Fourth Circuit Arguments in Appeals from the District of Maryland, December 2025
Below is a list of appeals from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland being heard during the Fourth Circuit sitting that begins December 9, 2025. When available, we include the Clerk’s synopsis of the issues.
You can visit the Court’s argument calendar for more information on the appeals, including dates for each argument, PACER links to the briefs, and links for audio livestreams. On the morning of each argument day, the Clerk will update the argument calendar to disclose the composition of the three-judge panels.
To compile this list, we’re going only by the district judge’s name, which can be overinclusive (if a Maryland-based judge was sitting by designation elsewhere within the Circuit) or underinclusive (if an outside judge was sitting by designation in the District of Maryland). Feel free to leave a comment if we’ve missed anything.
Read More…Fourth Circuit Arguments in Appeals from the District of Maryland, October 2025
Below is a list of appeals from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland being heard during the Fourth Circuit sitting that begins October 21, 2025. When available, we include the Clerk’s synopsis of the issues.
You can visit the Court’s argument calendar for more information on the appeals, including dates for each argument, PACER links to the briefs, and links for audio livestreams. On the morning of each argument day, the Clerk will update the argument calendar to disclose the composition of the three-judge panels.
To compile this list, we’re going only by the district judge’s name, which can be overinclusive (if a Maryland-based judge was sitting by designation elsewhere within the Circuit) or underinclusive (if an outside judge was sitting by designation in the District of Maryland). Feel free to leave a comment if we’ve missed anything.
Read More…Fourth Circuit Arguments in Appeals from the District of Maryland, September 2025
As the blog turns twelve years old, we’re trying a new feature to expand coverage of federal appeals. The Fourth Circuit holds six weeklong argument sessions in Richmond each term. Below is a list of appeals from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland being heard during the Court’s sitting that begins September 9, 2025. Where available, we include the Clerk’s synopsis of the issues.
You can visit the Court’s argument calendar for more information on the appeals, including dates for each argument, PACER links to the briefs, and links for audio livestreams. On the morning of each argument day, the Clerk will update the argument calendar to disclose the composition of the three-judge panels.
Please note that, to compile this list, we’re going only by the district judge’s name, which can be overinclusive (if a Maryland-based judge was sitting by designation elsewhere within the Circuit) or underinclusive (if an outside judge was sitting by designation in the District of Maryland). Feel free to leave a comment if we’ve missed anything.
Read More…Pro Se Petitions and the Upcoming Coyle v. State Argument
By Steve Klepper (Bluesky @mdappeal)
Last week saw an unusual order from the Supreme Court of Maryland’s petition docket. In Feng v. Chen, the Court entered a GVR (grant, vacate, and remand) order on a pro se petition challenging the Appellate Court’s dismissal of an appeal when the appellant failed to order all circuit court transcripts.
Through the GVR order, the Court drew attention to a new program to aid pro se appellants:
Read More…Hollins v. State and the Jury’s Role
Tomorrow the Supreme Court of Maryland hears argument in Hollins v. State. Question 1 asks: “Did the ACM erroneously apply a sufficiency of the evidence standard instead of the ‘some evidence’ standard when it upheld the denial of Petitioner’s request for a non-pattern jury instruction regarding the alleged victim’s propensity for violence?”
Denying a criminal jury instruction, on an issue that the defendant seeks to submit to the jury, has the same practical effect that a grant of partial summary judgment has in a civil case. It keeps an issue from the jury, based on a finding that there is not enough evidence for a reasonable jury to rule for the party who seeks to submit the issue to the jury.
Read More…December 2023 Maryland Certiorari Grant
On December 18th, the Supreme Court of Maryland granted review in one civil appeal and also added an election law direct appeal to its February argument calendar. The certiorari grant and information related to the election appeal is below.
Read More…Stillbirth or Murder, and the Evidence of Internet Searches Regarding Abortion
In Akers v. State (September Term 2022, No. 0925), the Appellate Court of Maryland will decide, among other issues, whether information about abortion, pregnancy ambivalence, and lack of prenatal care is relevant to determining how the death of an infant occurred. The question is important and novel as it implicates a woman’s reproductive rights in the context of a criminal case post–Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The facts of the case: The case arose out of Moira Akers’ unplanned pregnancy and death of her infant. Akers gave birth to an infant boy at her house. According to her, the child was stillborn. According to the State, the child was born alive and Ms. Akers suffocated her child. She was charged in the Circuit Court for Howard County with murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, and child abuse resulting in death. Following a jury trial, Ms. Akers was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. The case is pending before the Appellate Court of Maryland.
Read More…Court of Appeals to Review New Expert-Testimony Requirement for Medical Malpractice Defendants Asserting “Empty Chair” Defense
Although it is well-established Maryland law that a medical negligence plaintiff must support her claim with expert testimony, the Court of Special Appeals recently issued the first Maryland appellate decision to hold that defendants have the same obligation when asserting an “empty chair” defense. Reiss v. Am. Radiology Servs., LLC, 241 Md. App. 316 (2019). The well-established “empty chair” defense asserts that a non-party’s negligence caused the alleged injury.[i] Under Reiss, those asserting the defense now must elicit “expert testimony, to a reasonable degree of medical probability, that the non-party breached the standard of care.”[ii]
Although the rule announced in Reiss is relatively straightforward, the holding’s full implications remain unclear for litigants in medical negligence cases. The Court of Appeals may address these issues on February 6 at oral argument in Reiss. The court can resolve an important unanswered question: Can defendants elicit the testimony from a properly qualified plaintiff’s expert? The Court of Special Appeals’ reasoning in Reiss and existing Maryland law should allow it. Read More…
Live Webcast of the En Banc Fourth Circuit’s Oral Arguments in the Emoluments Case to Begin at 9 a.m. Today
Earlier this week, Blog Editor Derek Stikeleather wrote of In re Trump, the emoluments case brought against President Trump by the State of Maryland and the District of Columbia. Due to public interest, the oral arguments will be webcast live (audio only), starting at 9 a.m. this morning.
The Fourth Circuit Emoluments Case Proceeds En Banc: A Non-Partisan Guide for Lawyers
On December 12, the en banc Fourth Circuit will re-hear oral argument in the “emoluments” case brought against President Trump by the State of Maryland and the District of Columbia. They allege that his ongoing business interests in the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. violate the Constitution’s Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses. In July, a three-judge panel of the court unanimously held that the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring a lawsuit to enforce the Emoluments Clauses, and it remanded the case to be dismissed with prejudice. In re Trump, 928 F.3d 360 (4th Cir. 2019). Despite the unanimous panel ruling, a majority of the court’s active (i.e., non-senior status) judges voted to allow rehearing en banc. 780 F. App’x 36 (4th Cir. 2019).
The case is genuinely newsworthy for many reasons. Read More…
Maryland Appellate Blog 