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Here at FindLaw, we understand the pressures of being a legal professional - most of us are recovering lawyers - so we want to help by tossing you that preferred life preserver of the legal profession, the short list. Today’s topic: Electronic Case Filing. If you’re new to the Ninth Circuit, you need to acquaint yourself with ECF; it’s not just encouraged, it’s mandatory. Speaking of routine maintenance, ECF will be unavailable from 1:00 am PDT on August 6, 2011 until 6:00 pm PDT on August 7, 2011 for a system upgrade, so plan to enjoy a filing-free weekend....

This week, a highly anticipated case asking whether restitution can be ordered without a jury trial got killed during a SCOTUS conference. However, in the aftermath an unlikely pair of Justices agreed over a dissent. Justice Gorsuch filed a written dissent to which Justice Sotomayor joined. The dissent explains that ordering restitution without the safeguard of a jury trial seems to run afoul of either or possibly both the Sixth and Seventh Amendments’ guarantees of a jury for criminal and civil matters....

If you haven’t met yet, let us formally introduce you to the Knightscope K5 “autonomous data machine.” When it’s not falling into fountains or being bullied by drunken idiots, it’s protecting businesses and feeding information to police and private security personnel. It’s designed, according to its manufacturer, to “cut the crime rate by 50 percent in a geo-fenced area, which would increase housing values and safety while lowering insurance costs.”...

A lawsuit filed by Harvard and MIT and later joined by over 200 universities has successfully turned back a newly announced policy by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that would have revoked the visas of international students who were not taking in-person classes during the upcoming school year. The suit’s first hearing occurred last Tuesday, where lawyers for the Trump administration announced ICE was rescinding the policy, which was announced on July 6 to immediate and widespread backlash....

James Kaufman is one vigilant atheist. In 2005, he tried to compel the Wisconsin prison he was housed in to treat atheism as a religion so that he could form a religious group. Though the court found that atheism should be treated as a religion, they denied his claim because he failed to show the state created a substantial burden on his ability to practice atheism. Four years later, and in a different prison, Kaufman again tried to form an atheist religious group....

Bankruptcy court order rejecting bankruptcy trustee’s objection to Chapter 13 petitioner’s deduction of monthly mortgage payments from his disposable income is reversed where the deduction of mortgage expenses from the Chapter 13 debtor’s disposable income is not intended to enrich the debtor at the expense of his unsecured creditors but is intended to adjust the respective rights of the mortgagee and the unsecured creditors, and petitioner cannot use a phantom deduction to reduce the recovery by his unsecured creditors without benefiting any other creditor....

A Colorado couple can sue Jack Nicklaus for intentional misrepresentation over a failed luxury golf development, the Tenth Circuit has ruled. The couple, Jeffrey and Judee Donner, who invested $1.5 million in a luxury golf resort, did so at least in part because of claims that one of the greatest professional golfers of all time, Jack Nicklaus, would both design the course and have a house in the development. When the $3 billion project went belly up, the Donners sued....

The U.S. Department of Justice added 17 charges to an indictment of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange today. Assange had already been arrested in London and charged with one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, but the new charges all cite violations of the Espionage Act. The DOJ claims Assange worked with former intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning “in unlawfully obtaining and disclosing classified documents related to the national defense.” It appears that it is the first time a third party (as opposed to the source of the leak) has been indicted for receiving classified documents, and some are speculating that it could actually hinder U....

As chaos reigns in Washington, the Supreme Court is experiencing a bit of a lull. There are no arguments this week, no relists, and no interesting orders. But that relative quiet seems to have given the justices time to reflect on the changes ahead. For some of the justices, that includes a recognition that the Court’s vacant seat might soon be filled. Justice Scalia passed away on Valentine’s Eve, 2016, over nine months ago....

Kim Kardashian might live for the limelight, but even she knows that not all publicity is good publicity. Kimmie K. dutifully showed up to court for a hearing to settle her divorce confidentially. Instead, it was her estranged hubby, Kris Humphries, who pulled a Lindsay Lohan and failed to appear in court. If the two can’t reach an agreement, a public (and likely messy) divorce is set to begin in early May....

In plaintiff-employee’s ERISA action against defendant-employer for denying her claim for short-term disability benefits, summary judgment in favor of the defendant is vacated and remanded as a plan administrator’s procedures are not reasonable if its determination ignores, without explanation, substantial evidence that the claimant has submitted that addresses what the plan itself has defined as the ultimate issue of whether plaintiff’s functional limitations were objectively documented. Read Majeski v. Metro. Life Ins....

In a habeas matter involving drug distribution, the denial of Petitioner’s petition is affirmed, where Petitioner failed to show prejudice based on his counsel’s allegedly ineffective performance, because there was no reasonable probability that the state court would have imposed a sentence of less than twenty years had counsel not made his alleged errors. Read the full decision in McGee v. Higgins, No. 07-6243. Appellate Information: APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA (D....

More than two decades after Han Tak Lee was convicted of killing his daughter by a fire he purposely set, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has held that the evidence against him deserves a second look. The 76-year-old man was convicted in 1990 of killing his 20-year-old, mentally-disabled daughter, Ji Yun Lee, in a fire set at a religious retreat in the Poconos. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and has been contending that he was wrongfully convicted ever since....

In a defamation action against author John Grisham based on false statements he allegedly made about plaintiffs in a book, dismissal of the action is affirmed where: 1) any connection between defendants’ statements and an accusation of criminal activity was far too tenuous for the court to declare them as unprivileged for purposes of Okla. Stat. 1443.1; and 2) because section 1443.1 applied to plaintiffs’ libel claims, plaintiffs were also barred under the statute from asserting a valid claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress or false light....

On February 15, a federal jury found in favor of The New York Times in a defamation case brought against it by former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The lawsuit alleged that the publication and its former editorial page editor, James Bennet, defamed Palin when an opinion column incorrectly linked Palin to the 2011 Tucson mass shooting, in which Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords was wounded during a constituent meeting at a grocery store parking lot....

For a spy story, this case had an anti-climatic ending. The parties settled. But it started with claims of corporate espionage between two seafood companies that rattled an industry. National Fish & Seafood said its former employee stole confidential recipes, processing and customer information. The worker, a long-time employee, allegedly used the company’s own equipment to take the information to Tampa Bay Fisheries. Yes, it was also a fish story....

In Wright-Hines v. Comm’r of Soc. Sec., No. 08-5830, the Sixth Circuit faced a challenge to the ALJ’s denial of claimant’s supplemental security income and disability benefits. The ALJ used the five-step disability analysis provided by the social security regulations to determine that: 1) claimant had not engaged in substantial gainful activity since December 31, 2002; 2) claimant suffered from several severe impairments; 3) claimant did not have an impairment or combination of impairments that met listed regulatory criteria; and 4) claimant’s residual functional capacity allowed her to perform past relevant work as a cashier....

When Marvel Comics brought a super hero with them to the Supreme Court recently, they were hoping a pulp hero could help them defeat “outdated” patent rules. Spiderman’s powers, however, were no match for stare decisis. As the Supreme Court ruled on Monday, stare decisis required them to uphold patent precedent, even if they thought, hypothetically, that it was wrongly decided. In particular, Marvel was asking the Court to overrule Brulotte v....

Defendant’s drug and firearm convictions and sentence are affirmed where: 1) the district court’s erroneous jury instruction omitting the dangerous or deadly weapon element of 18 U.S.C. section 111 was harmless error that did not affect defendant’s substantial rights; 2) the district court clearly separated an officer’s testimony into a first “phase” consisting of his percipient observations, and a second “phase” consisting of his credentials in the field of drug trafficking and expert testimony regarding the modus operandi of drug traffickers; and 3) the district court did not abuse its discretion in applying a six-level official victim sentencing enhancement under U....

Conviction for drug crimes is affirmed where: 1) the district court did not err in denying defendant’s motion to suppress as the information police obtained from a source and a confidential informant was sufficiently reliable to establish probable cause for the issuance of a search warrant for defendant’s home, and there was no evidence that the police acted untruthfully or recklessly in preparing the affidavit for the warrant; 2) jury instructions did not constructively amended the indictment against defendant as the instructions clearly informed the jury of the essential elements of the crime of attempting to manufacture methamphetamine; and 3) any variance between the evidence and the indictment did not materially prejudice defendant, and the indictment was sufficient to charge defendant with attempt to manufacture methamphetamine....