Almy v. Sebelius The 4th Circuit upholds the Secretary of Health and Human Services’ denial of Medicare Part B coverage for the BIO-1000, a device to treat osteoarthritis of the knee, rejecting the claims of the manufacturer’s bankruptcy trustee that the Secretary improperly used the adjudicative process to develop a policy denying coverage and her decisions were arbitrary and capricious.
Chamber of Commerce v. National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is a quasi-judicial body with two main functions: to conduct representation elections and certify the results and to prevent employers and unions from engaging in unfair labor practices. As such, the NLRB traditionally functions as a reactive agency.
U.S. ex rel. Michael K. Drakeford MD v. Tuomey Healthcare System Inc. A federal appeals court vacates a $45 million judgment against a Sumter, S.C., health care system for Stark Law violations and sends the case back, saying the district court’s handling of the case violated the defendant’s Seventh Amendment right to a jury.
Bracamontes v. Holder Section 212(h) of the Immigration and Nationality Act does not bar an alien who adjusts his status post-entry to lawful permanent resident from seeking a waiver of inadmissibility, and the 4th Circuit grants a petition filed by this married father of three, who obtained lawful resident status prior to his felony conviction and marriage to a U.S. citizen, vacates the order of removal, and remands the case to the Board of Immigration Appeals.
South Carolina Department of Revenue v. Blue Moon of Newberry, Inc. Where a regulation defines a “bona fide guest” as one who accompanies a member or makes prior arrangements with a member, a sports bar did not violate the regulation when it gave a member’s telephone number to a non-member and admitted the non-member as a guest moments after he called the number.
E.M.A., a minor v. Cansler, Sec’y DHHS North Carolina’s third-party liability statutes, under which it asserts a lien for one-third of an infant Medicaid recipient’s $2.9 million med-mal settlement, do not comply with federal Medicaid law, which limits a state’s recovery to past medical expenses, and the 4th Circuit vacates judgment for the state and remands for further proceedings consistent with the federal anti-lien provision.
U.S. v. Sarwari An Afghan native who became a naturalized U.S. citizen and works as a translator cannot overturn his convictions for making false statements on passport applications based on identifying himself on the applications as the “father” of his three stepsons; although the application form does not define “father” and common usage of “father” may include “stepfather,” the 4th Circuit upholds the convictions.
York County v. South Carolina Department of Health & Environmental Control The petitioner-county could not avoid the respondent-agency’s permitting of a landfill in the county by passing an emergency ordinance and imposing a moratorium on new landfills.
We affirm the Administrative Law Court’s ruling in favor of respondent C&D Management Co.
Phan v. Holder Although a D.C. court set aside defendant’s conviction for distributing cocaine in a drug-free zone, the conviction still counts for immigration purposes and is an absolute bar to obtaining citizenship, the 4th Circuit says.
The D.C. Superior Court suspended defendant’s sentence and placed him on 18 months of supervised probation, with certain conditions. He successfully completed his probation, and his conviction was “set aside” under D.C. Code § 24-906(e).
Turkson v. Holder In deciding this petition for deferral of removal based on petitioner’s fear of torture if he is returned to his native Ghana, the 4th Circuit says the Board of Immigration should have applied the “clearly erroneous” standard instead of the de novo review standard, and it grants the petition, vacates the BIA’s decision in favor of the Department of Homeland Security and remands the case for further proceedings.
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