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HOBART-MAYFIELD, INC.,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
NATIONAL OPERATING COMMITTEE ON STANDARDS FOR ATHLETIC EQUIPMENT, et al.,
Defendants-Appellees.
   No. 21-1441
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan at Detroit.
No. 2:19-cv-12712—Gershwin A. Drain, District Judge.
Argued: January 18, 2022
Decided and Filed: September 9, 2022
Before: SILER, COLE, and NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judges.


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OPINION
_________________________

SILER, Circuit Judge. Plaintiff Hobart-Mayfield, Inc. (Mayfield) is the maker of a football helmet accessory. The accessory is purported to reduce the severity of football helmet impact when it is installed on an existing football helmet. Defendants are National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE); Riddell, Inc. (Riddell); Kranos Corp. (d/b/a/ Schutt Sports); and Xenith, LLC (Xenith) (collectively “Helmet Manufacturers”). NOCSAE is a nonprofit organization that develops and promotes safety standards for athletic equipment. It has a safety certification that can be applied to football helmets that meet NOCSAE’s standards. Helmet Manufacturers are makers of football helmets. Mayfield filed a complaint alleging that NOCSAE and Helmet Manufacturers are restraining trade in the football-helmet market, engaging in an overarching conspiracy to limit competition, and subjecting Mayfield to tortious interference of business relationships or expectations. Mayfield’s complaint was met with Defendants’ Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss on the basis that Mayfield failed to state a claim for plausible relief. The district court granted Defendants’ motion to dismiss. We AFFIRM.



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RONALD WEISER; MICHIGAN REPUBLICAN PARTY,
Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
JOCELYN BENSON, in her official capacity as Secretary of State,
Defendant-Appellee,

WHITMER FOR GOVERNOR COMMITTEE,
Intervenor-Appellee.
   No. 22-1014
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Western District of Michigan at Grand Rapids.
No. 1:21-cv-00816—Janet T. Neff, District Judge.
Argued: June 9, 2022
Decided and Filed: September 9, 2022
Before: WHITE, BUSH, and READLER, Circuit Judges.


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OPINION
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HELENE N. WHITE, Circuit Judge. Plaintiffs-Appellants—Ronald Weiser, a Republican donor and chair of the Michigan Republican Party (MRP), and the MRP—filed this action against Defendant-Appellee, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, alleging that an interpretative statement and a declaratory ruling issued by the Michigan Secretary of State in the 1980s (the recall exception) violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments because it allows supporters of Governor Gretchen Whitmer to make or receive contributions on more favorable terms than Weiser or the MRP with respect to the 2022 gubernatorial election. The district court dismissed the action for lack of standing after concluding that neither Weiser nor the MRP had suffered an injury in fact. Because Weiser and the MRP fail to plausibly demonstrate that the recall exception prevents Weiser or the MRP from equally supporting their preferred gubernatorial candidate, we AFFIRM.



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WILD EGGS HOLDINGS, INC.; WILD EGGS OPERATIONS, LLC; WILD EGGS FRANCHISING, LLC,
Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
STATE AUTO PROPERTY AND CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY,
Defendant-Appellee.
   No. 21-5962
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky at Louisville.
No. 3:20-cv-00501—Rebecca Grady Jennings, District Judge.
Argued: June 9, 2022
Decided and Filed: September 9, 2022
Before: BOGGS, MOORE, and GRIFFIN, Circuit Judges.


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OPINION
_________________________

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky suspended in-person, “non-essential” business through respective “Stay at Home” orders. So plaintiff Wild Eggs1 halted dine-in operations at its restaurants in those states and then sought insurance coverage for lost revenue from defendant State Auto Property and Casualty Insurance Company. Wild Eggs claims in this lawsuit that State Auto breached the parties’ insurance contract when it denied coverage. The district court granted State Auto’s motion to dismiss, concluding that Wild Eggs had failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. We affirm.



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STEPHANIE L. STEIGERWALD,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL SECURITY,
Defendant-Appellant.
   No. 21-3023
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio at Cleveland.
No. 1:17-cv-01516—James S. Gwin, District Judge.
Argued: October 28, 2021
Decided and Filed: September 9, 2022
Before: MOORE, KETHLEDGE, and DONALD, Circuit Judges.


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OPINION
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KAREN NELSON MOORE, Circuit Judge. The Social Security Administration (SSA) failed to perform a statutorily obligated duty to pay claimants the total amount of benefits to which they are entitled. To ensure that claimants receive the entirety of these benefits, Congress enacted two provisions in the Social Security Act: a judicial-review provision to keep the agency honest and an attorney-fees provision to incentivize lawyers to represent claimants. Because the SSA may not hide behind these statutory provisions merely because it erred at the end, rather than at the beginning, of the benefits-award process, we affirm the judgment of the district court.



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MARK M. MESSING,
Plaintiff-Appellant/Cross-Appellee,
v.
PROVIDENT LIFE AND ACCIDENT INSURANCE COMPANY,
Defendant-Appellee/Cross-Appellant.
   Nos. 21-2780/2790
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Western District of Michigan at Grand Rapids.
No. 1:20-cv-00351—Hala Y. Jarbou, District Judge.
Argued: June 9, 2022
Decided and Filed: September 9, 2022
Before: CLAY, ROGERS, and KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judges.


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OPINION
_________________________

CLAY, Circuit Judge. Plaintiff Mark Messing received long-term disability benefits from Defendant Provident Life & Accident Insurance Company (“Provident”) from 2000 until 2018, at which time, Provident terminated Messing’s benefits. Messing commenced this action seeking the reinstatement of his benefits. Provident counterclaimed that it was entitled to reimbursement for the benefits it had paid Messing over those eighteen years. The district court denied Messing’s motion for judgment on the administrative record, which sought to reinstate his benefits, finding that Messing had failed to show by a preponderance of the evidence that he remained unable to work; but the court granted Messing’s motion for summary judgment on Provident’s counterclaim. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM in part and REVERSE in part.



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IRIS LISSETH RODRIGUEZ DE PALUCHO; C. B. P. R.; JOSE MIGUEL PALUCHO LARA; M. A. P. R.,
Petitioners,
v.
MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General,
Respondent.
   No. 21-3611
On Petition for Review from the Board of Immigration Appeals.
Nos. A 209 848 963; A 209 848 964; A 213 139 785; A 213 139 786.
Decided and Filed: September 9, 2022
Before: SILER, CLAY, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges.


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OPINION
_________________________

MURPHY, Circuit Judge. Nobody would dispute that El Salvador has a serious problem with violence from private gangs like MS-13. That gang’s repeated crimes—including robbery, extortion, and death threats—drove Iris Lisseth Rodriguez de Palucho; her husband, Jose Miguel Palucho Lara; and their two children to seek asylum and withholding of removal in the United States. Yet those remedies have long been interpreted to contain a “state-action” element, meaning that immigrants must show that they fear violence in their countries from the government or from parties that the government is unable or unwilling to control. The Board of Immigration Appeals denied relief to Iris and Jose because they failed to show that the Salvadoran government was unable or unwilling to control MS-13. Iris and Jose now claim that the Board overlooked reports about the general conditions in El Salvador. They also argue that these reports would compel any reasonable factfinder to conclude that the Salvadoran government could not protect them from the gang. This case thus requires us to consider when the Board’s failure to expressly discuss certain evidence compels a remand for it to reconsider factual findings. It also requires us to consider when a country’s general conditions can permit a presumption that its government cannot protect its populace from private harm. Ultimately, because the Board recited the proper legal standards and because we must defer to its factual findings, we deny the petition for review.



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HUNTER DOSTER, et al.,
Plaintiffs-Appellees,
v.
HON. FRANK KENDALL, in his official capacity as Secretary of the Air Force, et al.,
Defendants-Appellants.
   No. 22-3702
On Motion for Emergency Stay
United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio at Cincinnati.
No. 1:22-cv-00084—Matthew W. McFarland, District Judge.
Decided and Filed: September 9, 2022
Before: KETHLEDGE, BUSH, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges.


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ORDER
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KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judge. In this case the plaintiffs allege that the Department of the Air Force de facto rejects every request it receives for a religious exemption to its COVID-19 vaccine mandate—while granting requests for medical and administrative exemptions relatively freely. The district court preliminarily enjoined the Department from taking, during the pendency of this suit, certain punitive measures against a class of service members with sincere faith-based objections to receiving the vaccine. The Department has appealed that order and now moves for an emergency stay of the class-wide injunction, challenging for the most part the district court’s reasoning in certifying the class. We deny the Department’s motion but expedite our consideration of its appeal.