9th Circuit Court

Stash-house-sting charges tossed in two cases; in one, the defendants had already pleaded guilty

Stash-house stings are an increasingly used tactic by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. A government informant poses as a drug courier who offers his targets an idea to make some money: Rob a drug stash house. More than 1,000 would-be criminals have been ensnared in such…

Jun 2, 2014 11:45 AM CDT

Son sues dad for identity fraud, seeks over $1M in damages

When DeWayne Keith Long tried to purchase a home and discovered his credit was in the toilet, he at first assumed a credit reporting agency had made a mistake. Then he discovered he was the victim of identity theft by his own father—whose name is also DeWayne Keith Long—he contends…

May 28, 2014 6:55 PM CDT

LSAC to pay $7.73M, change LSAT policies in settlement of ADA suit

In a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over Law School Admission Test policies concerning the disabled, the Law School Admission Council has agreed to pay $7.73 million and stop flagging test scores of those who were given extra time, among other policy revisions. The LSAC did not admit…

May 20, 2014 10:30 PM CDT

4 new pleas in record Las Vegas corruption case; defense lawyers for others OK secret evidence pact

Four more defendants have taken pleas in a high-profile Nevada federal corruption case involving bid-rigging and election fraud at homeowner associations in the Las Vegas area. When Ricky Anderson, Maria Limon, and brothers Jose Luis Alvarez and Rudolfo Alvarez-Rodriguez enter their guilty pleas next week, that will bring the total…

May 14, 2014 4:25 PM CDT

White House seeks swift action on judicial nominations

Three lawyers in the White House Counsel’s office are working full-time to vet potential judicial nominees in advance of the November elections, part of an effort to leave the president’s mark on the federal bench. A Washington Post-ABC News poll found that a majority of voters prefer Republicans in Congress…

Apr 30, 2014 10:50 AM CDT

Is warrant needed for cellphone search? Supreme Court ruling will have ‘huge’ impact, law prof says

The nation’s top court has long allowed individuals to be searched incident to arrest. But should that rule apply to cellphones, given the extraordinary amount of information they contain? That is the question to be argued Tuesday before the U.S. Supreme Court, in a much-watched set of cases, reports the…

Apr 28, 2014 1:55 PM CDT

Apple, Google settle in claimed conspiracy to put a lid on tech salaries; workers had sought $3B

With a trial looming next month in a federal class action in which over 64,000 tech workers were seeking $3 billion in damages, some of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies have agreed to settle claims that they conspired to put a lid on salaries. The amount of the settlement by Adobe…

Apr 25, 2014 11:05 AM CDT

Nursing mom wins $75K settlement from TSA over airport incident

A California woman who says airport security screeners working for the federal Transportation Security Administration violated the agency’s own rules and prevented her from traveling with pumped breast milk has won an agreement to settle the case for $75,000, her lawyer says. Stacey Armato, a lawyer who was traveling in…

Apr 24, 2014 12:15 PM CDT

Supremes appear skeptical of Coca-Cola claim it can’t be sued over juice label blessed by FDA

Grilled by justices of the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, a lawyer for Coca-Cola Co. insisted a competitor’s false advertising suit over a juice label should be banned because the label complies with a federal agency’s regulations. But the nation’s top court appeared skeptical of this argument, amidst banter about…

Apr 22, 2014 1:10 PM CDT

Squad car dashcam shows deputies planning to plant drugs after illegal search found zilch, suit says

A California woman says squad car dashcam video shows Santa Clara sheriff’s deputies planted drug evidence at her home after an illegal search came up clean. Additionally, says Allison Ross in a federal civil rights suit, she believes the county’s crime lab tampered with blood test results to support a…

Apr 21, 2014 2:40 PM CDT

GM seeks court ruling it is protected from ignition-switch suits under bankruptcy law

Amidst a recall of at least 2.6 million vehicles over ignition-switch issues and a growing number of would-be class actions claiming that company officials knew of defects for years, General Motors is seeking a freeze on the litigation and a court ruling that it is protected from liability by bankruptcy…

Apr 16, 2014 6:15 PM CDT

9th Circuit affirms lawyer’s conviction for attempting to extort rabbi by threat of court testimony

A suspended California lawyer serving a federal three-year sentence for attempted extortion and trying to obstruct a grand jury investigation has lost his bid to overturn his conviction. Although a federal appeals court agreed with Alfred Nash Villalobos that a jury instruction concerning what threats are “wrongful” had been improper,…

Apr 15, 2014 2:55 PM CDT

Attendees’ smartphones cause courtroom chaos at latest Apple-Samsung patent trial

It isn’t just smartphone technology that’s at issue in a high-profile Silicon Valley trial in which two leading manufacturers of the devices are battling over patent rights. Attendees at the much-watched San Jose, Calif., trial between Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. are trying the patience of U.S. District Judge…

Apr 9, 2014 3:45 PM CDT

Utility company is criminally charged in fatal pipeline explosion fire that leveled a neighborhood

A utility company was federally indicted Tuesday on 12 criminal counts related to a fatal 2010 fire caused by a pipeline explosion that leveled much of a California neighborhood. The indictment (PDF provided by Courthouse News) says Pacific Gas & Electric repeatedly violated maintenance and record-keeping requirements of the Natural…

Apr 2, 2014 6:45 PM CDT

Newlywed gets 30 years for pushing her husband off of cliff in national park

A Montana woman convicted of murder for pushing her husband of barely more than a week off of a cliff in Glacier National Park last summer was sentenced Thursday to 30 years and five months in federal prison. The prosecution had sought a sentence of 50 years to life for…

Mar 27, 2014 8:20 PM CDT