June 11, 2021 opinions

Posted on by tadbartlett

Designated for publication

  • U.S. v. Vasquez, 20-40332, appeal from E.D. Tex.
    • per curiam (Owen, Jolly, Dennis), immigration
    • Reversing district court’s declination to revoke citizenship status from naturalized former El Salvadoran military officer.
    • During the Salvadoran Civil War, the defendant had a role in extrajudicial killings and a subsequent cover-up. Based on this role, the U.S. government sought to revoke his citizenship, and the district court declined based on the defendant’s refusal to have actually shot any civilians.
    • The Court held that the standard the government must meet in a denaturalization proceeding is to prove its charges than naturalization had been illegally procured by clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence.
    • The Court then held that the operative inquiry in the defendant’s denaturalization proceeding was whether he “assisted” or “otherwise participated in” the extrajudicial killings known as the San Sebastian Massacre, where troops under his command staged an “ambush” of ten innocent civilians portrayed as rebels, and then finished off those who did not die in the faked military engagement by shooting them at point-blank range.
    • The Court held that “caselaw is uniform in its assessment that this standard does not require actual trigger-pulling; the defendant need not engage in the commission of physical atrocities to be found to have ‘assisted’ or ‘participated’ in them.” (Internal quotation marks and citations omitted). The Court then found, “[Defendant’s] undisputed conduct–capturing those who were killed, continuing to detain them knowing their deaths were imminent, waiting nearby while they were executed, and taking action to hide what truly happened–was not merely indirect, peripheral, and inconsequential association with the killings, but was active, direct, and integral to the civilians’ deaths. Although, on his version of the facts, he did not engage in trigger-pulling, he was involved enough to be considered one who assisted or otherwise participated in the killings.” (Internal quotation marks omitted).

Unpublished

  • U.S. v. Duncan-Bush, 19-20610, appeal from S.D. Tex.
    • per curiam (Graves, Willett, Duncan), criminal
    • Granting Anders motion to withdraw, and dismissing appeal.
  • U.S. v. Williams, 19-31055, appeal from W.D. La.
    • per curiam (Graves, Willett, Duncan), criminal
    • Granting Anders motion to withdraw, and dismissing appeal.
  • U.S. v. McLaughlin, 20-10559, appeal from N.D. Tex.
    • per curiam (Graves, Willett, Duncan), criminal
    • Granting Anders motion to withdraw, and dismissing appeal.
  • U.S. v. Silva, 20-10725, appeal from N.D. Tex.
    • per curiam (Graves, Willett, Duncan), criminal
    • Granting Anders motion to withdraw, and dismissing appeal.
  • U.S. v. Garfias, 20-11198, appeal from N.D. Tex.
    • per curiam (King, Smith, Wilson), criminal, sentencing
    • Affirming 24-month sentence on revocation of supervised release.
  • Spell v. Edwards, 20-30712, appeal from M.D. La.
    • per curiam (Wiener, Elrod, Higginson), COVID-19, First Amendment
    • Vacating district court’s dismissal of pastor and congregation’s First Amendment Free Exercise Clause challenge to governor’s capacity restrictions in COVID-19 emergency declarations, and remanding with instructions to consider in the first instance in light of the Supreme Court’s recent decisions on the issue in Roman Cath. Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, 141 S. Ct. 63, 67–69 (2020); S. Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom, 141 S. Ct. 716 (2021); and Tandon v. Newsom, 141 S. Ct. 1294, 1297–98 (2021).
  • U.S. v. Escobedo, 20-40744, appeal from S.D. Tex.
    • per curiam (Graves, Willett, Duncan), criminal
    • Granting Anders motion to withdraw, and dismissing appeal.
  • Friend v. McAdams, 20-60456, appeal from N.D. Miss.
    • per curiam (Jolly, Duncan, Oldham), employment discrimination
    • Affirming summary judgment dismissal of hostile work environment, constructive discharge, and employment discrimination claims by Black female plaintiff who had been a police officer for the City of Greenwood, Mississippi.