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WILGAR LAND COMPANY; OLD REPUBLIC INSURANCE
COMPANY,
Petitioners,
v.
DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION
PROGRAMS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR; LINDA ROSE
ADAMS, obo and widow of Tony Lee Adams,
Respondents. |
No. 22-3709 |
On Petition for Review from the Benefits Review Board;
Nos. 21-0216 BLA; 21-0217 BLA.
Argued: April 26, 2023
Decided and Filed: October 31, 2023
Before: SUTTON, Chief Judge; BATCHELDER and MURPHY, Circuit Judges.
_________________________
OPINION
_________________________
MURPHY, Circuit Judge. The Black Lung Benefits Act authorizes benefits for coal
miners who have “pneumoconiosis.” The Department of Labor’s regulatory definition of this
term covers an obstructive lung disease such as emphysema if the disease arises from coal-mine
work. Over two decades ago, the Department responded to criticisms of this broad definition in
a regulatory “preamble” to its final regulation. The preamble interpreted the then-existing
scientific studies to establish that coal-mine work can cause obstructive diseases, either alone or
in combination with smoking. The administrative law judge who awarded benefits in this case
repeatedly relied on this preamble to discredit a coal-mine operator’s three experts. In this
petition for review, the operator argues that the judge wrongly treated the preamble as legally
“binding.” We disagree. The judge simply found the preamble more persuasive than the
experts. So we deny the operator’s petition for review. But we caution administrative law
judges that their conclusions may lack substantial evidence if they over-rely on the preamble for
propositions that it does not contain. |
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SAMUEL JOHNSON and JILL JOHNSON, in their
individual capacities,
Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
KATHY GRIFFIN, in her individual capacity,
Defendant-Appellee. |
No. 23-5257 |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee at Nashville.
No. 3:22-cv-00295—William Lynn Campbell, Jr., District Judge.
Argued: October 17, 2023
Decided and Filed: October 31, 2023
Before: SUTTON, Chief Judge; COLE and THAPAR, Circuit Judges.
_________________________
OPINION
_________________________
SUTTON, Chief Judge. Kathy Griffin, a California-based celebrity and social activist,
sent a series of tweets to her two million Twitter followers asserting that Tennessean Samuel
Johnson, the CEO of Tennessee-based VisuWell, had engaged in homophobic conduct. She
encouraged her followers to make him “online famous” and tagged his company. She then asked
his employer to “remove[]” him from the Board of Directors and threatened that the “nation
w[ould] remain vigilant” if it did not. Within a day of her first tweets, the company fired
Johnson and removed him from the Board. Johnson and his wife sued Griffin in federal court in
Tennessee, claiming (among other things) that she tortiously interfered with his employment.
Griffin argued that her tweets did not subject her to the State’s personal jurisdiction, and the
district court dismissed the case. We disagree and reverse. |
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