Author: automatic

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Litigation

Edwards v. Brown — Oregon Limitations Period Tolls During Mandatory Prison Grievance Process

automatic / September 28, 2026

The Ninth Circuit held that Oregon's limitations period for a prisoner's section 1983 claim tolls while mandatory grievance exhaustion is underway.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Litigation

Medrano v. Acosta — Ninth Circuit Upholds Police Use of Force in Felony Arrest

automatic / September 25, 2026

The Ninth Circuit held that officers did not violate clearly established law by pointing firearms during a felony arrest and granted qualified immunity.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Administrative Law, Immigration

Perez-Garcia v. Blanche — Ninth Circuit Finds Failure to Consider Bond Payment Evidence Is Legal Error

automatic / September 25, 2026

When an immigration judge grants voluntary departure but conditions it on posting a bond, the Board of Immigration Appeals commits legal error if it overlooks evidence that the bond was paid.

California Supreme Court, Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Election Law

Cervantes v. Bianco — Sheriff Could Not Remove Voted Ballots from Election Officials’ Custody

automatic / September 24, 2026

The California Supreme Court ordered Riverside County’s sheriff to return roughly 650,000 voted ballots because state law requires them to remain in election officials’ custody.

California Supreme Court, Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Election Law

Bonta v. Bianco — Attorney General May Direct a Sheriff’s Criminal Investigation

automatic / September 24, 2026

The California Supreme Court held that the Attorney General may issue binding, lawful directions to a county sheriff concerning a particular criminal investigation.

2nd District Court of Appeal, Administrative Law, Litigation, Personal Injury & Tort

Tansavatdi v. City of Rancho Palos Verdes — Design Immunity Can Protect an Approved Warning Plan

automatic / September 24, 2026

A California Court of Appeal held that design immunity may cover the adequacy of warnings included in an approved and reasonable public-infrastructure design.

2nd District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law

People v. Cortez — Juvenile Resentencing Statute Does Not Cover a 46-Year-to-Life Term

automatic / September 24, 2026

A California Court of Appeal held that a juvenile’s 46-year-eight-month-to-life sentence was not life without parole and did not qualify for Penal Code section 1170 resentencing.

6th District Court of Appeal, Agriculture, Criminal Law

People v. Madruga — Food-Animal Exception Did Not Permit Killing Students’ Livestock

automatic / September 24, 2026

A California Court of Appeal held that the statutory right to kill animals for food does not permit someone to kill another person’s livestock without consent.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Civil Procedure, Intellectual Property, Litigation

Nolen v. PeopleConnect, Inc. — Class Certification Upheld for Yearbook Publicity Claims

automatic / September 24, 2026

The Ninth Circuit upheld damages and injunctive classes alleging that Classmates.com used yearbook names without consent under California’s right-of-publicity statute.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Civil Procedure, Labor & Employment Law

Ridings v. PeaceHealth — Religious-Accommodation Complaint Should Have Included Exemption Letter

automatic / September 24, 2026

The Ninth Circuit revived a nurse’s religious-accommodation suit because her exemption letter was central to the complaint and made the asserted conflict plausible.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Civil Procedure, Litigation, Real Estate Law

Childs v. San Diego Family Housing — Military Housing Mold Suit Returns to State Court

automatic / September 24, 2026

The Ninth Circuit held that private managers of San Diego military housing failed to establish federal enclave, federal officer, or federal agency jurisdiction.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Administrative Law, Litigation, Real Estate Law

Ling v. City of Los Angeles — Housing Accessibility Agreement Was Not an FCA Alternate Remedy

automatic / September 24, 2026

The Ninth Circuit held that Los Angeles’s separate housing-accessibility agreement did not replace a False Claims Act suit and therefore was not an alternate remedy sharing source.

6th District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Election Law, Tax (non-estate)

Holtz v. Moreles — County may call special tax election based on broadly defined emergency

automatic / September 23, 2026

The Sixth District upheld Santa Clara County's special sales-tax election, construing Proposition 218's emergency exception according to its ordinary broad meaning.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Administrative Law, Healthcare Law, Labor & Employment Law

Collard v. Bisignano — Working through worsening pain cannot be used mechanically to deny disability benefits

automatic / September 23, 2026

The Ninth Circuit required a new disability analysis because an ALJ misused the claimant's work history, daily activities, treatment record, and corroborating lay testimony.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Constitutional Law, Litigation, Personal Injury & Tort

Bandary v. Delta Air Lines — Airline security-report immunity extends to resulting restraint

automatic / September 23, 2026

The Ninth Circuit held that federal airline-security immunity covers both a reasonable report to law enforcement and conduct flowing from the officer's response.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Litigation

United States v. Rivera — Cash conversion and drug-premises enhancement upheld at sentencing

automatic / September 23, 2026

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a methamphetamine and ammunition conviction, approving cash-to-drug conversion and a drug-premises sentencing enhancement.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Litigation

Cannon v. United States — Recovered funds remain reachable after an FBI agent stole seized cash

automatic / September 23, 2026

An amended Ninth Circuit opinion allows a Rule 41(g) claim where the government recovered funds traceable to cash stolen by an FBI agent after seizure.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Administrative Law, Environmental Law, Litigation

Codoni v. Port of Seattle — Clean Air Act preempts state-law claims targeting aircraft emissions

automatic / September 23, 2026

The Ninth Circuit held that state tort claims targeting aircraft particulate emissions are preempted unless they parallel an applicable federal emissions standard.

5th District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Environmental Law, Litigation

Department of Fish and Wildlife v. Superior Court — Local governments may keep suit against the state in their home county

automatic / September 23, 2026

The Fifth District held that Government Code section 955.3 overrides the general neutral-county venue rule when a local agency sues the State of California.

2nd District Court of Appeal, Construction Law, Insurance Law, Real Estate Law

Linsao v. First American — Incomplete retaining wall triggers inadequate-construction exclusion

automatic / September 23, 2026

The Second District held that an unfinished retaining wall was inadequate construction and the efficient proximate cause of storm damage, defeating homeowners coverage.

2nd District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Litigation

Wilson v. Johnson — Swearing a Prospective Jury Panel Starts Trial Before the Five-Year Deadline

automatic / September 22, 2026

A sworn prospective-juror panel brings a California civil case to trial for purposes of the five-year dismissal rule, even before attorney voir dire begins.

2nd District Court of Appeal, Administrative Law, Labor & Employment Law

A.S. v. Los Angeles Unified School District — Expunged Misdemeanors Could Not Bar School Employment

automatic / September 22, 2026

LAUSD violated California’s criminal-history nondisclosure law by rejecting applicants based on expunged misdemeanor convictions not covered by a statutory exception.

4th District Court of Appeal, Administrative Law, Environmental Law, Real Estate Law

Laguna Beach Historic Preservation Coalition v. City of Laguna Beach — City Could Not Remove Historic-Property Protections Wholesale

automatic / September 22, 2026

Laguna Beach could not eliminate CEQA protections for an entire historic inventory without determining property by property that the listed resources lacked historic significance.

4th District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law

People v. Cruz — Codefendant Trial Transcripts Did Not Violate Due Process at Resentencing

automatic / September 22, 2026

Using a codefendant’s trial transcripts at a Penal Code section 1172.6 hearing did not violate due process because the petitioner could present and test evidence.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Insurance Law, Litigation

Linhart v. New York Life — Pre-2013 Life Policies Need Not Receive New Designation Forms

automatic / September 22, 2026

The Ninth Circuit held that California’s third-party designation-form requirement applies only to life policies issued after the statute took effect in 2013.