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In case of what Chief Judge Alex Kozinski called “we said, he’s dead,” the Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a district court’s finding that police were not liable for the death of Cesar Cruz, who was shot and killed by Anaheim police officers in 2009. Here’s One Possibility In the first instance, Kozinski said that there would be no reason to alter the district court’s determination if events had unfolded as police claimed....

The same-sex marriage cases, known to posterity as DeBoer v. Synder, may very well be the biggest civil rights decision of our generation. As such, everyone wants to put their two cents into what will undoubtedly become an historic opinion. Lots of people want in on the action. Lots. As of April 3, one hundred and thirty-seven individuals, organizations, and states have filed amicus briefs in support of one side, or neither side....

We have all heard the term “separation of church and state” since learning about the Establishment Clause in high school civics. But if church and state are supposed to be separate, why do we still see nativity scenes on government-owned property this time of year? Is this legal? The answer is that there is no bright-line rule against nativity scenes — or any religious symbols, for that matter — on public property....

This case may be the onion of attorney misconduct cases, in light of the numerous layers of ethical chicanery. Yesterday, two Kentucky attorneys challenged their wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy convictions before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that the district court made them “look like bad guys” by releasing 22 findings from the Kentucky Supreme Court against them, even though the high court never held a hearing, reports CBS News....

Sometimes, the people behind the Court’s decisions are as interesting as the cases themselves. Backroom deals, autobiographical details, and other non-legal influences on the reasoning and leanings of the members of the Court don’t make it in to court opinions, but they are just as important to understanding the Court’s rationale. Each of these three books, released in the last year, brings insight into the High Courts’ decisions, both from a legal and extralegal perspective....

Here’s the latest on the California prison debacle: Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order to the Golden State: Fix your prisons! The U.S. Supreme Court order essentially upheld a lower court ruling that required California to reduce the number of inmates in its jails by 23 percent. The State of California has overcrowded prisons with deplorable conditions. But what to do? Earlier this week, reports The Wall Street Journal, California unveiled a plan to deal with the prisons problem....

Sometime in profane history, a judge said there is no such thing as a little pregnant. The U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals said something like that in Western Watersheds Project v. Michael. It had nothing to do with being pregnant, but everything to do with going beyond the point of no return. The plaintiffs sued to invalidate Wyoming laws that penalized environmentalists for trespassing on private property to discover and report water pollution on public lands....

Bad news out of Colorado today: Federal preemption bars a state from ordering the feds to destroy a chemical weapon stored within its borders if Congress has also set a timeline for the weapon’s destruction. The U.S. has stored a mustard agent at the Army’s weapons depot located near Pueblo, Colorado since the 1950s. Congress has mandated that the Army destroy those weapons by 2017. Separately, Congress authorized the State of Colorado to regulate hazardous waste within its borders....

In Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson, the U.S. Supreme Court again seems to have given more authority to Texas’ strict new anti-abortion law. The law, Texas Senate Bill 8 (SB 8), is the subject of much recent legal controversy, banning abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. Even more strikingly, the law states that citizens may sue anyone who “aids and abets” an illegal abortion and collect bounties of at least $10,000....

Dogs are considered “man’s best friend.” We take them everywhere with us. But the love and understanding of dogs’ needs aren’t always unlimited when it comes to keeping them healthy and happy. Every once in a while, headlines will flash “Dog Dies in Hot Car,” and it leaves animal lovers wondering how one could possibly do such a thing. The truth is, there are measures that can be taken to save the life of a beloved pet if they’re in a hot car....

A life sentence for pot brownies? Sounds ridiculous, right? And that’s because it is. Not just in the sense that the legal outcome of a Texas 19-year-old’s amateur pot bakery should be a lifetime behind bars, but also in the sense that news sources have blown this one way out of proportion. It’s time for a legal reality check. What’s really going on in this teenager’s pot brownie case? What Are the Allegations?...

“Policy or Custom” Requirement Always Applies in Section 1983 Cases In Los Angeles Cty. v. Humphries, No. 09-350, an action under 42 U.S.C. section 1983, seeking damages, an injunction, and a declaration that public officials and defendant Los Angeles County had deprived plaintiffs of their constitutional rights by failing to create a mechanism through which they could contest inclusion in a “child abuse index,” the court reversed the Ninth Circuit’s reversal of summary judgment for defendants where Monell’s “policy or custom” requirement applies in section 1983 cases irrespective of whether the relief sought is monetary or prospective....

Richard Bahr Jr. is a registered sex offender. As part of the terms of his release following a prison stint for third degree rape, he was required to adhere to “full disclosure” lie detector tests. Disclose he did, including admissions of sexual contact with minors while he was minor, as well as after reaching the age of majority. In another part of the program, he admitted in a workbook that he had sexually abused 18 children....

A permanent injunction enjoining defendant from allowing distribution of Bibles to elementary school children on school property at any time during the school day is affirmed where the defendant’s argument that the permanent injunction impermissibly mandates a content-based restriction on speech in the limited public forum is without merit. However, grant of a declaratory judgment is reversed where the incorporation of the permanent injunction is superfluous and the portion granting judgment on complaint is ambiguous, and a declaratory judgment prohibiting implementation of policy is unnecessary....

A simple title for a simple case with a simple resolution: That’s right: in terms of the Fourth Amendment, the smartphone and even the flip-phone, with all of the data they contain, are not akin to patting down a pack of cigarettes in a suspect’s pocket. Modern cell phones are not just another technological convenience. With all they contain and all they may reveal, they hold for many Americans “the privacies of life,” […] The fact that technology now allows an individual to carry such information in his hand does not make the information any less worthy of the protection for which the Founders fought....

Petitioner’s petition for review of an NLRB order, finding that petitioners had violated various provisions of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. section 151 et seq. by refusing to recognize and bargain with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1625, is denied where the panel of the NLRB was a lawfully convened panel of three members, and the panel continued to operate properly after one of its members ceased to serve on the Board, because there remained a quorum of two members....

District court judgment is affirmed where the County Commission’s denial of defendant’s application for a special use permit to construct a telecommunications tower complied with the Telecommunications Act of 1996 as it was in writing and supported by substantial evidence. Read Sprint Spectrum, L.P. v. Platte County, MO, No. 08-1965 Appellate InformationAppeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri.Submitted: January 15, 2009Filed: August 6, 2009...

They say you can’t be too patriotic these days. They also say: “Heights of flagpoles are limited to forty (40) feet and the maximum size of any governmental flag cannot exceed eight (8) feet by twelve (12) feet.” Or so says the sign ordinances in Statesville, North Carolina’s development code. And some folks aren’t too happy about that. A years-long legal battle, which included an amendment to that ordinance expanding the allowable flag size to 25 feet by 40 feet, has culminated in a lawsuit filed by the city against Camping World regarding that company’s 40 x 80 foot American flag perched on a 130-foot-high pole next to I-77....

The Supreme Court ushered in the new term with its first two oral arguments today, hearing a pair of criminal law cases dealing with double jeopardy and bank fraud. And those arguments featured an unexpected pop culture reference, as Kim Kardashian briefly became the subject of a justice’s hypothetical. Though the short-staffed Court has declined to hear many high-profile, controversial cases this year, possibly to avoid 4-4 splits, the first oral arguments of the term are a reminder that even the less controversial cases can be plenty interesting – as long as you throw in a Kardashian or two....

When it comes to being fired for viewing and sending pornographic images on work-provided accounts, age ain’t nothing but a number. Ruling against a group of Latrobe Specialty Steel Co. employees who were fired for sending sexually explicit emails through their work accounts, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the workers had no basis in claiming that they were really fired because of their age. The inappropriate conduct was discovered during a 2007 investigation into a sexual harassment complaint....