9th Circuit Court

After stalemate between rancher, armed militia and feds, Nevada prosecutor not rushing to bring case

Corrected: Faced with potential violence in a standoff earlier this year between authorities and a Nevada rancher and armed militia supporters over cattle grazing on federal land, law enforcement officers backed off on a plan to round up trespassing cattle. But in the aftermath of the April incident questions remain…

Sep 2, 2014 5:30 PM CDT

Former US Attorney takes plea in tax-return case, agrees to pay $290K

Once the top federal prosecutor in his state, a Nevada lawyer who made a name for himself pursuing white-collar crime is now awaiting sentencing in a federal misdemeanor case over his failure to file tax returns. Prosecutors said Lawrence “Larry” Semenza II failed to file individual or corporate returns between…

Aug 28, 2014 9:25 PM CDT

‘Seismic’ 9th Cir. rulings nix FedEx claim its drivers aren’t employees, could cost company millions

In a significant victory for FedEx drivers who contend they have been misclassified as independent contractors, a federal appeals court on Wednesday reversed a finding in multidistrict litigation in Indiana and held that nearly 2,700 plaintiffs in California and Oregon are in fact employees. In separate decisions concerning the California…

Aug 27, 2014 9:55 PM CDT

9th Circuit revives pro se habeas petition, says trial court erred in applying ‘prison mailbox’ rule

A federal judge in California dismissed a prison inmate’s pro se habeas petition on statute-of-limitations grounds. But the district court erred in doing so because it didn’t properly apply the “prison mailbox” rule, a federal appeals court ruled Friday, reviving the habeas petition of Eduardo Hernandez. The rule, which says…

Aug 25, 2014 8:05 PM CDT

Federal judge likens Anna Nicole Smith case to ‘Bleak House,’ says 20 years of litigation is enough

After nearly 20 years of litigation, it appears that efforts by the late Anna Nicole Smith and her estate to get millions from her late husband’s estate may be nearing a conclusion. Comparing the case to the multigenerational estate litigation described in the classic Charles Dickens novel Bleak House, a…

Aug 20, 2014 5:55 PM CDT

Bomb squad detonates apparent explosive device near federal courthouse; no one is injured

After a passerby reported seeing a stick of dynamite in a sports-utility vehicle parked near a federal courthouse in San Francisco on Monday around 8 p.m., authorities responded and determined that the vehicle did contain an apparent explosive device. However, San Francisco police closed off streets near the San Francisco…

Aug 19, 2014 8:05 PM CDT

9th Circuit revives inmate’s suit alleging his letter to his lawyer was read by a prison guard

A federal appeals court says a district judge erred by determining in a preliminary screening that a pro se complaint had no merit and should not be pursued in court. Arizona death-row inmate Scott Nordstrom had filed the suit alleging that his constitutional rights were violated when a prison guard…

Aug 12, 2014 7:10 PM CDT

Law grads sue over ‘Barmageddon,’ seek refund of software fee and punitive damages

Law graduates in at least two states have filed suit over a so-called Barmageddon software glitch that reportedly made it impossible for a number of test-takers to submit their answers on time last month on the first day of the bar exam. Although the deadline was extended in all affected…

Aug 7, 2014 3:45 PM CDT

Judge says Russian’s arrest in Maldives was legal; he will face charges in US

A federal judge in the U.S. territory of Guam ruled that the arrest in a foreign country of an accused Russian hacker was permissible under U.S. law and that he can be delivered to Seattle to face multiple charges, the Associated Press and the Moscow Times report. Roman Seleznev is…

Aug 1, 2014 6:10 PM CDT

New utility company indictment in fatal gas blast could lead to fines of as much as $1.3B

A federal grand jury in San Francisco on Tuesday returned a new indictment against a California utility company in a fatal 2010 natural gas explosion and fire. Under the superseding indictment, which more than doubles the number of regulatory violations alleged against Pacific Gas & Electric and includes an obstruction…

Jul 30, 2014 5:55 PM CDT

SCOTUS allows execution of inmate, vacates 9th Circuit decision that he had a right to drug info

The U.S, Supreme Court has lifted a stay that required the state of Arizona to give information about its lethal injection drugs to death-row inmate Joseph Rudolph Wood. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had granted the stay to Wood after he claimed a First Amendment right…

Jul 23, 2014 11:59 AM CDT

Kozinski dissent: ‘Firing squads can be messy’ but they are better than lethal injection

A dispute over a death-row inmate’s claimed First Amendment right to information on execution drugs heads to the U.S. Supreme Court after a federal appeals court declined to hear the case en banc, spurring an unusual dissent calling for a return to the firing squad. The Arizona Attorney General’s office…

Jul 22, 2014 12:51 PM CDT

Execution can’t go forward until prisoner receives information on death drugs, 9th Circuit says

A federal appeals court has issued an injunction staying the execution of a convicted double murderer until he receives information about the drugs that will be used to kill him. Lawyers for Arizona death-row inmate Joseph Rudolph Wood had argued he had a First Amendment right to the information. The…

Jul 21, 2014 4:14 PM CDT

Federal judge calls ‘dysfunctional’ California death penalty unconstitutional, gives murderer life

In a first step toward what could eventually become a statewide ban, a federal judge in Santa Ana called the California system of executing inmates “dysfunctional.” Hence, he ruled, the convicted murderer in the case at bar could constitutionally be sentenced only to life without parole. The Wednesday ruling by…

Jul 16, 2014 10:15 PM CDT

Brewery sues DUI law firm, says look-alike ‘Sessions Law’ mark confuses ‘Session Lager’ customers

An Oregon craft brewery has sued a Georgia law firm for trademark infringement, contending that a look-alike “Sessions Law” mark is confusing to those familiar with its own “Session Lager.” Filed last week in federal court in Portland, the suit (PDF) by Full Sail Brewing Company says the Atlanta-based Sessions…

Jul 14, 2014 9:55 PM CDT