Class Action Decisions Published March 2023
Highlights from this issue include:
Immigration. Judge Wright of the Central District of California certified a class alleging that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers violated the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures in arresting and detaining removable immigrants in and near their own homes. The plaintiffs alleged that ICE agents regularly and systematically violated the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures by (1) obtaining consent or compliance by using ruses, including by falsely presenting themselves as local police or probation officials; and (2) entering the curtilage of individuals’ homes to conduct a “knock-and-talk” without a valid warrant.
Class Action Fairness Act. Minnesota sued a number of fossil fuel producers in state court for common law fraud and violations of Minnesota’s consumer protection statutes, bringing claims to hold fossil fuel producers responsible for alleged misrepresentations about the effects fossil fuels have had on the environment. The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court’s granting a motion to remand after the case was removed to federal court under the Class Action Fairness Act. The Eighth Circuit held the case was not removable under the Class Action Fairness Act because a State’s exercise of parens patriae authority is not the same as a class action, even when the State seeks recovery for and on behalf of its citizens’ injuries.
