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Opinions

The Southern District of West Virginia offers a database of opinions starting in the year 2001, listed by year and judge. For a more detailed search, enter the keyword or case number in the search to the right or sort using the drop-downs below.

2:19-cr-00296

Memorandum Opinion and Order

Pending before the court is a Motion to Dismiss filed by Defendant Nicholas Elias Boggess. [ECF No. 55]. Parties have responded [ECF No. 58] and replied [ECF No. 59] and the Motion is ripe for decision. On December 3, 2019, the Government filed an indictment against Defendant charging him with possession of a firearm not registered under the National Firearms and Transfer Record in violation of 26 U.S.C. §§ 5841, 5861(d), and 5871. [ECF No. 16]. Specifically, Defendant is charged with knowingly possessing a pipe bomb, a destructive device, which was not registered. Defendant filed this Motion to Dismiss on the grounds that 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d) is an unconstitutional exercise of the Taxing Power both facially and as applied to Defendant. [ECF No. 55, at 1]. For the reasons stated below, Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss is DENIED...

Author:
Joseph R. Goodwin
2:20-cv-00414

Memorandum Opinion and Order

I have reviewed Plaintiff’s Class Action Complaint [ECF No. 1], Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss [ECF No. 17], the Memorandum in Support [ECF No. 18], the attached exhibits, Plaintiff’s Opposition [ECF No. 26], and Defendant’s Reply [ECF No. 27]. In addition, I have reviewed the supplemental authority filed by both parties during the pendency of the Motion to Dismiss [ECF Nos. 38, 39, 40, 44, 45]. For the reasons stated herein, the Court finds that Defendant’s motion should be GRANTED.

Author:
Joseph R. Goodwin
2:19-cr-00178

Opinion

On September 29, 2020, Defendant Brooke Alexandria Kimble appeared before me for a sentencing hearing. I had previously accepted her plea of guilty to Distribution of a Quantity of Fentanyl, a Schedule II Controlled Substance in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), as charged in Count One of the Indictment filed against her. However, I had deferred acceptance of the plea agreement until sentencing. Accepting this plea agreement would have required me to impose a sentence within the range of 120 to 180 months in prison. At that point, Defendant’s advisory Guidelines range had been calculated to be 168 to 210 months. Defendant sought a downward variance to a sentence of 120 months...

Author:
Joseph R. Goodwin
3:19-cv-00898

Memorandum Opinion and Order

This suit challenges the constitutionality of West Virginia’s Ballot Order Statute, which mandates that ballots for partisan offices list first the party whose presidential candidate received the most votes in the last election. Following the parties’ bench trial, the Court must now weigh the extent to which the Statute burdens the plaintiffs’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights against the state’s asserted interests. Finding the state’s interests insufficient to justify the burdens created by the Statute, the Court now declares the Ballot Order Statute unconstitutional, enjoins the defendants from enforcing it, and orders the defendants to implement a constitutional ballot ordering system for future elections, including the November 2020 general election.

Author:
Robert C. Chambers
2:18-cr-00295

Memorandum Opinion and Order

Pending before the court is Defendant John Delaney Wilson’s Motion for Compassionate Release, [ECF No. 38]. The court in deciding such motions will consider the following: whether the defendant has exhausted his or her administrative remedies, has demonstrated “extraordinary and compelling reasons,” is not a danger to the safety of others, and the § 3553(a) factors. In deciding what constitutes “extraordinary and compelling reasons” for release by reason of COVID-19, the defendant must demonstrate that he or she has a medical condition listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as causing an increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19 and that he or she is at a facility which cannot effectively prevent the spread of the virus. For the reasons that follow, the Motion is DENIED without prejudice.

Author:
Joseph R. Goodwin
2:19-cv-00844

Memorandum Opinion and Order

Pending before the court is a Motion to Compel Certain Opt-in Plaintiffs to Arbitration and Stay Proceedings, [ECF No. 44], and a Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Personal Jurisdiction, [ECF No. 34], filed by Defendant TransCanada USA Services, Inc. (“TransCanada”). Also pending before the court is a Motion for Conditional Class Certification and Court-Authorized Notice, [ECF No. 26], filed by Plaintiffs. For the reasons that follow, Defendant’s Motion to Compel Arbitration, [ECF No. 44] is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part, Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, [ECF No. 34], is DENIED, and Plaintiff’s Motion for Conditional Class Certification, [ECF No. 26], is GRANTED.

Author:
Joseph R. Goodwin
2:19-cr-00078

Memorandum Opinion and Order

Pending before the court is a pro se Motion for Compassionate Release, [ECF No. 49], filed by Defendant Brandon Carter. The Government has responded to the Motion. [ECF No. 52]. The Motion is DENIED for the reasons that follow.

Author:
Joseph R. Goodwin
2:17-cr-00198-4

Memorandum Decision and Order

A deadly pandemic provides extraordinary and compelling reasons for the world to take unprecedented measures to combat the spread of the lethal COVID-19 virus. This petitioner is locked down at the Federal Correctional Institution at Elkton. At that prison, the COVID-19 pandemic has struck with a vengeance, killing nine people and infecting almost 500 prisoners by some estimates and many staff. Approximately 25% of the inmates have tested positive for the virus. The question before this court is whether a federal prisoner who has been identified by the Bureau of Prisons as medically vulnerable to this deadly virus and who has petitioned this court for compassionate release has extraordinary and compelling reasons to justify his request pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i). For the reasons that follow, Defendant Ralph White’s Motion for Immediate Compassionate Release, [ECF No. 405], is GRANTED.

Author:
Joseph R. Goodwin
2:18-cr-00105

Memorandum Opinion and Order

Pending before the court is Defendant Kyle Thompson’s Motion to Reduce or Modify Sentence Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c), based largely on the current public health crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. [ECF No. 69]. The exigencies of this situation are global with regard to federal detainees. The statutory preclusion is such that the court finds it more appropriate to deal with this Motion without further briefing or filings. For the reasons that follow, the Motion is DENIED without prejudice.

Author:
Joseph R. Goodwin
3:18-cv-1526

Memorandum Opinion and Order

Presently pending before the Court is Plaintiffs’ “Emergency Motion for Preliminary Injunction Regarding Defendants’ Prevention, Management, and Treatment of COVID-19.” Mot. for Prelim. Inj., ECF No. 161. Defendants timely filed a Response in Opposition, Resp. in Opp’n, ECF No. 168, and Plaintiffs did the same with their Reply, Reply, ECF No. 173. The parties also provided supplemental information to the Court, which has all been filed under seal. See Exs., ECF -2-  No. 181. The Court held a hearing on Plaintiffs’ Motion on April 6, 2020 and determined that the issues had been adequately presented through the parties’ submissions and oral argument, and therefore dispensed with the need for further witness testimony. Video Mot. Hr’g, ECF No. 180. For the reasons set forth below—as well as for those announced on the record at the hearing—the Court DENIES Plaintiffs’ Motion.

Author:
Robert C. Chambers

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