9th Circuit Court

9th Circuit rejects Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s attempt to remove judge in racial profiling case

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has dealt another loss to Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona, the Arizona Republic reported this week. The decision came in the civil contempt hearings against Arpaio, the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, for defying court orders in a seven-year-old racial profiling…

Sep 17, 2015 2:13 PM CDT

Copyright holders must consider fair use before sending takedown notices, 9th Circuit says

It’s been eight years since Stephanie Lenz posted the video of her infant son dancing to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” onto YouTube that started her long-running conflict with Universal Music Corp., the holder of Prince’s copyrights. According to Reuters, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday…

Sep 14, 2015 5:20 PM CDT

Once-convicted lawyer turns tables on feds, seeks $215K for defense fees in $52M mortgage-fraud case

Convicted two years ago in a $52 million mortgage-fraud scheme, a New Orleans lawyer won a reversal of his conviction in July from a federal appeals court. Now David Mark hopes to get reimbursement from the government of some $215,000 in attorney’s fees and costs, due to alleged wrongdoing by…

Sep 14, 2015 2:30 PM CDT

Trial court should not have dismissed law student’s disability complaint, 9th Circuit says

A federal appeals court Thursday revived a man’s disability claim against the University of Idaho concerning his treatment as a law student there. The trial court should not have summarily denied James Shirley’s pro se motion to file a second amended complaint in a so-called screening dismissal, the San Francisco-based…

Sep 11, 2015 1:38 PM CDT

Appeals court rules against anti-Muslim group seeking bus ads with false terrorist-reward claims

An anti-Muslim group isn’t entitled to a preliminary injunction that would allow it to post its terrorist-reward ads on buses in the Seattle area, a federal appeals court has ruled. The American Freedom Defense Initiative is unlikely to succeed in its First Amendment case because its ads falsely claim the…

Aug 14, 2015 5:45 AM CDT

Mastermind gets 15 years in ‘mind-boggling’ scheme to fleece Vegas HOAs of millions

Bringing to a close the largest known public corruption case in Southern Nevada, a federal judge on Thursday sentenced a former construction company boss portrayed by prosecutors as its mastermind to 15½ years in prison. The case, which brought down multiple attorneys among a total of nearly 40 defendants, involved…

Aug 7, 2015 11:37 AM CDT

Unbowed by 9th Circuit contempt order, ex-billionaire’s lawyer says he ‘feels like Gandhi’

A California lawyer apparently was not daunted by a contempt order issued Tuesday by a federal appeals court panel. Responding to 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals findings that he had pursued a frivolous appeal and attempted to “smear” the reputation of a bankruptcy judge to “wriggle out of” an…

Aug 6, 2015 2:05 PM CDT

Judge’s movie night brings the court and the public closer together

More than 20 years ago, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski realized his clerks had a troubling gap in their education: They hadn't seen 12 Angry Men. Wanting to rectify the situation, Kozinski started showing classic movies in the courthouse law library.

Aug 1, 2015 7:20 AM CDT

9th Circuit rejects widow’s suit over fatal mountain goat attack in national park

Sovereign immunity protects the U.S. government from being held liable for a mountain goat’s fatal attack on an Olympic National Park visitor, a divided federal appeals court has ruled. The National Park Service had discretion under the Federal Tort Claims Act to decide how the 370-pound wild animal that was…

Jul 29, 2015 1:18 PM CDT

Informant sues feds, says they didn’t tell him when agent for whom he worked was fired

A longtime informant has sued the federal government, contending that he was repeatedly put in danger because the Department of Homeland Security fired the agent for whom he worked but didn’t tell him. As a result, alleges “John Doe,” he for years transported cash across the Mexican border for the…

Jul 22, 2015 12:30 PM CDT

Transgender defendant stole nearly $250K in SSI benefits as a man while earning income as a woman

A 70-year-old transgender woman stole nearly $250,000 in federal disability benefits by applying for them as a man while working simultaneously as a woman during much of the same period she was receiving SSI payments. Sentenced Monday by a federal judge to eight months of home confinement and three years…

Jul 21, 2015 2:10 PM CDT

Want to be a federal judge by 35? 9th Circuit’s Alex Kozinski shares some tips

What can you do to get through federal judicial appointment hearings? Try answering questions with baseball metaphors, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski tells Concurring Opinions. The post revisits a tips piece about becoming a federal judge that Kozinski wrote for National Journal in 1996 after being…

Jul 20, 2015 12:11 PM CDT

New DNA techniques entitle inmate to new testing despite deadline, 9th Circuit says

Old DNA samples that were too small for testing under old techniques can be examined using new tests, even though a three-year limit has passed, a federal appeals court has ruled. The samples are akin to “newly discovered evidence” because identification is now possible using the new tests, according to…

Jul 15, 2015 12:15 PM CDT

Federal magistrate awards nearly $46M in legal fees in NCAA athlete-pay case

After a federal district court’s ruling last year that a ban on paying college athletes for using their names and images violates antitrust law, a magistrate judge has awarded nearly $46 million in attorney fees and costs to the lawyers for the plaintiffs. The NCAA had argued that the lawyers…

Jul 14, 2015 3:00 PM CDT

Feds accuse Harvard law grad in kidnapping that police initially considered a hoax

At one point, police in Vallejo, California, suggested that a 29-year-old woman’s claim of being kidnapped in March from her boyfriend’s home and held for ransom was a hoax, and blamed her and her boyfriend for wasting law enforcement resources. However, their disbelief now appears to have been mistaken. A…

Jul 14, 2015 1:44 PM CDT