Ali Al-Maqablh v. Crystal Heinz, Individually and in Her Official Capacity as County Attorney of Trimble County, Kentucky, et al.

After this Court granted certiorari, vacated the judgment, and remanded the case for further proceedings consistent with Thompson v. Clark, 596 U.S. 36 (2022), the Sixth Circuit failed to conduct the analysis required by this Court’s directive. Instead, it issued a summary remand to the district court. The very next day, the presiding judge was removed from the case. Although the newly assigned district judge nominally ruled in Petitioner’s favor on the single issue within the scope of the mandate—the favorable termination element under Thompson—she simultaneously altered the original judge’s factual findings and legal conclusions. She admitted to conducting only a “cursory reading” of the prior record and relied on inapplicable authorities to reach a result that effectively nullified this Court’s mandate. En route to resolving the favorable termination element, the court resurrected issues that had been waived, rejected, or decisively resolved against Respondents. The Sixth Circuit affirmed, holding that Thompson permitted reconsideration of previously settled issues, thereby endorsing the district court’s departure from principles of finality and equitable restraint. The sole question presented is: Whether the Sixth Circuit’s decision—issued after the reassignment of the district judge and marked by an egregious misreading of this Court’s holding in Thompson—should be vacated, and the case remanded with instructions to enter judgment in Petitioner’s favor under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, consistent with the district court’s favorable termination finding.