New & Noteworthy - September 5, 2024

Ninth Circuit Panel Gives X Corp. a Win in First Amendment Case (Courthouse News Service) "X Corp., formerly Twitter, had appealed a December decision by U.S. District Court Judge William Shubb [E.D. - CA], who found that Assembly Bill 587 — which imposed the reporting requirements on platforms earning over $100 million annually — didn’t violate the social media giant’s First Amendment rights. A three-judge Ninth Circuit panel disagreed. On Wednesday, it reversed Shubb’s ruling, remanding the case for him to issue a preliminary injunction on the semi-annual reporting requirements which would have asked platforms to define certain content categories, such as hate speech, disinformation, foreign political interference and others." See also: Elon Musk's X Wins Appeal to Block Part of California Content Moderation Law (Reuters). 

San Jose: Ninth Circuit Rejects Qualified Immunity for Officer Who Shot Activist in Groin at George Floyd Protests (San Jose Mercury News) "The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in an opinion published Wednesday that a jury should be allowed to decide whether Derrick Sanderlin’s First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated when Officer Michael Panighetti hit him with a 40mm foam baton round as he stood, while holding a sign with his hands up, between a police line and demonstrators near City Hall on May 29, 2020."  

Ruling Allowing Pretrial Gun Bans Won’t Get Full Court Review (Bloomberg) "The US Justice Department persuaded the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday to decline revisiting a ruling allowing the government to disarm defendants released on bail. A majority of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit voted against vacating the Mar. 18 panel decision and rehearing the case. Two men charged with federal crimes, John Fencl and Jesus Perez-Garcia, were challenging a provision of the Bail Reform Act disarming defendants before trial, arguing it doesn’t comport with the US Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen decision."  See also: Dissenter Objects to Denial of Rehearing Where Opinion Followed Mootness (Metropolitan News-Enterprise). 

United Behavioral Wins Another Round Over Mental Health Coverage (Bloomberg) "United Behavioral Health notched another win in a long-running dispute over its internal guidelines for mental health coverage, when the Ninth Circuit instructed a district court to enter judgment for the insurer on certain issues. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday granted United’s request for a writ of mandamus, a remedy reserved for ‘extraordinary situations’ including a district court’s failure to follow a mandate issued on appeal."

Judge M. Margaret McKeown to Receive the 2024 American Inns of Court Lewis F. Powell Jr. Award for Professionalism and Ethics (Business Wire) "M. Margaret McKeown has been selected to receive the prestigious 2024 American Inns of Court Lewis F. Powell Jr. Award for Professionalism and Ethics, which recognizes attorneys, judges, government officials, journalists, or others who have rendered exemplary service in the areas of professionalism, ethics, civility, and excellence. McKeown, a circuit judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, will receive the award at the 2024 American Inns of Court Celebration of Excellence at the Supreme Court of the United States."

Idaho Trans Prisoners Get Gender-Affirming Care Ban Blocked (Bloomberg) "A federal judge in Idaho preliminarily blocked state officials and health-care providers from taking away transgender prisoners’ access to gender-affirming care before a trial on whether doing so violates their constitutional rights. Chief Judge David C. Nye, of the US District Court for the District of Idaho, on Tuesday certified a class of trans prisoners who are receiving or will receive hormone therapy for gender dysphoria and prohibited state officials from enforcing a July 1 law that prohibits using state money to pay for the care. The named plaintiffs raised serious questions going to the merits of whether denying these treatments violates prisoners’ Eighth Amendment rights, Nye said."  

Amazon Disclosures Doom Prime Viewers' Deception Claims (Law360) "U.S. District Judge James L. Robart [W.D. - WA] said Virginia resident Meredith Beagle and the two other named subscribers cannot sue the Seattle-based company for deceptive business practices and at the same time acknowledge that Amazon Prime's user terms inform customers up front of the potential for data-sharing. Dismissing with prejudice the plaintiffs' claims under the Washington Consumer Protection Act, Judge Robart pointed to a provision of the terms of use stating that Amazon ‘may provide information about your viewing behavior to third parties.’"

Tenderloin Drug Trafficker Gets 82 Months in Prison for Role in Large Dealing Operation (Courthouse News Service) "Victor Viera-Chirinos, a high-level drug trafficker who fled to Honduras to avoid prosecution three years ago, was sentenced to 82 months in prison by Senior U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco on Wednesday morning. Chirinos, 42, was among 14 defendants accused of being a part of a drug organization that was trafficking large quantities of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine base and cocaine in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood."

As Judge Weighs Landmark N.C.A.A. Settlement on Pay, Not All Athletes Approve (New York Times) "As the parties in the suit, House v. N.C.A.A., laid out details of the agreement, complaints came largely from the smaller schools that had been cut out of the negotiations and were being required to subsidize more than a third of cost of the proposed $2.8 billion settlement. Now, just over three months later, as a judge prepares to weigh more arguments at a remote hearing on Thursday on whether to grant preliminary approval to the 300-plus page settlement, those early voices of dissent have largely been quieted. Instead, the protests now come from an unlikely source: a raft of athlete advocates who are urging the judge, Claudia A. Wilken of the Northern District of California, to send the parties back to the negotiating table."

'I Was Blown Away': Tiny Harris Says MGA Stole Group's Look (Law360) "Tameka ‘Tiny’ Harris testified Wednesday in California federal court that she was taken aback the first time she saw MGA Entertainment's line of O.M.G. dolls because she believed they ripped off the OMG Girlz pop group she created, and said a survey of her Instagram followers confirmed her reaction. Harris' testimony marked the third time she has taken the stand in the long-running case where she and her rapper husband Clifford ‘T.I.’ Harris allege the toy giant stole the name and likeness of the OMG Girlz, after the first proceeding ended in a mistral and a jury's verdict in a second trial was vacated by U.S. District Judge James V. Selna [C.D. - CA]."

Google Slapped With Digital Privacy Class Action Over Use of Customer Service AI Product (The Recorder) "This is not the first time Google has fielded litigation targeting its AI service’s alleged Section 631 violations.... On June 20, District Judge Rita F. Lin tossed the case in the California Northern District Court, arguing in her opinion that Ambriz’s CIPA violation claim did not apply in this case due to ‘§ 631’s exemption from liability for telephone companies [like Verizon] and their agents.’"

Ex-Cop Cuts Deal to End Bias Suit That Rose to High Court (Law360) "The city of St. Louis has tentatively settled a former cop's bias suit claiming she was illegally transferred due to her gender, according to a court filing on Wednesday, potentially ending a legal battle that prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify Title VII's scope. The justices said that while workers must show they faced some form of injury to keep their discrimination claims in court, they do not need to show that the harm they faced was significant, ‘or serious, or substantial, or any similar adjective suggesting that the disadvantage to the employee must exceed a heightened bar.’"

Election Year Surprise? GOP Judges Opening Seats for Biden (Law360) "...there were also acknowledgments that, for some of their peers, the political playing field really does matter. ‘I think the scholars are right — obviously, in some people's minds, it's a factor,’ U.S. District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez, who is retiring soon from the Central District of California bench, said in an interview. ‘All I can speak to is my mind — it's not a factor.’"

Feds Open Investigation into Sexual Abuse at California Women’s Prisons (Courthouse News Service) "The U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday that it has opened a civil rights investigation into purported sexual abuse of inmates by wardens at two California women's prisons. The department said that publicly available information, including hundreds of lawsuits by women who have been incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and information gathered from stakeholders, justified the investigation into whether the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation protects women from sexual abuse by correctional staff."

3 Tips to Double Your TSP (FedSmith) "The TSP is an incredible wealth building machine! If managed well, the TSP can double its value many times over. Here are 3 strategies to double your Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) as many times as possible."