Ninth Circuit
Surf Gang
The Ninth Circuit upheld a judgment in favor of the City of Palos Verdes Estates and its former police chief in a suit brought by individuals who claim they were harassed by a territorial surf gang known as the Lunada Bay Boys and the city did not do enough to protect them. The court finds the city took “significant efforts to curb” the surf gang’s actions.
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Asylum Seekers Must Get Bond Hearings, Ninth Circuit Rules
The Ninth Circuit on Friday upheld a court order blocking a Trump administration policy that denies bond hearings to asylum seekers, but it also ordered a lower court to reconsider the nationwide scope of the injunction and timeframe for hearings.
Read moreExcessive Force
A police officer who forcibly restrained a 14-year-old autistic boy who was playing in a public park is not entitled to qualified immunity on excessive force claims, the Ninth Circuit ruled. The officer had suspected the minor of using an “illegal inhalant,” but the boy was only playing with a piece of string.
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Ninth Circuit Considers Liability of Social Networks in Terror Attacks
Questions posed by a Ninth Circuit panel Thursday suggest a new legal theory could open social media companies to liability for letting terrorists use their networks to spread propaganda.
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Ninth Circuit Tightens Focus of Abortion Foe’s Look at Lab Researcher Files
Anti-abortion activist David Daleiden may see some unredacted public records on a group of employees and researchers affiliated with the University of Washington’s Birth Defects Research Center but the identities of five employees are protected from disclosure, the Ninth Circuit ruled Wednesday.
Read morePolice Shooting
The admission of testimony from a police officer who fatally shot Feras Morad, an unarmed college student, was not prejudicial, the Ninth Circuit ruled. The officer testified that he could hear Morad making threatening statements on an eyewitness video and also testified that he had written in his police report that he had heard the student say, “I’m coming to get you.”
Read moreCall-in Shifts
A Ninth Circuit panel reversed a judgment on an indemnification claim brought by an employee of Zumiez stories in California relating to phone expenses incurred when calling her employer for call-in shifts, finding the employee failed to include specific facts about how she made the calls and what costs she incurred.
Read moreHousing Ordinance
The Ninth Circuit remanded a class action case against the City of Los Angeles and the city’s Housing and Community Investment Department alleging a housing inspection ordinance is unconstitutional. The plaintiffs should be allowed to amend their complaint to raise an as-applied challenge to the ordinance.
Read moreEnvironmental Report
A trial court properly ordered the City of Agoura Hills, California, to set aside its approval of a development project and to prepare an environmental-impact report, the Ninth Circuit ruled, finding that even though the city’s plan included mitigation measures to reduce the project’s impact on native oaks, other plants and a Chumash cultural site, an environmental report is necessary due to the project’s predicted significant impact on those concerns.
Read moreLifetime Lease Requirement
The Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a suit challenging San Francisco’s Expedited Conversion Program, which lets owners of “tenancy-in-common” properties convert them into condominiums on the condition that existing tenants are offered lifetime leases. The owners failed to timely seek an exemption from the lifetime lease requirement, the court ruled.
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California Fights Trump Administration on Bus Driver Break Rules
California has asked the Ninth Circuit to block a Trump administration decision that prevents the state from enforcing its stricter meal and rest break labor rules for bus drivers.
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Ninth Circuit Hints at Reviving NFL Painkillers Class Action
A Ninth Circuit panel hinted Thursday that a prior ruling holding USA Water Polo liable for failing to protect young athletes from concussions could open the door to reviving a class action over painkillers pushed on hurt football players.
Read moreOil and Terrorism
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a suit against Chevron claiming the company funded acts of terrorism through surcharges of Iraqi crude oil, which were remitted to former Iraq President Saddam Hussein. While Chevron knew a “kickback from its purchase” would be end up in Iraq, it did not necessarily know those funds were specifically used to finance terrorism, the court ruled.
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Sailors Ask Ninth Circuit to Revive Fukushima Class Action
A three-judge panel in the Ninth Circuit Tuesday considered whether a U.S. federal court has jurisdiction over negligence and wrongful death claims brought by hundreds of U.S. sailors exposed to radiation while rendering humanitarian aid in Fukushima, Japan, following a 2011 tsunami and nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
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Border Wall Construction Fight Plays Out at Ninth Circuit
Attorneys for the Sierra Club, a consortium of states and the U.S. House of Representatives argued President Donald Trump and his administration overstepped their constitutional authority in using Pentagon funds to build a border wall during a hearing at the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco on Tuesday.
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NCAA Cap on Athlete Pay Fought at 9th Circuit
Competition should determine how much student athletes are compensated for their services, an attorney representing college players told a Ninth Circuit panel of judges Monday, urging the appellate court to broaden an injunction relaxing restrictions on student athlete pay.
Read moreHelicopter Data
The Ninth Circuit narrowed an injunction granted in favor of Wilderness Watch, which ordered the “non-use and destruction” of data gathered from elk and wolves during a helicopter operation in the Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness Area in Idaho. The circuit court found the order improperly imposed a delay on all future similar helicopter-assisted projects and should be applied only to projects in the wilderness area at issue.
Read moreReality TV
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s judgment that determined an episode of the Discovery Channel show “Dual Survival” depicting former reality television star Cody Lundin’s departure was “substantially true.” Lundin claimed the episode had made him appear incompetent and out of control and he brought defamation and false light claims against the channel.
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En Banc Ninth Circuit Sides With Led Zeppelin in ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Fight
Led Zeppelin will not have to face a jury a second time to answer whether they lifted the opening riff to their rock epic “Stairway to Heaven” from another song after the en banc Ninth Circuit ruled Monday that the rock legends did not infringe the little-known song’s copyright.
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