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

Plaintiff filed suit against defendants under 42 U.S.C. 1983, alleging violations of his constitutional rights when a deputy used a leg sweep maneuver after plaintiff refused to drop water balloons he was carrying. The Ninth Circuit reversed the jury verdict in favor of plaintiff and vacated the damages award. The panel held that, although the evidence at trial was sufficient to sustain the jury's verdict, the deputy was entitled to qualified immunity because, at the time the incident occurred, the law was not clearly established that an officer cannot progressively increase his use of force from verbal commands, to an arm grab, and then a leg sweep maneuver when a misdemeanant refuses to comply with the officer's orders and resists, obstructs, or delays the officer in his lawful performance of duties such that the officer has probable cause to arrest him in a challenging environment. View "Shafer v. County of Santa Barbara" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit vacated the district court's dismissal of an action filed under 42 U.S.C. 1983, alleging that a former inmate was psychologically traumatized as a result of being compelled to undergo sexual shame therapy at a Hawaii correctional facility. The panel applied Simmons v. United States, 805 F.2d 1363 (9th Cir. 1986), and held that the district court erred in denying as futile plaintiff's request for leave to amend to include new assertions where she may be able to allege that she was unaware of her injuries until sometime after she stopped participating in the therapy sessions, and she may have reasonably viewed the embarrassment and humiliation she felt as the ordinary, and hence not harmful, response to therapy. View "Gregg v. Hawaii DPS" on Justia Law

Plaintiff filed suit against BNSF, alleging that the company terminated him in violation of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), Cal. Gov. Code 12940 et seq. The Ninth Circuit applied the McDonnell Douglas test and affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment to BNSF, holding that plaintiff failed to establish a prima facie case of discrimination based on his obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) where no evidence established that plaintiff's OSA was a substantial motivating reason for BNSF's decision to terminate him. Even if plaintiff had made a prima facie case of discrimination, plaintiff failed to offer evidence that BNSF's stated reason -- recurrent absenteeism -- was either false or pretextual. Therefore, BNSF did not engage in unlawful discrimination by declining to alter plaintiff's disciplinary outcome based on his OSA diagnosis. Finally, the panel rejected plaintiff's claim that BNSF failed to provide a reasonable accommodation and interactive process claims. View "Alamillo v. BNSF Railway Co." on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's order denying a high school coach's motion for a preliminary injunction that would require the District to allow him to kneel and pray on the fifty-yard line in view of students and parents immediately after football games. The panel held that the coach spoke as a public employee, not as a private citizen, and therefore declined to reach whether the district justifiably restricted his speech to avoid violating the Establishment Clause. The coach could not demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits of his First Amendment retaliation claim, and was not entitled to the preliminary injunction he sought. By kneeling and praying on the fifty-yard line immediately after games, the coach was fulfilling his professional responsibility to communicate demonstratively to students and spectators, and he took advantage of his position to press his particular views upon the impressionable and captive minds before him. View "Kennedy v. Bremerton School District" on Justia Law

Plaintiff filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983, alleging defendant, an off-duty police officer working as security for a private event, violated his rights under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by failing to intercede and stop an assault. The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment based on qualified immunity and on the merits. The panel held that defendant may not assert qualified immunity because he was not serving a public, governmental function while being paid by the hotel to provide private security. On the merits, the panel held that a reasonable jury could find that defendant exposed plaintiff to harm he would not otherwise have faced, that this harm was foreseeable, and that defendant acted with deliberate indifference in the presence of the known danger created by his conduct. View "Bracken v. Chung" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit filed an amended majority opinion and concurrence, denied a petition for panel rehearing, and denied on behalf of the court a petition for rehearing en banc in petitioner's appeal from the denial of his pre-AEDPA habeas corpus petition.The panel affirmed the district court's denial of the writ with respect to petitioner's conviction; reversed with respect to petitioner's death sentence; and held that admission of Dr. Lynn Gerow's psychiatric testimony during the penalty phase violated petitioner's Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights under Estelle v. Smith, 451 U.S. 454 (1981), and that the violation had a substantial and injurious effect on the jury's decision to impose the death sentence. In this case, Gerow was acting at the request of the prosecutor when he went to visit petitioner in jail to determine petitioner's competency to stand trial, Gerow failed to give petitioner his Miranda warnings, and Gerow did not seek or obtain permission from defense counsel to visit or evaluate petitioner. View "Petrocelli v. Baker" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court's order denying an award of attorney's fees to plaintiff in a 42 U.S.C. 1983 action. After plaintiff filed suit against Portland, it made a Rule 68 Offer of Judgment for $1,000, plus reasonable attorney's fees to be determined by the district court. Plaintiff accepted the offer, but when she moved for fees, the district court denied the motion on the ground that the award was a de minimis judgment under 42 U.S.C. 1988. The panel held that Portland's offer – and plaintiff's acceptance – which the panel interpreted as a contract, provided that plaintiff would receive her reasonable attorney's fees, without referencing section 1988 or otherwise reserving to the district court the antecedent question of whether plaintiff was entitled to a fee award. Accordingly, the panel remanded for a determination and award of a reasonable fee. View "Miller v. Portland" on Justia Law

A public employer generally may not subject all employee speech regarding a particular government program—whether fact or opinion, and whether liable to disrupt the workplace or not—to a blanket ban. The Ninth Circuit held that the sweeping policy imposed by Defendant Major Kevin Tice's email regarding the Nevada Highway Patrol K9 program violated the troopers' clearly established First Amendment rights. The panel affirmed the district court's denial of qualified immunity, holding that the policy covered speech outside the troopers' official duties, whether or not some speech within those duties was also covered; the policy reached speech on matters of public concern; and the prospective speech restriction imposed by defendant's email violated the First Amendment. The panel also held that a "robust consensus" of prior cases made clear at the time defendant issued his edict that an employer ordinarily may not prohibit its employees from all public discussion relating to a particular department or government program. View "Moonin v. Tice" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit denied petitioner's application for permission to file a second or successive petition as unnecessary and transferred the matter to the district court with instructions to treat petitioner's habeas petition as a first petition. The panel held that the current habeas petition did not attempt to challenge petitioner's underlying conviction. Rather, petitioner sought only to challenge a new and intervening judgment denying him relief with respect to his sentence. The panel also held that cognizability plays no role in the panel's adjudication of such an application, and that it was the province of the district court to consider cognizability of a habeas petition. View "Clayton v. Biter" on Justia Law

Contest Promotions filed suit challenging San Francisco's billboard prohibition, arguing that the distinction between commercial and noncommercial signs violates the First Amendment. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of the complaint, holding that the distinction drawn between commercial and noncommercial signs in Article 6 of the Planning Code survives intermediate scrutiny under Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission, 447 U.S. 557 (1980). In this case, the distinctions directly advanced San Francisco's substantial interests in safety and aesthetics, and Article 6 was not constitutionally underinclusive. View "Contest Promotions, LLC v. City and County of San Francisco" on Justia Law