Free Republic

The Oregon Constitution says voters have the final say over any laws passed by the state legislature. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, however, says they don't. After Oregon voters passed a marriage protection amendment declaring marriage to be only the union of one man and one woman, liberal lawmakers tried to sidestep the amendment by passing a "domestic partnership" law. As Austin R. Nimocks -- senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund -- explains, lawmakers are not supposed to have the final say in Oregon. "The citizens of Oregon reserve to themselves in their constitution the right...

An appeals court in California has ruled that state law does permit homeschooling "as a species of private school education" but that statutory permission for parents to teach their own children could be "overridden in order to protect the safety of a child who has been declared dependent." The long-awaited case resolves many of the questions that had developed in homeschooling circles across the nation when the same court earlier found that parents had no such rights – statutorily or constitutionally – in California. The ruling released this morning by the 2nd Appellate District in Los Angeles said the dispute...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court ordered reinstatement Monday for 33 janitors in Los Angeles who were fired because their Social Security numbers did not match the government's database, a ruling that could strengthen unions' case against a Bush administration proposal to pressure employers to get rid of suspected illegal immigrants. The decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco did not address the legality of the administration's so-called no-match rule, which a federal judge blocked in October. That rule would threaten employers with civil fines and criminal prosecution unless they fired workers who failed...

"PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - A federal judge has suspended the obscenity trial of a Los Angeles porn distributor following a newspaper report that the judge had sexually explicit material on his own Web site. ... Kozinski is chief justice of the 9th Circuit but is serving as a trial judge in the obscenity case."

SEATTLE (AP) — The military cannot automatically discharge people because they're gay, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday in the case of a decorated flight nurse who sued the Air Force over her dismissal. The three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not strike down the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. But they reinstated Maj. Margaret Witt's lawsuit, saying the Air Force must prove that her dismissal furthered the military's goals of troop readiness and unit cohesion. The "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue, don't harass" policy prohibits the military from asking about the sexual...

Ninth Circuit Rules Against Military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' By Pete Winn CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer May 21, 2008 (CNSNews.com) - The future of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was cast into doubt on Wednesday. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Calif., ruled that it is no longer enough for the military to state the policy -- which says that "homosexuality is incompatible with military service" -- when it discharges members of the armed services it discovers to be homosexuals. In a split decision, a three-judge panel ruled that the U.S. Air Force will have...

Visitors from other worlds are more common on this planet than sentences containing "the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals" and "sensibly." But they fit together perfectly in describing its ruling this week on school uniforms. In a 2-1 decision, the most liberal court in the land said the dress code established by the Clark County school district in Nevada does not violate students' free-speech rights. Attempting to bring order to increasingly unruly classrooms, the district enacted a dress code that — who else? — the American Civil Liberties Union objected to as unconstitutional. The ACLU sued the district on...

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled against an Algerian convicted of conspiring to detonate explosives at Los Angeles International Airport during the millenium holiday travel rush. In its 8-1 decision, the court upheld Ahmed Ressam's conviction on an explosives charge, one of nine convictions that resulted in a 22-year prison sentence. At issue was whether Ressam should be convicted of carrying explosives during the commission of another serious crime, in Ressam's case, lying on a U.S. Customs form when he crossed the border in December 1999. Writing for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens said that "the most natural reading"...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Public schools don't violate students' freedom of expression by requiring them to wear uniforms, a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled Monday. In a 2-1 decision, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Nevada school district's clothing rules against challenges from students, including a high school junior who was suspended five times for a total of 25 days for wearing a T-shirt with religious slogans. The Clark County School District's policies were not intended to squelch free speech, but instead were aimed at "creating an educational environment free from the distractions, dangers and disagreements...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Bush administration has violated legal deadlines for updating the nation's clean-air standards on carbon monoxide, a federal judge in San Francisco has ruled. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White told the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday to follow a schedule that would allow a full scientific review, public comment and any proposed changes in the standard to take place by May 2011. The EPA had proposed a timetable that would extend through October 2012. Carbon monoxide, an odorless and invisible byproduct of incomplete combustion in auto exhaust, refinery fumes and other emissions of fossil fuels, is lethal...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A roommate-finding site cannot require users to disclose their sexual orientation, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday, in the latest skirmish over whether anti-discrimination rules apply to the Web. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said Roommates.com, which obliges users to list their sexual orientation, was different than Internet sites where people can volunteer or withhold personal information. To inquire electronically about sexual orientation would not be different from asking people in person or by telephone if they were black or Jewish before conducting business, the panel said in an 8-3 ruling that partly...

The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to review a federal appeals court decision limiting the Navy's use of sonar off the Southern California coast because of potential harm to dolphins and whales. In a petition filed Monday, the Justice Department argues that the decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco jeopardizes the Navy's ability to train sailors and Marines for service in wartime.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger praised a Sunday decision by a U.S. Supreme Court justice to keep a convicted killer behind bars. Justice Anthony Kennedy put a hold on a federal court's decision ordering the release on parole of Fred McCullough, who was convicted of second-degree murder in Los Angeles in 1983. McCullough is serving a term of 15 years to life. "The governor's top priority is public safety," said spokeswoman Lisa Page, who said Schwarzenegger will continue to seek to deny McCullough parole. The state parole board twice before recommended McCullough for parole, citing his good behavior. In 2002, then- governor...

The federal government has failed to prepare an adequate plan to manage and protect the Merced River in Yosemite National Park, a federal appeals court ruled today. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a federal judge's decision in 2006 that the National Park Service had not adequately addressed limits on public use of the 81 miles of the river that wind through the park. U.S. District Judge Anthony Ishii blocked several construction projects after he issued his ruling, including repaving the heavily used Valley Loop Road and rebuilding some of the hotel rooms and campsites...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A city can't require all job applicants to be tested for narcotics and must instead show why drug use in a particular job would be dangerous, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled against the city of Woodburn, Ore., which argued it was entitled to maintain a drug-free workplace by requiring job candidates to be screened for drugs and alcohol. The city was sued by Janet Lanier, whose job offer as a part-time page at the city library was withdrawn in 2004 when she refused a drug...

A federal appeals court has ruled that the Navy must protect endangered whales from the potentially lethal effects of underwater sonar during anti-submarine training off the Southern California coast, rejecting President Bush's attempt to exempt the exercises from environmental laws. In a Friday night ruling rushed into print ahead of the next scheduled exercise on Monday, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a federal judge's decision that no emergency existed that would justify Bush's intervention. The Navy is engaged in "long-planned, routine training exercises" and has had ample time to take the steps that the...

The U.S. Supreme Court's refusal Tuesday to hear a lawsuit challenging President Bush's electronic surveillance program left a critical balance-of-powers question - whether judges can decide the legality of the secretive program - in the hands of two federal courts in San Francisco. The justices rejected an appeal by the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued on behalf of journalists, lawyers and academics who believed their phone and e-mail messages were being intercepted. That ended the only case so far to test the constitutionality of Bush's order that launched the surveillance program in early 2002. U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs...

PASADENA - A federal appeals court reviewing San Francisco's universal health care ordinance was sharply critical today of a judge's ruling that exempted employers from having to pay part of the cost of coverage for the uninsured. Three judges of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not say whether they would grant San Francisco's request for an emergency stay that would allow the ordinance to take full effect during the city's appeal. But members of the panel made it clear during a hearing in Pasadena that they thought U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White's ruling last week, stripping the...

San Francisco asked a federal appeals court this morning to let the city extend health coverage to all uninsured adult residents next week, despite a federal judge's ruling that struck down a key provision requiring employers to pay part of the cost. City Attorney Dennis Herrera's office and a group of labor unions are seeking an emergency stay from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that would allow the expanded health care ordinance, including the challenged employer fee, to take effect next Tuesday as scheduled while the city appeals the ruling. "Without this stay, tens of...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- The Supreme Court agreed Friday to consider reinstating part of the conviction of the man who planned to bomb Los Angeles International Airport, case the government says will greatly affect terrorism prosecutions. Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian national, was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2005 after being convicted on nine counts for plotting to bomb the airport around Jan. 1, 2000. Customs agents in Port Angeles caught him with explosives in the trunk of his rental car when he drove off a ferry from British Columbia in December 1999. The ensuing scare prompted the cancellation of...

In a decision that affects all national forests, a federal appellate court ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Forest Service cannot cut brush and use controlled burns to reduce the risk of wildfires in and near urban areas unless it first performs a detailed assessment of the environmental impact. The ruling, which reversed a 2005 decision by U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. of Sacramento, comes after a devastating fire season that included the destruction of more than 250 homes in the South Lake Tahoe area and a series of Southern California firestorms that displaced hundreds of thousands of residents....

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An injured woman who slipped in an Alaskan parking lot can sue the federal government for failing to remove snow and ice, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Monday. Carol Bolt has been permanently disabled since April 1999, when she broke her ankle outside her U.S. Army apartment in Fort Wainwright, Alaska, where winter temperatures fall to as low as -65 F degrees (-54 C). Attorneys representing the government argued that it was not liable because the U.S. Army base has the same status as Alaskan municipalities, which cannot be sued for injuries caused by ice...

San Francisco (AP) -- An atheist seeking to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance and U.S. currency is taking his arguments back to a federal appeals court. Michael Newdow, a Sacramento doctor and lawyer, sued the Elk Grove Unified School District in 2000 for forcing public school children to recite the pledge, saying it was unconstitutional. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Newdow's favor in 2002, but two years later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Newdow lacked standing to sue because he didn't have custody of the daughter on whose behalf he...

San Francisco (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Thursday threw out planned federal fuel economy standards for many sport-utility vehicles, minivans and pickup trucks, ruling that the Bush administration failed to address why those so-called "light trucks" are allowed to pollute more than cars. The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals also ruled that the standards, which were to go into effect next year, didn't properly assess the risk to the environment and failed to include heavier trucks. "The ruling does two potentially very big things," said Brian Nowicki of the Center for Biological Diversity, which led the assault...

San Francisco (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Tuesday ordered the U.S. Navy to lessen the harm its high-power sonar does to whales and other marine life during exercises off the Southern California coast. The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals sent the matter to a trial judge in Los Angeles to figure out exactly how to fix the problem it says is apparent with the sonar. The three-judge panel said the sonars need to be fixed before the Navy's next planned exercise in January. The action was taken because the court said it's likely the Natural Resources Defense...

9th Circuit: Sex offenders welcome here! Over the years, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has earned itself a reputation as the legal bastion of San Francisco looniness, and a recent decision will do nothing to change that. On Tuesday, the court decided that Alberto Quintero-Salazar - a Mexican national and legal resident of the U.S. - could not be deported on the basis of a sex crime he committed in 1998, namely illegal intercourse between an adult over 21 and a youth under 16. According to the court, adults taking sexual advantage of a minor (so long as...

See for example this thread first. From atop their high and lofty perch The 9h Circus okays a strip search of thirteen year old, when it's for IBUPROFEN! So the Court left that girl in the lurch...

WARDLAW, Circuit Judge: Plaintiffs Cynthia and Craig Corrie, Mahmoud Al Sho’bi, Fathiya Muhammad Sulayman Fayed, Fayez Ali Mohammed Abu Hussein, Majeda Radwan Abu Hussein, and Eida Ibrahim Suleiman Khalafallah filed this action after their family members were killed or injured when the Israeli Defense Forces (“IDF”) demolished homes in the Palestinian Territories using bulldozers manufactured by Caterpillar, Inc., a United States corporation. The IDF ordered the bulldozers directly from Caterpillar, but the United States government paid for them. The district court dismissed the action under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), finding it lacked jurisdiction because, inter alia, the political...

Last week's decision by the 9th Circuit Court to remove a solitary Roman cross from a World War I veterans memorial in California's Mojave Desert has drawn an angry response from the American Legion, a major association of U.S. veterans. "Today's lawyers and judges are outlawing the values and religious symbols that the Founding Fathers revered and proclaimed as the very foundation of the American republic," Conatser, head of the 2.7 million-member American Legion, said in a recent press release. "Today it's a memorial. Tomorrow, these same judges can order the removal of crosses on veterans gravestones, the dismissal of...

Alcoholics Anonymous, the renowned 12-step program that directs problem drinkers to seek help from a higher power, says it's not a religion and is open to nonbelievers. But it has enough religious overtones that a parolee can't be ordered to attend its meetings as a condition of staying out of prison, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. In fact, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, the constitutional dividing line between church and state in such cases is so clear that a parole officer can be sued for damages for ordering a parolee to go through...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. government cannot trade a parcel of land to private hands to allow a Christian cross to remain in the middle of a vast federal preserve, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday. At issue is the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which bars the government from favoring any one religion, as it applies to a lone white metal Latin cross in the Mojave National Preserve in southern California between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. In 2004, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a cross on a prominent rock on public...

Appeals court OKs Navy use of sonar By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Writer 12 minutes ago The Navy can use high-power sonar during exercises off the Southern California coast, despite the technology's threat to whales and other marine mammals, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. National security interests outweigh the possible harm to marine life, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined in overturning a judge's order banning the practice. "The public does indeed have a very considerable interest in preserving our natural environment and especially relatively scarce whales," Judge Andrew Kleinfeld wrote for the...

A legal immigrant in Northern California who was 20 when he began a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl faces deportation to Mexico under a ruling Thursday that was described as unjust by a majority of the federal appeals court panel that issued it. Although Juan Estrada-Espinoza's relationship with his girlfriend was consensual, the crime he committed under state law - unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor at least three years younger than he was - is considered sexual abuse of a minor under federal law and is grounds for mandatory deportation, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...

A Californian who set up a vote-swapping Web site for supporters of Ralph Nader and Al Gore in 2000, before the state shut it down with a threat of prosecution, said Tuesday he may try again next year now that a federal appeals court has ruled that online vote-trading agreements are constitutionally protected. It all depends, Jim Cody said, on a candidacy by Nader or some other third-party hopeful that might siphon away enough votes from the Democratic nominee to tip the scales to a Republican in one or more states. His short-lived Vote Swap2000.com was meant to counteract that...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The suspects were black. The occupants of the house were white, in bed and naked. Guns drawn, the sheriff's deputies ordered them out of bed anyway. The homeowners sued the Los Angeles County sheriff's department for violating their civil rights. On Monday, the Supreme Court ended the lawsuit, saying the circumstances were regrettable but not an affront to the Constitution. Max Rettele and Judy Sadler were in bed when officers, carrying a search warrant, entered their Lancaster, Calif., home in December 2001 in pursuit of a fraud and identity-theft crime ring. One suspect in the case had...

SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) -- A court in San Francisco ruled that a roommate-matching Web site may be held accountable for what users say about their preferences. A three-judge panel of the federal appeals court ruled in favor of two California fair housing groups that brought the complaint against Roommate.com, saying the Web site violates the Fair Housing Act by allowing users to specify roommate preferences based on sex, race, religion and sexual orientation, The New York Times reported Wednesday. The ruling took away the main argument of the defense: that a 1996 ruling granting immunity to Internet service providers that...

San Francisco (AP) -- A federal appeals court said Tuesday it would not revisit its September decision that supported a U.S. Marshals Service policy of shackling detained defendants' legs when they make their initial federal court appearance in Los Angeles. The case, brought by more than a dozen defendants, has been ongoing since 2003. In 2005, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the automatic shackling of defendants in the Los Angeles federal courthouse. At the time, the court said it would approve of such a plan only with "adequate justification." But a three-judge panel of the circuit court...

SAN FRANCISCO — The federal government is urging an appeals court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging President Bush's domestic eavesdropping program, warning that disclosure of such activities could compromise national security. "The suit's very subject matter — including the relationship, if any, between AT&T and the government in connection with the secret intelligence activities alleged by plaintiffs — is a state secret," the Justice Department argued in court papers. The documents were filed late Friday and released Monday by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which brought the suit. It accuses AT&T Inc. of illegally making communications on its networks available to...

San Francisco (AP) -- A ski area on a northern Arizona mountain may not use treated wastewater to make snow because that would violate the rights of American Indian tribes that consider the peak sacred, a federal appeals court has ruled. The Arizona Snowbowl on the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff wanted to add a fifth chair lift, spray man-made snow and clear about 100 acres of forest to extend its ski season. However, the Navajo Nation and a dozen other Southwest tribes filed suit to block the project, arguing that it would violate their religious freedom. The lawsuit...

<p>From time to time these columns have noted the out-of-step jurisprudence of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Circuit, with headquarters in San Francisco and jurisdiction over nine Western states, is heavy on Democratic appointees: Of its 27 currently active judges, three were appointed by President Carter and 13 by President Clinton. They are frequently overruled by the Supreme Court, but this term may set a record.</p>

A ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has concluded that municipal employers have the right to censor the words "natural family," "marriage" and "family values" because that is hate speech and could scare workers. The ruling came in a case being handled by the Pro-Family Law Center, which promised an appeal of the drastic result. "We are going to take this case right up the steps of the United States Supreme Court," said Richard D. Ackerman, who along with Scott Lively argued the case for the Pro-Family Law Center. We are simply unwilling to accept that Christians...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court unanimously reinstated a Nevada child molester's conviction Wednesday in a decision that continued the justices' refusal to apply recent rulings on criminal procedure to older cases. Marvin Bockting was convicted in 1988 on the strength of his stepdaughter's statements to police. But then-6-year-old Autumn Bockting did not testify at Bockting's trial so his lawyers never had the opportunity to question the child. In 2004, the court ruled that defendants have a constitutional right to cross-examine witnesses against them. The question in this case was whether that rule would apply to older cases like Bockting's....

President Bush on Tuesday withdrew a controversial federal appeals court nominee, a nod to the Senate's new Democratic leadership. Bush had just resubmitted Norman Randy Smith of Idaho to the Senate last week for a seat on the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. At the time, Bush also withdrew four nominees. The president sent Smith's name to the Senate in December 2005, again last August, before his original nomination expired, and again in November, as required after Congress goes on an extended break.

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out the sentence of a man who was convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport at the turn of the millennium. Ahmed Ressam was arrested near the U.S.-Canadian border in December 1999 after customs agents found 124 pounds of explosives in the trunk of his car. Prosecutors said he was intent on bombing the airport on the eve of the millennium. The arrest raised fears of terrorism attacks and prompted the cancellation of millennium celebrations at Seattle's Space Needle. Ressam was sentenced to 22 years in prison after...

President Bush assured Americans after the November election that he would work with the new Democratic-led Congress in a bipartisan way. But instead of give-and-take, his first action was a thumb in the eye to Congress when he resubmitted divisive federal appeals court nominations. The four nominees themselves had better sense, deciding to withdraw their nominations. Their graceful exit last week could have signaled a new mood of compromise reflecting the changed political dynamic in Congress. But, no. The White House still insists on snubbing California. Federal judgeships in the 28-judge 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals traditionally have been...

When federal agents searched the offices of Comprehensive Drug Testing in Long Beach, California, on April 8, 2004, they officially were looking for the records of 10 baseball players suspected of buying steroids from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO), a sports nutrition center whose owners had been charged with illegal steroid distribution. They left with information that went far beyond what their warrant described, including data on 1,200 baseball players and almost 3,000 computer files unrelated to Major League Baseball drug testing.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit recently told the government it may keep these records...

LOS ANGELES - The censure of a Los Angeles federal judge by a judicial discipline council was inadvertently posted online for more than a week by a legal publishing service. The judicial council of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco last month ordered U.S. District Judge Manuel Real be publicly reprimanded for his intervention in a bankruptcy case. The order was made available on the Internet by Thomson/West, but the 9th Circuit had not made it public because Real had appealed the decision on Dec. 15. It was unclear when the ruling would officially be released....

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned down a request to review a lawsuit filed against the Palmdale School District. The lawsuit, involving a sex survey given to 12 students at Mesquite Elementary School in 2002, was thrown out by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last year. "I was shocked. I really thought they would take the case," said Jim Fields, one of the parents who filed the lawsuit against the district. "We are planning to file the case in state court, though, so we aren't completely dead in the water." Fields said the 9th Circuit ruling was a...

The Supreme Court stepped into a dispute over free speech Friday involving a suspended high school student and his banner that proclaimed "Bong Hits 4 Jesus." The justices agreed to hear the appeal by the Juneau, Alaska, school board and principal Deborah Morse of a lower court ruling that allowed the student's civil rights lawsuit to proceed. The school board hired former Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr to argue its case to the high court. Morse suspended Frederick after he displayed the banner, with its reference to marijuana use, when the Olympic torch passed through Juneau in 2002 on its way...

WASHINGTON -- There should be two Supreme Courts, one to reverse the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the other to hear all other cases. Last term, more of the Supreme Court's caseload -- 18 of 82 cases (22 percent) -- came from the liberal 9th Circuit, based in San Francisco, than from any other circuit, and the 9th was reversed in 15 of the 18. The 9th's winning percentage (.167) was worse than that of the 1962 Mets (.250). On Monday, in the first decision of this term, the Supreme Court reversed the 9th's fretfulness on behalf of Fernando...