2024 Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Case Law

Justia Opinion Summary: Shawn Sheltra, an inmate with the Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC), filed a formal grievance in March, identifying safety concerns and threats from other inmates in his housing unit. He warned that he would be…

Justia Opinion Summary: Residents of Humboldt County filed a putative class action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the County’s system of administrative penalties and fees for cannabis abatement violates the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive…

Justia Opinion Summary: Michael Blake DeFrance was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend in 2013 under Montana Code Annotated section 45-5-206(1)(a), a misdemeanor. In 2018, he was found in possession of three firearms, leading to a federal…

Justia Opinion Summary: Larry Seng In was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm after a gun was found in his car during a traffic stop. In moved to suppress the gun, arguing that the officers' actions, particularly handcuffing…

Justia Opinion Summary: Yaakov Markel, an Orthodox Jewish man, worked as a mashgiach for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (OU) from 2011 to 2018. His role involved supervising food preparation to ensure kosher compliance,…

Justia Opinion Summary: LegalForce RAPC Worldwide, P.C. ("LegalForce USA"), a California S corporation operating legal services websites, sued LegalForce, Inc. ("LegalForce Japan"), a Japanese corporation providing legal software services, for…

Justia Opinion Summary: Joshua Shuemake, a correctional officer, was prohibited from possessing firearms due to a no-contact order following an alleged assault on his former girlfriend. Despite this, he borrowed a handgun from his friend and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Krish Singh was shot and seriously injured by Officer Brittany Smith-Petersen in Phoenix, Arizona. Smith-Petersen and another officer, Annie Batway, responded to a report of an attempted robbery with a knife. Upon…

Justia Opinion Summary: Lucila Magana-Magana, a Mexican citizen, entered the United States unlawfully in 1995. She faced a series of abusive relationships, including with Rafael Camacho and later Clyde Wakefield, whom she married in 2017.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Steven Catlin, a California state prisoner, appealed the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas corpus petition challenging his 1990 conviction for the murders of his fourth wife, Joyce Catlin, and his…

Justia Opinion Summary: A California corporation, China Unicom (Americas) Operations Limited (CUA), was authorized to provide domestic and international telecommunications services under certificates issued by the Federal Communications…

Justia Opinion Summary: Ranjit Singh, a native and citizen of India, arrived in the United States without documentation in May 2013 and sought asylum, claiming persecution due to his political opinions and association with the Mann Party. An…

Justia Opinion Summary: Vitaliy Chmukh, a native and citizen of Ukraine, came to the United States as a refugee in 2001. In 2017, he was involved in using a stolen vehicle to steal packages from porches, leading to his arrest. He pleaded guilty…

Justia Opinion Summary: A nonprofit corporation, Moving Oxnard Forward (MOF), challenged campaign finance limitations in the Oxnard City Code, alleging they violated the First Amendment. The limitations, adopted by the City of Oxnard,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Andrew Nisbet petitioned for the return of his two young children to Scotland under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The children had been taken to the United States by their…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this case, two organizations and four individuals brought an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the City of Phoenix and several police officers, alleging violations of their constitutional rights during a protest…

Justia Opinion Summary: Teradata Corporation sued SAP SE, alleging that SAP illegally conditioned sales of its business-management software (S/4HANA) on the purchase of its back-end database engine (HANA) in violation of Section 1 of the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Nathan Wilson and Christopher Beasley were alleged to have set fire to a police car during a protest in Santa Monica, California, following the killing of George Floyd. They were federally indicted on one count of arson.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Andrew Hackett, a stock promoter, was convicted of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud related to the manipulative trading of a public company's stock. Hackett engaged in a pump-and-dump scheme,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Oracle International Corporation sued Rimini Street, Inc. for copyright infringement and violations of the Lanham Act. Oracle alleged that Rimini, a third-party provider of software support services, infringed on its…

Justia Opinion Summary: Maverick Gaming LLC, a casino gaming company, filed a lawsuit challenging the State of Washington's tribal-state compacts that allow sports betting on tribal land. Maverick argued that these compacts violate the Indian…

Justia Opinion Summary: A group of 53 California hospitals challenged the Secretary of Health and Human Services' (HHS) 2020 low-wage-index policy, which adjusted Medicare payment rates by inflating the rates for the lowest quartile of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Karl Hansen sued Tesla, Inc., its CEO Elon Musk, and U.S. Security Associates (USSA), alleging retaliation for reporting misconduct at Tesla. Hansen, initially hired by Tesla, was later employed by USSA. He reported…

Justia Opinion Summary: Lloyd Gerald Napouk was fatally shot by two Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers after they responded to reports of a man behaving suspiciously in a residential neighborhood with what appeared to be a long,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Ali Bahreman, a flight attendant for Allegiant Air, challenged the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between Allegiant and the Transport Workers Union (Union). The CBA required employees to either pay union dues or…

Justia Opinion Summary: Lawanda Small, a beneficiary and additional insured of her deceased husband's Allianz life insurance policy, filed a class action lawsuit against Allianz Life Insurance Company. She alleged that Allianz violated…

Justia Opinion Summary: Dominic Dorsey was convicted of multiple federal crimes related to a series of robberies committed by two disguised men. The evidence at trial included surveillance video footage of the robberies. A police detective, who…

Justia Opinion Summary: Ahmad Abouammo, a former employee of Twitter, was accused of providing confidential information about dissident Saudi Twitter users to Bader Binasaker, an associate of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In exchange,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Ohio House, LLC operates a sober-living facility in Costa Mesa, California, within a multiple-family residential (MFR) zone. The City of Costa Mesa notified Ohio House that it was subject to Ordinance 15-11, which…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves Planned Parenthood and two physicians challenging the Idaho Attorney General's interpretation of Idaho Code § 18-622(1), which criminalizes performing or attempting to perform an abortion and imposes…

Justia Opinion Summary: Barry Ray Knight was convicted of receipt and possession of child pornography. He frequently downloaded child pornography using a peer-to-peer file-sharing network called BitTorrent. In January 2021, undercover officers…

Justia Opinion Summary: Windy Cove, Inc., HB Fuels, Inc., and Staffing and Management Group, Inc. (collectively “Windy Cove”) are gasoline dealers who own Mobil-branded stations in southern California. In 2012, they entered into a 15-year…

Justia Opinion Summary: Sterling Atkins, the petitioner, was convicted by a Nevada jury of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, first-degree kidnapping, and sexual assault, and was sentenced to death. The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed all…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves Idaho's abortion trafficking statute, Idaho Code §18-623, which criminalizes procuring an abortion or obtaining an abortion-inducing drug for an unemancipated minor by recruiting, harboring, or…

Justia Opinion Summary: King County, Washington, issued Executive Order PFC-7-1-EO, which directed county officials to ensure that future leases at Boeing Field prohibit fixed base operators (FBOs) from servicing U.S. Immigration and Customs…

Justia Opinion Summary: A state prisoner, Chance Blackman, filed a federal habeas petition over a year after the federal statute of limitations had expired. Blackman argued that he was entitled to equitable tolling due to severe mental and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Dr. Fares Jeries Rabadi, a licensed physician in California, had his certificate of registration to dispense controlled substances revoked by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The DEA initiated an investigation…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves the Hawai‘i Disability Rights Center (HDRC), which represents individuals with developmental disabilities, including children with autism. HDRC alleges that the Hawai‘i Departments of Education (DOE)…

Justia Opinion Summary: Jorden Marie Saldana voluntarily filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy to reorganize her finances and seek relief from unpaid taxes and other unsecured debts. In calculating her disposable income, she excluded her voluntary…

Justia Opinion Summary: Mariusz Klin, the lead plaintiff, purchased Cloudera stock between its initial public offering (IPO) and a subsequent price drop following the company's announcement of negative quarterly earnings. Klin alleged that…

Justia Opinion Summary: Charles Porter, a Yosemite National Park employee, was charged with various sexual assault offenses after attempting to anally rape T.D., another male park employee, in April 2020. T.D. testified that Porter, heavily…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves a child-pornography investigation initiated by two CyberTipline Reports forwarded to the FBI by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Special Agent Emily Steele viewed two…

Justia Opinion Summary: The petitioner, Jose Ernesto Aleman-Belloso, a native and citizen of El Salvador, sought review of a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) that upheld an Immigration Judge's (IJ) denial of his claims for…

Justia Opinion Summary: Grand Canyon University (GCU), a private university in Arizona, applied to the U.S. Department of Education to be recognized as a nonprofit institution under the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA). The Department denied…