United States v. Jermaine Bunn — 6th Cir. (Oct 22, 2026)

The Ninth Circuit hears consolidated appeals from a civil securities case involving sales of investments in Elite Aerospace Group. The Securities and Exchange Commission accused people involved in the offerings of concealing sales commissions and understating how much investors' money went toward offering costs. Its complaint describes commissions of fifteen percent on new investments, without corresponding disclosure to investors. A jury later found securities-law violations, and five defendants are challenging the resulting judgments. Much of the argument concerns evidence from an earlier SEC enforcement case involving some of the participants. That earlier matter ended in settlement. The appellants contend that letting the jury hear about it unfairly tainted this trial. The SEC will defend its use to explain the participants' relationship and knowledge, rather than to prove that they committed the earlier alleged violations. Rule four-oh-three allows a court to exclude relevant evidence when its value in proving a point is substantially outweighed by dangers such as unfair prejudice. That means a risk of deciding the case on an improper basis, not merely evidence that hurts one side. A limiting instruction tells jurors the particular purpose for which they may use evidence. Whether the court properly weighed those risks, and whether an instruction was enough, are central questions here. The appeal also concerns financial remedies imposed after the jury verdict. Disgorgement seeks repayment of wrongful profits; it is distinct from a civil fine. The judges will consider the appellants' argument that a jury, rather than the judge, should have determined the financial relief. John van Loben Sels will speak first for the five appellants, seeking reversal and a new trial. The SEC will ask the court to uphold the verdict and remedies.

The Second Circuit considers who may be held civilly responsible for a child's abduction. Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller entered a Vermont civil union and raised a daughter together. After they separated, Vermont courts recognized Jenkins as a legal parent and ordered visitation. Miller repeatedly refused that contact. In 2009, she left the United States with the child and went to Nicaragua. Jenkins later sued people and organizations she alleges helped plan or conceal the kidnapping. This appeal concerns the law firm Liberty Counsel and Rena Lindevaldsen, a lawyer who represented Miller. They deny involvement. The district court granted those two defendants summary judgment on two independent grounds: the claims were filed too late, and the evidence was insufficient to establish their liability. Summary judgment resolves claims without a trial when there is no genuine dispute over a fact that could affect the outcome. Reasonable inferences favor the opposing party, but speculation is not enough. Jenkins filed her original lawsuit in 2012, but formally added these defendants in 2017. The parties use a three-year filing limit. Accrual means when a claim arises and its filing clock starts. Tolling means stopping or suspending that clock for a legally recognized reason. The judges will explore the difference between discovering an injury and learning who was responsible. You will also hear vicarious liability: the proposed route for holding the firm responsible for its alleged agent's conduct. Whether Lindevaldsen had that agency relationship remains disputed. Miranda Herzog of Cleary Gottlieb will argue first for Jenkins, asking for a jury to evaluate the conflicting testimony and circumstantial evidence. Horatio Mihet will represent Liberty Counsel and Lindevaldsen, seeking affirmance. He will contend that Jenkins knew enough to sue them years earlier and that the evidence requires speculation rather than reasonable inference.

The Sixth Circuit considers a plea offer that never reached a teenage defendant. In 2000, fourteen-year-old Chris McGorman shot and killed a classmate in a barn behind his home in Kentucky. He confessed, but his defense at trial was insanity. The jury convicted him of murder, and he received a life sentence. Before trial, prosecutors offered a twenty-year sentence if he pleaded guilty. His lawyer told his parents about the offer, and they rejected it. McGorman says he never received it and would have accepted it. State courts denied relief, reasoning that he would have followed his parents and gone to trial anyway. A federal district court later granted relief on the plea claim. The warden now appeals. This is a habeas corpus case, a challenge to the legality of state custody, not a new trial over the killing. The Strickland test requires constitutionally deficient lawyering and resulting prejudice. The warden concedes that the lawyer should have conveyed the offer directly. The disputed part is prejudice: whether, with competent advice, there is a reasonable probability that McGorman would have accepted, prosecutors would have kept the offer available, the court would have approved it, and the outcome would have been less severe. You will also hear AEDPA, the federal law limiting habeas relief. Under Title Twenty-Eight, Section Twenty-Two Fifty-Four, disagreement with a state court is not enough. This appeal centers on whether the state court unreasonably applied clearly established Supreme Court law. Jack Heyburn will argue first for the warden, asking the court to reverse the federal ruling. Dennis Burke will represent McGorman, seeking to preserve that relief. He will contend that the state courts wrongly used the parents' control of the defense to excuse the harm caused by counsel's failure.

The D.C. Circuit considers competing challenges to a federal rule on ship pollution. Ships take in ballast water to maintain balance and stability as cargo changes. When they release that water elsewhere, they can also release living organisms carried from another place, potentially spreading invasive species. Congress passed the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act in 2018 to replace a patchwork of discharge requirements with a national framework. EPA sets pollution-control standards; the Coast Guard develops implementing rules. EPA published the rule challenged here in October 2024. The challengers petitioned the court directly to review that agency action, rather than appealing a trial about one pollution incident. The first part concerns Lakers: vessels operating exclusively in the Great Lakes region. EPA exempted this fleet from numeric ballast-water limits, citing difficult operating conditions. But it required covered new Lakers to install, operate, and maintain treatment equipment. Existing Lakers were not given that equipment requirement, although other management requirements still apply. The Lake Carriers' Association will argue that EPA lacks authority to impose this equipment mandate and did not adequately establish that the systems will work on these ships. Environmental groups take the opposite position on older Lakers: they say EPA failed to justify leaving them without the equipment requirement. Michigan and supporting states also challenge the removal of an earlier precaution against taking in ballast water in high-risk conditions. Best management practices are pollution-prevention measures; whether that term permits a major equipment mandate is disputed here. Best available technology economically achievable is a standard involving technology, engineering, and costs. Anti-backsliding generally bars weaker requirements, subject to specified exceptions, including previously unavailable information or a material technical mistake. The panel will ask what the statute authorizes and whether EPA reasonably explained its choices. Varu Chilakamarri will argue first for the carriers. Wendy Bloom will speak for the environmental groups. Elizabeth Morrisseau, a Michigan Assistant Attorney General, will address the uptake issue for the supporting states. Alex Hardee will defend EPA's rule. Later, the hearing turns to California's separate challenges.

A family challenges the disclosure of recordings made by security cameras inside their home. A dispute between a father and son became a physical confrontation. The children's mother gave the footage to Child Protective Services, which passed it to Miami Township police. The father later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Before the criminal records were sealed, the township gave a member of the public access to a redacted video in response to a records request. The children's faces were blurred and their names removed, but the family says they could still be identified and private conversations remained exposed. The father and his three children sued the township and its law director, Joseph Braun. The district court granted the defendants summary judgment, deciding the claims without a trial. The family now appeals. This is a civil privacy case, not an appeal from the father's conviction. Ohio Revised Code Section Twenty-One Fifty-One Point Four Two Three requires agencies receiving confidential child-protection information to keep it confidential, rather than release it as an ordinary public record. But violating a state confidentiality rule does not automatically establish a federal constitutional violation. Procedural due process concerns safeguards before the government takes away a protected interest. The family will argue that it needed a better chance to prevent disclosure. The township will point to its warnings, consultations with the father's lawyers, and redactions. Listen for the judges' concern that the children's interests might differ from their father's. Substantive due process raises a different question: whether the disclosure itself violated a constitutionally protected privacy right. You will hear stigma-plus, shorthand for the principle that reputational injury alone is not enough. The parties dispute whether that framework properly addresses this confidentiality claim. Qualified immunity can protect an individual official from damages when the asserted constitutional right was not clearly established. It does not protect the township itself. Separate Ohio immunity rules affect the state-law privacy claim. Robert Thompson will argue first for the family, seeking reversal. Katie Barbiere will represent the township and Braun, asking the panel to leave the judgment in place.