fifth Circuit held that Illinois Tool Works failed to present sufficient evidence showing that Rust-Oleum's profits were attributable to the Lanham Act violation. Therefore, the court vacated the disgorgement-of-profits award, holding that there was no causal connection between Rust-Oleum's false advertising and its profits. The court never explicitly condoned a prospective corrective-advertising award, but saw no principled reason to prohibit them categorically. In this case, because Illinois Tool Works offered no evidence to support the corrective-advertising award, the court held that a jury could not have reasonably awarded any amount to Illinois Tool Works. Finally, the court held that the evidence was insufficient to support the district court's injunction against Rust-Oleum for making the 100-car-washes claim. Therefore, the district court erred in denying Rust-Oleum's renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law. The court vacated the damages award and reversed the district court's judgment enjoining Rust-Oleum from making its 100-car-washes claim. The court affirmed the district court's judgment enjoining Rust-Oleum from making the other advertising claims.

Dyer v. Houston

Docket: 19-10280

Opinion Date: April 9, 2020

Judge: Stuart Kyle Duncan

Areas of Law: Civil Rights, Constitutional Law

Plaintiffs appealed the district court's dismissal, on qualified immunity grounds, of their deliberate-indifference claims against paramedics and police officers employed by the City of Mesquite. Plaintiffs' claims arose out of the death of their 18 year old son from self-inflicted head trauma while in police custody. He died after violently bashing his head over 40 times against the interior of a patrol car while being transported to jail. The Fifth Circuit held that the complaint failed to allege facts that plausibly show the paramedics' deliberate indifference. In this case, plaintiffs alleged that the paramedics failed to provide additional care. However, the court held that precedent has consistently recognized that deliberate indifference cannot be inferred merely from a negligent or even a grossly negligent response to a substantial risk of serious harm. Therefore, the court affirmed the district court's dismissal of these claims. The court held that there are genuine disputes of material fact as to whether Officer Scott, like Gafford and Heidelburg, acted with deliberate indifference to the son's serious medical needs. Furthermore, a reasonable jury could conclude that the Officers were either aware, or should have been aware, because it was so obvious, of an unjustifiably high risk to the son's health; they did nothing to seek medical attention; and they even misstated the severity of the son's condition to those who could have sought help. Accordingly, the court reversed the summary judgment dismissal of the deliberate indifference claims against the officers and remanded for further proceedings.

Inestroza-Antonelli v. Barr

Docket: 18-60236

Opinion Date: April 9, 2020

Judge: James L. Dennis

Areas of Law: Immigration Law

The Fifth Circuit granted a petition for review of the BIA's decision affirming the IJ's denial of petitioner's motion to reopen her removal proceedings. Petitioner relied in part on the alleged dismantling of institutional protections for women against gender-based violence following a 2009 military coup in Honduras. The court held that the BIA's finding -- that any change in gender-based violence in Honduras was incremental or incidental and not material -- was not supported by the record. In this case, the BIA's complete failure to address uncontroverted evidence of a clearly significant turning point in the country's history and the central role that it played in petitioner's arguments regarding changes in country conditions was an abuse of discretion. Accordingly, the court remanded for further proceedings.