2012 Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals Case Law

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in federal court, raising 21 claims of relief. At issue was whether a criminal defendant's request for legal counsel to file a post-verdict motion for a new trial was…

Justia Opinion Summary: Pom challenged the name, labeling, marketing, and advertising of Coca-Cola's Pomegranate Blueberry beverage, claiming that Coca-Cola violated the false-advertising provisions of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. 1125(a), and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed the district court's denial of his motion to suppress the cocaine found in his vehicle. The court held that the district court erred when it held that the search was valid under the automobile…

Justia Opinion Summary: The SEC instituted this civil enforcement action against defendant, former CFO of a publicly-traded semiconductor company, alleging that he violated various provisions of the securities laws. Defendant subsequently…

Justia Opinion Summary: Arizona death-row inmates brought this action under 42 U.S.C. 1983, asserting that the Arizona Department of Corrections' (ADC) execution protocol violated the Eighth Amendment. Lopez, one of the named plaintiffs with an…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner sought review for the second time of his petition for habeas relief in federal court. Petitioner asserted that his trial counsel at sentencing was ineffective and for the first time, that his postconviction…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, on behalf of her son, sued defendants, including the school district, alleging 20 procedural and substantive violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 20 U.S.C. 1400 et seq. The…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner appealed the district court's denial of his 28 U.S.C. 2254 habeas corpus petition. Petitioner argued that trial counsel's advice regarding his guilty plea was constitutionally inadequate, thereby rendering his…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed from his conviction and sentence (1) for conspiring to manufacture and distribute more than 1,000 plants of marijuana and (2) for manufacturing and cultivating, and aiding and abetting the cultivation…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Warden appealed from the district court's grant of a writ of habeas corpus to petitioner. The California Supreme Court held that petitioner received constitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel at his trial but…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, a former research assistant at UHS, entered a conditional guilty plea for violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), 42 U.S.C. 1320d-6(a)(2), because he accessed patient…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was serving the final month of a 26-month term of supervised release when he was arrested for drunk driving, a violation of the conditions of his supervised release. Defendant appealed the denial of his motion…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff brought suit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq., alleging that the surviving spouse benefit provided by the city to its retired employees discriminated on the basis of sex.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted for charges related to armed bank robbery. At issue was whether, under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act of 1996 (MVRA), 18 U.S.C. 3664(f)(2), a district court impermissibly delegated its…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, a city police officer, appealed from the denial of qualified immunity in plaintiff's 42 U.S.C. 1983 action alleging First Amendment retaliation. The district court held that it was clearly established in…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a California state prisoner, appealed the district court's holding that his 28 U.S.C. 2254 habeas corpus petition was time-barred by the one-year statute of limitations created by the Antiterrorism and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs, a group of foster children, appealed the dismissal of their complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6). Plaintiffs brought this action under 42 U.S.C. 1983, alleging violations of their substantive and due process…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner appealed the district court's denial of his federal petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Petitioner raised three claims on appeal: (1) petitioner challenged the California Court of Appeal's conclusion that…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Estate appealed the Tax Court's decision that it owed additional estate taxes. At issue was whether gift taxes paid by the donee trustees of a Qualifying Terminable Interest in Property (QTIP) trust, based on a 26…

Justia Opinion Summary: After the September 11, 2011 attacks, the government detained plaintiff, an American citizen, as an enemy combatant. Plaintiff alleged that he was held incommunicado in military detention, subjected to coercive…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff appealed the district court's grant of summary judgment to the Commissioner in its review of the Commissioner's denial of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Social Security Income (SSI) benefits.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to traffic in motor vehicles or motor vehicle parts, two counts of operating a chop shop, and seventeen counts of trafficking in motor vehicles. The jury then convicted…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff appealed the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants. Plaintiff alleged that defendants violated the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), 42 U.S.C. 15301-15545, by failing to conduct…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case arose when defendants contended that they were engaged in bona fide mining activities on National Forest System lands, which justified full-time residency on their respective claim sites. The court held that…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff appealed the district court's dismissal of claims he brought against Board Members, in their individual capacities, under 42 U.S.C. 1983. Plaintiff alleged that the Board Members deprived him of his…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff and his daughter appealed the district court's order granting defendants' motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Plaintiff submitted an application for an immigrant visa based on an approved…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Government appealed from an award of attorneys' fees to a plaintiff conservation group in a long-running dispute involving federal grazing permits in Idaho. At issue was whether the district court properly awarded…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a lawful permanent resident of the United States, petitioned for review of the BIA's decision holding that his conviction for misprision of a felony was categorically a crime involving moral turpitude. The…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a California state prisoner, appealed the district court's order denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Petitioner claimed that testimony introduced during his trial violated his Sixth Amendment…

Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal grew out of an adversary proceeding in debtor's Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings. The bankruptcy trustee filed a complaint against debtor and her husband, claiming that certain money and property belonged to…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a prisoner of the State of California, appealed from the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The court remanded to the district court to determine in the first instance whether, under…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner appealed the district court's denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus, claiming that the district court incorrectly interpreted an earlier ruling by the California Supreme Court on one of his state…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was sentenced to a 17-year prison term pursuant to a plea agreement. Two years later, defendant filed a motion to reduce his sentence under 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(2), which the district court granted. While this…

Justia Opinion Summary: Proposition 200, Ariz. Rev. Stat. 16-166(F)(the registration provision), required prospective voters in Arizona to provide proof of U.S. citizenship in order to register to vote and required registered voters to show…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case stemmed from a class action that began more than a quarter century ago where Idaho state prisoners at the Idaho State Correctional Institution (ISCI) prevailed on their claims that, inter alia, because of…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case involved intellectual property related to the Superman character created by writer Jerome Siegel and illustrator Joe Schuster. In 2010, D.C. Comics filed a lawsuit against Marc Toberoff, owner of a joint…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs brought several state causes of action in Arizona state court against Medtronic for injuries sustained by Richard Stengel from his use of a pain pump manufactured by Medtronic. Medtronic timely removed the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pled guilty to Abusive Sexual Contact where the victim was his wife's minor niece who had been staying with the couple. On appeal, defendant appealed his sentence of 151 months' imprisonment and the imposition…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed her sentence of 37 months in custody, three years of supervised release, and restitution, imposed following her guilty plea to assault resulting in substantial bodily injury. The victim was defendant's…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants, two priests, an eighty-year-old nun, and two grandmothers, were longtime peace and disarmament activists who cut their way through two fences into a secure area of a naval base. Defendants were subsequently…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case arose when the FCC found that Minority had "willfully and repeatedly" violated 47 U.S.C. 399b when it broadcasted paid promotional messages on its radio station from for-profit corporations. The statute was a a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner sought dismissal of the charges against him based on the claim that the state had violated his rights under the Speedy Trial Clause of the United States Constitution. The state courts summarily rejected the…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case arose when plaintiff, a neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU) nurse, sought an accommodation from her employer that would have allowed her an unspecified number of unplanned absences from her job. On appeal,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs appealed the district court's dismissal of their complaint and judgment in favor of defendants. Plaintiffs' action sought declaratory and injunctive relief barring the Government from enforcing the Controlled…

Justia Opinion Summary: During the 2004 presidential campaign, plaintiffs, anti-Bush protestors, organized a demonstration at a campaign stop in Jacksonville, Oregon. Plaintiffs contended that Secret Service agents engaged in unconstitutional…

Justia Opinion Summary: L.A. Printex appealed the district court's summary judgment order in favor of defendants in L.A. Printex's copyright infringement action. The parties' dispute stemmed from a floral design created by an L.A. Printex…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants were indicted, inter alia, for an eight-year conspiracy to violate the Contraband Cigarette Trafficking Act (CCTA), 18 U.S.C. 2341, by trafficking in "contraband cigarettes." Defendants moved to dismiss the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed the district court's denial of his 28 U.S.C. 2255 motion to vacate the sentences he received after his jury conviction of conspiracy to possess with intent to manufacture a controlled substance; his…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner sought review pursuant to a certificate of appealability of the denial of his petition for habeas corpus. Petitioner was found guilty of robbery with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment, battery with a deadly…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pled guilty to possession of stolen mail and access device fraud. This appeal addressed access device fraud under 18 U.S.C. 1029 and, specifically, whether the Government must prove the usability of an expired…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native and citizen of Lebanon, petitioned for review of a decision from the BIA which upheld the IJ's determination that petitioner had committed a particularly serious crime, rendering him ineligible for…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of murder and subsequently appealed the denial of his request for an evidentiary hearing on his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel during the guilt phase of his bifurcated trial. Because…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff appealed the district court's decision affirming the Commission's denial of her application for disability insurance benefits and supplemental security income under the Social Security Act (SSA), 42 U.S.C. 301…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner appealed the district court's dismissal of his 28 U.S.C. 2254 habeas corpus petition. The district court dismissed petitioner's pro se petition as untimely under the one-year statue of limitations set forth in…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs alleged that section 31 of article I of the California Constitution violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and caused the unfair exclusion of African American, Latino, and Native…

Justia Opinion Summary: In consolidated appeals, Marcus Major and Jordan Huff appealed from their convictions under Title 18 U.S.C. 1951 and 924. They also appealed from their sentence pursuant to section 924(c). The court held that the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, in his capacity as the State Director of the United Public Workers, AFSCME, Local 646, AFL-CIO (UPW), negotiated contracts with dental and health insurance providers, HDS and PGMA, on behalf of UPW members…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case required the court to determine whether a mortgage company violated Hawaii state law when it did not publicly announce the postponement of a foreclosure sale of property owned by appellant, and if so, to…

Justia Opinion Summary: When a dispute arose regarding certain services Janice Karman, plaintiff, provided in connection with the movie, "Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Squeakquel," plaintiffs (Karman and Bagdasarian Productions) filed this…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of one count of obstruction of justice for failing to disclose the full extent of his knowledge regarding the mailing of a letter that could reasonably be believed to constitute an attempt at…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case involved the enactment of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), 8 U.S.C. 1182(c), which repealed the waiver of deportation under Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA) 212(c).…