Summary
The United States District Court for the District of South Carolina adopts the magistrate judge’s recommendation in a civil-rights action brought by Bilal A. Al-Haqq. The court grants defendants’ motion for summary judgment and denies the plaintiff’s motions for a preliminary injunction and summary judgment after finding no clear error in the unobjected-to Report and Recommendation.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the district court should review the magistrate judge's Report and Recommendation for clear error when no party filed objections.
- Whether to grant Defendants' motion for summary judgment.
- Whether to grant Plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction.
- Whether to grant Plaintiff's motion for summary judgment.
Holdings
- When no timely objection is filed, the district court need not conduct de novo review and may review the Report and Recommendation for clear error on the face of the record.
- Defendants' motion for summary judgment was granted.
- Plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction was denied.
- Plaintiff's motion for summary judgment was denied.
Key quotations
“in the absence of a timely filed objection, a district court need not conduct a de novo review, but instead must only satisfy itself that there is no clear error on the face of the record in order to accept the recommendation.”
Factual background
Plaintiff filed a verified complaint alleging violations of his civil rights. The record before the court included cross-motions for summary judgment and Plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction. The district court did not describe the underlying civil-rights allegations in detail in this order.
Procedural history
Plaintiff filed a verified complaint alleging civil-rights violations. Defendants moved for summary judgment, and Plaintiff moved for a preliminary injunction and separately for summary judgment. The magistrate judge recommended granting Defendants' motion and denying Plaintiff's motions. With no objections filed, the district court reviewed the Report for clear error, found none, and adopted its recommendation.