William Woods v. City of Detroit — 6th Cir. (Oct 21, 2026)

Telecommunications industry groups challenge federal rules governing what companies must do when customers' private information is exposed. This is a challenge to a regulation, not a damages suit over one particular hack. Earlier breach rules focused on customer proprietary network information, or C P N I: information about a customer's telephone service, such as call destinations and usage. The disputed order, adopted in December twenty twenty-three and published in twenty twenty-four, also covers personally identifiable information, or P I I, such as a name combined with a government identification number. It expands the definition of a breach to include inadvertent disclosures, with a good-faith employee exception, and changes notification requirements for customers and federal authorities. The history matters. In twenty sixteen, the F C C adopted a broader privacy order that included breach reporting. In twenty seventeen, Congress passed, and the President signed, a resolution disapproving that order. Under the Congressional Review Act, section eight-oh-one, subsection b, paragraph two, a disapproved rule cannot be reissued in substantially the same form. A new rule that is substantially the same is also barred, unless Congress later specifically authorizes it. The question is whether this newer order crosses that line. The industry associations, joined by a relay-service provider, asked the Sixth Circuit to set the new rules aside. A three-judge panel rejected the challenge in twenty twenty-five. In July twenty twenty-six, the court agreed to rehear the case en banc, before the full court, and vacated that panel decision. This is the October twenty-first rehearing. Roman Martinez will argue for the challengers that the new breach-reporting rules are substantially the same as the ones Congress rejected. Adam Sorensen will defend the F C C, arguing that changes to the covered information, breach definition and reporting obligations make the rules sufficiently different. There is also a dispute over statutory authority. Section two-oh-one, subsection b, addresses just and reasonable carrier practices; section two-twenty-two specifically addresses customer privacy. Section two-twenty-five concerns telecommunications relay services, which help people with hearing or speech disabilities communicate by telephone. The lawyers disagree about how these provisions authorize, or limit, the expanded protections.

Victor Roberts challenges the denial of federal habeas relief from a California murder conviction. The prosecution's case was that he supplied a gun to another man, who fatally shot someone outside a convenience store. A jury convicted Roberts of second-degree murder. The jury also heard Roberts speaking to a police agent posing as another detainee. His defense was that intimidation made those admissions unreliable. The trial judge restricted questions about the agent's physical appearance to protect his identity, while allowing evidence about his gang-member persona. Roberts says that restriction prevented a meaningful defense. The state appellate court rejected his challenge. The federal district court denied his habeas petition, but allowed an appeal on the cross-examination and harmless-error issues. Habeas corpus is a challenge to the legality of custody, not another trial. Section twenty-two fifty-four limits federal relief from state convictions, including special deference to state-court decisions. A merely mistaken ruling is not necessarily an unreasonable application of clearly established Supreme Court law. Crane versus Kentucky recognizes that evidence about how a confession was obtained can bear on its reliability even when the confession is legally voluntary. Courts may still impose reasonable evidentiary limits. Whether this restriction left Roberts a meaningful defense remains disputed. The panel also addresses filing timeliness and the prison mailbox rule. Under Appellate Rule four, a qualifying deposit of a notice of appeal in the prison's internal mail system can count as filing, rather than its later arrival at court. The rule has requirements, including use of a legal-mail system when one exists. Another term in that discussion is in forma pauperis: permission to proceed without prepaying court fees because of financial inability.

Jermaine Bunn appeals a federal firearm conviction. Police found him unconscious in a vehicle containing a gun. Because he had a prior felony conviction, possessing that firearm was prohibited by federal law. A jury found him guilty. The unusual dispute concerns what happened before trial. Bunn repeatedly said he wanted to plead guilty. The judge initially announced that he would adjudge Bunn guilty, then questioned whether Bunn understood and admitted possessing the gun. The judge stopped the hearing for further consultation. At a later hearing, Bunn chose a trial. Bunn argues that his earlier plea had already been accepted and should govern sentencing. The government says his answers showed uncertainty about what he was admitting, so the judge properly gave him more time to consult his lawyer. Rule eleven governs guilty pleas. A plea colloquy is the judge's questioning to check the defendant's understanding, rights and voluntary choice. The rule separately requires a factual basis before judgment. The parties dispute how those requirements apply here. Actual possession means knowing physical control. Constructive possession means knowingly having the right and intention to exercise control, even without holding the item. Being near a gun is not enough. Acceptance of responsibility can lower the sentencing-guideline range, but a guilty plea alone does not guarantee that reduction. Plain-error review concerns obvious errors affecting important rights that were not properly raised below. The Speedy Trial Act generally uses a seventy-day clock, with specified delays excluded. Some exclusions are automatic; an ends-of-justice continuance requires recorded reasons weighing the need for delay against a prompt trial. The parties dispute which rule covers the interrupted plea hearing. Marisa Serrat will seek sentencing based on Bunn's earlier plea. Laura Ford for the United States will defend the conviction and sentence.

Matthew Thomas, a former quality-compliance director at Premier Home Health Care, challenges the dismissal of his whistleblower lawsuit. He alleged that the company billed Medicaid for services not properly provided, including care lacking required physician orders and nursing assessments, and failed to return overpayments. He also says he was fired for reporting the problems to management. The False Claims Act lets a private person, called a relator, sue in the government's name over fraud involving public funds. Here, the federal and state governments declined to take over the case; Thomas pursued it himself. The district judge dismissed his federal claims before trial and denied another amendment to the complaint. That was a decision about whether the allegations were legally sufficient, not a trial finding that fraud did or did not occur. Rule nine B requires particularity: specific facts describing the alleged fraud. Chorches and Gallian permit pleading without identified invoices when specific facts support a strong inference of false claims and show why the identifying information is peculiarly within the company's knowledge. The judges question whether Thomas has supplied that explanation. Regulatory noncompliance does not automatically establish a false claim. Materiality concerns whether a misrepresentation could influence payment. A reverse false claim concerns knowingly and improperly avoiding an obligation to return government money, rather than fraudulently obtaining it. The separate retaliation claim asks whether Thomas's reports were protected efforts to stop False Claims Act violations. The parties dispute whether his ordinary compliance duties defeat that protection. Proving the employer actually committed fraud is not required for retaliation. Timothy McInnis will seek to revive Thomas's claims and obtain permission to amend, or revise, the complaint. Premier's side is submitted on its written brief, without oral argument.

Denny Bhakta appeals fraud convictions and a two-hundred-thirty-five-month prison sentence. His Fusion businesses pitched investments in discounted hotel rooms to be resold to corporate customers. Prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission said the supposed hotel business masked diversions to gambling, personal expenses and payments to earlier investors. The criminal case also involved pandemic business loans through the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP. Prosecutors said false payroll and tax records supported those applications. A jury convicted Bhakta of securities fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. The appeal asks whether the jury should have seen the underlying electronic files, not just readable copies of payroll documents. Metadata is information about a file, such as when it was created or edited. Bhakta disputes authorship, not whether the copies accurately show the documents received by the banks. The best-evidence rule generally requires an original to prove a document's contents. But an accurate readable output of electronic information can itself count as an original. The dispute is whether missing metadata changes that analysis here. Another issue concerns Kabbage, a PPP processor with a separate federal fraud settlement. That settlement does not establish who created Bhakta's documents. Rule four-oh-three permits excluding relevant evidence when dangers such as confusing the issues substantially outweigh its value. Sentencing questions concern the loss estimate, repayments and a two-level increase for alleged perjury. Perjury requires willfully false testimony on a material matter, meaning one that could affect the decision; mere disbelief is not enough. The judges also discuss plain-error review, which allows some unpreserved errors to be considered if they affect substantial rights. David Schlesinger will challenge the evidence rulings and sentence for Bhakta. The government will defend them.