2013 Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals Case Law

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a citizen of China of Korean and Chinese descent, petitioned for review of the BIA's affirmance of the IJ's denial of petitioner's applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the…

Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal relates to a discovery dispute that arose in this action challenging Washington's rules that require pharmacies to maintain a representative assortment of drugs for which there was patient demand and to…

Justia Opinion Summary: This litigation arose from the City's recent efforts to complete its power system expansion plan first conceived in 1972 and re-affirmed in 2007. The City owns and operates Idaho Falls Power. Alliance sought declaratory…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, who has an IQ score of 71, appealed the denial of his supplemental security income benefits. The court concluded that plaintiff did not show that his impairments medically equal an IQ score of 60-70, so he has…

Justia Opinion Summary: Bill Graham, a successful promoter of rock and roll concerts, died testate and his will created individual trusts for his sons, Alexander and David. Nicholas Clainos was the trustee of the trusts and the executor of the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, a California state prisoner, filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983, alleging violations of his constitutional rights. Plaintiff claimed that prison officials engaged in retaliatory conduct, of which the governmental…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case concerned a dispute regarding plaintiffs' membership in an Indian tribe. At issue was whether the district court had jurisdiction to enjoin preliminarily the enforcement of a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, a Chinese national, unlawfully obtained two driver's licenses issued by the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). At issue was whether defendant's possession of those licenses could be punished…

Justia Opinion Summary: Hokto USA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hokuto Co., Ltd., filed suit against Concord Farms for violating its rights to marks under which it markets its Certified Organic Mushrooms, which are produced in the United…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a citizen of Honduras, petitioned for review of the BIA's dismissal of his motion to reopen. The court concluded that petitioner was correct that the Board's place-of-filing rule was a procedural…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of failing to register and/or update a registration, in violation of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), 18 U.S.C. 2250(a). On appeal, defendant challenged his sentence of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed his conviction after pleading guilty to unlawful reentry into the United States. The court held that a prior felony conviction under Florida Statutes section 800.04(4)(a) for lewd and lascivious…

Justia Opinion Summary: After the jury had been empaneled, the district court accepted defendant's guilty plea, declared a mistrial, and discharged the jury. After successfully moving to rescind his guilty plea, defendant sought to avoid trial…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed his convictions for aiding and abetting offenses. In this case, there was evidence that defendant suffered from a low I.Q. or a learning disability and there was no written waiver. The court concluded…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, a federal sex offender, appealed his conviction under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), 42 U.S.C. 16901 et seq., for failing to register. The court held that the Attorney General has…

Justia Opinion Summary: Woodlands challenged several aspects of the Corps' Environmental Assessment (EA), and issuance of a "Finding of No Significant Impact" (FONSI) in lieu of preparing a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) concerning…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, a noncitizen "enemy combatant" undergoing proceedings before a military commission at Guatanamo Bay, sought a declaratory judgment that the commission lacked jurisdiction to hear the charges against him…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed his conviction for criminal copyright infringement based on his sale of Adobe software. The court applied the willfulness standard for criminal copyright cases as recently clarified in United States v.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Kalitta filed suit against numerous defendants, including CTAS, alleging various causes of action stemming from the modification of two of its aircraft from passenger to cargo planes. In this appeal, Kalitta challenged…

Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal arose out of a protracted dispute over attorneys' fees awarded in the Wal-Mart wage and hour multidistrict litigation. Appellants, the Burton Group, appealed from the district court's confirmation of an…

Justia Opinion Summary: After plaintiff purchased a background check and report from Intelius on the Internet, plaintiff discovered that Adaptive, a separate company from Intelius, had been charging his credit card each month for a Family…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed a class action complaint against JEM, a "back-end" debt-relief company, and others, alleging breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, aiding and abetting, civil conspiracy, and breach of Washington…

Justia Opinion Summary: The City appealed the district court's determination that the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-104, 110 Stat. 56, preempted its decision to require T-Mobile to obtain voter approval before constructing…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit against her employer, the Secretary of the Army, alleging that certain adverse employment actions resulted from discrimination. Plaintiff had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection but failed to…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pleaded guilty to one count of receiving child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2252A(a)(2). On appeal, defendant argued that his act of "showing" child pornography did not qualify as "distribution" under…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs filed suit against the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation seeking to recover a masterpiece French impressionist painting by Camille Pissarro that was allegedly taken from their ancestors by the Nazi…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants appealed their convictions for various criminal tax offenses arising from their use of gold and silver coins to pay wages and thus avoid the reporting of payroll and income taxes. The court affirmed the…

Justia Opinion Summary: UPS appealed the district court's award of attorney fees to plaintiff. At issue was whether the district court abused its discretion in awarding plaintiff $697,971.80 where the jury awarded her only $27,280 after finding…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Tribes filed suit in Tribal Court against plaintiff and his builders alleging that they violated the Tribes' land use policies by building a residence on Tribal land. Plaintiff filed suit in federal court against the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a Bulgarian citizen, sought review of the BIA's decision affirming the IJ's adverse credibility finding and denial of petitioner's applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed his conviction for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine under 21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(A)(ii) and possession of a firearm in furtherance of the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner appealed the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. 2254. The district court denied two of petitioner's claims as procedurally defaulted. At issue was whether Martinez v. Ryan…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petronas is a major oil and gas company located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and GoDaddy is the world's largest domain name registrar. After a third party registered the domain names "petronastower.net" and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit against the City of Eugene, the Police Department (EPD), and others, alleging that they violated his First Amendment rights when they removed him from his position on the EPD K-9 team in retaliation…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner sought review of the BIA's final order of removal. The court concluded that neither the IJ nor the BIA abused their discretion in holding that petitioner had waived her application for relief and protection…

Justia Opinion Summary: Marshak appealed the district court's preliminary injunction for HRE enjoining Marshak from using the "The Platters" mark in connection with any vocal group with narrow exceptions. At issue was whether the likelihood of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs challenged Washington statutes that require a certificate of "public convenience and necessity" (PCN) in order to operate a ferry on Lake Chelan in central Washington sate. The court held that the Privileges…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant filed a chapter 7 bankruptcy petition and subsequent to the entry of the discharge order of appellant's debts, the trustee learned that appellant had misrepresented the value or existence of a number of assets…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a Russian citizen, petitioned for review of the BIA's dismissal of his appeal from the denial of his applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). The…

Justia Opinion Summary: Capital One appealed the district court's order remanding a putative class action lawsuit to California state court under the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA), Pub. L. No. 109-2, 119 Stat. 4. The court concluded…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner was convicted of robbery and assault. At issue was whether petitioner procedurally defaulted a federal habeas claim. In Harris v. Reed, the Supreme Court instructed that a procedural default did not bar…