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In an action brought under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), district court’s judgment is reversed and remanded with instructions to enter judgment in favor of plaintiff where: 1) as a matter of law, the letter and notice at issue were sent in connection with an attempt to collect a debt; 2) the notice constituted “a threat to take . . . action that cannot legally be taken,” and a “false representation or deceptive means to collect or attempt to collect a[] debt”; and 3) plaintiff was entitled to summary judgment in her favor on defendants’ assertion of the bona fide error defense....

The Supreme Court goes on hiatus at the end of this month, leaving us with nothing but a reading list to tide us over until the fall. And like every year, the last month of the term is set to be the biggest. What’s left on the docket? While there is no holy crap case with widespread appeal, like last year’s Windsor and Perry, there are a number of fascinating disputes remaining, covering free speech, presidential power, healthcare, and the Fourth Amendment, for legal geeks to pine over....

In plaintiff’s suit against a city and its mayor claiming discrimination based upon his age and political affiliation after he was discharged as a city superintendent (he had been appointed by a former Republican mayor), summary judgment in favor of the defendants is affirmed as plaintiff failed to produce evidence that his allegedly inadequate job performance was a pretext for unlawful discrimination of any kind. Read Smith v. City of Allentown, No....

Remember the days before unlimited text messaging plans? Text messages seemed to cost an obscene amount of money. If you actually calculated the data cost, at 20 cents per text, it averaged out to over $1,300 per megabyte. The current litigation in the Seventh Circuit is now over four years old. It’s a class action brought by text messaging customers claiming wireless providers conspired to drive up text message prices in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act....

Gavin Grimm just wants to be able to use the bathroom in peace – and, for a while, he could. When Grimm, a high school student in rural Virginia who was born female but identifies as male, first notified his school administrators that he was transgender, he was allowed to use the bathroom that aligned with his gender identity. But following an ugly public backlash, the Gloucester County School Board kicked him out of the boy’s room, offering Grimm access to the women’s bathroom or a modified broom closet, instead....

Conviction of defendant for possessing a firearm after having been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence in violation of 18 U.S.C. section 922(g)(9) is vacated and remanded where: 1) on the facts of the case, the intermediate scrutiny applies; and 2) the government has done almost nothing to discharge the burden of establishing a reasonable fit between the statute’s means and its end. Read US v. Skoien, No. 08-3770...

The Eighth Circuit refused to review and set aside the EPA’s decision to approve Minnesota’s plan to reduce visible emissions from five of its power plants that adversely affect the natural beauty of some of its wilderness and the national parks in that region. The petition to overturn the EPA’s decision to allow Minnesota’s application of the “Transport Rule” was denied. In 2012, the state of Minnesota implemented the Minnesota Regional Haze State Implementation Plan, a statewide act intended to approve the state’s pollution, particularly in sensitive areas....

In an action under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act to recover hazardous material cleanup costs, judgment for defendants is affirmed where: 1) defendants were not “operators” of the facility at issue at the time the hazardous materials at issue were released; and 2) emergency response actions pursuant to 42 U.S.C. section 9607(d)(2) cannot constitute an affirmative defense to section 9607(a) liability. Read AMW Materials Testing, Inc. v. Babylon, No....

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has denied the appeals of two animal rights activists charged under the Animal Enterprise Terrorist Act (AETA). The appeal challenged the act itself as unconstitutional, and also charged that the use of word terrorist denied the activists substantive due process rights. After losing their motion to dismiss based on those issues, the appellants pleaded guilty to the charges on the condition that they be allowed to appeal the motion ruling....

Deutscher Tennis Bund v. ATP Tour, Inc., No. 08-4123, concerned plaintiffs’ suit against the ATP Tour, an organizer of worldwide men’s professional tennis circuit, claiming that ATP Tour’s reorganization to revitalize its popularity violated sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act and constituted a breach of the directors’ fiduciary duties. In affirming the judgment of the district court, the court held that the jury verdict on the Sherman Act section 1 claim was proper as the plaintiffs failed to prove the relevant market....

In an action against an insurer for denying plaintiffs’ claim on a homeowners insurance policy, judgment for defendant is affirmed where: 1) plaintiffs did not dispute that defendant established that the documents concerning the foreclosure on plaintiffs’ property were kept in the ordinary course of a bank’s conducted business; 2) the jury reasonably concluded that plaintiffs intended to mislead defendant regarding their arrearage and notice of a foreclosure; and 3) a reasonable jury could find that each of plaintiffs’ misrepresentations pertained to a material fact or circumstance....

You could call it a match made in heaven, although that’s not really the idea. Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School has paired up with Match.com. The law school has engaged the dating website to match students with alumni for its mentoring program. The program will use Match Group’s personality algorithm to make the matches. The approach is definitely novel, but not a romantic one. Not Romantic It’s the first time Match has used its algorithm outside the dating world....

Most states are under some form of a shelter-in-place order. But that doesn’t mean debt collections and other bills have stopped. If you are financially struggling, you may be looking into filing for bankruptcy. But how will the stay-at-home orders affect your ability to file? Can I File for Bankruptcy During a Shelter-in-Place Order? Yes, you can file for bankruptcy as long as you comply with the social distancing guidelines issued by your state....

If you’ve ever been visited by Child Protective Services (CPS), you know just how stressful and distressing it can feel. Typically parents feel frazzled when someone with the legal authority to take aware their kids, like a caseworker, is present. Unfortunately, unless your civil rights are violated, you likely won’t have any legal claim against Child Protective Services. Typically cases don’t come out of the agency’s day-to-day processes or its representative’s routine actions....

Nathel v. Comm’r. of Int’l. Rev., No. 09-1955, involved an appeal from a decision by the tax court finding that capital contributions petitioners made to two S corporations could not be treated as “tax-exempt income” to the corporations for the purpose of increasing, pursuant to 26 U.S.C. section 1367(b)(2)(B), the petitioners’ bases in loans they made to the corporations, and that petitioners could not deduct their capital contributions as ordinary losses incurred in a trade or business pursuant to 26 U....

In US v. Colbert, No. 08-3243, the court of appeals affirmed defendant’s possession of child pornography conviction, holding that 1) although the search warrant affidavit was not a model of detailed police work, it set forth a number of specific facts and explains the investigation that took place; 2) the state court judge could reasonably have concluded that the facts in the affidavit established a fair probability that child pornography would be found in defendant’s apartment; and 3) there is no indication that the state court judge failed to perform his proper judicial function or that the officers in this case acted other than in good faith when they carried out the search....

Lawyers filed class-action complaints against the major cell phone companies for allegedly selling customers’ location data to third parties. The complaints were filed in a federal court in Maryland against AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint. In four separate cases, the plaintiffs make the same allegations. Together, the lawsuits allege the carriers sold the data of more than 300 million customers without their consent. Without Consent The cell phone companies have not answered the complaints yet, but the issue is consent....

New to the Ninth Circuit? New to appellate work in general? The Appellate Mentoring Program is a new service offered by the Ninth Circuit that pairs volunteer mentors with those in need - whether they be new to the practice of law or simply rusty at appellate work. Though the program will provide general assistance in appellate practice, there will be an emphasis on habeas corpus petitions and immigration law. Mentors must have experience in immigration, habeas petitions, and/or general appellate practice....

The First Amendment explicitly states that the government cannot pass any law infringing on the right to free speech, nor the right to assemble. As such, when state and local governments pass laws imposing restrictions on protests and protesters, these laws must be narrowly tailored so as to not violate the First Amendment’s protections. Typically, restrictions categorize protests based on how a protest gets started. Nevertheless, only certain types of conduct, typically involving the time, manner, and location of the protests, can be restricted or regulated....

In an antitrust action by a short seller against “prime brokers” in short sale transactions alleging that the prime brokers arbitrarily designated certain securities as “hard to borrow” and then fixed the price for borrowing them, dismissal of the complaint is affirmed where federal securities law implicitly precluded application of the antitrust law to the alleged anticompetitive conduct. Read Electronic Trading Grp., LLC v. Banc of Am. Secs. LLC, No. 08-0420...