2014 Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals Case Law

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs challenged the construction of a high-speed rail system (the "Project") that will run through the downtown area of Honolulu under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. 4321-4347, the National…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs filed suit against Michaels on behalf of California store managers, alleging that Michaels had improperly classified the managers as exempt from overtime. After Michaels removed the case to federal district…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pleaded guilty to one count of illegal reentry. Defendant had a prior state court conviction for attempted rape in the fourth degree under Del. Code Ann. tit. 11, 531-532, 770. At issue was whether Delaware's…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs filed suit challenging the mandatory uniform policy at their children's public elementary school (RGES) under the First Amendment. The court concluded that RGES's inclusion of the motto "Tomorrow's Leaders" on…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs filed suit challenging California's concealed handgun laws. At issue was whether a responsible, law-abiding citizen had a right under the Second Amendment to carry a firearm in public for self-defense. The…

Justia Opinion Summary: BP shareholders filed a class action alleging that the company knowingly, or with deliberate recklessness, made false and misleading statements about the condition of the Alaskan pipelines and BP's pipeline maintenance…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner pled guilty in Oregon state court to three counts of compelling prostitution, three counts of rape, three counts of sodomy, and one count of sexual abuse. On appeal, petitioner challenged the district court's…

Justia Opinion Summary: Retired Employees and their spouses filed suit against the County, alleging that the Retired Employees have an implied vested right to the pooling of their health care premiums with those of current employees ("pooled…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants were convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and three counts of health care fraud. On appeal, defendants challenged their sentences. The court held that, in health care fraud cases,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, convicted of offenses related to the attempted murder of his wife, appealed the denial of his federal habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. 2254(a). The court concluded that the state trial court did not…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed his conviction and sentence for violating the terms of his supervised release by illegally reentering the country after he had been deported. The court held that the provisions in Rule 32.1 of the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed his conviction and sentence for receipt of material involving the sexual exploitation of minors. The court concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it determined that his…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of charges related to his participation in a scheme involving the fraudulent issuance of airline passenger tickets. On appeal, defendant challenged the district court's partial denial of his…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants were convicted of maliciously damaging the real property of the United States by fire. On appeal, the government challenged defendants' sentences. Defendants, ranchers, set fires on their property that spread…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff appealed the district court's dismissal of his claim under Rule 12(b)(6), alleging that Nationstar violated section 533 of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), 50 U.S.C. app. 533, when it maintained…

Justia Opinion Summary: GLAAD filed a putative class action alleging that CNN violated California's Unruh Civil Rights Act, Cal. Civ. Code 51 et seq., and California's Disabled Persons Act (DPA), Cal. Civ. Code 54 et seq., by intentionally…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of two counts of violating 18 U.S.C. 1365(a), which prohibits, inter alia, tampering with any consumer product that affects interstate commerce. Defendant, a pharmacist at a grocery store, moved…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit against Spokeo, operator of a website that provides users with information about other individuals, for willful violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq. Because the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Carolina filed suit asserting federal jurisdiction based on diversity against defendants for a declaratory judgment that Carolina was not liable under Dry Cleaning's insurance policy. The district court dismissed without…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed a putative class action suit against Home Depot alleging violations of California's Unfair Competition Law, Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code 17200; the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act, Cal. Civ. Code 1770;…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff appealed the district court's award of attorneys' fees and costs. Under Costa v. Commissioner of Social Security Administration, where a fee award has been reduced by almost 30 percent, as here, the district…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2009, defendant pleaded guilty to receiving a stolen motorcycle in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2313. While on supervised release, defendant pleaded guilty to an assault charge in violation of Washington state law. Because…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Republic and Diego Garcia Carrion (collectively, the "Applicants") sought discovery, including expert materials, for use in a foreign proceeding under 28 U.S.C. 1782. On appeal, Chevron and two of its experts…

Justia Opinion Summary: Experience Hendrix filed suit against Pitsicalis alleging that Pitsicalis was infringing trademarks in violation of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. 1051-1127, and that the trademark infringement also amounted to an unfair or…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit alleging that he was entitled to use the Fortymile Trail for access to his state mining claims. Plaintiff sought a declaration that he was entitled to a right-of-way to access his state mining claims…

Justia Opinion Summary: Because of petitioner's gang activities, he had been confined for many years to a security housing unit (SHU), to protect other prisoners from him and his gang underlings. This appeal addressed the enforcement of orders…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner sought review of the BIA's dismissal of his appeal from an IJ's entry of a final order of removal. In 1989, petitioner pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to distribute after police officers…

Justia Opinion Summary: After MediVas defaulted on a loan, Marubeni foreclosed on promissory notes held by MediVas and threatened to foreclose on additional MediVas assets. MediVas and others filed suit against Marubeni in state court, raising…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed his sentence and conviction for online enticement of a female minor to engage in sexual activity in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2422(b). The court held that section 2422(b) clearly and unambiguously…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff appealed the denial of his claims for supplemental security income (SSI). At issue was whether the ALJ failed to make an adequate showing that a significant number of jobs existed in the region in which…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs challenged BOEM's Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) analyzing the environmental effects of proposed oil and gas development in the Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska. The court concluded that BOEM…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs, a class of cardholders who paid credit card penalty fees, challenged those fees on constitutional grounds. Plaintiffs argued that the fees are analogous to punitive damages imposed in the tort context and are…

Justia Opinion Summary: The State entered into an agreement allowing Big Lagoon to operate a casino on a certain parcel of land. On appeal, the State challenged the district court's order requiring the State to negotiate with Big Lagoon under…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, admitted to the United States on a B2 visitor visa, petitioned for review of the BIA's order dismissing her appeal, contending that the BIA erred in determining that the statutory language of the Immigration…

Justia Opinion Summary: GSK filed suit against Abbott over a dispute related to a licensing agreement and the pricing of HIV medications. The central issue on appeal was whether equal protection prohibited discrimination based on sexual…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs filed a defamation suit against defendant where defendant published blog posts on several websites that she created accusing plaintiffs of fraud, corruption, money-laundering, and other illegal activities. The…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit against defendants alleging that the continuous twenty-four-hour illumination of his cell violated the Eighth Amendment. The court reversed, concluding that there were material issues of fact…

Justia Opinion Summary: World Trade petitioned for review of the Commission's Order Sustaining Disciplinary Action Taken by FINRA, which upheld a variety of fines and sanctions against petitioners for their violations of Sections 5(a) and 5(c)…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, in custody of the CDC since 2004, filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983 asserting twenty actions stemming from his validation as a gang member. The court concluded that the district court properly determined that…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, a former prison inmate, filed suit alleging deliberate indifference to his mental health needs in violation of the Eighth Amendment (Count I), and violations of his right to freely exercise his religious…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pleaded guilty to drug and firearms offenses. On appeal, defendant challenged the district court's denial of his motion to reduce his sentence under 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(2). The court concluded that defendant's…

Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal stemmed from the sale of the Chronicle Publishing Company. After the Martin Family Trusts formed a tiered partnership structure, the Martin heirs commenced a series of transactions designed to create losses…

Justia Opinion Summary: Section 152 First of the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. 152 First, imposes a duty on all carrier employees to engage in the Act's labor dispute resolution procedures before ceasing to perform their work. ASIG filed suit…

Justia Opinion Summary: After debtor filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition, the trustee filed a motion for turnover under section 542(a) of the Bankruptcy Code against debtor to recover $6,155.19 of her petition-date account balance. The…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a Canadian, was ordered removed when customs officials determined that he planned to work in the United States as a photographer/cameraman without documentation. At issue was whether a Canadian arriving at…

Justia Opinion Summary: Inhale claimed copyright protection in the shape of a hookah water container that it first published in 2008 and registered with the United States Copyright Office in 2011. Inhale filed suit against Starbuzz for…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant filed a 28 U.S.C. 2255 motion to vacate, set aside or correct his sentence. The court concluded that the district court did not err in denying defendant's motion where the request that family members and…