April 23, 2025, opinions; plus a couple PSAs

Posted on by tadbartlett

First, a return to the daily summaries of U.S. Fifth Circuit opinions; then, an explanation for the six-week pause in the daily summaries and a couple public service announcements:

Unpublished opinions

  • Lucky Investments, Inc. v. Rahim, 24-10643, appeal from N.D. Tex.
    • per curiam (King, Jones, Oldham), bankruptcy
    • Affirming dismissal of putative creditor’s adversary claim challenging bankruptcy court’s discharge of debtor’s debts.
  • U.S. v. Ogunremi, 24-11063, appeal from N.D. Tex.
    • per curiam (Smith, Stewart, Duncan), criminal
    • Granting Anders motion to withdraw, and dismissing appeal.
  • U.S. v. Thibodeaux, 24-30392, appeal from W.D. La.
    • per curiam (King, Southwick, Engelhardt), criminal, sentencing
    • Affirming 408-month sentence on conviction of production of child pornography and attempting to entice a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity.
  • Henderson v. Soifer, 24-50860, appeal from W.D. Tex.
    • per curiam (Higginbotham, Jones, Oldham), sec. 1983
    • Affirming dismissal of claims as frivolous.
  • Jimenez-Nunez v. Bondi, 24-60458, petition for review of BIA order
    • per curiam (Graves, Willett, Wilson), immigration
    • Denying Honduran citizen’s petition for review of BIA order that upheld denial of asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture.

SOME PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • First PSA, having to do with the gap in daily opinion summaries from March 13 through April 22: Always, always, whether you’re hitting a hard mountain-bike trail, rolling 100 miles down a highway, noodling around your neighborhood with your kids, or lollygagging a fat-tired cruiser with your honey through some well-kept trails, always wear your bike helmet (and make sure your kids and your honeys are, too).
    • Typically, I ride for 15-20 miles every morning. Usually pre-dawn, along the lakefront here with a little nearby neighborhood mileage add-ons, before bringing my daughter to school and driving to the office. Usually about 5,000 miles a year. Biking is like breathing to me. And I ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET.
    • On the morning of March 13, I put on my helmet and pedaled out for a pre-dawn ride, the previous night’s rains having just ended. I don’t remember that ride (or even much of the prior couple of days and none of the subsequent couple of weeks). But apparently I encountered an area of lumpy road surface that, combined with the slickness from the just-finished rain and maybe the dimness of pre-dawn (despite my headlight and street lights), dumped me roughly onto the road.
    • Here’s video of the wreck, caught by a neighbor’s Ring Camera:
  • That wreck earned me multiple brain bleeds, a bloody face, broken maxillofacial bones, and a good bit of soft tissue injury throughout my torso; brain injury that included significant memory and cognition issues; and some pretty crappy vision issues. I spent three and a half weeks in two different hospitals and am facing many weeks of outpatient rehab. Imagine if I had NOT been wearing a helmet. It boggles my mind (no pun intended) when I see folks riding around without a helmet on.
    • (Photo of my dented and scratched helmet):
  • (Photo of my dented and scratched face):
  • (Link to an article I had written and that was published by Writing Disorder back in September 2015 about brain concussions: “Head Space“)
  • SECOND PSA: Do everything you can to do the quality of work in your career to end up with excellent colleagues, partners, and clients, so that when you find yourself in a situation needing to count on that excellence then it will be there for you. I, of course, have been in the space where I have needed that. My partners at Fishman Haygood have been phenomenal in working with me through this post-wreck craziness; from repeatedly showing up to visit at the hospitals and at home, to sending meals to my family, to keeping my partner draws in place and my insurance running, to picking up tasks in my cases seamlessly, to helping work me back into cases and work as I am able, I could ask for no better partners. And my colleagues–both co-counsel (particularly at Jones, Swanson, Huddell) and opposing counsel, as well as counsel I work with in bar activities and my co-professors in the coastal law seminar I teach at Tulane–have been phenomenally supportive and accommodating. And a number of clients have reached out to be both personally and professionally supportive and patient. I hope and believe I have earned this from 20+ years of practice where I have given nothing but the best of me to courts, counsel, and clients. So let this second PSA be one about promoting professionalism and civility. All right. Back to regularly scheduled programming …