9th Circuit Court

Federal judge awards $802K in attorney fees and costs in case over jail mail

A federal judge’s ruling last year that an Oregon county had violated the First Amendment by restricting jail mail to postcards resulted in a $15,000 payment to the plaintiff, Prison Legal News. But the payment by Columbia County to the Human Rights Defense Center monthly magazine is dwarfed by a…

Mar 26, 2014 5:10 PM CDT

Federal judge blasts ATF for ‘outrageous’ fake stash-house stings, axes case over ‘made-up crime’

Calling a federal agency’s practice of conducting sting operations concerning nonexistent drug stash houses “outrageous” and ineffective in combating real crime, a federal judge in Los Angeles this month dismissed one such case and blasted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives over its tactics. “Society does not win…

Mar 21, 2014 3:05 PM CDT

En banc 9th Circuit OKs DNA testing of arrestees, retention of results from those not convicted

An en banc panel of a federal appeals court gave short shrift Thursday to an argument from the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California that a state DNA database should not include test results from felony arrestees who were never convicted. In a four-paragraph unsigned order an 11-judge panel…

Mar 21, 2014 1:50 PM CDT

Federal judge sentences former PI attorney to 63 months for embezzling $1M from clients

A former Oregon personal injury attorney was sentenced Monday in Eugene to 63 months in federal prison for embezzling over $1 million from his clients. Additionally, Bryan Gruetter, 55, must pay $1.14 million in restitution for the client thefts that occurred between 2008 and 2012. He used the stolen money…

Mar 18, 2014 8:10 PM CDT

9th Circuit says habeas case will continue despite petitioner’s death

The apparent suicide of a habeas corpus petitioner four days after an en banc federal appeals court ruling revived part of his claim for relief won’t put a halt to the case. In a brief Tuesday ruling (PDF), the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a motion…

Mar 12, 2014 5:15 PM CDT

9th Circuit tells Google to take down YouTube clip, calls threats to plaintiff irreparable harm

A woman who says a video clip was used without her permission on an anti-Muslim movie trailer posted on YouTube has won a federal appeals court OK of an injunction requiring Google Inc. to take down the “Innocence of Muslims.” Google unsuccessfully argued that being required to take down the…

Feb 26, 2014 5:55 PM CST

9th Circuit agrees with 7th Circuit: Individuals have right to carry firearms in public

As a decision looms in a much-watched U.S. Supreme Court case over the right of Americans to carry firearms in public for self-defense, a federal appeals court in California has added its weight to an existing circuit split on the issue. In a Thursday decision, a divided panel of the…

Feb 13, 2014 10:31 PM CST

9th Circuit tosses part of lawsuit against CNN demanding closed-captioning on its Web videos

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave CNN a partial victory in a suit demanding it provide closed-captioning on all videos posted on its website, but then stayed the case so the California Supreme Court can decide whether the California Disabled Persons Act requiring equal access to…

Feb 6, 2014 10:24 PM CST

Job hunter who claimed Spokeo published wrong information may sue, 9th Circuit says

An unemployed job hunter who claims data aggregator Spokeo published mistaken information about him may proceed with his lawsuit claiming violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a federal appeals court has ruled. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said plaintiff Thomas Robins of Virginia did not…

Feb 5, 2014 6:33 PM CST

Judge sanctions Samsung and counsel over release of confidential info in big-bucks Apple patent suit

Saying that a major law firm handled proprietary information covered by a confidentiality order in big-bucks patent litigation over smartphone technology as if it were “a trapeze artist flying high without a net,” a federal magistrate judge in California has imposed sanctions on Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and its…

Jan 31, 2014 5:30 PM CST

Director Quentin Tarantino sues Gawker over hyperlink to leaked screenplay

Quentin Tarantino. Featureflash / Shutterstock.com In a lawsuit likely to explore the parameters of what constitutes news, movie director Quentin Tarantino has filed a complaint against Gawker Media in federal court in Los Angeles. It contends the company violated copyright law, facilitating distribution of an already-leaked screenplay for The Hateful…

Jan 28, 2014 1:05 PM CST

Meet attorney Adam Karp, ‘St. Francis with a briefcase’ who gets five-figure awards in pet slayings

Traditionally, animals were considered property whose only value is what it costs to purchase them or the amount of money they could produce through breeding, sale of their meat or similar business operations. But that view has been changing, and Washington state attorney Adam Karp has been in the forefront…

Jan 24, 2014 11:00 PM CST

‘Most hated man on the Internet’ is charged with email hacking to get photos for revenge porn site

Posting sexual photos of people online without their consent isn’t explicitly illegal in most states, unless the images at issue have been copyrighted. But a California man described by Rolling Stone as “the most hated man on the Internet” because he has operated a so-called revenge porn website featuring such…

Jan 24, 2014 6:40 PM CST

Lawyer takes plea in money-laundering case linked to convicted ex-client’s Ponzi scheme

A Las Vegas lawyer has pleaded guilty to a felony after admittedly helping a client from Montana conceal the source of $2.3 million used to purchase a company in 2007. Attorney R. Christopher Reade, 43, pleaded guilty in federal court in Las Vegas on Wednesday to being an accessory after…

Jan 24, 2014 4:54 PM CST

Gays can’t be excluded from juries because of sexual orientation, 9th Circuit says

A federal appeals court has ruled that lawyers can’t exclude potential jurors solely on the basis of sexual orientation, creating a circuit conflict that could make Supreme Court review more likely. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday, report the New York Times and the…

Jan 22, 2014 2:42 PM CST