The HCBullet: The blog of the Attorneys at HCB

Seventh Circuit Court Affirms Transgender Boy’s Right to Use Boy’s Restroom At School

June 7, 2017

In Whitaker v. Kenosha Unified School District No. 1 Board of Education, et al., No. 16-3522 (7th Cir. May 30, 2017), the Seventh Circuit Appellate Court affirmed a grant of preliminary injunctive relief that allowed a transgender boy to use the boys’ restroom while at school. Ashton (“Ash”) Whitaker is a transgender high school senior….

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Supreme Court Vacates $4,000,000 Verdict Against Police and Reaffirms Graham v. Connor’s “Objective Reasonableness” Test for Excessive Force Claims

June 7, 2017

On May 30, 2017, in County of Los Angeles v. Mendez,  the U.S. Supreme Court vacated a $4,000,000 award in an excessive force case. In Mendez, the police entered a house looking for an armed and dangerous criminal suspect. The suspect was not found, but the owner of the house said that a homeless couple…

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Court Dismisses Inmate’s Case for Failure to Answer Discovery

May 24, 2017

Chief Judge James E. Shadid in the Central District of Illinois dismissed a pro se pre-trial detainee’s civil rights complaint in favor of a correctional officer and a nurse at the Jerome Combs Detention Center in Kankakee, Illinois in Buckner v. Austin, et al., No. 16-cv-2058 (C.D. Ill. 2017). Plaintiff allegedly slipped and fell in…

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Prisoner’s Appeal Proceeds Despite Three Strikes Under The PLRA

May 24, 2017

In Isby v. Brown, No. 15-3334, (7th Cir. May 10, 2017), the Seventh Circuit Appellate Court denied Defendants’ motion to dismiss based on Plaintiff’s failure to inform the district court of his numerous strikes under the Prisoner Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”). In Isby, the plaintiff, a prisoner at the Indiana Department of Corrections, had been…

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Seventh Circuit Expands Sex Discrimination Protections Under Title VII to Include Sexual Orientation

May 9, 2017

Last month in Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College of Ind., 853 F.3d 339 (7th Cir. 2017), the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting en banc, found that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This is a…

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