391 results for 'court:"9th Circuit"'.
J. Collins finds that the district court properly entered convictions and sentences for various offenses arising from four individuals' participation in the January 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon. Sufficient evidence existed to support the convictions and sentences. Defendants engaged in the occupation of the wildlife refuge to oppose federal controls of public land. The incident led to the arrests of more than 40 individuals. Affirmed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Collins, Filed On: December 7, 2023, Case #: 17-30242, Categories: Evidence, Sentencing
J. Siler finds that the district court properly entered summary judgment in favor of the U.S. Forest Service in an action challenging the Service’s approval of the "Three Creeks Project." The project sought to address issues in the Inyo National Forest which has been subject to sweeping changes due to decades of logging, fire suppression, and drought. Those issues left the forest dense with thin, immature trees which created conditions likely to cause forest fires, bark-beetle infestations and fungal infections. Environmental groups contend that the Service failed to adequately supplement its National Environmental Policy Act analysis following the 2020 bark-beetle outbreak. The environmental groups have not shown that the Service’s approval of the Three Creeks Project is arbitrary, capricious or otherwise unlawful. Affirmed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Siler, Filed On: December 7, 2023, Case #: 22-16751, Categories: Environment
J. Owens finds that the district court properly determined that the California State Bar is entitled to immunity from suit in federal court. The California State Bar has enjoyed Eleventh Amendment immunity for nearly 40 years until this action in which Benjamin Kohn, a licensed California attorney, sought to challenge that immunity. He contends that the State Bar is not an “arm of the state,” and he can sue it without restriction. However, the matter is remanded to the original three-judge panel for consideration of a number of remaining issues. Affirmed in part.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Owens, Filed On: December 6, 2023, Case #: 20-17316, Categories: Constitution, Immunity
J. Mendoza finds that the district court improperly denied an online cryptocurrency exchange company's motion to compel arbitration of claims brought by a class. The lead plaintiff of the class alleged that the cryptocurrency company did not investigate the unauthorized transfer of funds from his account. The company's user agreement included an arbitration agreement with a delegation provision, which delegated to the arbitrator any dispute arising out of the agreement. The lead plaintiff alleged that the delegation provision and the arbitration agreement were unenforceable. The district court improperly refused to enforce the delegation provision. Reversed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Mendoza, Filed On: December 5, 2023, Case #: 22-15566, Categories: Arbitration, Class Action
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J. Smith finds that a district court erred in approving a revised class action settlement between the lead plaintiff and Tinder, a mobile dating application. The lead plaintiff is not an adequate representative of the putative class because she has a conflict of interest with other class members. She also has a strong interest in settling her claim because, unlike the 7,000 or more class members who may not be bound by arbitration, she has no chance of going to trial. The claims against Tinder stem from an alleged age-discriminatory pricing scheme. Vacated.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Smith , Filed On: December 5, 2023, Case #: 22-55345, Categories: Arbitration, Class Action
J. Lee finds that the district court improperly entered summary judgment for the government including the Fish and Wildlife Service on an easement and remanded with instructions for the Service and the U.S. Army to reevaluate its water-savings analysis in a new biological opinion. The action was brought by environmental organizations challenging a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biological opinion concerning the use of water from the San Pedro River Basin in Arizona. Reversed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Lee, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 22-15809, Categories: Environment, Water
J. McKeown denies a petition for panel rehearing and issues an amended opinion affirming in part a district court’s dismissal of a securities fraud action against Facebook. The complaint involves improperly harvested personal data from millions of unwitting Facebook users by Cambridge Analytica. Facebook allegedly retained copies of the data beyond Facebook’s control and knew of the misconduct for over two years but failed to inform affected users. Facebook shareholders filed suit, alleging that Facebook violated the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by making materially misleading statements and omissions regarding the risk of improper access to Facebook users’ data. The shareholders did not adequately plead facts giving rise to "a strong inference of scienter" as to investigation statements offered by Cambridge Analytica. The district court did not err in dismissal for those statements. However, the dismissal is reversed as to other statements related to Facebook stock price drops. Affirmed in part.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: McKeown, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 22-15077, Categories: Securities, Privacy
J. Collins finds that the district court properly denied defendant's second federal habeas corpus petition seeking to set aside his Idaho conviction for the 1984 shooting death of his ex-wife. New materials, viewed in light of the evidence as a whole, did not suffice to make a required showing of actual innocence. Affirmed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Collins, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 20-35875, Categories: Evidence, Habeas, Murder
J. Nguyen finds that the district court properly denied injunctive relief in several cases in which individuals sued to compel U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to act on their applications for adjustment of status. The individuals are natives of India who have lawfully worked in the United States for years after their employers sponsored them for immigrant visas. The individuals have been waiting in a visa queue for more than 10 years. After the State Department estimated that it had reached the individuals’ places in line for adjustment of status, the State Department then revised its forecast and concluded that it had hit the visa cap for the year. The consolidated plaintiffs are unlikely to succeed on the merits. Affirmed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Nguyen, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 22-16700, Categories: Employment, Immigration
J. Bress finds that the district court properly entered summary judgment for an employer in a class action in which employees who opted out of their union- and employer-sponsored health plans sued the employer and alleged that opt-out fees should be treated as part of their “regular rate” of pay for calculating overtime compensation. The opt-out fees were not part of the employees’ “regular rate” of pay. Affirmed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Bress, Filed On: November 30, 2023, Case #: 22-55663, Categories: Employment, Class Action
J. Graber denies an immigrant's petition for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals. The immigrant's conviction for possessing a controlled substance with intent to deliver was a drug trafficking aggravated felony that made him removable.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Graber, Filed On: November 29, 2023, Case #: 22-1168, Categories: Drug Offender, Immigration
J. Bress finds that the district court properly dismissed a class action matter due to lack of specific personal jurisdiction over a company that offers a web-based payment processing platform to merchants. When processing payments, the company obtains the personal information of its customers. There was no relationship between the company's business contacts in California and class members' claims because these contacts did not cause class members' harm. The district court’s denial of a request for jurisdictional discovery was not an abuse of discretion. Affirmed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Bress, Filed On: November 28, 2023, Case #: 22-15815, Categories: Privacy, Jurisdiction, Class Action
J. Smith finds that the district court improperly entered summary judgment, holding that an action under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act was barred. A number of tenants filed suit against a law firm alleging that the firm violated the Act by filing a memorandum of costs in state court proceedings concerning an unlawful-detainer judgment. The precedent for barring the action did not apply because the tenants’ action did not challenge a memorandum of costs on which the state court had already rendered judgment, but rather a later memorandum. Reversed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Smith, Filed On: November 21, 2023, Case #: 22-55700, Categories: Debt Collection
J. Smith finds that the district court properly held that a water and sewer district could not be liable on a direct-discharge theory because an underdrain pipe below the district’s holding ponds did not transfer pollutants between meaningfully distinct water bodies. However, the district court improperly dismissed a claim brought by an environmental law center for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The action was filed by the center, claiming an alleged discharge of treated wastewater into the West Fork of the Gallatin River without a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit. Affirmed in part.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Smith , Filed On: November 21, 2023, Case #: 22-36015, Categories: Environment, Water
J. Nelson finds that the district court properly granted qualified immunity to two police officers in an action alleging excessive deadly force when they shot and killed Robert Anderson during a response to a 911 call seeking help with a domestic violence incident. When officers entered the house, Anderson shouted “Fuck you, punks,” ignored a command to get to the ground, and ran down a short hallway towards the officers, at which point the officers shot him five times. Affirmed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Nelson, Filed On: November 21, 2023, Case #: 22-15382, Categories: Civil Rights, Immunity, Police Misconduct
J. Smith finds that the district court properly entered summary judgment in favor of the Idaho Conservation League in the League’s action against an individual who engaged in instream suction dredge mining without a National Pollutant Discharge Eliminating System (NPDES) permit. The processed material discharged from the suction dredge mining in question was a pollutant, not dredged or fill material, and therefore required an NPDES permit. Affirmed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Smith , Filed On: November 20, 2023, Case #: 22-35978, Categories: Environment
J. Bress denies an immigrant's petition for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals. The immigrant claimed that because he was arrested under an administrative warrant, his un-Mirandized statements should have been excluded. The Ninth Circuit has long held that there exists a substantial distinction between a civil deportation proceeding and a criminal trial which make Miranda warnings inappropriate in the deportation context.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Bress, Filed On: November 17, 2023, Case #: 21-352, Categories: Immigration, Miranda
J. Paez finds that the district court improperly affirmed an administrative law judge’s denial of an individual's application for social security disability insurance benefits. The individual made the requisite showing to meet the low bar where he submitted evidence that he suffered from multiple chronic medical conditions. Reversed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Paez, Filed On: November 16, 2023, Case #: 22-35632, Categories: Social Security
J. Murguia dismisses a pro se litigant's complaint of judicial misconduct against a district judge. Review of this complaint is governed by the Rules for Judicial-Conduct and Judicial-Disability Proceedings. The names of the complainant and the subject judge are not be disclosed in this order. This misconduct complaint arises out of an attorney disciplinary matter. Because complainant provides no objectively verifiable evidence of misconduct in this matter, the allegation must be dismissed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Murguia, Filed On: November 15, 2023, Case #: 22-90006, Categories: Judiciary, Attorney Discipline
J. Smith finds that the district court improperly imposed a purpose-specific approval requirement in a derivative action brought by a shareholder. However, the district court properly held that the board was aware that an individual defendant had an indirect interest in the challenged transactions when it approved them. A Securities and Exchange Rule does not require the board of directors to approve a transaction for the specific purpose of exempting it from liability. This is the rare case where all parties involved agree that the court must reverse. Both plaintiff individual and the SEC—which filed an amicus brief in this case—acknowledge that the Securities and Exchange Rule lacks a purpose-specific approval requirement. Affirmed in part.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Smith, Filed On: November 13, 2023, Case #: 22-16632, Categories: Securities
J. VanDyke finds that the district court properly entered a sentence for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Defendant alleges that his sentence was improper because of a lesser sentence given to his co-conspirator. The district court did not abuse its discretion in imposing a longer sentence on defendant than his co-conspirator because the two were not similarly situated. Affirmed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: VanDyke, Filed On: November 8, 2023, Case #: 22-10300, Categories: Drug Offender, Sentencing
J. Callahan finds that the district court properly granted summary judgment in favor of agricultural associations and enjoins the California Attorney General from enforcing Proposition 65’s carcinogen warning requirement for the herbicide glyphosate, best known as the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup. The proposed Proposition 65 warnings as applied to glyphosate were not purely factual and uncontroversial and were therefore subject to "intermediate scrutiny." Affirmed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Callahan, Filed On: November 7, 2023, Case #: 20-16758, Categories: Administrative Law, Agriculture
J. Gould finds that the district court properly dismissed an antitrust action against Apple, alleging monopolist operation of the Apple App Store. App developers failed to state an antitrust claim under the Sherman Act. The dispute arose from Apple’s rejection of the developers' apps, Coronavirus Reporter and Bitcoin Lottery, for distribution through the App Store because they "did not sufficiently allege a plausible relevant market, either for their rejected apps as compared to other apps, or for apps in general." Affirmed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Gould, Filed On: November 3, 2023, Case #: 22-15166, Categories: Communications
J. Paez finds that the district court improperly dismissed a Copyright Act action concerning infringement of a choreographic work. Choreographer Kyle Hanagami claimed that Epic Games, the creator of the videogame Fortnite, infringed the copyright of a choreographic work when the company created and sold a virtual animation, known as an “emote,” depicting portions of the registered choreography. Hanagami plausibly alleged that his choreography and Epic’s emote shared substantial similarities. Reversed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Paez, Filed On: November 1, 2023, Case #: 22-55890, Categories: Copyright
J. Fletcher finds that the district court properly entered judgment after a bench trial in an admiralty action brought by a towboat company against a company that hired it to tow a drydock, which was damaged in a storm, from Seattle to Ensenada. The tug towed the drydock into the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, where it capsized and sank. The district court correctly granted partial summary judgment to the hiring company on the ground that the towboat was negligent as a matter of law in allowing the drydock to sink in the Sanctuary. However, the Ninth Circuit vacates the district court’s award of prejudgment interest on the $40,000 award against the towboat company. Interest should run from the date of the hiring company's expenditures, rather than the date the drydock sank. Affirmed in part.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: 22-35195, Filed On: October 31, 2023, Case #: 22-35195, Categories: Admiralty, Property, Negligence
J. Sanchez finds that the district court properly granted summary judgment for the California Exposition and State Fair and the State Fair's General Manager after an individual alleged that state police officers violated the First Amendment and the Speech Clause of the California Constitution when they removed him from a privately organized Hmong New Year Festival for distributing religious tokens to attendees. Officers told the individual that he could distribute his tokens in designated zones, referred to as Free Speech Zones, outside the entry gates but not inside the festival itself. The individual claimed that the fairgrounds constitute a traditional “public forum," with similarities to a public park. The enclosed, ticketed portion of the fairgrounds constituted a nonpublic forum under the United States Constitution and the California Speech Clause. Affirmed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Sanchez, Filed On: October 31, 2023, Case #: 22-15931, Categories: Property, First Amendment
J. Gould finds that the district court improperly found that the physicians did not have standing to pursue their action alleging that an Arizona law criminalizing the performance of certain abortions is unconstitutionally vague. Arizona’s "Reason Regulations" criminalize the performance of abortions sought solely because of genetic abnormalities in the fetus or embryo. The doctors' standing "is based on their economic interest in providing medical services." Reversed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Gould, Filed On: October 30, 2023, Case #: 23-15234, Categories: Constitution, Health Care, Injunction
Per curiam, the Ninth Circuit finds that the district court properly dismissed a matter for failure to state a claim in which a class alleged that Ford Motor Company made unlawful recordings of individuals’ private communications in violation of the Washington Privacy Act (WPA). The class action claim that a violation of the WPA itself is an invasion of privacy that constitutes remediable injury was rejected. Affirmed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: October 27, 2023, Case #: 22-35447, Categories: Privacy, Class Action