Justia U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

Plaintiffs brought a pre-enforcement action under 42 U.S.C. 1983 against defendant, the California Secretary of State. At issue were the California Elections Code sections 8066 and 8451, which mandated that circulators shall be voters in the district or political subdivision in which the candidate was to be voted on and shall serve only in that district or political subdivision. Plaintiffs alleged that the residency requirement violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments and sought to enjoin its enforcement. The court reversed and remanded the district court's dismissal of the complaint on the ground that plaintiffs lacked standing, holding that plaintiffs have alleged a sufficient injury-in-fact to meet constitutional standing requirements. In light of plaintiffs' concrete plan and defendant's specific threat of enforcement, the court concluded that plaintiffs have met the constitutional "case or controversy" requirement. View "Libertarian Party Los Angeles, et al v. Bowen" on Justia Law

Defendant pleaded guilty to an information charging misprision of a felony based on her concealment and failure to notify authorities of her husband's drug trafficking activities. Defendant appealed, arguing that the district court should have allowed her to withdraw her plea because the misprision charge violated her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, the information failed to allege an essential element of misprision, and the plea lacked an adequate factual basis. The court dismissed the appeal because defendant could not overcome the appeal waiver contained in her plea agreement. View "United States v. Brizan" on Justia Law

Debtor filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and claimed that her Mercedes was exempt from her bankruptcy estate under California Civil Procedure Code 703.140(b)(5) (the "wildcard" or "grubstake" exemption). The court held that a motor vehicle could fall within the wildcard exemption and that if an exempt vehicle was a tool of the debtor's trade and was secured by a nonpossessory, nonpurchase-money lien, the debtor could avoid the lien pursuant to 11 U.S.C. 522(f)(1)(B). The court affirmed the district court's ruling and remand of the case to the bankruptcy court to determine whether the Mercedes was in fact a tool of debtor's trade as a real estate agent. View "In re: Angie M. Garcia" on Justia Law

This case involved two provisions in Arizona's Senate Bill 1070, which makes it unlawful for a motor vehicle occupant to hire or attempt to hire a person for work at another location from a stopped care that impedes traffic, or for a person to be hired in such a manner. At issue was whether these provisions violated the First Amendment by restricting and penalizing commercial speech for day laborers and for those who hire them. The court held that the district court correctly determined that, though Arizona had a significant government interest in promoting traffic safety, the day labor provisions failed Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission of New York's requirement that restrictions on commercial speech be no more extensive than necessary to serve that interest. The district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits and that the other requirements for a preliminary injunction were satisfied. Therefore, the court affirmed the preliminary injunction barring enforcement of the day labor provisions. View "Valle del Sol, et al v. State of Arizona, et al" on Justia Law

This case arose out of the long and contentious process to repair a flood-damaged road in a sensitive area of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. Great Old Broads appealed the district court's grant of summary judgment to the Forest Service on Great Old Broads' claims related to the Forest Service's record of decision (ROD) determining the method of restoring the South Canyon Road as part of the Jarbridge Canyon Project. The court held that Great Old Broads exhausted its claims before the Forest Service but that the ROD conformed to the National Forest Management Act (NFMA), 16 U.S.C. 1600-1687, Executive Order 11988, and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. 4321-4370f. The court reversed the district court on its analysis of exhaustion, but affirmed the district court on its alternative decision on the merits as to each of the claims presented. View "Great Old Broads For Wilderness, et al v. Kimbell, et al" on Justia Law

Farmers that irrigate their land using water from the San Luis Unit of the Central Valley Project claimed that the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 501 et seq., compelled the Bureau to provide their irrigation districts with more water than it was currently providing. Farmers argued that several federal statutes required the Bureau to provide irrigators with sufficient irrigation water to satisfy Farmers' needs before delivering water to any other party for any other purpose. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Bureau on several grounds. Pursuant to the Supreme Court's decision in Norton v. Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), the court held that the Bureau was not legally required to take a discrete action to deliver Farmers' preferred amount of San Luis Unit water for irrigation before it provided water for others. The Bureau retained the discretion to allocate San Luis water among various parties to satisfy its various obligations. There was no final agency action, nor was there any action that the Bureau had unlawfully withheld. Farmers' claims amounted to a broad programmatic attack on the way the Bureau generally operated the Central Valley Project and therefore Farmers have not established subject matter jurisdiction under the APA. View "San Luis Unit Food Producers, et al v. United States, et al" on Justia Law

Petitioner, born in Mexico, petitioned for review of the government's reinstatement of a prior order of removal, following his illegal reentry into the United States after having been removed. The court rejected, as unsupported and as contrary to the text of 8 U.S.C. 1231(a)(5), petitioner's assertion that the 1989 removal order was "superseded" or otherwise invalidated simply because a later removal order existed. The court held that petitioner's substantively illegal reentry met the requirements of section 1231(a)(5) that he had "reentered the United States illegally," notwithstanding the fact that he tricked the border official into allowing him physically to enter. The government's decision to arrest and remove petitioner when he showed up for his interview did not prejudice him. Accordingly, the court need not decide whether there was a due process violation. View "Tamayo-Tamayo v. Holder Jr." on Justia Law

In this appeal, appellant principally argued that, because the judgments obtained by the Petitioning Creditors were on appeal when the involuntary petition was filed, the bankruptcy court should have dismissed the petition as not meeting the requirements of section 303(b)(1) of the Bankruptcy Code. First, the court held that the bankruptcy court did not err in denying appellant's motion to dismiss for defective service of process. The court then held that an unstayed non-default state judgment was not subject to bona fide dispute for purposes of section 303(b)(1). Therefore, the bankruptcy court did not err in finding that the Petitioning Creditors held claims meeting the requirements of section 303(b)(1). Finally, the bankruptcy court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that further discovery would have been unlikely to produce any evidence material to the pending summary judgment motions. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "In re: Georges Marciano, et al v. Steven Chapnick, et al" on Justia Law

The Association sued the County, alleging that the County had breached its obligation to provide certain vested healthcare benefits in perpetuity. The Association alleged that the County had implicitly promised to provide these benefits. The California Supreme Court's recent decision in Retired Employees Ass'n of Orange County, Inc. v. County of Orange (REAOC II) recognized that a county could form a contract with implied terms under specified circumstances. The court held that the district court did not err in concluding that the amended complaint failed to state a cause of action. Nevertheless, in light of REAOC II, the court could not agree with the district court's decision to deny the Association leave to amend on the ground that such amendment would be futile. Accordingly, the court vacated and remanded for further proceedings consistent with REAOC II. View "Sonoma Cnty. Ass'n of Retired Emp. v. Sonoma Cnty." on Justia Law

This case arose when plaintiff filed a class action complaint against Crevier Motors and BMW, asserting ten California causes of action. At issue was whether BMW timely removed this proposed class action involving Crevier, a California automobile dealership, to federal court by invoking the diversity jurisdiction provision of the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA), 28 U.S.C. 1332(d). Because nothing in plaintiff's complaint indicated that the amount demanded by each putative class member exceeded $25,000, it fell short of triggering the removal clock under 28 U.S.C. 1446(b). The court rejected plaintiff's remaining arguments. Because BMW timely removed under section 1446(b), the court reversed the district court's remand of plaintiff's proposed class action to Orange County Superior Court. In light of that conclusion, the court did not decide whether to join the other circuits in recognizing a "revival exception," which according to BMW gave it another thirty days to remove when plaintiff expanded her suit from one strictly against Crevier to one against all California-BMW dealerships. View "Kuxhausen v. BMW Financial Services NA LLC" on Justia Law