How Appealing



Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Programming note: I am in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania tonight to attend a trial court oral argument on Wednesday morning in a case on which I am assisting a prevailing personal injury plaintiff’s trial counsel in opposing the defendants’ motion for post-trial relief.

Because I will be in court on Wednesday morning and thereafter will be traveling back to my office in Willow Grove, Pa., additional posts will not appear here until Wednesday afternoon. As always while I am on the road, additional appellate-related retweets may appear on this blog’s Twitter feed.

Posted at 11:14 PM by Howard Bashman



“We hold that neither robbery, armed robbery, nor use of a firearm in the commission of a felony under Florida law is categorically a ‘violent felony.'” So held a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today in a decision that acknowledges creating a split of authority on that issue with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit — the federal appellate court that includes the State of Florida within its geographical jurisdiction.

Posted at 11:10 PM by Howard Bashman



Ninth Circuit grants rehearing en banc to decide whether paying a woman less than a man for the same work, if the man was paid more at his previous job, violates federal laws against sex discrimination: You can access today’s order of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granting rehearing en banc at this link.

My coverage of the now-vacated three-judge panel’s ruling, which held that such pay disparity under the circumstances did not constitute unlawful sex discrimination, can be accessed here.

Posted at 10:54 PM by Howard Bashman



“Court asks Mississippi governor to defend Confederate emblem”: Emily Wagster Pettus of The Associated Press has a report that begins, “The U.S. Supreme Court is asking attorneys for Mississippi’s governor to file arguments defending the Confederate battle emblem on the state flag.”

Posted at 10:28 PM by Howard Bashman



“Law prof (and ex-Scalia clerk): Evidence shows class actions deter corporate misconduct.” Alison Frankel’s “On the Case” from Thomson Reuters News & Insight has this post.

Posted at 10:20 PM by Howard Bashman



“The New Front in the Gerrymandering Wars: Democracy vs. Math; Sophisticated computer modeling has taken district manipulation to new extremes; To fix this, courts might have to learn how to run the numbers themselves.” Emily Bazelon will have this article in the September 3, 2017 issue of The New York Times Magazine.

Posted at 10:00 PM by Howard Bashman



“Jury Awards UCSB Alum $120,000 in Excessive Force Case; Jay Shafer ‘Mortified and Shamed’ by Water Balloon Incident; County Considers Challenging Verdict”: Tyler Hayden of The Santa Barbara Independent had this report back in December 2014.

And in January 2015, Danny Kolosta of The Daily Nexus — the student newspaper of UC Santa Barbara — had an article headlined “Federal Court Orders County to Pay Alum for Damages.”

Today, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a ruling that overturned the jury verdict, holding that a police officer who used a leg sweep maneuver to take down the plaintiff after he refused to comply with the officer’s orders to drop the water balloons he was carrying was entitled to qualified immunity.

Posted at 2:20 PM by Howard Bashman



In the September 2017 issue of ABA Journal magazine: Mark Walsh has an article headlined “Court rules on birth certificate designations for same-sex parents.”

David L. Hudson Jr. has an article headlined “Stifling Speech: Government invokes doctrine to silence expression it doesn’t like.”

And the magazine contains an article headlined “University of Virginia professor takes over part of civil procedure guidebooks, joins Supreme Court committee.”

Posted at 10:28 AM by Howard Bashman



“Supreme Court 2016 Statutory Term in Review: A Postscript on Why the Majority Joined Breyer’s Opinion in Midland.” Asher Steinberg has this follow-up post at his blog, “The Narrowest Grounds.”

Posted at 10:22 AM by Howard Bashman



“Appeals Court Appears Inclined to Exempt Relatives From Travel Ban”: Adam Liptak has this article in today’s edition of The New York Times.

Jaweed Kaleem of The Los Angeles Times has an article headlined “‘What universe does that come from?’ Judges criticize travel ban weeks before it heads to Supreme Court.”

Gene Johnson of The Associated Press reports that “Justice Department faces tough questions over travel ban.”

Eric M. Johnson of Reuters reports that “U.S. appeals court questions scope of Trump travel ban.”

Josh Gerstein of Politico.com reports that “9th Circuit hears fight over interpretation of Trump travel ban.”

Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed News reports that “Ninth Circuit Has Tough Questions On Trump Administration’s Travel Ban Rules; ‘How can the government say’ a grandparent or aunt or uncle isn’t a close family member, one judge asked; ‘In what universe does that come from?’

And at the “Constitution Daily” blog of the National Constitution Center, Lyle Denniston has a post titled “Appeals judges skeptical on Trump immigration limits.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has posted the video of yesterday’s oral argument on YouTube at this link.

Posted at 10:10 AM by Howard Bashman