2013 Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals Case Law

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs, a former Maricopa County Board of Supervisors member and his spouse, filed suit against defendants, former prosecutors and their spouses, alleging that defendants initiated a frivolous federal civil…

Justia Opinion Summary: The district court granted petitioner's petition for a 28 U.S.C. 2254 writ of habeas corpus, concluding that petitioner had ineffective assistance of trial counsel and that California's Court of Appeal's application of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit against the CDCR and others after she was terminated from her independent contractor position as a nurse and was unable to find other work within the CDCR. The court held that a state agency did not…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a felon and was sentenced to 46-months in prison. The principal issue on appeal concerned U.S.S.G. 4A1.2(d)(2)(A), which assigned criminal history points for crimes…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pleaded guilty to knowingly filing false federal income tax returns. On appeal, defendant challenged the district court's revocation of her probation. The court concluded that the record demonstrated…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff challenged the EPA's permit allowing Shell to construct, operate, and conduct "pollutant emitting activities" associated with a drill vessel (the "Kulluk") in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska's North Slope. The…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner sought review of the government's reinstatement of a removal order issued in 1997. Petitioner contended that ICE could not deport him on the basis of his prior removal order because a federal district court…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants were convicted of obstruction of justice for their involvement in leaking information regarding an FBI investigation to members of the Hells Angels gang and thus facilitating their criminal enterprise. On…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pleaded guilty to five counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud. On appeal, defendant challenged his conviction, sentence, order of restitution, and imposition of a special condition. The court…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of illegal reentry after deportation and subsequently appealed his sentence of 30 months' imprisonment. The district court concluded that his 2005 Illinois conviction for aggravated criminal…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, a severely disabled student, filed suit arguing that he was entitled to remain at a private school he had been attending since the age of seven. The Department issued a formal notice that plaintiff's special…

Justia Opinion Summary: In these consolidated appeals, at issue was whether landowners could form the basis for membership in a particular social group for purposes of eligibility for asylum. The court granted petitioners', landowners, petition…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs, purchasers of condominiums in the Hard Rock Hotel San Diego, filed a putative class action suit under the Securities Exchange Act of 1933, 15 U.S.C. 78a et seq., and California state law, against the Hotel's…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed a representative Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA), Cal. Lab. Code 2699, action against defendants alleging that they illegally deprived him and other nonexempt employees of meal periods,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was indicted for possession with intent to distribute marijuana on March 24, 2010. On May 18, 2011, a superseding indictment issued adding a charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana.…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case concerned the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), a government program created to help distressed homeowners with delinquent mortgages. At issue was whether Wells Fargo was contractually required to…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case involves a federal rent-subsidy program for Indian Tribes and Tribally Designated Housing Entities (TDHE) that lease housing to Indians. Fort Belknap, a TDHE, petitioned for review of HUD's decision to withhold…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed her sentence stemming from her conviction of crimes related to her involvement in the Ichihara drug network. The court concluded that the district court failed to use the Sentencing Guidelines as a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of mail fraud and theft by an officer or employee of a gaming establishment on Indian lands. On appeal, defendant challenged his conviction. The court concluded that the location of the gaming…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983 after Robert St. Jovite committed suicide when he was an inmate in the California Prison System. The court held that the district court erred in granting summary judgment with…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff and her husband (collectively, "plaintiffs") filed suit claiming that the USCIS acted arbitrarily and capriciously in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. 500 et seq., and the Due…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit against Green Day and others, alleging violations of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 101 et seq., and the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. 1051 et seq., because Green Day used plaintiff's illustration, "Scream…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, sentenced to 254 years of imprisonment for nonhomicide crimes he committed when he was sixteen years old, petitioned for review of the district court's denial of his petition for federal habeas corpus relief.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, convicted of six counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, appealed the district court's denial of his 28 U.S.C. 2254 habeas corpus petition. Petitioner challenged four certified claims and raised…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute controlled substances, and possession with intent to distribute cocaine and ecstasy. On appeal, the government challenged the district court's grant of…

Justia Opinion Summary: In these consolidated appeals, plaintiffs principally claimed that their school districts have an obligation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq., to provide them with a word-for-word…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, convicted of eight misdemeanor counts of possession of child pornography and one misdemeanor count of duplicating child pornography, appealed the denial of his federal habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. 2254.…

Justia Opinion Summary: KDS petitioned for review from the summary decision of an ALJ in favor of ICE on 225 out of 271 alleged violations of 8 U.S.C. 1324a(b) and the resulting civil penalty. Section 1324a(b) requires employers to verify that…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed his conviction for aggravated identity theft. At issue on appeal was whether a counterfeit paper check that bears a victim's true name, bank account number, and routing number was a "means of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed his conviction on one count of importation of methamphetamine. The court held that the district court did not err in admitting defendant's post-arrest statement because defendant's statement was…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners, a married couple from Jordan, petitioned for review of the BIA's decision that extraordinary circumstances did not excuse their untimely applications for asylum. According to petitioners, their delay in…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner appealed the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. At issue was the opening statement of defense counsel regarding the presence of an alibi witness. Petitioner argued that counsel's statement…

Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal concerned the parties' dispute over an arbitration award to plaintiff. Plaintiff appealed the district court's ruling on interest and attorney's fees, and Lloyd's cross-appealed requesting return of an…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed his sentence stemming from a conviction for use or carrying and possession of firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 924(c) (Count IV). The district court…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of twelve felonies stemming from her work as a tax preparer for various clients. The court concluded that the district court did not err in denying defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal as…

Justia Opinion Summary: Debtor filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy but did not list, as one of his outstanding debts, a $350,000 arbitration award to Fiero Brothers (creditor). At issue on appeal was whether the creditor's lawyer's knowledge of the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed his sentence stemming from his conviction for drug-related charges. The court vacated and remanded for resentencing, concluding that any error in estimating the quantity of drugs attributable to the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was arrested and charged with illegal reentry after deportation in violation of 8 U.S.C. 1326. On appeal, defendant challenged the district court's rejection of his guilty plea to illegal reentry into the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Retired Hall of Fame football player, James "Jim" Brown, filed suit against EA, alleging that EA violated section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. 1125(a), through the use of Brown's likeness in EA's "Madden NFL"…

Justia Opinion Summary: Former starting quarterback for Arizona State University, Samuel Keller, filed a putative class action suit against EA, alleging that EA violated his right of publicity under California Civil Code 3344 and California…

Justia Opinion Summary: Environmental groups challenged the BLM's Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. The court concluded that the district court properly granted summary judgment in favor of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983 challenging the imposition and enforcement of two conditions of his parole: a residency restriction and a requirement that he submit to electronic monitoring using a GPS device.…

Justia Opinion Summary: In these consolidated cases, plaintiffs filed shareholder derivative suits in California state court alleging that PICO's compensation policies violated state law. Defendants removed the cases to federal court, arguing…

Justia Opinion Summary: The FBI appealed the district court's order granting Shura Council's motion for sanctions under Rule 11(c). The FBI had already "corrected" the challenged pleadings and provided all the information it was obligated to…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a Mexican national, petitioned for review of the BIA's orders finding her ineligible for cancellation of removal and denying her motion to reopen. The court concluded that petitioner "resided in the United…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Tribe and CTGW brought suit against the County for imposing property taxes on the Great Wolf Lodge located on the Grand Mound Property, which was tribal land held in trust by the government. At issue was whether…

Justia Opinion Summary: These interlocutory appeals stemmed from an encounter between a group of young men and several BART officers that ended with the shooting and death of one of the men. The court concluded that Defendant Mehserle was not…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case concerned applications to transfer water rights from agricultural land in the Newlands Reclamation Project to the Carson Lake and Pasture, a wildlife refuge located within the Lahontan Valley wetlands at the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983 alleging that deputies used excessive force against her late husband and that a deputy unreasonably seized her when he kept her from the crime scene. At issue was whether a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs filed a putative consumer class action suit against DirecTV and Best Buy, alleging violations of California's consumer protection laws. The arbitration agreement at issue in this instance was a customer…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, convicted of first-degree murder, petitioned for habeas corpus relief under 28 U.S.C. 2254. The court concluded that the prosecution's failure to disclose that the police dog had a history of mistaken…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, convicted of federal drug-trafficking felonies, appealed his sentence. The district court sentenced defendant as a "career offender" under U.S.S.G. 4B1.1 because he had two prior convictions for "crimes of…

Justia Opinion Summary: These five appeals concerned seepage over several decades of a toxic dry cleaning chemical into the ground under a Las Vegas shopping center. The court concluded that the application of the Comprehensive Environmental…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of money laundering, bank fraud, loan fraud, and conspiracy to commit loan and bank fraud. On appeal, defendant challenged his convictions, which stemmed from a Los Angeles-based scheme to defraud…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, convicted of murder and sentenced to death, appealed the denial of his federal habeas petition. Because the existence or absence of mitigating circumstances directly affected whether petitioner was death…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case stemmed from a dispute between the parties over license agreements which allowed Myriad access to Oracle's Java programming language. On appeal, Myriad challenged the district court's partial denial of its…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner appealed the denial of benefits under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (LHWCA), 33 U.S.C. 901-950, for injuries he sustained after falling off a dock while attempting to urinate while…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pled guilty to illegal reentry after a prior deportation and subsequently appealed the district court's denial of his motion to dismiss the indictment on the ground that the prior deportation order was…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native and citizen of Indonesia who is a Christian and of Chinese descent, petitioned for review of the denial of her application for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pled guilty to illegal reentry under an agreement providing that the government could withdraw in the event that the presentence report reflected a prior conviction of a crime of violence. At issue was whether…

Justia Opinion Summary: This dispute arose when plaintiffs sought payment from defendant for a loan plaintiffs provided to defendant's company. On appeal, defendant challenged the district court's judgment affirming the bankruptcy court's order…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted for unlawfully attempting to procure citizenship and making false statements in a passport application. Defendant was sentenced to 51 months in custody of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) followed by…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983, alleging that police officers used excessive force which resulted in her son's death. On appeal, plaintiff challenged the district court's grant of judgment as a matter of law…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a 37-year-old gay native and citizen of the Philippines, petitioned for review of the BIA's order vacating an IJ's grant of withholding of removal and protection under the CAT. The court concluded that the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit alleging that her employer discriminated against her based upon her sex. While pursuing the discrimination action, plaintiff filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, failing to list the bankruptcy action in…

Justia Opinion Summary: Fox filed suit against Dish Network for copyright infringement and breach of contract, seeking a preliminary injunction. At issue were two Dish products: (1) "PrimeTime Anytime," which allowed a cable subscriber to set a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native of Senegal, petitioned for review of the BIA's decision denying his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). Petitioner mistakenly filed…

Justia Opinion Summary: After the court reversed and remanded for an award of social security disability benefits to plaintiff, plaintiff moved for an award of attorney's fees and costs under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 28 U.S.C.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs challenged the NMFS's limitations on commercial fishing in certain areas of the Pacific Ocean off Alaska. The agency limited commercial fishing in the areas where the western Distinct Population Segment of the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, a conservationist organization, filed suit under the Clean Water Act (the "Act"), 33 U.S.C. 1365(a)(1), alleging that defendants violated a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit that…

Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal involved litigation over how much water from the Truckee and Carson Rivers should be diverted to irrigation and how much should flow into Pyramid Lake for the benefit of the Tribe. At issue was the court's…

Justia Opinion Summary: Gorlick sued Allied, a competitor in the auto parts market, alleging that Allied was receiving favorable prices from a manufacturer. The court concluded that Gorlick failed to show that Allied had actual knowledge, trade…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed his conviction of involuntary manslaughter, contending that the Ninth Circuit model jury instruction for involuntary manslaughter given by the district court was defective because it failed to tell the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, a Mexican citizen, alleged that the Arizona crime of conviction, "attempt to commit smuggling" in violation of A.R.S. 13-2319, did not categorically fit the federal definition of an alien smuggling offense and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed his conviction for both receipt and possession of child pornography, alleging violation of the Double Jeopardy Clause. The court concluded that the conjunctive phrasing of the indictment created the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, a C-5 quadriplegic, filed suit alleging unlawful discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq., and related California disability laws, claiming that Peter Piper Pizza…

Justia Opinion Summary: The parties dispute whether the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 42 U.S.C. 1997e(d)(2), limited the amount that plaintiff, a prisoner who qualified as a prevailing party who would ordinarily be entitled to an award…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff sought injunctive relief and damages against the Bank after it filed an unlawful detainer action against her in state court without giving 90 days notice to vacate the foreclosed property. At issue on appeal…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff sued Marvel for patent infringement and breach of contract, claiming that it had used his ideas in developing a Spider-Man role-playing toy called the "Web Blaster" without compensating him. The parties…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff entered a conditional plea of guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and subsequently appealed his conviction. On appeal, defendant argued that the wiretap application, filed by Assistant District…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs brought a putative class action against Bresnan alleging violations of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. 2520-21, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. 1030, and Montana state law for…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case arose from a dispute between the parties over who could claim certain longshore work handling cargo at the Port of Seward, Alaska. At issue on appeal was whether Section 303 of the Labor Management Relations…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants appealed the district court's order of restitution under Apprendi v. New Jersey. Defendants, movie industry veterans, were convicted of charges related to their payment to the governor of Thailand's Tourism…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff challenged the Department of Labor's new regulations providing that a labor certification expired after 180 days unless a visa application was filed or, in this case, 180 days after the regulation became final.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit against the Postal Service for breach of prior settlement agreements, as well as various other claims related to her employment at the Postal Service. The district court dismissed plaintiff's breach…

Justia Opinion Summary: Action Recycling moved to quash summonses from the IRS to produce records that Action Recycling had already produced for the IRS to review, arguing that the summonses for those records were issued in violation of the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native and citizen of Guatemala, petitioned for review of the BIA's denial of his application for special rule cancellation of removal under the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act…

Justia Opinion Summary: These consolidated appeals concerned the 1999 Final Rules, identifying which navigable waters within Alaska constituted "public lands," promulgated by the Secretaries to implement part of the Alaska National Interstate…